(NAFB) – American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duval says AFB and state farm bureaus’ demand the Biden Administration secure the southern border is not a precondition for backing migrant farm labor reform, even as others say it should be.

Duval told farm reporters that Farm Bureau wants the border secured for the safety of farmers and other landowners, but it also wants long-sought H-2A visa reform.

But how can you reform H-2A if it’s tangled up in the bigger political quagmire of border security.

But Duval says there needs to be a discussion because the problem’s not going away.

Duval says any reform needs to be year-round, flexible for all-size producers, and affordable. Whether the politics ‘gets out of the way,’ Duval doesn’t know, but after the pandemic’s empty shelves, he argues people need to realize food is a “national security issue.”