MAGA farm owners say they can’t find American workers anymore
- Thread starter 鬼百合
- Start date
This is GREAT news actually. Jobs for Americans! In those farming areas there are also people who collect welfare benefits. If they need to work part time to collect those benefits this could be a perfect fit.
American farmers—many of whom backed Trump in 2024—are facing a perfect storm: ICE’s aggressive deportation efforts and erratic tariff moves are wreaking havoc on their livelihoods, threatening rural communities with economic collapse.
Immigration enforcement has disrupted a crucial labor force. A June 21 Washington Post report detailed how Colorado farmer J.J. Ficke—a Trump voter—lost access to a $200,000 federal grant to hire seasonal farmhands from Latin America. That grant, alongside billions in agricultural funding, was frozen in January 2025. Over 140 farmers applied, seeking $4 million, but none received any funds. Wisconsin grower Tracy Vinz lamented, “I’ve employed Americans, and they quit after a few days. They quit after a few hours.” Georgia’s Mitch Lawson echoed that sentiment, observing American workers often don’t last a full day. The USDA estimates 42% of crop farmworkers are undocumented—highlighting how heavily farming relies on immigrant labor.
In Vermont, dairy farmers are paralyzed with fear after ICE raids. One farmer noted, “All the dairy farmers who voted for Trump were under the impression they weren’t going to come on farms and take our guys.” Vermont’s $3.6 billion dairy industry supplies 63% of New England’s milk, prompting the state’s agriculture secretary to ask, “Who’s going to milk the cows?” Trump acknowledged the strain on June 12 via Truth Social: “Our great Farmers… have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace.” He promised “changes are coming,” and on June 20 posts on X suggested a farm-sponsored migrant worker program—though no policy changes have materialized.
On top of labor woes, Trump’s tariff blitz is compounding the crisis. On March 3 he announced 25% tariffs on agricultural imports from Canada and Mexico, to begin April 2, urging domestic production. But U.S. farm exports—worth $180 billion annually—are now threatened by retaliatory duties. In his first term, tariffs triggered a $23 billion bailout; current threats could demand even larger rescues. West Virginia’s Jennifer Gilkerson lamented to NBC News how USDA cutbacks left her unsold freeze-dried fruits. Iowa’s Bob Hemesath warned, “Once you lose those markets to other suppliers, it’s very hard to get them back.” Kansas consultant Ben Palen criticized farmers for trusting Trump blindly, noting tariffs push up costs for fertilizer, equipment, and fuel while critical programs like the 45Z tax credit hang in limbo.
North Carolina farmer Ethan Jordan still faces drought and flood losses, with $77,000 in pending USDA aid for 1,600 acres. Trump’s freeze affected the Environmental Quality Incentives and Rural Energy for America programs. Maryland flower farmer Laura Beth Resnick invested $73,000 in solar panels expecting reimbursement, only to face financial ruin. Although a judge blocked the freeze, funds remain stalled. Vegetable farmers Jacob and Jennifer Thomas took a 10% hit after $1 billion in school and food bank produce programs was slashed. California winemaker Bryan Zesiger described the cuts as “earth-shattering and life-changing.”
These combined pressures are shifting farmers’ allegiances. Wisconsin journalist John Nichols noted on MSNBC on May 23 that rural growers are in “real crisis” over trade uncertainty and tariffs. NPR’s Jim Moyer from Washington State warned damaged global trade ties—China’s potential switch to Brazil could bite—and merchandiser Byron Behne criticized Trump’s vague “have fun” messaging. The Atlantic reported on April 16 that American soybean producers in red states are losing ground; China’s retaliatory 125% tariffs risk diverting business permanently to Brazil, fueling environmental concerns about Amazon deforestation.
Farmers are proposing fixes: legal work pathways and targeted bailouts to match tariff losses. A Reddit user on June 21 wrote that farm laborers deserve documentation and living wages, estimating a $21/hour farm wage in Wisconsin would hike grocery prices by only 20% at most. Others are investing in automation—though high-tech pickers still can’t fully replace hands-on labor.
