Save Family Farming Takes Issue With “Falsified UCLA Report”

Washington’s Save Family Farming is pushing back against a UCLA-sponsored report it says unfairly targets farmers and misrepresents the state’s agricultural workforce. The farm advocacy group says the report makes unsupported claims about the federal H-2A guest worker program, which many Washington farmers rely on to find seasonal labor.

SFF said the report's author, Rosa María Navarro, failed to follow several critical ethics and transparency practices, but the information she claims to have gathered doesn't support the highly-politicized conclusions she reached and is now promoting in the media.

“This document should never have been published with the credibility of a major research university, as though its flawed sampling and biased conclusions were established fact,” said Ben Tindall, Executive Director of Save Family Farming. “Washington farmers are frequently being attacked by anti-farming activist organizations. It is unacceptable to now see this activism, dressed up as academic research, and then given the University of California name to make patently false claims against agriculture appear credible."

The group says farmers using H-2A are required to recruit U.S. workers through Washington’s Employment Security Department and follow federal rules, meaning the recruitment process described in the report as a “loophole” is actually required by law.

“Calling compliance with federal law a ‘loophole’ is an astonishing distortion,” said Tindall. “Farmers are being instructed by the federal government how they must recruit workers, they follow those instructions, and then this report turns around and portrays their compliance as evidence of wrongdoing.”

SFF also said H-2A employers face significant costs, including required wages, housing, transportation and other benefits.

The group says legitimate farmworker concerns deserve attention, but argues Washington farmers shouldn’t be portrayed as violating the law when they’re following federal requirements.

“We absolutely support fair treatment and dignity for every farmworker, whether that worker lives in Washington year-round or comes here legally through the H-2A program,” Tindall said. “And when an employer breaks the law, hold that employer accountable. What we will not accept is using isolated cases and a fundamentally inadequate sample to smear an entire agricultural community. We do not believe that UCLA should not allow its name and academic reputation to be used as camouflage for political advocacy.”

Click Here to read that UCLA Report.

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