At the Fortune Most Powerful Women (MPW) Summit Tuesday morning, Land O’Lakes CEO Beth Ford warned that American farmers face a critical labor shortage that could lead to a “black swan event” if the U.S. doesn’t institute more pathways for legal immigration. “While there might be some discussion on undocumented, et cetera, this is critical for the health of the economy,” she said.
Ford, who chairs the Business Roundtable’s immigration committee, told the MPW audience that farmers “absolutely need labor,” adding that “we need more legal immigration” as an economic driver for businesses and the broader U.S. economy. For some context, America’s agricultural sector is currently grappling with mounting pressures from trade disputes, farm bankruptcies, and an increasingly restrictive immigration environment.
“These are folks who oftentimes try to get American labor [but] are struggling to do so,” Ford said. “They absolutely need labor, and if they don’t have it, that’s yet another element—and it could be a black swan event for a farmer if they don’t have somebody who can help and be on [the] farm.”
The term “black swan event,” for those unfamiliar, refers to an unpredictable occurrence with severe consequences that appears obvious only in hindsight. In agriculture, such events can include natural disasters, disease outbreaks, or severe labor disruptions that threaten food production systems.
Ford’s comments underscore the precarious position of American farmers who depend heavily on immigrant workers. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as of 2022, only 32% of crop farmworkers were actually born in the U.S. The vast majority of farmworkers (~42%) are born outside the U.S. and have no work authorization. Only a small percentage of workers (~7%) are immigrants who obtained U.S. citizenship, while about 19% are authorized immigrants (permanent residents or green-card holders). In the dairy industry, which Ford’s company, Land O’Lakes, serves, the dependency on foreign-born labor is even more pronounced: The National Milk Producers Federation says immigrant workers account for 51% of all dairy labor.
Ford previously told Fortune that an immigration crisis can take about eight hours to unfold, because if cows aren’t milked, they start to leak milk and could develop infections, to the point that farmers might be forced to cull their herds and send the cows to be killed at a meat-processing plant. But those, too, could also be short on workers.
Ford accepted the role of immigration committee chair for the Business Roundtable in January, taking over from Apple CEO Tim Cook. The Business Roundtable, which represents more than 200 major corporate CEOs, supports increased skilled immigration, temporary work visas, and border security measures. Ford said, “Most CEOs will say we need some kind of change in our immigration policy,” while acknowledging that crossings at the southern border have declined by approximately 95%.
During the MPW discussion, Ford addressed recent policy proposals including a $100,000 fee for H-1B visas, saying her organization is “trying to get some clarity” on the specifics while working with administration officials on various visa-related initiatives. The agricultural sector has lost about 155,000 workers since March, and the Labor Department has said ICE’s efforts will create “significant labor market effects in the agricultural sector, which has long been pushed to depend on a workforce with a high proportion of illegal aliens,” and could put “the nation’s food supply at risk.”
You can watch the full panel with Land O’Lakes CEO Beth Ford, in conversation with Fortune’s Emma Hinchliffe, below.
