Pork industry looks at the cost of losing foreign-born workers

A reduction in the foreign-born workforce due to immigration policy changes would lead to decreased agricultural output and a drop in jobs in the sector as farmers abandon labor-intensive operations, according to a study commissioned by the National Pork Producers Council. The loss of foreign-born workers would not be offset by native-born workers and permanent residents, given an already-tight labor market, particularly in rural areas, according to the study by Iowa State University economists using research from USDA’s Economic Research Service. The tighter supply of foreign-born workers would increase production costs as the total number of farm workers decreased by 3.4 percent to 5.5 percent, NPPC said.