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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums'The whole thing is screwed up': Farmers in deep-red Pennsylvania struggle to find workers
TIOGA COUNTY, Pa. — As House Agriculture Chair G.T. Thompson prepares to introduce legislation aimed at easing the farm labor crisis, farmers in the Pennsylvania Republican’s district are hoping he’s heard their cries that they need more help right now.
In Tioga County, where President Donald Trump won 75 percent of the vote in 2024, farmers are losing patience with the White House’s promise of a quick solution for farm workers. Their urgent need is highlighted by stories like those of a multigenerational dairy farm that sold off all its dairy cows because the owner could not find workers and another where a farmer’s job listings have received no responses.
Farmers in the rural region near the New York border say those stories are not unique.
“The whole thing is screwed up,” said John Painter, a three-time Trump voter who runs an organic dairy farm in Westfield. “We need people to do the jobs Americans are too spoiled to do.”
These are the voices Thompson and other farm-state lawmakers are hearing as they discuss potential solutions. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins’ assurances that American workers and machines can help close the gap ring hollow among farmers who have become reliant on migrant labor that is increasingly hard to find in the face of Trump’s immigration crackdown.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/15/farm-labor-shortage-pennsylvania-trump-immigration-00560820
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no_hypocrisy
(53,068 posts)that money doesn’t replace lost workers, doesn’t yield more food, and doesn’t reduce the price of product at the stores. Machines can’t wholly replace labor.
OC375
(266 posts)Perhaps consider paying $20+ hourly, to compete with Wendy’s and Starbucks? Maybe training, healthcare, work uniforms and working conditions might be something to consider too? Maybe your business was never sustainable and you have to scale back? The rest of the business world deals with this every day. Don’t be a snowflake!
yardwork
(68,046 posts)Maybe we should put our money where it matters: food, healthcare, childcare, education.
Gosh, that sounds like Kamala's campaign platform.
OC375
(266 posts)sheshe2
(93,741 posts)**SIGH**
Tumbulu
(6,585 posts)Last edited Mon Sep 15, 2025, 04:09 PM - Edit history (1)
if there are more than 20 workers- not sure the exact number- so forgive if I have mistaken this minimum.
Here in CA, where most of the farm labor of the nation actually is, it is not a matter of underpaying people- at least around here (average pay at the vineyards is $35/hr with benefits and 401K's etc)- it is a matter of skill and actually ability to do this kind of work.
It does not matter how hard you try to teach people how to do this work, it takes literally years to learn any of these jobs, and much of that learning must be hands on apprenticeship style. This is highly skilled labor. Which also requires enormous endurance and strength along with mechanical know how.
The insulting idea that keeps getting told is that anyone can do it. Which disrespects the workers and agriculture in general.
How lucky people are that for so long the people with these skills and physical strength came to do this very hard work. With documentation or not. During the pandemic they were all treated as hero's around here, at least. They were classified as “essential workers” and got the vaccines as early as the medical professionals. The larger organic farms in this area organized that with the state (organic produce requires more labor than conventional and the long time organic farms hire workers full time - not as a migrant workforce that moves around to get work).
I have never understood why anyone in the ag world ever supported the creep, but mainly the conventional farmers do. It is some sort of cultural thing that I have yet to get a grasp of.
tanyev
(47,776 posts)
berniesandersmittens
(12,532 posts)What an ass. Better pay and better treatment would draw workers. No wonder no one wants to work for them.
Seems to me he's the one spoiled to cheap labor.
Irish_Dem
(74,788 posts)He is the spoiled one.
He was way overdue for a dose of the reality the rest of us face every day.
Luz
(865 posts)but contemp for fellow Americans. He deserves everything he gets.
DBoon
(24,282 posts)Seriously, I bet he is well known for abusing his employees.
Work gets around and now that there is a labor shortage, nobody seems to want to work for him
"Spoiled" here means "will not work for an abusive boss"
Farmer-Rick
(12,073 posts)If you can't run a business or a farm without paying workers crappy low wages, you don't deserve to run the business or farm. No business is guaranteed cheap labor.
Entitled idiot is what he is.
Zambero
(9,877 posts)Who could have possibly forseen such a thing??
