The Essential Role of Immigrants in the U.S. Food Supply Chain (UPDATED)

About 2.1 million immigrants work in jobs growing, harvesting, processing, and selling food in the United States, serving an essential role in feeding America. While immigrants accounted for 17 percent of all civilian employed workers in the United States between 2017-2021, they played an outsized role in food production, making up 21 percent of workers in the U.S. food supply chain. They represent far larger shares in certain food-related occupations, and in particular states, as this infographic shows. It accompanies a fact sheet that examines the role immigrants served in frontline industries responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as their share in industries among those hardest hit by the outbreak.