Sec. Rollins Reports On Initial Months

This week, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins gave testimony to the House Agriculture Committee about the initial months of her tenure at the USDA.

Farm labor was a popular topic. Several committee members were concerned about the cost of H2A workers to farmers.

Representative David Rouzer of North Carolina expressed that the current wage rates for H2A workers are too high.

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins: “In fact, in Texas, I went and visited some citrus growers in South Texas and we could look across the border where the average hourly rate was $2 in Mexico to produce the same or to basically move the same produce produce through in Texas at $23 an hour. This unsustainable. I've talked to Lori Chavez Dreamer, a secretary of labor, about it.”`

Representative Don Davis of North Carolina was concerned that the current H2A system is limiting the number of workers available for farm labor:

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins: “There is no doubt that, first of all, significant reform needs to happen, the H-2A to be, etc., which I know you all are leading on in a bipartisan effort, but also the importance of our administration and this president, which he does, recognizing that we have a major gap in the labor market for our dairy, a lot of our road croppers and how you balance that obviously with his commitment to America and to the American voters, which we don't all agree on, but to to address immigration.”

Representative Ronny Jackson of Texas asked for an update of the continued block on the importation of cattle from Mexico.

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins: “The 30 days is our benchmark, but we're assessing every single day. The metric that we're looking for is to watch the screwworm retreat south. It basically moved from about 1100 feet from the border, I'm sorry, 1100 miles from the border to 700 miles from the border within just a matter of weeks, which again, we hadn't seen that kind of movement in decades.”

For Market to Market, I’m Peter Tubbs