ARLINGTON, VA – One of the most well-attended education sessions at the 2023 USA Rice Outlook Conference was about the on-farm labor force and navigating the government’s H-2A program. Intended to provide reliable skilled and unskilled labor to America’s farmers while still protecting U.S. workers, the program is complicated.
Kristi Boswell, an ag policy attorney with the DC law firm of Alston & Bird, gave an in-depth talk at the conference which
The Rice Stuff recorded.
Back in the studio for the
latest episode, podcast hosts Michael Klein and Lesley Dixon are joined by Arkansas rice farmers Jennifer James and Joe Mencer to talk about their experiences with the decades old program, how they make use of it, and ways they think the program could be improved.
The conversation covers the multiple agencies administering the program, immigration policy, the Adverse Effect Wage Rate, the bi-partisan House Ag Committee H-2A Working Group led by Congressman Rick Crawford, and more, including the toughest jobs Michael and Lesley ever had.
New episodes of
The Rice Stuff are published on the second and fourth Tuesday of every month and can be found on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and online at
www.thericestuffpodcast.com.