Pennsylvania farmers, faced with immigrant shortage, get creative about labor sources in efforts to stay afloat

A worker harvests button mushrooms on a Pa. farm
(Philadelphia Inquirer photo by Michael Bryant)

Farmers nationwide are experiencing labor shortages because of tighter immigration rules and lower unemployment. Some in Pennsylvania, and likely elsewhere, are turning to unconventional sources of labor in an effort to stay afloat.

Almost half the mushrooms in the U.S. come from Chester County, Pennsylvania, in the southeastern corner of the state. But farming and harvesting them is difficult work. "Full-time positions require workers to pick six days a week, including holidays," Katie Park reports for The Philadelphia Inquirer. "Days start early and the work can be difficult, as workers have to bend between narrow, dimly lit wooden mushroom beds, knife in hand, and delicately cut thousands of mushrooms piece by piece."

Dairy jobs are also hard to fill. "They’re dirty jobs. They pay far above minimum wage, but they are dirty jobs. You’re behind cows. You’re going in and out of rain, snow, sleet, and hail," Caroline Novak, deputy director of the Professional Dairy Managers of Pennsylvania, told Park.

Because there are fewer immigrants or other willing workers around, "Some mushroom and dairy farmers desperate for labor have begun to turn to places they may not have once considered, such as inmate work-release programs, organizations that help the visually impaired find employment, and others that help veterans find work," Park reports. Such workers are sometimes successful, but overall it's not enough.

The labor shortage, on top of paper-thin profit margins, has hit dairies and mushroom farms hard. Some dairies have been forced to downsize or postpone upgrades, and there are so few workers that some mushroom farms haven't been able to fully harvest their mushrooms, Park reports.

Several farmers and industry insiders Park interviewed bemoaned the loss of immigrant labor and advocated immigration reform. "The American public as a whole does not want to work these hours anymore," said dairy farmer Christian Landis. "And quite frankly, if the immigrant labor force was not there, there would be a major void in the labor force of the agriculture industry across all sectors."