Farms Get $50 Million to Help Hire Migrants

Farms across the country are getting $50 million to help support farmworkers and agricultural employees.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced Friday that the money will be awarded to 141 recipients in 40 states and Puerto Rico through the Farm Labor Stabilization and Protection Pilot (FLSP) Program. It's said to reach 177 unique agricultural operations and more than 11,000 workers, aimed to address agriculture labor challenges and instability, strengthen protections for farmworkers, and expand legal pathways for labor migration.

A 60-page list displays the financial amount received by farms nationwide, with some awards ranging from $25,000 up to $1.2 million.

"These awards will largely support small and mid-sized farms to ensure they can hire and retain the workers they need to be competitive in the market, while also lifting up rural communities across the country," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement. "Farmworkers make an incredibly important contribution to food and agriculture and ensure we have food on our tables every day.

"Improving working conditions and quality of life for farmworkers, both U.S.-based workers and those that come to our country to work, is one key step in building a stronger, more resilient food supply chain."

A USDA spokesperson told Newsweek via email that applications were graded on multiple criteria, including alignment with FLSP goals, responsible recruitment, supplemental employee commitments, description of employer practices and plans, and impact on applicants' operations.

The FLSP application period opened on September 22, 2023, and closed on January 3, 2024. There were ultimately 312 eligible applications from 46 states and two territories—80 percent of which employ fewer than 75 employees, and 45 percent of applicants hire 10 or fewer workers.

Also, more than 80 percent of applications were at the 'Silver' and 'Platinum' levels, which the USDA views as a strong interest demonstrated toward employment practices, retention, and recruitment.

If all FLSP applications were awarded, it would translate to impacting roughly 40,000 workers.

The financial awards stem from a June 2022 proclamation made by the Biden administration in association with other countries known as the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection.

That meeting included government officials from countries including Brazil, Canada, Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, and Peru working with the U.S. "to strengthen national, regional, and hemispheric efforts to create the conditions for safe, orderly, humane, and regular migration and to strengthen frameworks for international protection and cooperation."

The FLSP program was announced in September 2023 and involved input from immigration, labor, and agricultural stakeholders informed by the experiences of farmworkers and farmers. The program began for reasons including:

• Helping address workforce needs in agriculture.
• Promoting a safe and healthy work environment, as well as ethical recruitment for farmworkers.
• Supporting lawful migration pathways for workers, including expansion of labor pathways for workers from Northern Central America, through the H-2A visa program.

About 60 percent of employer awardees that plan to utilize the H-2A program are said to be committed to recruiting workers from northern Central America.

Advocates of the program also allude to additional benefits, such as better pay and time off; more collaboration among different sectors; management training opportunities; driver's license training, no-cost English classes for employees; more recreation spaces in housing facilities; and ethical, safe recruitment practices that protect workers from illegal fees, undue debt, exploitation and human trafficking.

Chelsea Sprague, a co-owner of a dairy farm in Vermont, told Newsweek this month that her farm hired its first two Hispanic workers in 2013.

Now, because of a $260,000 grant through the Farmworker Housing Grant program provided through her state, the 160-year-old Sprague Ranch in Brookfield is renovating a house that serves as a dwelling for the nine migrant workers on the property.

"They were amazingly dedicated to their work life here and enabled us to really take a look at our farm business and focus on larger management, rather than smaller items like the schedule and if protocols were being followed," Sprague said. "It was the start of strategic planning for our farm and looking forward to how we wanted it to be."

Update 06/17/24, 12:56 p.m. ET: This story was updated with comment from the USDA.