With midterms on the horizon, this economic strain could undercut Trump’s rural base. Ficke, suffering drought, costs, and Medicaid uncertainty, faces the choice of survival over politics. His wife Kassidee asked, “How would the couple, who had no health insurance, pay for their daughter’s care if the administration and Congress gutted Medicaid?” Meanwhile, Texas grower Travis Johnson told the Guardian on April 15, “No farmer wants this, but without a bailout, this could be devastating, and a lot more people could go under.”
Trump’s vague promise of “changes” offers little comfort. Farm communities that once trusted him now brace for impact. As these struggles intensify with no relief in sight, America’s food supply, rural economies, and political allegiances hang in the balance.
Why aren't you helping with the farming labor shortage? This is your chance to shine.
No, I'm not misinformed. I employ humor and sarcasm in my posts. You are merely unintelligent.
Edwina loves trying to excuse her anti-Americanism through claiming everyone else is worse.
You already lost, vis-a-vis not comprehending my original post was sarcasm/humor.
So we're done for today, but we can play tomorrow if you want.
ThatOwlWoman
Not Nice
Well, here's a steaming pile of cow manure. There are so many, many rebuttals to this nonsense but why bother.
ThatOwlWoman
Not Nice
ThatOwlWoman
Not Nice
Somehow I've managed to be a wife, mother of five, put home-cooked meals on the table every night, do most of the housework and some of the yard work, AND have a career. We women can wear many hats and multitask, too.
Will you be helping out? During WWII, random people would volunteer to help out on the farms, because they believed in America.
As for me, I think doing a job where I lose money doing it hurts not just me, but America.
Trumpet
Verified User
He's quite the piece of work
No I sure wont. I don't need a job,...I already have one. Add to that the fact that I am tapering back some as it is. I will be 62 in spring. I have put in my time.
Trumpet
Verified User
The usual dumb shit from Crock of Shit Meister.
ThatOwlWoman
Not Nice
Because they'd lose their food stamps and Medicaid?
Trumpet
Verified User
Stoney Baloney, it sure doesn't take much for you to decide to call it quits.
Trumpet
Verified User
Just what we need first thing in the morning, an emotional hype job.
I help out by eliminating the vermin ruining the fields.
I receive no pay, but bullets and powder are becoming expensive.
I'm not calling it quits at all. I plan on working " some" until my late 60's,...I like to stay busy. I wont be working at all in the winter months though after this year. We will be going south from Jan 1 until end of April. Rest of year I will work "some". Difference being,...I will work as I WANT to,...not because I HAVE to. Maybe you are some kind of idiot so I will explain things to you..........what I just laid out for you is almost exactly what most Americans have tried to plan their lives around going back decades now. This is nothing new. You may not be aware of this but its not the 1400's anymore. People weren't meant to work until they are 80 years old and just drop dead in a field somewhere. But hey,....if that's what you want,....go for it ,....you do you.
QP!
Verified User
It is simply a fact that these are jobs that the vast, vast majority of people will not do.
Magats will lie about it and push to keep lowering child labor and safety laws, as they are doing in their States already, thinking children in the fields is the answer and it is not.
...
the summer a then-17-year-old Carter and thousands of American teenage boys heeded the call of the federal government ... to work on farms.
The year was 1965. On Cinco de Mayo, newspapers across the country reported that Secretary of Labor W. Willard Wirtz wanted to recruit 20,000 high schoolers to replace the hundreds of thousands of Mexican agricultural workers who had labored in the United States under the so-called Bracero Program. Started in World War II, the program was an agreement between the American and Mexican governments that brought Mexican men to pick harvests across the U.S. It ended in 1964, after years of accusations by civil rights activists like Cesar Chavez that migrants suffered wage theft and terrible working and living conditions.
But farmers complained — in words that echo today's headlines — that Mexican laborers did the jobs that Americans didn't want to do, and that the end of the Bracero Program meant that crops would rot in the fields.
