Oct 8, 2024 2 min read

As a retired executive secretary of the Pennsylvania Milk Board, former farmer, and lifelong agriculture educator, I understand agriculture broadly. Former President Donald Trump’s plans for immigration and tariffs show he doesn’t understand the commonwealth’s agriculture and consumers.

Vice President Kamala Harris grew up with a food budget. Gov. Tim Walz has actively engaged in agriculture since a teen. Both know agriculture is critical to family food security.

Trump launched trade wars costing U.S. farmers $29 billion, giving markets to our competitors. He yanked us out of a Pacific trade deal, handing competitors access to 40% of global consumers, shrinking, not expanding, markets. Costs of imported farm chemicals and other products also increased.

A Harris-Walz administration would use tariffs strategically to help U.S. agriculture, not harm it.

Pennsylvania agriculture also needs a strong workforce. Approximately 50,000 migrants enter our state yearly for seasonal work. Pennsylvania agriculture is an $81 billion a year industry, and many farmers state they have difficulty finding workers. What will help us recruit and keep a reliable agriculture workforce is access to legal workers through a transparent, easy-to-use process. That’s what Harris would do by signing the same bipartisan border security package that Trump forced off the table.

The dairy industry employs many immigrants full time. It is difficult to navigate guidelines since dairy is year-round and not covered under seasonal visa regulations. This must change.

Trump’s immigration stance would lead to higher prices for PA consumers if dairies, crop-growers, and processors of our agriculture commodities curtail operations due to worker shortages or higher wages to attract workers to jobs now filled by migrants.

Pennsylvania’s farmers and consumers deserve an administration that addresses and tackles these issues. That would be an administration led by Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.

Carol Hardbarger

Bellefonte