Alternatives to US Workers

Abstract

Abstract Are US workers necessary to produce fresh fruits and vegetables for Americans? There are three major alternatives to US farm workers: labor-saving mechanization, migrant guest workers, and imported fruits and vegetables. Mechanization is being spurred by rapidly rising farm wages and by rapid progress in robotics and artificial intelligence that produces machines to detect and harvest fruits and vegetables with minimal damage. The H-2A program tripled in size over the past decade so that a sixth of jobs on US crop farms are filled by guest workers, raising questions how to facilitate farmer access to migrant workers while preventing abuse and exploitation. The United States imports 60 percent of its fresh fruit and 35 percent of its fresh vegetables. Mexico provides half of fresh fruit imports and three-fourths of fresh vegetable imports; most of the avocados and tomatoes consumed by Americans are products of Mexico. The choices for supplying fresh produce are machines, migrants, or imports, and the most likely outcome is a combination of all three.