Beth Ford says “we need more legal immigration” to help American farmers, because lack of work could trigger a “black swan action” | Luck
At the Summit of the most powerful women (MPW) Fortune on Tuesday morning, Land O’lakes Beth Ford warned that US farmers are facing a critical lack of work that could lead to a “black swan event” unless the US introduces more ways for legal immigration.
Ford, chairing the Immigration Committee for a Business Round Table, told MPW that farmers “absolutely need a job” and added that “we need more legal immigration” as economic drivers for businesses and a wider American economy. In some contexts, the American agricultural sector is currently struggling with increasing pressure from trade disputes, bankruptcies for agriculture and an increasing immigration environment.
“They are people who often try to get American work (but) trying to do it,” Ford said. “They absolutely need a job, and if they don’t have it, it’s another element – and it can be an event of a black swans for farmers if they don’t have someone to help and be on the farm.”
The term “Black Swan”, for those who are not familiar, refers to an unpredictable occurrence with serious consequences that seem to be obvious only in retrospect. In agriculture, such events may include natural disasters, outbreaks of disease or severe workforce disruption that endanger food production systems.
Ford’s comments are underlined by the uncertain position of American farmers who strongly depend on immigrants. According to the US Ministry of Agriculture, only 32% of farmers have been born on crops since 2022. The vast majority of agricultural workers (~ 42%) were born outside the US and have no work permit. Only a small percentage of workers (~ 7%) are immigrants who have acquired US citizenship, while about 19% are authorized immigrants (permanent people or green card holders). In the dairy industry, which Ford, Land O’lakes serves, is an addiction to the work born abroad even more: Federation of national milk manufacturers states that immigrants represent 51% of all dairy work.
Ford earlier said Luck The fact that the immigration crisis can develop for about eight hours, because if cows are not moved, milk will escape and infections could develop, to the extent that farmers could be forced to spend their herds and send cows to be killed in meat processing. But they could also have short workers.
In January, Ford accepted the role of the chairman of the Immigration Committee for a Business round Table and was taken over by Apple Tim Cook. The commercial round table, which represents more than 200 main heads of enterprises, supports increased qualified immigration, temporary work visas and security measures at the border. Ford said, “Most CEOs say that we need some change in our immigration policy,” and acknowledges that the transitions to the southern border have fallen by approximately 95%.
During the MPW discussion, Ford dealt with recent policy proposals, including a $ 100,000 fee for H-1B visas, and stated that its organization “seeks to gain some clarity” on the specifics of working with administration officials on various visa-related initiatives. Since March, the agricultural sector has lost about 155,000 workers and the Ministry of Labor said that ICE’s efforts will create “significant effects on the labor market in the agricultural sector, which has long been pushed to depend on the workforce with a high proportion of illegal extraterrestrials”.
You can watch the whole panel with Land O’lakes Beth Ford in an interview with Luck’With Emma Hinchliffe, below.
(Tagstotranslate) Agriculture