Commodities
Trump Mass-Deportation Plan to Hurt Farming, Co-Op CEO Says
The US Department of Agriculture has said nearly half of hired crop farmworkers lack legal immigration status.
Photographer: Emree Weaver/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
President-elect Donald Trump’s threat of mass deportations risks hurting US agriculture, dealing an additional blow to a sector already struggling with labor shortages and bracing for trade disputes.
Matt Carstens, head of Landus, Iowa’s biggest farm cooperative, said Trump’s plans should be approached carefully and include feedback from American farmers. If Trump follows through with his plan to send millions of undocumented workers out of the country, it would have repercussions across the farming world, exacerbating a decades-long labor-shortage problem.