John1956PA
(4,457 posts)A breathtaking gorge runs, from point in the northern part of the county, south to a point in adjoining Lycoming County. Many of us Pennsylvanians are proud of the gorge, which is known as as "The Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania."
https://pabucketlist.com/the-best-trails-vistas-and-waterfalls-in-the-pa-grand-canyon/
Ocelot II
(127,193 posts)
SergeStorms
(19,745 posts)Went to college at Alfred. A lot of Vietnam vets from Northern PA went there as well. It is beautiful country, considering I grew up in the flatlands of New York. 
John1956PA
(4,457 posts)Just now, I was chatting via DU mail, and I mentioned to my chat partner that Eliot Ness retired to that region and died there. His place of death was Coudersport, Potter County. He died of a heart attack at his home in 1957. He was only fifty-four years old.
BeyondGeography
(40,653 posts)Going from Pittsburgh to upstate NY, which I have done many times. I usually pick up I-80 and take it to Scranton but this time my nav system had me get off at Lock Haven and head north. What an eye opener; absolutely stunning countryside. But you could also feel the economic pressure. When you drive 30-35 miles and the first store you see is a Family Dollar all by its lonesome it says a lot.
sop
(16,018 posts)Not "too spolied," just so poorly paid that the only ones willing to do tnese jobs are destitute immigrants.
Alice B.
(620 posts)Especially working with livestock.
I worked on a farm when I was much younger and would’ve been SOL without insurance. Or if I were depending on it to pay more than my own horse’s bills.
Johnny2X2X
(23,397 posts)That sums up the entirety of the Republican viewpoint on working people. They think working people are spoiled and need to be toughened up.
Spoiled with 40 hour work weeks and weekends off. If Republicans have their way, 7 day work weeks will return, no reason people can't work 84 hours a week.
Spoiled with retiring in your 60s. If Republicans have their way, we'll put those 80 and 90 year old Americans to work in the fields, if they die on the job, their bodies can be used as fertilizer.
Spoiled with the wages that allow workers to own homes, and buy stuff. If Republicans have their way, workers will work for food and a cot, which they'll pay for at the company store that owns everything.
Spoiled with all these costly worker safety laws. If Republicans have their way, these costly measures that save workers' limbs and health will be removed. If a worker loses a limb, toughen up, you'll get a day off, but if you can't make money for the owners, you're better off dead.
This is the world the billionaire class put Trump in place to bring back. It's detailed in books like the Grapes of Wrath. They are coming for it all.
chouchou
(2,344 posts)
Prof. Toru Tanaka
(2,790 posts)Republicans flat out don’t care about us. If we can’t put money in their pockets, they want us dead. Brian Kilmeade said the quiet part out loud.
Arazi
(8,373 posts)Danmel
(5,582 posts)I'm so disappointed.
BoRaGard
(7,533 posts)So refreshing to hear the G.O.P. tell the truth...
Wuddles440
(1,834 posts)who were screaming about "building the wall" and "deporting the illegals" with the other knuckle-dragging cultists. Their Orange Felon King is now delivering on his promises, but these morons are now crying and looking for hand outs. Boo, fucking, hoo.
dutch777
(4,708 posts)You can have whatever tariff or anti immigrant policy you may want, and governments can come to an agreement, but individual businesses and citizens can buy what they want where they want and Trump being an ass makes them say "Anything but American made". US wine and spirits businesses have seen demand fall 10% as Canadians alone won't buy from us. EU defense departments are skipping new US weapons. And on and on. Chickens all coming home to roost.
slightlv
(6,557 posts)Yes, but all in complete accordance with what Putin wanted. He wanted the US out of the world sphere, and trump made it happen. The GOP should be so proud... /snark
Emile
(37,521 posts)stop whining, and get to work.
GopherGal
(2,592 posts)... or something like that.
yardwork
(68,046 posts)They delivered PA to Trump.
johnnyfins
(2,893 posts)One's own interest. And the STILL DONT GET IT. They would vote for TSF again in a heartbeat.
pimpbot
(1,122 posts)I am willing to bet his "organic" dairy farm is in name only to capture a higher profit.
These trumpers act just like thier cult leader, scamming the system and skirting the rules.
Prairie Gates
(6,273 posts)John Painter is an asshole.
haele
(14,586 posts)He's talking about the itinerant workers and sharecroppers of his grandparent's day who would agree to work the farm for room and board until they moved on or couldn't work any longer.
Those excess and uneducated adults with no future or skills past a strong back.
The orphan train kids or "distant cousins" (abandoned or sold children from families too poor to raise them, or from single parents whose partner died or left them), sent off from the ages of five or six to small farms to "be raised" until they were old enough to start asking for wages or respect for the work they did.
