00:00An agriculture in the United States is on the brink of collapse.
00:04Immigration rates, tariffs and labor shortages have already pushed the economy of this vital sector into the red.
00:10Our New York correspondent, Henry Camelo, has more.
00:14The promise was to make the United States great again.
00:18Yet, all that can be seen are vast stretches of crops abandoned and on the verge of being lost.
00:26The machinery is sitting idle and unused, and above all, a marked shortage of farm workers.
00:33This is the landscaping facing much of the U.S. agricultural sector during peak harvest season under Donald Trump's administration
00:42policies.
00:46Immigration rates like this continue to occur in the country's major farming regions.
00:52Despite President Trump's promise that they will stop so as not to harm the agricultural sector.
01:01Henry Angel, a farm owner in upstate New York, is trying to save his harvest all on his own.
01:09His staff abandoned the job for fear of falling into the hands of ICE.
01:15I'm only one person. A lot of my produce is going to waste.
01:19These plants are producing at a faster rate than I'm able to cultivate and sell in the market at the
01:25moment.
01:26Farmers particularly are being affected not only by the immigration policy that he has put in place,
01:33but also because of the tariffs that are in place, that are in place because of Trump,
01:39and because of the war of choice that he has started in Iran or against Iran.
01:46Indeed, the losses in the U.S. agricultural sector under Trump administration are alarming.
01:53According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, agricultural losses this year are estimated to exceed $31 billion
02:02due to factors such as labor shortages, the imposition of tariffs, and trade uncertainty created by the war with Iran.
02:13Farming is something that's in your blood.
02:16My mother comes from a farming background, and her parents did too, so when it's in your blood, it's not
02:24difficult.
02:25However, you do face hardships when there isn't enough labor because you have to be the one who plants, prunes,
02:34harvests, and drives.
02:36Basically, as a small-scale farmer, you have to handle every role yourself when the economy isn't doing well.
02:45There's a big fear of ICE at the moment, and it's something that we can't ignore anymore.
02:51It's getting more difficult to convince people that this is a safe place to work in,
02:55that this is a place where you don't have to fear of coming to work and not going back home.
03:01This remains the case as soon as President Trump fails to change his misconceptions about immigrants
03:09and how important they are to U.S. agricultural development.
03:14For every community, family is what matters most.
03:18If your family is well cared for and has access to healthy, high-quality food, you are happy.
03:25Therefore, a farmer's work holds the same value as that of a president, a doctor, or a top surgeon.
03:33Experts warn that if current economic and immigration policies continue to be implemented,
03:40a food crisis could erupt in the country.
03:43Without immigrants working the land, there is no food,
03:47and hunger does not discriminate, affecting even those who believe they will never face that reality.
03:56Pablo Daniel Joe and Henry Camelo, Telesur, New York.
