November 2024 - 47

America's growing dependence on our foreign competition
for food and fiber. These individuals, cast out because of
the 2020 election, have been working with the Heritage
Foundation on a " playbook " for a subsequent conservative
follow on. They have dubbed this strategy Project 2025.
Today, about half of our existing domestic farm
labor workforce is in the country in an unauthorized
status. They are not " undocumented " because
agricultural employers, like every other employer in
our economy, are prohibited from hiring individuals
without documentation. However, the veracity of some
documents may be better than others. Using USDA's
most recent Census of Agriculture, this population of
unauthorized persons presently working on America's
farms and ranches may be as many as 950,000.
As with many things, the devil is found
in the details
Under the Project 2025 " playbook, " all persons in the
U.S. found to be in unauthorized status would be subject
to immediate deportation. This would include people
found working on farms and ranches, many of whom
have been showing up for work every day for decades.
While Project 2025 would deport existing farm
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workers, it also recommends the phasing out of the H-2A
Temporary Agricultural visa program (H-2A program).
Today, agricultural employers in the U.S. employ about
300,000 temporary or seasonal workers that have been
vetted at a substantial cost to the employer to have a
legally authorized H-2A program team assist them in the
planting, nurturing and harvest of their crops.
Project 2025 would encourage the expenditure of
significant government funds to enhance labor-saving
techniques and robotics to supplant the people no
longer here.
As I mentioned at the outset, elections have
consequences. What those consequences might look
like after November, I can only speculate. However, even
though I may suffer from the spiritual danger of not
owning a farm, I have a pretty good notion that breakfast
does not come from the grocery.
Michael Marsh has led the National Council of
Agricultural Employers since 2017. A Wyoming native
and certified public accountant, Marsh worked for a CPA
firm with farm and ranch clients investigating fraud.
He was director of finance for the Almond Board of
California for 7 years and for 15 years was CEO of the
largest U.S. dairy producer trade association.
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November 2024

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