Tuberville Advocates for Farmers During Senate AG Hearing

February 25, 2025 - WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) spoke with Bret Erickson, Board Member of the International Fresh Produce Association, and Anna Rhinewalt, Council Member of the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation and Mississippi Sweet Potato Council, during a Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry (Ag) hearing. During the hearing, they spoke about the dire state of the farm economy impacting specialty crop producers after four years of Joe Biden's runaway spending and sky-high inflation.

TUBERVILLE: "Thanks for you being here today, all of you.

Our Ag economy is a disaster, complete disaster. You know, if we don't do something-and I don't know how it's going to work-we're not going to have Ag Committee here in a few years. We lost 150,000 farms in the last few years. 150,000 farms.

If that's not a disaster, I don't know what is. But we don't help you at all. Regulations are overboard. Labor is out of sight. You have no water. I don't know what we've done right up here. Doesn't sound like a whole lot.

But Mrs. Rhinewalt, what's the ideal [wage] rate if we were to revert back to [previous H-2A] labor costs? What would be the ideal rate that we would pay [...] to make a profit?"

RHINEWALT: "Senator, thank you. We actually had that discussion yesterday. We chuckled talking about wages that were based on maybe 115% of the federal wage rate or state minimum wage rates. But we know that's at $7.25, and farmers are not suggesting that we pay that low. But we do want to have some consideration, a formulation for the wage rate that takes into account that $14.83 may be the wage rate, but we need to consider the transportation cost, the administrative cost, the housing cost, and maybe [...] prorate that in consideration of those factors. Because it's a fallacy to say that because we're paying $14.83, that's not really the wage rate paying. It's really more like $20-21 an hour."

TUBERVILLE: "Exactly. Thank you.

Mr. Erickson, $23 an hour, you got to be kidding me. How do you make it? I mean, what would be your cost to make a profit?"

ERICKSON: "I wish it wasn't. It is. And to Mrs. Rhinewalt's comments, you know, the costs that are involved with applying for the program, transporting the laborers from their home country to the United States where they're going to work-we transport them, we put them in housing, hotels, transport them from the hotel to the job site. We have catering services. We provide food. You know, you need to take them to doctor's appointments and to get sundries and such. I don't know, you know, how you roll back. And in Texas, the AEWR [Adverse Effect Wage Rate] is, I believe, it's $15.87 an hour. Our actual cost is about $23 per hour when you add all that in.

I don't know what the number is. We definitely need to put a cap on the increases that have occurred. How do we deal with it? Unfortunately, in the case of Little Bear Produce, I wish Senator Lujan was still here. [...] We had an onion packing facility in Deming, New Mexico. It was an important part of our operation that had about 15 full time people and we brought in 20-30 seasonal people. We rent onions, hatch chilies, pumpkins, watermelons up there. And we had to recently shutter that facility, in part, because of the water that's being withheld in Mexico. And they're using that water to grow our crops, and then we're having to purchase those products.

So, it is a crazy situation for us to be in. And as a business, we had to make the decision, and you have to sit down with each one of these, these people have been working for us for 12-15 years, and to sit down and tell them, you know, 'We have to let you go, unfortunately. You know, we're going to work with you to try to transition into another job.' And you know what the craziest thing was? Those folks, in talking to them, they were so thankful for the opportunity that they had during the 12-15 years that they were working for us, and they were so thankful for that. But if we don't get these costs under control for U.S. producers, we are going to continue to hand over the production of specialty crops and fruits and vegetables."

TUBERVILLE: "We're not going to have it. It's going to be over. Mrs. Rhinewalt, could we do without a H-2A program?"

RHINEWALT: "No, sir. We would be completely out of business."

TUBERVILLE: "[...] How are domestic workers being affected by H-2A programs?"

RHINEWALT: "Well, a domestic workforce is never again going to be the remedy for Ag production in the United States, per their response to the jobs. So, 97% of jobs remain open when we're required to advertise them to domestic workers, first, before we can receive any assurance that we're allowed to bring H-2A onto our farms. We would be happy to pay our own citizens a very reasonable wage and save all those auxiliary costs that I mentioned. But they simply do not want the jobs."

TUBERVILLE: "Thank you. Good luck. Hope we get out of your way."

RHINEWALT: "Thank you."

TUBERVILLE: "Because that's what we're going to have to do."

Senator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans' Affairs, HELP, and Aging Committees.