Ag Labor Not Just An Issue For the U.S.

The United States is not the only country dealing with labor shortages in agriculture. That was the point made recently by New Mexico Secretary of Agriculture Jeff Witte.

“We were in Mexico late last year we were down in lower Chihuahua they have some beautiful apple orchards and beautiful agriculture in Mexico, guess who was working the fields, wasn't people from Mexico,  it was Guatemalans,” Witte said.  ”Last year I went to Guatemala for a USDA trade mission and we're talking to the producers down there. Who was working the fields, Columbians.”

Witte said the issue is not just a problem in the Americas, but global.

“Every country I've been in lately, when you ask where the labor comes from, it comes from someplace else. I don't care where I've gone, Malaysia, Burma it's just every place; it comes from someplace else.”

Combine this with the fact that the farm labor workforce is getting older, Witty emphasized the need to turn to technology and mechanization to counter a dwindling Ag labor pool.​