On a sunny April afternoon, JJ Ficken loaded bags of seed corn onto a trailer. He had already spent thousands preparing for a worker from Guatemala who had yet to arrive, thanks to a government funding freeze.
And now, his only full-time farmhand had just quit.
“I tried to do things right,” Ficken told The Washington Post. He had qualified for a federal grant designed to help farmers bring in legal, seasonal workers.
Instead of hiring an undocumented worker for $14 an hour, he had followed all the rules.
He lined up housing, transportation, and a visa for 24-year-old Otto Vargas. Then, President Donald Trump froze the program.
Ficken is one of 141 farmers approved for grants under the Farm Labor Stabilization and Protection Pilot Program, created to address chronic labor shortages in agriculture.
The grants were supposed to cover costs of hiring lawful foreign workers through the H-2A visa program. But as of late April, not a single payment had gone out.
The Jobs Are Brutal, and the Pay Is Low
Farmers say they’ve tried hiring local workers. Many say they don’t last a day.
“They quit after a few hours,” Wisconsin organic farmer Tracy Vinz told The Post.
She had been approved for a $400,000 grant before the freeze. Another farmer, Mitch Lawson from Georgia, lost nearly two dozen American employees before securing grant approval.
On Reddit, hundreds of commenters weighed in on the labor shortage story.
“No American wants to be underpaid for difficult labor under the sun,” one wrote.
Others called it a matter of dignity: Americans simply won’t accept $7 to $10 an hour for grueling physical work.
Some with firsthand experience say the work is punishing.
“I once apprenticed on a farm in Washington where I made $180 a month over 45 hours a week,” one person said.
The person lived in shared housing and supplemented meals by foraging.
“I loved it,” they added, but acknowledged it was only sustainable because they were young and single.
Politics and Policy Collide
In Kirk and across farm towns, frustration is growing. Farmers like Ficken say they voted for Trump, hoping he would support agriculture and cut wasteful spending.
Instead, many now find themselves cut off from the very programs they were encouraged to apply for.
The White House has defended the cuts, pointing to new trade deals and a rollback of what it calls bureaucratic bloat.
But a court later ordered the Agriculture Department to resume payments.
Even then, the backlog continued, with tens of thousands of contracts stuck in limbo.
Meanwhile, immigrant workers like Otto Vargas waited. His visa was delayed for weeks.
He missed his first flight and eventually arrived in Colorado 29 days late.
Americans Aren’t Lining Up for Farm Jobs
Online reactions have been sharp. Many said farmers had long depended on undocumented labor, only to vote for policies that removed it.
“You want American workers? You know what you have to do.,” one person commented.
“If you can’t find farm workers because it’s too hard, then explain road paving industry. I assure is equally or harder than farm work,” another added.
One recurring theme: many of these jobs are more skilled than people assume.
Picking fruit efficiently, avoiding damage, and working to tight deadlines require experience and physical resilience that new hires simply don’t have.
Automation, Civic Programs, or Collapse?
Some users proposed AmeriCorps-style programs where young people could work on farms in exchange for tuition.
Others called for expanded visa pathways, legal protections and better wages.
But many admitted that small farms likely can’t afford major pay increases without raising prices across the food supply.
“Margins in ag are razor thin,” one person explained. “The alternative is pricing explodes.”
As the grant delays drag on, farmers like Ficken say they’re running out of options.
“No way in hell,” he told The Post, when asked if he would believe in another promise without results.
Otto eventually arrived and began working alongside JJ.
They planted trees and prepared machinery, using translation earbuds to communicate. JJ hoped it would work out.
He also hoped the grant check would finally come.
Because out in Kirk, it’s still just JJ and the dirt.
In the end, farmers across the country are realizing that without consistent labor and government follow-through, the future of American farming could hinge on politics, not just weather and soil.