Legislator Calls US Farm Labor Shortage a ‘Massive Crisis’ That Will Have Serious Economic Consequences

During a Feb. 1 Congressional hearing meant to address the 2023 Farm Bill, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) put a spotlight on the labor crisis faced by American farmers.
In the session, Bennet called the protracted shortage of U.S. farm workers a “massive crisis.”
“If we don’t have the labor to get these crops in, we’re going to have a huge problem in this country,” Bennet told the assembly.
It’s an elephant in the room for U.S. farming and not a new one.
A farmer holding soybeans in Scribber, Neb., on May 5, 2019. (Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images)
The 2023 Farm Bill addresses points that can help farmers, but in a peripheral way. The bill includes things like mandatory funding for rural economic development programs and farm operating loans, yet critics say doesn’t address the root of the problem….}