The working men and women who struggled to form unions so they could have enough wages and a pension to keep them from dying in the charity houses or a random field or ditch when they no longer could work for room and board - you know...your grandparents who dropped everything to fight or worked in WWII - and got GI benefits to kickstart a thriving US economy, a technology trend, and the Middle Class.
Yeah, I'll agree many US citizens have been spoiled by 70 years of technological advances.
But not too spoiled to work. Just too spoiled to work like slaves or prison labor for a pittance with room and board until they could work no more like their great-grandparents did.
BeyondGeography
(40,653 posts)Next up, interviews with people who hit themselves with hammers and are disappointed that it hurts.
Prof. Toru Tanaka
(2,790 posts)Good analogy but hilarious, too! I am visualizing this in my mind and laughing heartily about it.
ananda
(33,145 posts)Sheesh
durablend
(8,506 posts)"NOBODY WANTS TO WORK!!!!!"
Bernardo de La Paz
(58,363 posts)"machines" (robots) are not ready to deal with unpredictable animals and barnyard shit (well maybe the latter but not animals).
Automation in fields is proceeding, but even now picking is frequently done by hand because machines are brutal and consist these days mostly of tree-shaking and tomato patch scooping (I'm not up on the details). Automated plowing is a big thing and quite effective.
Wicked Blue
(8,237 posts)Laid-off federal workers? Fired teachers? ICE?
Renew Deal
(84,483 posts)People that can get more money for easier work will take it. He should pay more.
NCDem47
(3,013 posts)I’m sure Trump will comply.
LaMouffette
(2,528 posts)set them to work in the fields for free. Would not surprise me in the least if that were his "brilliant" solution to the problem. Chain gangs. Slave labor.
The Madcap
(1,461 posts)They wouldn't require feeding.
Blues Heron
(7,556 posts)
twodogsbarking
(15,763 posts)OC375
(266 posts)"Look, believe it or not, I'm providing a service. I'm thinning the corporate herd. You've seen Daktari. The weaker animals always go. Sure the kids cry when you tie old tiger to a tree and shoot him. But that's life! America's in a state of renewal. We gotta have the strength to tie a few factories to a tree and bash them with a shovel. Meanwhile, if I can grab your share of the market, put a little coin in my pocket by being the asshole, well, what the hell? Know what I mean?" - Ray Zalinski
Happy Hoosier
(9,081 posts)In other words, folks don't wanna work for peanuts and no benefits.
karynnj
(60,542 posts)Given that the unemployment rate is low, it may be that less lucrative, harder jobs in non urban areas will not get filled. One problem is they may not be offering enough in wages. The other might be that they are not likely enough or the job secure enough to motivate anyone to move to a relatively remote area where if that job doesn't work, there may be very few other opportunities.
dalton99a
(90,219 posts)
rubbersole
(10,530 posts)..call in the National Guard. Sure beats picking up trash in DC.
travelingthrulife
(3,246 posts)cstanleytech
(27,940 posts)But otherwise each one gets screwed literally in the end.
Danmel
(5,582 posts)Now I find out they're big trumpies.
Organic woman owned company. I didn't expect that.
Now I need to find another lower sugar brand.
pimpbot
(1,122 posts)I did some quick searching and it seems like this yogurt brand has slick media behind it and two attractive "CEOs". I wonder what their thoughts of their uncle John are, since it seems he runs/manages the dairy part of the farm.
His comments on a PA govt hearing:
https://www.pa.gov/content/dam/copapwp-pagov/en/pmb/documents/milk-marketing-board-assets/public-hearings/siteassets/over-order-premium-hearings-19-20/john%20painter%20testimony.pdf
https://www.firstcitizensbank.com/about-us/news-events/press-releases/detail.html?cId=64737&title=fccb-welcomes-john-painter-to-fccb-corporate-board
"Today, he owns and operates Painterland Farms, LLC in Westfield, PA, an organic dairy and crop farm covering 5,000 acres."
Seems like the sisters are just a front to sell overpriced yogurt.
hunter
(39,912 posts)They were born to a California Dairy family and interestingly learned to speak Spanish as children because most of the family's hired help were Mexican immigrants or the children of Mexican immigrants.
My grandma's university degree was Spanish Literature and she celebrated the myth and romance of Old Mexico, just as her husband and my mom's family celebrated the myths of their Wild West heritage.
