The dairy industry employs 3 million hardworking individuals from a diverse set of backgrounds. Yet it faces mounting challenges in securing an adequate workforce to run the farms and manufacturing operations year-round. With perishable milk and dairy products, labor shortages aren’t just an inconvenience; they’re a threat to business viability, to food affordability, and to our nation’s food and national security.
IDFA has created several initiatives, including our People Strategy programs and the HR Leaders in Dairy community, to help our members attract and retain workers. While these initiatives help, a national solution remains necessary. Dairy processors and producers need access to a reliable labor pool through the federal government’s most prominent guestworker program: H-2A.
While industrious dairy companies support more than 3 million U.S. jobs that generate $42 billion in direct wages, they need more workers to ensure supply chain stability. Without a reliable labor pool, perishable milk and dairy products would not make it to market shelves. Consumers would have fewer choices, shorter timelines to consume products, and higher grocery bills.
The growing potential for these negative outcomes weighs heavily on industry leaders. A McKinsey survey of IDFA member company executives found 64% of CEOs rank labor shortages as a top concern.
To ensure supply chain stability, Congress must enact commonsense legislation to reform the agricultural guestworker program. This proposed legislation would:
Legislation that allows for these priorities will increase productivity and ensure the reliable flow of milk and dairy products to the shelves of American grocery stores.
IDFA believes a well-crafted agricultural guest-worker program will ensure an adequate and legal workforce, including non-seasonal, skilled immigrant workers. Any legislation that federal policymakers enact must cover dairy manufacturing jobs and allow longer-term visas in recognition of the industry’s significant investment of time and money for training employees.
The current H-2A visa program allows U.S. employers to bring temporary workers to the United States to perform agricultural labor or services of a temporary or seasonal nature. Workers are allowed to apply for jobs when U.S. employers using the program prove there are not enough able, willing, and qualified U.S. workers available to fill them.
Because the H-2A program is seasonal in nature, dairy companies cannot leverage it to build their labor pool.
In March 2024, a U.S. House Committee on Agriculture working group released a report that outlined several policy changes that would improve the agriculture industry’s access to a reliable workforce. Granting year-round access to H-2A was one of the provisions unanimously supported by both Republicans and Democrats.
Specifically, the working group said Congress should “reform the H-2A visa program to include agricultural labor or services (including cooperatively owned employers) that involve the initial preparation, processing, or manufacturing of agricultural commodities, such as livestock, poultry, dairy, peanuts, sugar beets, and sugarcane [since] these commodities require processing before going to consumers.”
IDFA and its members are grateful for the bipartisan recognition of the need for H-2A reform.
While changes to U.S. visa programs have been elusive over the last several years, the U.S. House of Representatives has twice approved the Farm Workforce Modernization Act.
This legislation is a starting point for ensuring a strong workforce for the U.S. dairy industry. Unfortunately, it will not completely relieve the sector’s labor shortages since it does not reform H-2A to allow dairy producers to leverage it. IDFA and our members will continue to engage with lawmakers to bring H-2A reform into the Farm Workforce Modernization Act.
Despite its lack of H-2A reform, the Farm Workforce Modernization Act includes vital changes that would:
Three in five voters support passage of the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, including 75% of Democrats, 58% of Independents, and 53% of Republicans.
Americans understand that when U.S. processors and producers do not have access to a stable, reliable labor pool it weakens supply chains and raises consumer prices.
A Morning Consult survey for IDFA found 42% of voters see a connection between immigration issues and rising food prices. (Nearly one-in-five, 17%, had not made up their minds or did not have enough information to make an assessment.) Republicans were more likely to say the two issues are connected. More than half of GOP voters, 54%, think there is a link between immigration and rising food prices.
The vast majority of voters, 82%, also responded thatit is important for Republicans and Democrats in Congress to work together to lower food prices through immigration reform.
IDFA's Immigration Task Force continues to develop policy recommendations to address worker availability issues and analyze immigration legislation affecting the dairy industry. IDFA members interested in joining the committee should reach out to membership@idfa.org.
Senior Director, Legislative Affairs
