WHEREAS, from the planting and harvesting of grains, fruits and vegetables, to the daily care of plants and animals, agriculture is a labor-intensive industry; and while most farms in New Jersey are family-owned and operated, many of them need to hire additional labor in order to operate successfully; and

 WHEREAS, in order to ensure the future of its agriculture, New Jersey must not only preserve its farmland, but also address the needs of its farm workforce; and

 WHEREAS, ensuring the availability of an adequate, legal farm labor workforce must be addressed on both the state and federal level; and the federal government needs to create a counterfeit-resistant identification system, needs to establish an earned adjustment of status program, and needs to reform the current practices for obtaining temporary agricultural worker visas; and

WHEREAS, Congress has thus far failed to address immigration reform in a comprehensive manner that would establish a clear path to legal status and provide for an adequate seasonal and year-round workforce through guest worker programs and to be relied upon by agriculture and related industries which cannot attract enough current United States citizens to fill their labor needs, both seasonal and full-time year-round; and

 WHEREAS, instead, Congress has considered legislation mandating that employers use an error-prone database (E-Verify) to check the legal status of prospective employees, and that those employers be held legally responsible for decisions that may result in workers of non-legal status being hired; and

 WHEREAS, a Farm Credit analysis of the impacts of an E-Verify-type system being implemented without first establishing an adequate agricultural guest worker program shows severe impact to farm operations, including the likelihood of farmers either switching to non-labor-intensive crops or going out of business; and

 WHEREAS, labor supply and training are key for sustaining and growing the agricultural industry in New Jersey, and programs that support worker training, health and safety, and address issues such as housing, are and will continue to be part of the Department’s outreach and education efforts; and

 WHEREAS, the New Jersey Departments of Agriculture and Labor & Workforce Development are working jointly to revise New Jersey’s agricultural-labor survey in order to better position New Jersey farmers to hire guest workers from the current federal H2A program and/or other guest-worker programs developed on the federal level.

 NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that we, the delegates to the 98^h State Agricultural Convention, assembled in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on February 6-7, 2013, support the efforts of the Department to ensure a stable source of well-trained and legal farm workers, and that we support efforts to ensure the proper training and education of the farm work force, especially as it relates to worker health and safety.

 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we support the immediate adoption and implementation of federal legislation which reforms the policies and procedures for temporary agricultural worker visas, creates counterfeit-resistant identification to ensure the availability and supply of farm labor, both seasonal and year-round, and that we urge the New Jersey Congressional Delegation to support these efforts in both the House and Senate.

 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we strongly urge federal lawmakers and policy directors to delay the implementation of any E-Verify or other employer-driven legal status verification system until after the passage and implementation of an agricultural guest worker program that will ensure sufficient labor for America’s farmers.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we urge the Department, New Jersey Farm Bureau and New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station to work cooperatively with the Governor and the Legislature to develop an agricultural education program to help farmers navigate through complex federal guest-worker programs.

 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we support the use of USDA Farm Labor Housing Programs to address the housing requirements needed to provide decent, safe and sanitary living conditions for the agricultural workforce.

 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we request that the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) streamline the process for obtaining temporary visas for a farm-worker verification process and establish a streamlined guest worker certification process for agricultural workers, including the farm-labor workforce that may have worked on our farm operations for a number of years but did not have, in the past, a legal status.

 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we support similar efforts to benefit the labor availability of year-round hiring.

 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we support the joint effort of the New Jersey Departments of Agriculture and Labor & Workforce Development to revise the state’s agricultural-labor survey in order to make guest workers more obtainable by New Jersey farms, and urge the United States Department of Labor to approve the revised survey so that it can be implemented as soon as possible in New Jersey.

 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we direct the Department to work with all appropriate agricultural industry groups in the state to conduct outreach and education on how any federally approved change to the New Jersey farm labor survey will help them to better obtain labor.