Farm labour, food production and immigration are inextricably joined, maybe more than ever. The North American agricultural sector is keenly aware of the critical, chronic labour shortage it’s facing. It’s making the problem as clear as possible to elected officials, along with an ultimatum: import labour, or import food.

Among the most frustrated with the situation, especially in the U.S., is the Washington-based International Fresh Produce Association, an advocacy group for fruit, vegetable and floral growers. 

The association says Congress there has failed for nearly four decades to address agriculture’s labour crisis. It estimates producers have 20 per cent less labour than they need, resulting in a food supply chain that increasingly relies on foreign workers and foreign-grown food to meet Americans’ needs.

Those are hot buttons in the U.S., especially this year with a federal election just a couple of months away. Politicians have tied immigration to crime, and food shortages are seen as a threat to national security. 

On top of all this, a huge fight has ensued over how much America’s one million hired farm workers should be paid. 

Workers’ wages are a struggle everywhere. In the U.S., the matter could be addressed in part by the multi-billion-dollar U.S. Farm Bill. However, it’s been mired in political wrangling for more than a year, and it’s unlikely to be moved along before ballots are cast in November. The produce association put together a list of 100-plus recommendations to lawmakers for the likes of research, crop insurance and labour.

But politicians won’t budge.  

Given this backdrop, it’s no wonder produce association president Cathy Burns is grumpy. In a recent interview with Agri-Pulse Communications, she said obstacles are limiting the sector’s growth potential and that Congress needs to help. Failing to act jeopardizes more than the farm sector – inadequate labour and an unwillingness to address it means crops could rot in the fields and deprive families of badly needed nutritional benefits, she says.

“Decisions that have not been made are putting us at risk of living in a country where we can’t feed ourselves,” she says. 

Playing the family and health card could well resonate with disgruntled and desperate U.S. voters. Burns, the mother of two Gen Z children, points out that members of the current generation could enter adulthood as the first ones in U.S. history who are not as healthy as their parents. Despite efforts to get them to eat better, it’s a generation that suffers from poor nutrition and refuses to consume fresh fruit and vegetables beyond the country’s school lunch program…which, incidentally, is funded through the same Farm Bill that warring politicians have sluffed off. 

Burns says the lid’s about to blow. Only one in 10 Americans eat enough fruit and vegetables, she claims, adding that 80 per cent of the U.S. health care dollar is spent treating disease, not preventing it. 

“More people are walking around metabolically sick than healthy,” she told Agri-Pulse. “We’re going to be a sicker country.”

To address this problem, she’s advocating for produce prescription programs. These are initiatives in which qualified professionals can write prescriptions for produce that is proven to prevent or treat an illness. 

So instead of pharmaceuticals, you could get a prescription for farm products – like the produce that Burns’ association represents. That’s a potential goldmine for producers. The benefits of consuming fruit and vegetables, as well as the perils of avoiding them, are well documented by credible researchers and institutions. 

“[Producers] provide the most nutritious products in the world,” says Burns. “We need to remove barriers.” 

Labour is key to providing those products. Support for product visibility campaigns is fine, but if producers don’t have the labour to get crops planted, cared for and harvested, the outlook is bleak for not only agriculture, but for an ailing society that needs help now.