My grandma and her sister did not like cows or dairymen so they ran off to Hollywood. Their Hollywood dreams didn't turn out quite the way they expected but they did have some successes and never became disillusioned with the movie industry.
My parents met working in Hollywood so I suppose my upbringing was Hollywood Liberal.
I carry on my grandmother's distaste for the dairy industry. It's not good for the natural environment, it's not good for the workers, and it's not good for the cows, especially in the modern "factory farm" dairy industry.
I don't believe cheap hamburger and dairy products are any kind of necessity and will shed no tears if Trump supporting dairy farmers go out of business.
That doesn't mean I'm some kind of vegan radical. Humans are omnivores and meat has been part of our diet throughout our history. But it's an inescapable reality that meat and dairy products would be expensive if they were were produced ethically with minimal environmental impacts, comfortable living wages for the workers, and humane treatment of the animals. That would require strict government regulation, regulation Trump supporters would oppose.
hatrack
(63,554 posts)And if low-sugar is an issue, select a version that doesn't add it.
https://www.blessthismessplease.com/crock-pot-yogurt/
GenThePerservering
(3,062 posts)you're eating doctered stuff.
patphil
(8,256 posts)That's hard manual labor for less than $16. an hour; about $32,000 a year.
https://www.salaryexpert.com/salary/job/dairy-farm-worker/united-states/pennsylvania
It's not a matter of being too spoiled, it a matter of not making enough money to support a family. Farm work has always been a low end job as regards to money earned for labor given.
The problem is that a farmer can't afford to pay the salary needed to attract those "spoiled" workers.
Mr. Painter is the spoiler employer. Up until now, he's had access to a large workforce that was willing to take those low paying jobs. But immigrants aren't available any more.
Don't blame the American worker, blame the American "leaders" who created this mess.
Unfortunately, he'll probably still vote Republican.
Prof. Toru Tanaka
(2,790 posts)Yeah, starting with the fact that you have now voted THREE TIMES for someone who lives for screwing things up and hurting people.
No sympathy from me, maybe they’ll learn that actions and elections have consequences. FAFO
Justice Brandeis
(288 posts)Them, not me.
mwb970
(11,949 posts)No sympathy here.
RedWhiteBlueIsRacist
(1,104 posts)*See Mr Farmer by the Seeds for reference.
All these morons that didn't see this coming? At this point in the game, I have no sympathy for the morons that put Humpty Dumpty in office. Unfortunately, we all must pay for their mistakes. Yeah, the whole thing is screwed up.
Blue Full Moon
(2,850 posts)How about no special socialism for you.
33taw
(3,237 posts)Rural America has a lower population density and an aging population. With limited healthcare becoming worse, poor telecommunications, limited grocery stores, and limited access to shopping.
Attilatheblond
(7,257 posts)During the big oil/fracking boom in far northeast Montana and North Dakota, there were jobs that paid, and workers came. But housing? People were paying over $400 per month to live UNDER other people's single wide mobile home, in winter!
Grocery stores, limited as they are there, started raising prices to ridiculous levels. EVERYONE wanted in on the boom. A bottle of 24 aspirin suddenly cost $16 or more. Food went up about the same %. Local schools had huge influx of students as whole families moved up north from areas in the South that were not doing well economically. Schools did not have enough buildings, teachers, chairs. Some local teachers who were there already had to quit and work in the oilfields just to keep paying their rising rent and food costs. It was horrible.
These dim witted policy makers and fakers just never think the whole work force equation thru. They seem to think workers are just like equipment that can simply be moved to where they are needed, plugged in, and switched on.
Attilatheblond
(7,257 posts)The fewer independent food producers there are, the higher prices as land gets gobbled up by huge corporations. Look at how few companies there are in the retail grocery industry. It's a pretty good barometer of the future and the costs.
Set policies that drive independents (in any industry) out of business and monopolies can buy up, put out of business, any/all independents. Then, 'spoiled American workers' really find out how bad things can/will get.
Hunger will make better slaves, and that sure as hell seems to be the goal of GOP policies.
Legislators who rubber stamp the bad policies are just house slaves who want to stay in the masters' good graces and eat better. Young men who are hungry enough will be easier to convince to put on a uniform and take orders, no matter how vile the orders will be.
BoRaGard
(7,533 posts)
somsai
(156 posts)By offering board and room as well as a salary that can quickly accumulate to thousands of dollars of savings. I've never heard of a labor issue that couldn't be solved with money.
