(InvestigateTV) — New data is shedding light on the role immigrants play in America’s food supply—from the fields to your local grocery store.
At the National Food Policy Conference in Washington, D.C., Valerie Lacarte, a senior policy analyst at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute (MPI), spoke about the critical contributions immigrants make to the U.S. food system. MPI is a research and analysis think tank focused on migration trends and policy.
“We at MPI, especially, we’re really interested in putting out data and facts that are relevant to the public discourse,” LaCarte said.
Immigration has been a long-standing political issue, debated across multiple presidential administrations. But behind the rhetoric is a labor force that quietly keeps much of the food supply moving, according to LaCarte.
MPI’s data shows that about 2.1 million immigrants are employed in roles related to growing, harvesting, processing, and selling food in the U.S.
While immigrants made up 17% of the overall civilian workforce from 2019 to 2023, they represent 21% of workers in the U.S. food supply chain—a significantly larger share.
“We underestimate the extent to which farmers have a hard time hiring U.S. born workers because- the narrative sometimes that we hear is that immigrants are taking the U.S. born worker jobs,” Lacarte said. “…they say even when the U.S. born workers do show up, often the labor is so tough, that they don’t complete the day. People don’t realize how many migrants are actually working in those farms!”
Lacarte also noted the impact immigrants have as consumers in the food market.
“Immigrants have also brought a lot of interesting products to the food chain,” she said. “You’ve probably noticed that there are products that used to be in very specific groceries, and now they’re in the mainstream groceries, plantains, for example. And if there are less immigrants on the supply side, there will also be less immigrants on the consumer side.”
From a policy perspective, Lacarte pointed to the importance of private sector involvement in educating the public about immigration’s impact on both the food supply and consumer markets.
“Seeing them beyond just the worker part. These people contribute to the communities, but they are very important to our businesses,” she said.
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