As immigration takes center stage with the Trump Administration, farm leaders are keeping a close eye on the issue, especially as it relates to their guest workers. North Carolina Farm Bureau President Shawn Harding says foreign workers are critical on the farm.

“When you start thinking about sweet potatoes, very labor-intensive vegetable crop, blueberries, very labor-intensive fruit crop, even the Christmas trees is a very labor-intensive crop. And so, you know, all of these things that we’re doing, we have to have a lot of labor.”

Harding says the H-2A guest worker program is essential to ensure there’s sufficient farm labor.

“That’s the predominant way that farmers are getting this labor. It’s a great program. It’s an expensive program, and so those costs obviously either have to be passed on from the farmer to the consumer.”

Harding says lawmakers need to realize that farmers are caught between a rock and a hard place.

“Not only do our farmers have to pay more for the labor, they have to pay housing for these workers, and of course, they have to pay to get them here as well. So it’s a very expensive program, but really, our farmers don’t have a choice.”

Harding points out the H-2A program is a win-win, and while it has its drawbacks, it and farm workers must be protected amidst the talk of mass deportations.

“If we’re going to have food in the grocery stores and the restaurants on our tables, somebody has to do this work. We’re big proponents of h2a program for that from that standpoint, because that money goes back and supports people in these other countries and does good work for them as well.”

According to the American Farm Bureau, h2a positions increased by 2% in fiscal year 2024, 6,000 more than FY 2023.