Two articles discussing how labor shortages are impacting farming and the eventual effect on restaurants. From Texas Standard:
Diane Charlton, an associate professor at Montana State University who studies where farm workers come from, has tracked this decrease. “We found that the probability that individuals from rural Mexico were working in agriculture was decreasing by about one percent per year from 1980 to 2010,” she said. One percent doesn’t sound like a lot, but that’s about 250,000 people a year.
Steve Hubbard, with the American Immigration Council, says to fill the gaps, more farmers are applying to bring in temporary workers through programs like the H-2A visa. It allows foreign workers to do a job on a specific farm before returning home.
“Nationally the demand for H-2A workers has increased from 225,000 in 2017 to over 370,000 in 2022. So that’s a 65% increase in demand. That’s across the country,” he said. ““If we look at Texas in particular, that number has tripled. … We see that demand also in the number of counties that are requesting workers internationally, that the number of counties increased.”
Source: TexasStandard.org
At the other end of the spectrum where food lands at a restaurant table there are labor challenges:
Sara’s Restaurant has announced plans to simplify its menu offerings. Due to challenges with labor shortages and costs, the restaurant said it would be simplifying the menu. According to a Facebook post, Sara’s will no longer offer zucchini after inventory is gone and they are also removing items that are infrequent customer choices.
Source: Weny.com
The restaurant challenges don’t stop there, there are 7 restaurant chains trying to remake themselves in 2024.
The high cost of food, largely driven by labor shortages, has a trickle up effect to restaurant menus, wages and menu prices all of which point higher.
Tapping the traditional wells of labor from Mexico and overseas is becoming increasingly difficult as the West, Europe, Africa, and Asia continue to poach each others labor.
Inflation is here to stay so stay tuned, stay profitable and stay solvent…