Farm Labor: Demand, Supply, and Markets
Kalmanovitz Appellate Courtroom, UC Davis Law School
Friday, March 17, 2023
This conference examines immigration and farm labor issues in California and US agriculture. Labor-intensive fruit and vegetable crops are almost 85 percent of California’s crop sales, the H-2A guest worker program is expanding, and higher labor costs are spurring both labor-saving innovation and imports.
The first session explores prospects for immigration reform generally and in agriculture, the second deals with farm worker characteristics and the H-2A program, and the third deals with technology, trade, and other issues affecting farm workers and the farm labor market.
There is no charge to participate, but you must register here before Friday March 3, 2023
We are grateful for the support of the ARE and the Gifford Center, the ALRB, and the Giannini, Rosenberg, and Walmart Foundations. For further information, contact Philip Martin.
View the full report of the conference here.
Agenda
8:15AM: Check-in and Breakfast
8:45AM: Welcome, Philip Martin, UC Davis ARE, Helen Dillard, CAES
9:00AM: Immigration and Agriculture (20 and 10 minutes)
- Chair: Philip Martin, UC Davis:
- What’s next for immigration reform? Kevin Johnson, UC Davis
- Immigration policy and agriculture, Michael Marsh, NCAE
- Discussants: Sebastian Sanchez, EDD, Cynthia Rice, CLRA
10:15AM: Break
10:30AM: Farm Workers in the 2020s (20 and 10 minutes)
- Chair: Rachael Goodhue, UC Davis
- NAWS: 30 years of crop workers, Daniel Carroll, DOL (zoom) and Andrew Padovani, JBS
- Who uses H-2As? Skyler Simnitt, ERS
- Discussants: Francisco Macias, EDD, Ruben Lugo, DOL, Julia Montgomery, ALRB
11:45AM: Lunch
12:45PM: Christine Birdsong, CDFA
1:15PM: Futures: Machines, Migrants, and Imports (20 and 10 minutes)
- Chair: Tim Beatty, UC Davis
- Overview, Philip Martin, UC Davis:
- Technology, Stavros Vougioukas, UC Davis
- Trade, Steve Zahniser, USDA (zoom)
- Discussants: Kyle Cobb, Advanced Farm
3pm: Adjourn