H-2B

Nearly twice as many meat-processing plants employ short-term foreign workers than in 2015, "a small but growing trend" in the industry, said an Investigate Midwest report. Seaboard Foods, one of the companies using H-2B guestworkers, said it pays the workers the same wage and provides the same benefits that it gives domestic employees, although the comparatively small number of guestworkers wear a hard hat with an identifying color.

To aid farmers worried about an imminent labor shortage, two federal departments said on Thursday that they will help farms find foreign and domestic workers who may be eligible to transfer from one agricultural employer to another. (No paywall)

As a result of a Trump administration immigration policy, crab houses on the Eastern Shore of Maryland have been short on labor this summer. Midway through the crabbing season, some in the industry are losing customers and profits in what might be the new reality for an industry dependent on immigrant labor.