Labor Shortage Forces Pennsylvania Mushroom Farms to Dump Crops

Sonya Beltran is growing more than enough white button mushrooms on her family’s Pennsylvania farm to supply restaurants seeing a boom in business in the post-pandemic economy. But instead of cashing in on the resurgent demand, her mushrooms are dying in their beds because she can’t find workers to pick them.

The American mushroom industry is overwhelmingly concentrated in the small town of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, and growers there are facing what’s being described as their biggest-ever labor crunch. The workforce of the so-called mushroom capital of the world are opting for jobs in landscaping and construction, or at Amazon warehouses, just as the fungi are attracting fresh consumer interest.