Posted on 03/30/2016 8:39:26 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is suggesting that mechanization is the answer to the labor needs of farmers who lose their access to illegal immigrants.
During a CNN town hall Tuesday night, a Wisconsin dairy farmer told the GOP presidential candidate that his industry can't find enough American-born workers and that the only people “willing to do this hard work are Latino immigrants.” Join Farm Bureau and make YOUR VOICE stand out. Cruz didn't answer the question as it pertained to dairy producers specifically but instead responded by citing a Wall Street Journal article about an Arizona pepper grower who was forced by a crackdown on illegal immigrants to obtain a mechanical picker and hire fewer, higher-skilled American workers.
“He had to pay them more. He paid them about $15 an hour. But he continues picking his peppers except he's doing so in a situation where what has happened in Arizona, the public expenditures have plummeted,” Cruz said.
Cruz asserted that the crackdown had saved the state money in prison, health and education costs, but he didn't mention that the article said that the loss of immigrant labor had stunted Arizona's economic growth.
“In the agriculture world, I think the first option should be trying to find American workers. Now that may mean wages come up. It may mean that we have to use more tools. We've seen in Arizona that has happened,” Cruz said.
However, increased mechanization won't solve dairy producers' labor problems, said Chris Galen, a spokesman for the National Milk Producers Federation.
“A complete shift to mechanization is not an option for all of the labor-intensive jobs in agriculture, whether on dairy farms or pepper-growers. For instance, robotic milkers are a tool for small number of farms, but are not a blanket solution, certainly not in the near term,” Galen said.
Citing a Texas A&M study, Galen said immigrant workers earned an average of $11.54 an hour in 2014. “Dairy farms that hire immigrant labor pay higher average wages than farms that do not hire immigrants," he said.
Later in the CNN town hall, Ohio Gov. John Kasich promoted the benefits of trade agreements in answer to a question from Jim Walker, vice president of Case IH North America. Walker, who was introduced as a likely Cruz supporter, asked Kasich how his diplomacy would avoid disrupting trade.
“To spark a (trade) war right now would not only be detrimental to business, but all of those people directly and indirectly that I said we support,” said Walker, referring to jobs resulting from the company's exports and to front-runner Donald Trump's threat to impose antidumping duties on China.
Kasich responded by pledging to enforce existing trade agreements and promoting the benefits of the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership. He resorted to a Big 10 football analogy to connect with the Wisconsin audience.
“Think of it this way. If Ohio State came up to play your beloved Badgers and I asked for five downs to get a first down and you only got four, how would you feel? You wouldn't put up with it, OK? We should not put up with countries when they cheat.”
Kasich said the 12-nation TPP agreement would serve as a “bulwark against the strength of the Chinese.”
I think technology is at a point it would be accepted even with a cost. It is consistent, on time and does its intended job. Plus it works 24 hours per day. If you had the choice of today’s American workforce or the illegal workforce vs tech and automation, the choice is becoming easier. I think Fidelity is even introducing technology that will provide advice to investing that is computer driven. People aren’t needed.
Putting prisoners to do this — AND paying them is a good idea. They will be able to pay for their stay in prison and they would have a purpose and they would be able to save for their lives outside prison.
I believe it's exactly the opposite. A century ago most people lived on farms, a third or more of the farm's output went to feeding horses, and the farm barely produced enough output to feed the farmer's family. It's been entirely due to mechanization on farms that US farms now feed all of America, and a lot of the world with just a couple of percent of the population working on them. This is nearly entirely due to mechanization. There's no reason that would change now.
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