Trump's deportation of farm workers leaves farmers desperate.

Tony DiMare's family owns around 1,600 hectares of land in Florida and California where tomatoes are grown. Currently, the situation is grim for the fruits as they are rotting in the fields and being plowed under. The reason behind this is not the weather or diseases but the crisis triggered by US President Donald Trump. DiMare told a television station in Miami that the customs and immigration policies are forcing farmers to abandon their fields. As early as January, he had warned that Trump's tough stance on migrants would severely impact farmers reliant on harvest workers. "We need to secure our borders in the south and north, but we need labor in this country," the tomato grower also told the Financial Post. Deportations are decimating the agricultural workforce. Half of the seasonal workers are in the country illegally. According to Farmonaut, an agricultural technology company, about 50% of farmworkers in the US are migrants without legal papers, including skilled foremen and machine operators. With the Trump administration continuing mass deportations of undocumented migrants, thousands of harvest workers are now missing from the fields, leading to the fruits going bad. An unidentified worker on TV described how thousands of migrants leave Florida daily. "Many are very scared, and sometimes they show up for work, sometimes they don't," he said. "The harvest is lost because it cannot be brought in." Tariffs are disrupting traditional supply chains. The labor shortage also means that farmers in Florida have to pay more for their labor. At the same time, due to Trump's tariff policies, they are receiving less money for their products. From January to April, Trump's threatened tariffs led Mexican suppliers to double or even triple their tomato exports to the US before the tariffs took effect. As a result, the US market was flooded with Mexican tomatoes. Wholesale prices for a crate of tomatoes in Florida dropped from $16 to $3 to $4. DiMare stated that tomato growers need about $10 to $11 per crate to break even. Plowing under is cheaper. "At the moment, we can't even afford to harvest," said Heather Moehling, president of the Miami-Dade County Farm Bureau. "Given labor costs and the resources used, it's more cost-effective for farmers to simply plow them under." Not only tomato growers in Florida are feeling the effects. Canada imposed a 25% tariff on US watermelons in retaliation for Trump's tariffs on Canadian products. DiMare knows a watermelon farmer who lost Canadian customers to Mexican watermelon suppliers because of this. Consumers should prepare for higher food costs. Farmonaut highlights that the effects of tariffs and immigration policies on farmers will also impact the food trade. If US farmers do not have enough labor for harvesting, Americans will have to buy more imported products and pay more due to tariffs. The Food Policy Center at Hunter College in New York City warns that the resulting rise in food prices will fuel inflation - "putting a strain on household budgets across the country, particularly affecting families in areas with high food insecurity." While farmers have little choice but to hope for an end to political turmoil, consumers are advised to prepare to mitigate these costs.