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American farmers have been complaining of labor shortages for several years. The complaints are unlikely to stop without an overhaul of immigration rules for farm workers 

Congress has obstructed efforts to create a more straightforward visa for agricultural workers that would let foreign workers stay longer in the U. S. and change jobs within the industry. If this doesn't change, American businesses communities, and consumers will be the losers 

Perhaps half of U. S. farm laborers are undocumented immigrants. As fewer such workers enter the country, the characteristics of the agricultural workforce are changing. Today's farm laborers, while still predominantly born in Mexico are more likely to be settled rather than migrating and more likely to be married than single. They're also aging. At the start of this century, about one-third of crop workers were over the age of 35. Now more than half are. And picking crops is hard on older bodies. One oft-debated cure for this labor shortage remains as implausible as it's been all along: Native U. S. workers won't be returning to the farm 

Mechanization isn't the answer, either-not yet, at least. Production of corn, cotton, rice, soybeans, and wheat has been largely mechanized, but many high-value, labor-intensive crops, such as strawberries, need labor. Even dairy farms, where robots do a small share of milking, have a long way to go before they're automated 

As a result, farms have grown increasingly reliant on temporary guest workers using the H-2a visa to fill the gaps in the workforce. Starting around 2012, requests for the visas rose sharply; from 2011 to 2016 the number of visas issued more than doubled 

The H-2a visa has no numerical cap, unlike the H-2B visa for nonagricultural work, which is limited to 66, 000 a year. Even so, employers complain they aren't given all the workers they need. The process is cumbersome, expensive, and unreliable. One survey found that bureaucratic delays led the average H-2a worker to arrive on the job 22 days late. The shortage is compounded by federal immigration raids, which remove some workers and drive others underground 

In a 2012 survey, 71 percent of tree-fruit growers and almost 80 percent of raisin and berry growers said they were short of labor. Some western farmers have responded by moving operations to Mexico. From 1998 to 2000, 14.5 percent of the fruit Americans consumed was imported. Little more than a decade later, the share of imports was 25. 8 percent.

In effect, the U. S. can import food or it can import the workers who pick it 

31. What problem should be addressed according to the first two paragraphs?

A. Decline of job opportunities in U. S. agriculture.

B. Discrimination against foreign workers in the U. S 

C. Biased laws in favor of some American businesses 

D. Flaws in U. S. immigration rules for farm workers 

32. One trouble with U. S. agricultural workforce is 

A. the aging of immigrant farm workers 

B. the rising number of illegal immigrants 

C. the high mobility of crop workers 

D. the lack of experienced laborers 

33. What is the much-argued solution to the labor shortage in U. S. farming?

A. To strengthen financial support for farmers.

B. To attract younger laborers to farm work.

C. To get native U. S. workers back to farming 

D. To use more robots to grow high-value crops.

34. Agricultural employers complain about the H-2A visa for its 

A. control of annual admissions 

B. slow granting procedures 

C. limit on duration of stay 

D. tightened requirements 

35. Which of the following could be the best title for this text?

A. Manpower VS. Automation?

B. U. S. Agriculture in Decline?

C. Import Food or Labor?

D. America Saved by Mexico?