US agriculture is failing now.

Between 2017 and 2022, the U.S. saw a reduction in farms by 141,733, a total decline of 7 percent. The trend, according to the USDA's 2022 Census of Agriculture, isn't isolated to specific states, with Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri facing the most losses. American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall issued a press release last Thursday addressing the challenges, attributing them partly to the flawed workforce system while advocating for the H-2A reforms to provide support to the agricultural sector.

"We are losing farms in America at a rapid pace and there is no question that our broken workforce system is partly to blame," Duvall said in the statement.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis issued a report in December that highlighted challenges in finding farm labor due to a decreasing influx of migrant workers and an aging workforce, notably in the Ninth District, comprising parts of the Midwest and Upper Midwest. The labor shortage has led to a "much worse" situation over the past five years for many in the agricultural sector, according to the Minneapolis Fed.

A report by Kansas State University and the Kansas Department of Agriculture issued in November found that addressing farm labor shortages could boost Kansas's economy to the sum of $11.7 billion.

Back in June of 2022, the American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC) collaborated with Texas AGM International University (TAMIU) researchers on a study to explore how non-citizen or migrant admissions impact the broader economy. Focused on labor costs and consumer pricing in the agricultural sector, the research found that higher numbers of migrants and H-2A workers correlate with lower inflation, higher average and minimum wages, and lower unemployment.

A higher number of migrants would help reduce waste too. Labor shortages in agriculture have led to food waste, with a 2019 study in California showing that an average of 24,910 pounds per hectare of edible produce—or 31.3 percent of marketed yield—was left in fields post-harvest. While the variability was influenced by factors like crop type and market prices, farmers cited labor availability as a chief reason for product waste, which exacerbates global food insecurity.