Hekate
(99,421 posts)Their (and my) ancestors left the farm starting after WWI — over a century ago. People from the urbs and suburbs don’t have the skills — or the interest.
Try treating the people who do have the skills like human beings instead of like animals and our mortal enemies.
Mysterian
(5,927 posts)Fuck him. See ya' in the bread line you stupid motherfucker.
kimbutgar
(26,031 posts)And a machine milking a cow. The noise alone wold freak out the cows especially if they have never encountered them when they first started producing milk as calf.
iemanja
(56,700 posts)and foodstuffs aren’t available.
appleannie1
(5,331 posts)It was a waste of time and money for a Democrat to run for anything. Republicans outnumbered Democrats 650 to 134 in the district where I lived and they would have voted for Satan if he had an R after his name. So, they have gotten exactly what they voted for and if he ran again, he would still win that district.
JT45242
(3,625 posts)FAFO and I hope every one of these trump humping ass hats go bankrupt and that the family diswons them for their hatred.
But welfare is OK if it is because you cannot run your business properly without exploiting labor.
republianmushroom
(21,371 posts)Hekate
(99,421 posts)People are supposed to tell their urban and suburban grandkids that what they really need to do is give up applying for college or a technical job with a future, and travel hundreds of miles to a farm where they can sleep in a shed, get sprayed with pesticides, do backbreaking stoop labor all day, and have their pay handed to the overseer who will take his cut?
What Mr Painter wants is an unregulated labor system that amounts to slavery, and while that is a disgrace to all of us, it really begs the question of why in hell any person with a choice in the matter would sign up for that line of work?
Lobby for labor justice instead of what we have now, treat migrant and immigrant workers like human beings instead of like enemies or animals, and then get back to me.
Lancero
(3,239 posts)DFW
(58,929 posts)He voted for Trump three times? If he didn’t know what he was voting for, he’s too stupid to be running a farm in the first place.
0rganism
(25,317 posts)Real Bad. It's gonna get Real Bad from here. This is our "cultural revolution" moment, all us "DEI intellectuals" and "corrupt perverted Democrats" get to do some long-hours picking and shucking RSN. Climate change and other environmental and workplace-safety degradations will turn the forced labor into a death sentence.
And the farmers? Well, they'll greatly appreciate how Supreme Leader Trump fixed all their problems, thank you very much sir.
subterranean
(3,682 posts)Who could have guessed that arresting, imprisoning and deporting thousands of farm workers and making the others afraid to show up for work would lead to a shortage of farm workers? 
What will happen to food prices when there aren't enough workers to harvest the crops?
Nasruddin
(1,112 posts)Why aren't YOU doing the job!
Set your alarm clock and get to work!
IronLionZion
(49,902 posts)I'm shocked. 
SWBTATTReg
(25,697 posts)automatically appear. Idiots.
By the way, Americans aren't idiots OR spoiled, and I resent this deeply. To Mr. Painter, you've probably have been well aware for many years of the issues/troubles in attracting labor to your farm. Obviously since you're venting out, you're having issues or your neighborhood farmers are having issues in attracting labor.
Let me ask you this, do you provide a place for this labor to stay/live in, since more than likely, they'll have to drive literally forever to get to your place? Do you provide medical insurance? Do you provide 401Ks? How about childcare should these workers have families? Do you have profit sharing? I suspect that most of us here know the answers to all of these and many more unasked ?s, but before you start painting Americans in broad strokes, look around first, and actually truly see what's going on.
You had the workers before obviously before your leader djt kicked them all out, or scared them all away. Who in their right minds would want to work in such an environment when ICE could come in at a moment's notice, and w/o any regard to any rights or whatever, deport these people (whether or not it was legal or not, or if they were Americans already).
turbinetree
(26,548 posts)
AllaN01Bear
(27,406 posts)
AllyCat
(18,213 posts)
progressoid
(51,909 posts)Cha
(314,338 posts)to the Lying Crock of Shit. 
Kamala wouldn't have Done that to ya.
lonely bird
(2,537 posts)They were told what an idiot Trump was and what he would do. HE told them what he would.
They were just to goddamn gullible, blind and bigoted.
I don’t care.
iemanja
(56,700 posts)They rather ruin the economy and waste billions than allow farmers access to an immigrant labor force.
Sugarcoated
(8,195 posts)FAFO fellas 
