Covid and US Farm Labor. Issue 1 (2nd January 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Martin, Philip
• Is Part Of: Journal of immigrant & refugee studies. Volume 21:Issue 1(2023)
• Page Start: 45
• Page End: 58
• Publication Date: 2023-01-02
• Subjects: Covid-19 -- migrant worker -- agriculture -- food system -- labor; Immigrants -- United States -- Social conditions -- Periodicals; Refugees -- United States -- Social conditions -- Periodicals; Social work with immigrants -- United States -- Periodicals; 362.8753097305
• DOI: 10.1080/15562948.2022.2142886
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1556-2948

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Many governments closed their borders in spring 2020 to prevent the spread of Covid, but they also made exceptions to allow farm employers to recruit temporary foreign workers to fill seasonal farm jobs. The pandemic changed many parameters of food systems. Closed restaurants led to widespread layoffs in leisure and hospitality, rates of Covid were high among nonfarm food processing and meatpacking workers, and there was less Covid than expected among the foreign workers who increased their share of employment in production agriculture. The pandemic accelerated three major changes that were already underway, viz., more labor-saving mechanization, more foreign workers, and increased imports of labor-intensive commodities. Mechanization increases the resilience of production agriculture to labor supply shocks.