Devex Dish: The migrant workers who feed the world

Across the world, food systems are propped up by people who are often invisible in policy debates: migrant workers, informal laborers, and, in many cases, people without legal status. They plant, pick, pack, and process food — frequently under precarious conditions — even as governments debate how tightly to shut borders and who deserves the right to work.

Against that backdrop, a move last week by Spain stood out. Madrid announced plans to regularize the status of roughly half a million undocumented people, many of whom already work on farms, construction sites, and in retail. At a moment when migration policies are hardening across much of the West, Spain chose a different path: pulling workers out of the shadows rather than pushing them further underground.

“This measure represents a real opportunity not only for people who were already working in agriculture within the informal or underground economy to regularize their status, but also to stop being trapped in invisibility and gain effective mechanisms to defend their rights,” says Carlos Ruiz Ramírez, a researcher at Oxfam Spain and author of “Essential but invisible and Exploited.” “In this sense, regularization changes everyday life, reduces the room for exploitation and helps rebalance, even if only slightly, a power relationship that is currently deeply unequal.”

In the United States, meanwhile, the situation is very different. Even with a visa program for informal migrant labor — through which about 400,000 visas were issued in 2025 — demand for farm labor consistently exceeds supply. Undocumented workers fill the gap. When immigration enforcement intensified at the start of 2025 with the second Trump administration, the effects rippled quickly through agricultural regions. Some farmers reduced plantings as workers disappeared out of fear. In one raid that drew attention, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents ate at a Mexican restaurant in Minnesota, then later followed workers out after they closed shop, arresting them.

But migration and farmwork isn’t just a U.S. or European story. Cross-border farm labor has long been woven into food systems around the world. In West Africa, seasonal migration from Burkina Faso to Ivorian cocoa farms has long underpinned production, often in conditions that leave workers — including children — exposed to exploitation. In East Africa, conflict has disrupted cross-border farm labor between Ethiopia and Sudan, severing livelihoods that had existed for generations.

The reality is all the more precarious for refugees. While they may have the legal right to stay in their host countries, they are typically barred from working in them.

That’s why a recent policy shift in Thailand caught our attention.

Faced with a convergence of pressures, Thailand recalibrated. Foreign aid cuts left its camps for refugees from Myanmar struggling to meet basic food and health needs, while a long-simmering border dispute with Cambodia triggered the departure of migrant workers who make up a significant share of Thailand’s agricultural workforce. Farms, factories, and restaurants were suddenly short-staffed. Caught between a labor crunch and a growing humanitarian emergency, Thai authorities opted for what they described as a pragmatic solution: granting eligible Myanmar refugees limited permission to work under strict conditions.

For refugees like Htun Min Lat — whose family had been set to resettle in the U.S. in 2025 — the impact was immediate. He makes four times the amount as a fruit picker than he did as a camp teacher.

Globally, only a small number of countries, including Uganda and Colombia, allow large-scale integration of refugees into the workforce. Many governments resist such moves out of concern that access to jobs could draw additional arrivals. Still, humanitarian groups see Thailand’s decision as a potential turning point. “What Thailand’s government has done this time is very revolutionary,” says Tabinda Sarosh, president and CEO of Pathfinder International. “This is going to support local economies and contribute to better, safer, and integrated communities.”

Spain and Thailand could hardly look more different. Yet both point to the same underlying reality: When labor shortages collide with fragile food systems, ideology often yields to necessity. The question now facing governments is whether they confront that reality directly — or continue to depend on invisible workers to keep the world fed.

Read: From camps to crops — US aid cuts reshape refugee life in Thailand

+ This story is part of The Aid Report, Devex’s new editorial and data project tracking how U.S. foreign aid cuts are reshaping programs and services on the ground. This editorially independent journalism is funded by the Gates Foundation. If your organization has data or examples of how programs and people are being affected, whether positively or negatively, please email editor Kelli Rogers at kelli.rogers@devex.com. You can also reach Kelli securely on Signal or fill out this short survey.