Wirtz cited this labor shortage and a lack of summer jobs for high schoolers as reason enough for the program. But he didn't want just any band geek or nerd — he wanted jocks.
"They can do the work," Wirtz said at a press conference in Washington, D.C., announcing the creation of the project, called A-TEAM — Athletes in Temporary Employment as Agricultural Manpower. "They are entitled to a chance at it." Standing beside him to lend gravitas were future Baseball Hall of Famers Stan Musial and Warren Spahn and future Pro Football Hall of Famer Jim Brown...
But the national press was immediately skeptical. "Dealing with crops which grow close to the ground requires a good deal stronger motive" than money or the prospects of a good workout, argued a Detroit Free Press editorial. "Like, for instance, gnawing hunger."
Despite such skepticism, Wirtz's scheme seemed to work at first: About 18,100 teenagers signed up to join the A-TEAM. But only about 3,300 of them ever got to pick crops.
Students from across the country began showing up on farms in Texas and California at the beginning of June. ...
...Problems arose immediately for the A-TEAM nationwide. In California's Salinas Valley, 200 teenagers from New Mexico, Kansas and Wyoming quit after just two weeks on the job. "We worked three days and all of us are broke,"...
This experiment quickly disappeared into the proverbial dustbin of history. In fact,...
"These [high school students] had the words and whiteness to say what they were feeling and could act out in a way that Mexican-Americans who had been living this way for decades simply didn't have the power or space for the American public to listen to them," she says. "The students dropped out because the conditions were so atrocious, and the growers weren't able to mask that up."...
Magats will lie about it and push to keep lowering child labor and safety laws, as they are doing in their States already, thinking children in the fields is the answer and it is not.
When The U.S. Government Tried To Replace Migrant Farmworkers With High Schoolers
...
the summer a then-17-year-old Carter and thousands of American teenage boys heeded the call of the federal government ... to work on farms.
The year was 1965. On Cinco de Mayo, newspapers across the country reported that Secretary of Labor W. Willard Wirtz wanted to recruit 20,000 high schoolers to replace the hundreds of thousands of Mexican agricultural workers who had labored in the United States under the so-called Bracero Program. Started in World War II, the program was an agreement between the American and Mexican governments that brought Mexican men to pick harvests across the U.S. It ended in 1964, after years of accusations by civil rights activists like Cesar Chavez that migrants suffered wage theft and terrible working and living conditions.
But farmers complained — in words that echo today's headlines — that Mexican laborers did the jobs that Americans didn't want to do, and that the end of the Bracero Program meant that crops would rot in the fields.
Wirtz cited this labor shortage and a lack of summer jobs for high schoolers as reason enough for the program. But he didn't want just any band geek or nerd — he wanted jocks.
"They can do the work," Wirtz said at a press conference in Washington, D.C., announcing the creation of the project, called A-TEAM — Athletes in Temporary Employment as Agricultural Manpower. "They are entitled to a chance at it." Standing beside him to lend gravitas were future Baseball Hall of Famers Stan Musial and Warren Spahn and future Pro Football Hall of Famer Jim Brown...
But the national press was immediately skeptical. "Dealing with crops which grow close to the ground requires a good deal stronger motive" than money or the prospects of a good workout, argued a Detroit Free Press editorial. "Like, for instance, gnawing hunger."
Despite such skepticism, Wirtz's scheme seemed to work at first: About 18,100 teenagers signed up to join the A-TEAM. But only about 3,300 of them ever got to pick crops.
Students from across the country began showing up on farms in Texas and California at the beginning of June. ...
...Problems arose immediately for the A-TEAM nationwide. In California's Salinas Valley, 200 teenagers from New Mexico, Kansas and Wyoming quit after just two weeks on the job. "We worked three days and all of us are broke,"...
This experiment quickly disappeared into the proverbial dustbin of history. In fact,...
"These [high school students] had the words and whiteness to say what they were feeling and could act out in a way that Mexican-Americans who had been living this way for decades simply didn't have the power or space for the American public to listen to them," she says. "The students dropped out because the conditions were so atrocious, and the growers weren't able to mask that up."...