National Council of Farmer Cooperatives
Representing the Business Interests of Agriculture

Washington, DC – The National Council of Farmer Cooperatives (NCFC) today reiterated its support for a comprehensive, workable guest worker program to meet the labor needs of agriculture. The call came as the Senate Judiciary Committee began markup on its proposed legislation dealing with immigration.

NCFC is a member of the Agricultural Coalition for Immigration Reform, a broad based group of over 400 agricultural, business, labor and religious organizations. The coalition supports legislation, the Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits and Security Act (AgJOBS), separate from the bill being taken up in the Judiciary Committee, which would provide reform of the H- 2A visa program to help meet the needs of both agricultural producers and farm workers.

“Farmer cooperatives and their farmer and rancher members must have access to an adequate labor force in order to ensure their continued competitiveness in the international marketplace,” said NCFC President Jean-Mari Peltier. “Given the unwillingness of American citizens to fill needed jobs in labor intensive agricultural activities, it is clear that foreign workers will harvest these crops. The only question is whether they will harvest them on US farms and ranches or force those operations to move offshore, to the detriment of our trade balance and economy.”

“Therefore,” Peltier continued, “we call on the Senate to include provisions in any immigration legislation that takes into account the needs of production agriculture while implementing reasonable and realistic border security measures.”