Rural America

California: People, Water, Housing
California had 39 million residents in July 2021, 10 million more than Texas with 29 million. California had two million people in 1900, 10 million

Food System: Meat
The Biden Administration is trying to increase competition in meat processing by providing $100 million in grants and loans to small meat processors

Labor, Covid, Inflation
In March 2022 the US unemployment rate fell to 3.6 percent as job growth continued. The US had 152.5 million jobs in February 2020, and 150.9 million

Farm Workers

California: Coast, UI
Coast. California’s farm sales are $50 billion a year, almost twice the $27 billion farm sales of number two Iowa. Half of the state’s farm sales

Florida, Southeast
Florida has more H-2A jobs certified than any other state. WHD found that Arcadia-area FLCs Benjamin M. Ramirez Harvesting Inc, AO Harvesting LLC and

Midwest, Northeast, Northwest
Maine. Maine’s governor vetoed LD 1711 in January 2022, a bill that would have allowed farm workers on farms with five or more employees to

UFW; Unions
The United Farm Workers had 33 contracts in August 2021 and reported fewer than 7,000 members to DOL. The UFW collects three percent of worker wages

Immigration

Foreign-born, Immigration
There were a record 46.6 million foreign-born US residents at the end of 2022, making 14.2 percent of US residents immigrants, plus 17 million

DHS: CBP, ICE, USCIS
Border. The Customs and Border Protection agency encountered 1.9 million unauthorized foreigners in calendar year 2021, including 178,000 in December

H-2A Guest Workers
The H-2A program allows farmers who anticipate labor shortages to be certified by DOL to recruit and employ H-2A workers to fill seasonal jobs that

Canada, Mexico
Canada. Truckers protesting a government requirement that everyone entering Canada be vaccinated occupied downtown Ottawa in February 2022 and closed

Europe, Asia
EU border-control agency Frontex reported that almost 200,000 foreigners tried to enter the EU illegally in 2021, including 65,000 who attempted to

Global: UN, Theory, Health
The UN SG released a second assessment of the 2018 Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration in January 2022 that included 14

Other

Food Spending 2020
The US Bureau of Labor Statistic's Consumer Expenditure Survey reported a total of 131 million US "consumer units" or households in 2020 with an

California: Dairy, Machines
Dairy. California surpassed Wisconsin as the leading producer of dairy products in the early-1990s, and today accounts for 18 percent of the US dairy

US Ag, Trade
Net farm income was $117 billion in 2021, including federal government payments of $27 billion to farmers that accounted for almost a quarter of net

Food, Wine
Food sales in supermarkets are projected to be $765 billion in 2022, less than the expected $900 billion spent in all types of restaurants,

Climate Change
A warming earth is expected to unleash more extreme weather events including drought and floods, wildfires and heatwaves and severe storms. Seven of