U.S. expected to import more farm products that it exports; would longer-tenured foreign farmworkers help close gap?

U.S. Department of Agriculture graph

For the first time, U.S. imports of agricultural products are expected to exceed the country's farm exports next year, and then continue running ever-larger trade deficits through 2031, the Department of Agriculture projected earlier this year. That projection has caused concern among farmers in Ohio who say they rely on foreigners to keep their operations running, reports Marty Schladen for the Ohio Capital Journal. Those farmers are calling for changes in agricultural-worker visas that would make it easier for foreigners to enter and stay in the country for longer amounts of time. 

"The reality today in United States modern agriculture is that food consumed by Americans is and will continue to be harvested by foreign hands," vegetable grower Bob Jones told Schladen. "Americans just simply are not interested in working in the field, in the greenhouse, or the packing house."

Jones and other farmers hope the U.S. Senate will pass the Farm Workforce Modernization Act of 2021. The bill, already passed by the House, would create a "certified agricultural worker" status for qualified foreign workers and allow them to stay in the U.S. for five and a half years. "We are either going to import workers or we're going to import food," Jones said. "The choice is really that simple." 

The American consumer has largely acquired a taste for agricultural goods that often need to be imported, Chuck Abbott reported for Successful Farming in February. Those goods include fresh fruits and vegetables that might not be in season in the U.S. Tropical products like coffee and the horticultural products needed to produce wine, beer and distilled spirits are increasingly imported. Farm exports were forecast to hit a record this fiscal year, but the USDA projected a decrease in value in the middle of the coming decade, and a much greater increase in imports.