California is the No. 1 dairy state, but the popularity of Greek-style yogurt has turned New York into the top state for yogurt production, with more than 40 producers including Chobani, says the Los Angeles Times. The yogurt boom is a blessing for dairy farmers but they say it is hard to find enough farm hands to keep milk production flowing. Says the Times, “Locals won’t do the dirty, manual jobs, farmers say, and immigration laws limit farmers to importing only seasonal agricultural employees. That does not help dairy farmers, who need year-round workers.” A dairy farmer from Homer, NY, 200 miles north of New York City, tells the paper, “The nation’s food system is at risk if we can’t get this fixed.”
Without immigration reform, farmers told the Times, dairy farms will be throttled and farmers will switch to crops that can be aligned with guest-worker visas. One dairy farmer says the tight labor supply has made robotic milking systems more popular, but the equipment is expensive and can’t perform all of the livestock work that is needed. The head of the New York Farm Bureau says the chances of immigration reform, including a guest-worker program allowing year-round work, are “less than 15 percent and that’s probably a high number.”