Migrant workers

Mark Arends (third from right) stands with his children (from left to right): Jace, Noah, Lexi and Blake, and his brother, Scott, in a fully-detasseled seed corn field outside Cedar Falls, Iowa, on Aug. 6, 2024.Arends didn’t know it at the time, but that was the last day his company, Arends Detasseling, performed the work of removing tassels from seed corn plants to control pollination.

Marks Arends

Provided

More migrant workers replace Iowa teenagers in corn detasseling jobs

Nick Loomis

Seed corn companies are using more laborers with H-2A visas, according to data from Iowa Workforce Development and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Local contractors say they have teens, who rely on the summer jobs, waiting to do the work.

A sign welcoming SNAP and EBT customers is posted at a local grocer in Des Moines' East Side neighborhood. November 2025.

Madeleine Charis King

Iowa Public Radio

Health

Refugees in Iowa learn they're no longer eligible for SNAP

Katarina Sostaric