How Impactful Are Farm Workers To Idaho’s Economy?

Labor shortages are hurting growers of several commodities, not only here in the Northwest but nationwide. In an effort to bring more awareness to the ag labor shortage, and the need for a permeant solution, the Idaho Alliance for Legal Workforce was created.

The coalition of industry leaders and advocates is working to raise awareness about how the current visa limitations are impacting farms, ag workers, and rural communities across the state. Rick Naerebout with the Workforce, citing recent academic research, said these workers, many of whom are foreign-born, have a dramatic impact on Idaho Ag.

“If you took away just half of those unauthorized workers, that's about 25,000 individuals, you would also remove an additional 27,000 jobs that Idahoans, American born Idahoans fill today," Naerebout said. "Because if you don't have a worker to milk the cow or to harvest the crop, you don't have the ability to then process that commodity into a finished product. So you don't have all the jobs in food processing.”

We Can't Feed Out Neighbors Without These Workers

Naerebout added the research shows that removing all foreign–born workers could reduce the state’s economic output by $5.1 billion and impact more than 55,000 jobs. He said difficult conversations will need to take place, so the issue of farm labor is properly addressed.

“Consistently we get reports back that 50% of the on-farm labor in this country is here without status," Naerebout said. "And that means we cannot feed our own neighbors and our own communities without these workers. We can't feed ourselves as America, if we don't have these workers and if we don't find a way to fix this policy issue in a very thoughtful manner and one that is well-rounded.”

This Legislative Session Was Not Representative Of What Idahoans Want

Naerebout said one piece of this conversation that’s key to the livestock and dairy sectors, is access to a year-round via program. Moving forward, he pointed out, it’s important that an avenue is provided for workers here without status a way for them, and their families to gain legal status.

“If you go back to January, Boise State [University], they do a public policy survey every year going into session," Naerebout said. "And one of the questions they asked is, would you be in favor of a dairy worker that's here without status be given legal status to them and their family? 79% of Republicans answered that they would be in favor of that. And so clearly Republicans are wanting to have a logical fix to this, which is contrary to what you saw during the legislative session where you saw a number of bills, you know, targeted at, you know, mandatory verify and trying to get at removing these workers from the workforce.”

Click Here to learn more about the Idaho Alliance for A Legal Workforce.

You can also learn more by listening to our entire conversation with Naerebout: