ADC Dairy Farmers’ Workforce Roundtable at Expo

House Ag Chair Thompson encouraged farmers to “stand up, speak out” as year-round ag workforce legislation gains bipartisan support

Dairy farmers from several states put the realities of year-round labor, farm transition, and the need for experienced workers on the table during with U.S. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson during the American Dairy Coalition’s Dairy Farmers’ Roundtable at World Dairy Expo Oct. 1.

The discussion centered on Thompson’s Securing Agriculture’s Workforce Act (H.R. 9535), bipartisan legislation designed to make the H-2A program workable for year-round agriculture while establishing a legal, accountable process for qualifying agricultural workers already in working in agriculture in the U.S.

Thompson said the legislation grew from nearly four years of work by a bipartisan agricultural workforce task force of eight Republicans and eight Democrats. He told farmers the bill has support from more than 600 agricultural organizations and had reached 60 congressional cosponsors.

“Standing up, speaking out, reaching out specifically to members of Congress as both the House and the Senate,” Thompson said when asked what farmers can do to help move the legislation.

ADC President and Pennsylvania dairy farmer Walt Moore said agriculture has been trying to solve the year-round workforce problem for nearly four decades: “Forty years is long enough. I do wholeheartedly believe that we are as close as we’ve been in 40 years to making something happen.”

Moore’s message to fellow farmers across the country was to build relationships with lawmakers, invite them onto their farms and explain what losing a dependable employee means when cows still have to be milked, fed and cared for every day.

“Now’s the time. Farmers can’t wait another two years for a workable system,” said Moore.

Throughout the roundtable, Thompson encouraged farmers to tell their stories directly to lawmakers and said he would like to see the number of H.R. 9535 cosponsors grow substantially.

In addition to Moore, the roundtable discussion on the SAWA bill with Chairman Thompson included Wisconsin Farm Bureau President Brad Olson, Wisconsin dairy farmer Chuck Ripp, Illinois dairy farmer and ADC board member Bryan Henrichs, Indiana Dairy Producers Executive Director and dairy farmer Steve Obert, Pennsylvania Dairymen’s Association longtime leader and farmer Dave Smith, and Indiana farmer Sam Schwoeppe.

What was on farmers’ minds when Thompson gave a Washington update and opened the floor to questions? The conversation returned to ag labor but also expanded to farmer data and checkoff transparency, DMC and real feed costs, farm consolidation and profitability, dairy labeling, country-of-origin labeling, government accountability, and how to help schools serve whole milk now that the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act became law. Look for more highlights in a future ADC update.

Read more on the SAWA workforce roundtable discussion here

Find ADC’s SAWA backgrounder here