There’s plenty of work each year at Piscasaw Gardens, a vegetable, cut flower and popcorn farm near Harvard in McHenry County. Planting and transplanting come in early spring, vegetable harvesting and flower cutting continue throughout the summer, and supplying the farm store and many Chicagoland farmers markets last well into the fall.
For Piscasaw Gardens owner Jenny Kinney, guestworkers from Mexico are an integral part of successfully completing the work and filling local farm labor shortages.
“They really do everything on our farm and are vital to our success,” she says. “We couldn’t operate without them.”
Labor shortages are some of the most significant issues facing all U.S. farmers today, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. Farmers in Illinois and across the country face severe local worker shortages as the rural population declines and other employment opportunities draw people away from agriculture.
For farmers and other agribusinesses, legal workers from other countries help offset the labor shortage and play an essential role in providing affordable food and other goods for American consumers.
“We provide needed jobs for them, and they help us fill the labor gap,” Kinney says. “All of that is so important for the nation’s food supply.”
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Cross-Border Relationships
Hiring international farm workers has also built strong and enduring personal relationships, benefiting farmers and workers, according to Kinney and other Illinois farmers.
“Our workers from Mexico have really become like family to us, and we both benefit,” Kinney says.
One of the workers at Piscasaw Gardens, Belen Sanchez Ortiz, agrees there are significant advantages to working on Kinney’s farm. As a single mother who supports two daughters and parents in Mexico, Sanchez Ortiz travels north each growing season because she likes working outdoors in agriculture and can earn far more at Piscasaw Gardens than at home.
“I want to keep coming here as long as I can,” Sanchez Ortiz says. “I am very happy to work here.”
Patrick Bane has seen the value of employing legal workers from Mexico at his pork farm near Arrowsmith in McLean County.
“They are dedicated, reliable and very good at caring for our animals,” says Bane, who was voted the National Pork Board’s Pig Farmer of the Year in 2018. “I really think they are a little more patient with the animals than many of the American workers we’ve had over the years, which is very important.”
Working together and gathering socially at birthday parties, holidays and other celebrations, Bane and his family have built strong connections with the workers from Mexico and their families.
“We really enjoy our relationships outside of work,” he says.
Employees on Bane’s farm say working in animal agriculture – and in the United States – helps them and their families.
“Thanks to this job, we were able to raise our kids in a healthy way,” says Faustino Rios, who has worked on the Bane farm for 20 years, primarily caring for pigs.
Cesar Perez says he also enjoys working at the Bane family farm with the animals.
“It is very calming,” Perez says. “I never feel pressure.”
Working on the same farm for more than 15 years has allowed Perez the opportunity to provide for his family and send his son to college.
“I am very thankful for that,” he says.
Chris Eckert, president and CEO of Eckert’s Country Store near Belleville, says international farm workers are vital to the success of his family’s fruit, vegetable and Christmas tree farm. Eckert hires international guestworkers for all types of jobs and appreciates their hard work and dedication.
“We’ve had multiple generations of people from Mexico who have worked for us, and they are really part of our farm family now,” he says. “I really don’t know how we’d exist without them.”
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Federal Farm Worker Programs
Many Illinois farmers, including Kinney and Eckert, hire international guestworkers through the federal government’s H-2A program. The program permits U.S. farmers to hire temporary, nonimmigrant foreign workers to perform seasonal agricultural labor under strict regulations designed to protect both the workers and local labor markets.
However, the seasonal H-2A program doesn’t fit well for some operations, especially livestock farms, which need workers year-round. Instead, Bane utilizes a different program under the North American Free Trade Agreement, which allows TN (Trade NAFTA) nonimmigrant workers with specific skills to work in the United States year-round and bring their families along.
To farmers, these programs are essential to help fill the continued need for workers in Illinois agriculture.
“It’s just so hard to get farm labor, and these people have been great,” Bane says. “They are just good people and good families. To be honest, hiring workers from Mexico is about the best thing that ever happened for us on the farm.”
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