WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. – With summer and fall harvests in the near future farmers and growers are beginning to feel the effects of having to grapple with the country’s new immigration policies.
“I love it when they're in bloom too. It looks so beautiful. Smells wonderful,” Abby Jacobson said standing in the middle of her orchard.
Peach and cherry trees have begun to blossom as the orchard gets ready for its first harvest of asparagus in mid-May.
Jacobson and her sister Katrina own Westview Orchard in Washington Township. The orchard has been operated by their family for six generations dating back to the 1880s. She says the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has slowed operations and forced them to look ahead to the summer and fall when many visitors come to the orchard.
“We’re actually using more [personal protective equipment] like the gloves and the masks. There are some jobs where we do need to be closer than 6 feet. We’re sanitizing more,” Jacobson said. “It has slowed things down when we’re transporting in vehicles out in the orchard, you know, we’re minimizing how many employees are together in any piece of equipment.”
But when it comes to harvesting, Westview and most orchards and farms in the state use migratory or agricultural work-visa labor, classified as H2A in the U.S. immigration code. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump announced the U.S. would be halting immigration, initially leaving out agricultural workers, but quickly adding many H2A visas would be exempt from the ban.
Jacobson says she only has eight H2A workers on staff currently and said the initial announcement left she and her sister in a panic. Once the order was revised, Jacobson and other growers have noticed a slow down in the processing of workers and have been told their regular amount of seasonal workers were “on the way.”
But the slow down has forced farms and orchards to start seeking out employees in other, less conventional ways.
“It doesn’t look likely that [H2A workers] will be here any time soon. But we’re all looking at different ways to market our crops,” she said. “I know some of the growers are looking at teenage help out in the fields and maybe some folks that may be laid off.”
But the problem could be bigger than not having seasonal workers. Jacobson says half of their crops are picked by visitors each year, meaning social distancing that could hinder their normal influx of “u-pickers," especially in the fall months.
Westview has begun experimenting with pick up and delivery orders from their orchards and bakery which Jacobson said have helped. They’ve also given more than 800 donuts and baked goods to local first responders and healthcare workers during the pandemic. The orchard accepts nominations from customers and chooses where to send their donations.
While Jacobson said the donations and deliveries are promising, they, like many other popular orchards, are still working to navigate how people will be able to visit once the state reopens.
“It’s probably going to have to be more minimized than a normal year where people like to visit the animals and kind of hang out and enjoy the day. That probably is going to have to change somewhat for their safety.”