Food for thought

Our food industry—from farm to table—depends on the work of immigrants to keep quality high and prices low. Immigrants plant our food. They fertilize it, grow it, water it, harvest it, butcher it, clean it, pack it, deliver it, and unload it. Once it gets to your neighborhood restaurant, they’re usually the ones who cut it up and prep it. Then they cook it. If the waiter is busy, they serve it. They keep your water full while you eat it. When you’re finished eating, they take the dish away and clean it. In this sense, every American who shops at a grocery store or eats at a restaurant depends upon immigrants for their survival!

Read recent Congressional testimony by Kathy Martin of the New York Farm Bureau about how critical immigrants are to our farms and why so many farmers find it difficult to hire immigrants legally through the H-2A temporary farmworker visa program.