Michigan’s diverse agriculture means there needs to be a strong workforce to harvest, process, and care for plants and livestock.
This lack of labor isn’t new in agriculture, however more farms are starting to absorb some of those costs. Sarah Black, general manager for Great Lakes Ag Labor Services, says the expense can’t be ignored.
“For farms that use the H-2A program, that wage rate continues to go up—all of the wage rates across the state are going up because of labor demand,” she says. “But when you talk about farmers and not being able to absorb any additional costs, they’re the price taker. They don’t get to pass those additional labor, fuel, or inflation costs along.”
She says for the farmer, they must make some tough decisions—either getting the food harvested or letting it rot in a field or orchard.
“The very first step is if we can’t get it out of the field, it doesn’t matter what the labor cost is—that food is going to go to waste,” says Black. “It really is an issue of such importance that people don’t realize. If there’s not the labor supply to get the farm from your fork, it’s going to come from another country.”
If more of that were to happen, Black says that will serve as a catalyst for more consolidation in agriculture.
“People want to support their local farms,” she says. “They want to know where that food is coming from. They want to be proud to know we have all these great commodities and food that’s produced right here in Michigan. We don’t want that to move offshore or elsewhere. The very basis of all of that is we have to have people that are willing to work side-by-side to get those crops harvested.”
GLALS helps farmers getting a steady supply of legal H-2A workers. In 2021, they helped 60 farms bring in nearly 2,000 seasonal guest workers. Black is encouraging growers to start thinking now about their labor needs for 2022.
“They’re thinking that they want to take the step and do H-2A, they should be talking to an H-2A service provider right now,” she says. “It takes a while to get through all the federal filing processes, the recruitment to get workers here, so you need to be thinking out at least 100, 120 days ahead of when you want that labor to arrive.”
To learn more about GLALS, click here.