What’s cooking in Washington

In the always fast-moving U.S. foreign aid news cycle, here are a few notable developments in food, nutrition, and agricultural aid worth flagging.

First, the roughly $50 billion foreign affairs spending bill is now law. The package, which includes funding for food security, agriculture, global health, and humanitarian programs, cleared the U.S. Congress after a delay caused by a broader standoff over Department of Homeland Security funding, briefly triggering a partial government shutdown before lawmakers reached a compromise.

The bill comes in about 16% below last year’s funding level but nearly $20 billion above the Trump administration’s budget request, which had proposed far deeper cuts. Still, humanitarian assistance funding is roughly 37% lower, and major questions remain about how — and whether — the administration will spend the money Congress has appropriated.

That matters for food and agriculture. The bill includes $720 million for food security and agricultural development programs, as well as $100 million for a new public-private partnership foundation on food security, slated to be established by the end of the year.

“The $300 million investment in American-made [ready-to-use therapeutic food] will provide life-saving support for millions of children and help farmers and small businesses in states across the country,” says Amit Paley, CEO of the Malnutrition Advocacy Fund.

Meanwhile, after months of speculation — and a steady drumbeat of reporting from Devex — the long-anticipated shift finally happened: The U.S. Department of Agriculture formally took over Food for Peace. The transition kicked off with a $452 million agreement with the World Food Programme. “The funding will help U.S. producers move American-grown food to people in need around the world, sending nearly 211,000 tons of U.S. agricultural goods to people in need in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Haiti, Kenya, and Rwanda,” according to a USDA press release.

And finally, the U.S. said it will resume food assistance to Somalia, reversing a pause announced three weeks earlier over concerns that aid had been looted.

Read: US Congress passes $50 billion foreign affairs bill
Read: USDA takes over Food for Peace with $452M World Food Programme deal 
See also: Congress may pass a $50B foreign aid bill. Will Trump spend the money? (Pro)
Don’t miss: After USAID, Food for Peace enters a new and uncertain chapter (Pro)

Power lunch

For weeks, our newsroom has been digging into a big question: Who really holds influence in international aid right now? The result is our Power 50 list, a guide to the people shaping a sector that has been fundamentally upended. Here’s a quick taste from the food and agriculture corner.

First up is William Moore, who has spent the past decade transforming the Eleanor Crook Foundation from a family philanthropy into a heavyweight on global nutrition policy. Under his leadership, the foundation has invested more than $100 million in malnutrition efforts while unlocking far more from other donors and the private sector — including by successfully pitching nutrition as an “America First” investment.

Then there’s Howard Buffett, the Buffett sibling most focused on global development — in particular, working with farmers. Through The Howard G. Buffett Foundation, he has become the single largest private donor to Ukraine, with more than $1 billion committed since 2022. As the Buffett family prepares to give away an estimated $150 billion, his influence is only growing.

At the Gates Foundation, longtime insider Hari Menon now leads the Global Growth and Opportunity Division, overseeing agriculture just as Gates ramps up spending. The foundation recently pledged $1.4 billion for smallholder farmers in Africa and South Asia over four years.

And finally, José Andrés. The celebrity chef behind World Central Kitchen has become a major humanitarian player and fundraising force. As traditional aid budgets shrink, his model — and the scrutiny that comes with it — is one to watch closely.

Read: Devex Power 50
See also: Gates doubles down on goals in a world weighed down by crisis, CEO says

+ Devex Pro members get exclusive access to the full Power 50 list. The first 10 are free to read and you can start a 15-day free trial of Pro now to unlock all 50 profiles as well as get unlimited access to all our expert analyses, funding insights and opportunities, career resources, and regular briefings with sector leaders and funders. 

Chew on this

Clean-cooking startup Koko Network files for insolvency after clash with Kenya over the sale of carbon credits. [Financial Times]

The United Nations and Asian Development Bank will back a $100 million, two-year food security program to support more than 151,000 families in crisis-hit Afghanistan. [Reuters]

Aid agencies in South Sudan decry restricted access as government and opposition troops fight. [AP]