[DATE]
The Honorable [Senator/Representative]
[Address line 1]
Washington, D.C. [ZIP]
Dear Senator/Representative:
Farmers and ranchers need a legal, reliable and skilled workforce. Farm work is challenging, often seasonal and transitory, and it’s not easy to find American workers to take on these jobs. Farm labor can’t all be replaced by machines either. There are certain farm jobs, like tending livestock and pruning or picking fresh produce, which require a human touch. Where American workers are unwilling or unavailable, workers from other countries have stepped in.
Massachusetts is a leader in the specialty crop market, which makes the state’s agricultural industry inherently reliant on immigrants to harvest by hand. From 2008 to 2012, foreign-born workers made up 72.9 percent of “field and crop laborers” in the country. However, due to our broken immigration system, agriculture is losing revenue. In recent years, the share of fresh fruits and vegetables consumed by American families that was imported has grown by 79.3 percent. Labor issues explain an estimated 27 percent of that market share loss.
For Massachusetts growers, the lack of a workable visa program– coupled with a huge drop-off in number of farmworkers who have immigrated in recent years – has led to a labor picture that is increasingly untenable.But this is more than an issue of statistics and numbers. This is a people issue.
[INSERT PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH H2A WORKRES OR OTHER LEGAL IMMIGRANT LABOR.]
Congress needs to pass responsible agriculture-specific immigration reform that addresses agriculture’s current experienced workforce without status, and creates a new flexible guest worker program. By failing to adequately address the immigration/workforce issue, agriculture will have no choice but to contract. The alternative of importing more food places our national security at risk. In addition, increasing immigration enforcement without also reforming our worker visa program will cost America $60 billion in agricultural production.
I look forward to seeing you vote in ways that will give agriculture access to a legal and stable workforce in both the short- and the long-term.
Very Best,
[Farmer Name]
[Farmer address]