Bruce Talbott is a peach grower in Palisade. He has been hiring seasonal harvest workers through the H-2A program, the federal guest worker program, for years. Peach harvest is fast and furious and it is hard work. Peaches, like many crops grown in Colorado, have a small window to harvest. And weather – which no one has one iota of control over – drives the entire thing. 

The peach pickers who work for Talbott have been traveling the same circuit, if you will, for years. Once Talbott’s harvest is done, they move to other farms in other states and eventually return to their homes in the fall or winter. Their goal is to come to the United States, work long hours to bring crops in, make as much money as possible, and return home until next season.

They aren’t here to make weekend shopping trips, nor are they carving out time to spend with their children in the evening and on weekends. For many, their families are back home and they’re here to work and send money there to support them.

I would note that while there are exceptions to this situation and undoubtedly bad employers in agriculture, the majority value their employees and treat them well. This is evidenced in cases like the Talbott’s, wherein the same core group of employees have been with them for decades. Talbott is one of the agriculture producers across the state who will be, along with his employees, impacted by new ag worker laws.

Since the passage of the so-called Farm Workers Bill of Rights, much of the content of the bill has been sent to the rule-making process. Agriculture groups, once they were included in the conversation, did push for flexible rules to fit the industry. It wasn’t a move to protect their bottom line or to protect what proponents of the bill claimed was unfair pay and treatment of workers. Just as one-size-fits-all COVID restrictions didn’t translate from the Front Range to rural Colorado, blanket rules for the state’s diverse agriculture industry will be a failure.

The peach packers in Palisade can’t wrap up at 5 p.m., on a Friday and let harvest wait until Monday morning. No one makes any money when peaches are left on the tree. And when there are fewer peaches in stores, the price consumers pay increases. There is no other way to pick peaches than to pick them by hand, so if there is not sufficient labor, employers will scale back production. This takes money out of the pockets of workers, employers and consumers.

The Peruvian range-workers watching over the Theos family’s sheep in northwest Colorado live in wagons out with the sheep they’re charged with caring for and protecting. Predators work evenings and weekends and so sheep herders do, too. If there isn’t enough labor to watch sheep on summer range, the ranchers will scale back flock numbers. Anthony Theos said he expects the new law to increase his labor costs about 30% and he’ll need a sharp pencil to make that work. Further, it will again, rob money from everyone across the chain.

Some employers – especially in the produce realm -will run two sets of employees so none are working too many hours and the produce isn’t left in the field. Of course, it appears that every business in the state is struggling to fill staff positions so this may be more difficult than it perhaps ought to be. If employers are able to fill the positions, every employee with limited hours will take home a paycheck reduced by about half. It’s money out of pockets, and food out of consumers’ hands.

A farm-worker group has filed a lawsuit against Gov. Jared Polis and the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment with regards to the set of rules creating the agriculture industry’s first overtime framework. The suit claims the rules violate the law resulting from the passage of Sen. Jessie Danielson’s SB21-087 and claim the rules discriminate against agriculture workers, who are predominately Hispanic.

Though there are exceptions based on seasonality and the number of employees, most ag workers will receive overtime pay only if they work more than 60 hours per-week or 15 hours per-day. The rules are not unlike other seasonal industries, like ski resorts, according to the CDLE. 

The lawsuit is calling for blanket rules, ignoring the input from producers and the CDLE. One of the claims made is that the rules are confusing. Perhaps they are, but the agriculture industry in Colorado includes livestock on the range, livestock in feeding operations, produce that must be weeded and picked by hand, grains harvested by huge crews and equipment, and other crops. Each crop depends upon labor in different ways and at different times and the labor woes can’t be solved without extensive expertise in agricultural production. That expertise, of course, is what is lacking when legislation is penned by people far away from the fields.

At the end of the day, consumers want the abundant, affordable, safe food supply to continue in the U.S. despite supply-chain wrecks, $5 diesel fuel, labor shortages, transportation challenges and perennial weather challenges. Without flexibility in overtime rules, agriculture producers – who are famously price takers rather than price makers – will be forced to make difficult decisions and some of those employers will decide to exit the business of food production. 

Consumers have told producers time and again that they value locally grown produce, want to know where their food comes from, and support family-owned operations. By making it impossible for small to mid-sized operations to thrive within flexible rules that take into account the unique demands of agriculture, it is a bite on the hand that feeds us.

Rachel Gabel writes about agriculture and rural issues. She is assistant editor of The Fence Post Magazine, the region’s preeminent agriculture publication. Gabel is a daughter of the state’s oil and gas industry and a member of one of the state’s 12,000 cattle-raising families, and she has authored children’s books used in hundreds of classrooms to teach students about agriculture.