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Rows of bright green corn with tassels removed can be seen stretching in every direction. In the middle of the field, a worker with an orange sun hat has his back to the camera. An employee of Ailes Detasseling walks through a seed corn field near Utica, Neb., in 2024. Detasseling is seen as a rite of passage for Midwest teenagers, but in recent years, more of the detasseling is performed by workers with H-2A visas.
Ailes Detasseling
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Contractors say they have enough local labor to detassel Nebraska’s seed corn but they’re losing work to migrant workers on H-2A visas. A 2024 law attempted to increase transparency in detasseling.
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