CHICK-NEWS has consistently questioned the need for foreign agricultural workers under the H-2A program when the nation supports a large number of non-working citizens.  With the sudden increase in unemployment, and the prospect that some of the jobs will not return after the COVID-19 crisis is resolved, it is time that chronically unemployed should seek work in agriculture.

History confirms the mass movement of displaced farmers from the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression, westward to California where they found employment. This was necessary in the absence of liberal Federal and state “safety nets.”

Aid should be directed at temporary resolution of problems such as the current COVID-19 crisis. It is undesirable to perpetuate multi-generational populations with dependency as a way of life. The chronically unemployed need retraining and should be assisted to migrate to areas where both skilled and unskilled labor is in demand.

SNAP benefitted 40 million of our population at an annual cost of $60 billion in 2019. We need to provide opportunities to assist the unemployed, especially in urban areas, and create an environment where they can be productive and to establish a sense of self-worth and acievement.