While many Georgia farmers are busy putting in 110 percent work effort during this time of year, the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association (GFVGA) is doing its part when it comes to legislative duties.
Charles Hall, GFVGA executive director, says the association is addressing issues that will affect Georgia fruit and vegetable growers. The two main topics up for discussion with legislation are H-2A administrative changes and the 2018 Farm Bill.
“In D.C., immigration is always one of our biggest issues,” Hall says. “We have made some recommendations on H-2A — administrative changes that we think would help the program.”
The H-2A worker program allows agricultural employers who anticipate a shortage of domestic workers to bring nonimmigrant foreign workers to the United States to perform agricultural labor or services of a temporary or seasonal nature.
According to Hall, the program is becoming very popular with growers simply because it is a legal program and it generally gets needed workers to the United States on time. However, he says there are still very serious flaws in the program that need to be addressed and solved.
The 2018 Farm Bill is the other topic of discussion for the GFVGA. “The Farm Bill is coming up, and we are beginning to have discussions within the industry of how we need to address it,” says Hall. The importance of the bill is in regards to research and block grant funding, he adds.
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