We start our series on ag labor issues with a fruit and vegetable farmer from Indiana

This week, we kick off our series on ag labor. We’re talking to a wide variety of people with skin in this game, and we start it off with a rockstar guest. Calvin Beasley is a third-generation farmer on his family’s apple orchard in Indiana. Beasley’s Orchard doesn’t just produce apples – they have diversified into U-pick, several other different crops (strawberries, sunflowers, and more) and agritourism to keep their operation viable for the long-term. Calvin has a lot of experience dealing with agricultural labor. He explains what his farm has done to try and address these issues – utilizing migrant labor, diversifying so they can afford to pay more and offer benefits, making efficiency gains to make the actual manual labor less intensive and more. He also talks about the inertia in government, policymakers, and even the ag industry itself to actually address the problem and get some solutions in place. This is a wide-ranging conversation, and the topic is not only addressed really well, but Calvin also makes points on other challenges and opportunities in agriculture that we will produce more upcoming content on because they deserve a lot more attention than they are getting right now from the industry (think the way we communicate with stakeholders outside of agriculture, maximizing profits for producers, especially commodity based sectors, and being proactive instead of reactive when facing contemporary agriculture issues and problems.) You don’t want to miss this episode – it’s immediately relevant content to any ag producer, and anyone involved in ag support industries. As always, like, subscribe, share and review! www.millennialag.com talktous@millennialag.com Instagram: @millennialag Facebook: Millennial Ag Twitter: @millennialag Make sure to spell Millennial correctly ;)* Don't forget to review us! It really does help our ratings, and we really appreciate your feedback. Love, Katharine and Val