Rush Crush has it right...lettuce is a row crop, and we're real good at developing harvesting machinery for row crops.
Posted on 03/11/2005 2:06:08 PM PST by La Enchiladita
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Crucial Ingredient As Border Tightens, Growers See Threat to 'Winter Salad Bowl'
Yuma, Ariz., Relies on Muscle From Illegal Immigrants; Security vs. Economics A Job Americans Won't Do By MIRIAM JORDAN Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL March 11, 2005; Page A1
YUMA, Ariz. -- Shortly before Thanksgiving last year, Tom Nassif did something few law-abiding citizens would ever think to do: He called the U.S. Border Patrol here and suggested agents stop manning a highway checkpoint intended to keep illegal immigrants out of the country.
A former U.S. ambassador and currently the president of a powerful farming association, Mr. Nassif told officials that the agency couldn't have picked a worse time to beef up enforcement. Didn't they know it was lettuce season?
The checkpoint -- complete with drug-sniffing dogs -- was meant to stop the flow of illegal immigrants who might have slipped through the regular border controls. But it was also ensnaring busloads of undocumented workers who are critical to the task of picking lettuce and other vegetables during the winter growing season here. Border patrol Public Information Officer Joseph Brigman says he told Mr. Nassif that "we aren't targeting fieldworkers; we're conducting normal operations."
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Rush Crush has it right...lettuce is a row crop, and we're real good at developing harvesting machinery for row crops.
Farming has been making a dent in the number of illegals because machinery has been doing more.
About 6 months ago I was reading that there has been a cut of illegals along the line of 40% in labor for picking crops due to use of modern technology.
Means more will try to garden for a living.
Yep! That we are. Beans, cotton, corn, taters, stuff that don't bruise easy. Now tomaters, melons and such haf ta be dun by hand.
Or pack meat, or build cardboard boxes, or wait on the corner at the Home Depot to get work dry-walling someone's new home addition...
I know, sarcasm...the use of illegals across the labor spectrum is exploding, and so many people refuse to acknowledge that.
No, I'd buy Romaine. Or spinach. Its called the elasticity of demand.
Your premise is faulty - labor contributes only 10% of the cost of produce.
Actually, I've heard that 'they' are or have already developed a machine to harvest 'maters. That ol' dog don't hunt no' mo'!
Does this mean Olive Garden is gonna close down?
Well hush ma puppies. A mater pik'n machine, WHHEE-Doggies! Now don't that beat all.
Becaue of the lettuce? Or their employees?
Okay, bad sarcasm...we lost our Golden Corral here in Sierra Vista due to a combination of abysmal Health Department inspections and illegal workers.
To be honest, if we hit the growers by drying up the labor supply, I think it would give them the incentive they need to mechanize. It's worked for so many other agro-industries.
We found a nice looking one in a nice area that had promise (at least from the outside) and were warmly greeted at the entry by a lovely Japanese female hostess in a relaxing oriental setting and ambiance.
(The cuisine was Kyoto.)
Anywho - after we sat down we noticed the "chop-chop" cooks were ALL MEXICAN.
The food wasn't bad and we got a big kick eating oriental food at an oriental restaurant with not a single oriental cook in the whole house.
I remember my dad saying that about cotton. That's the reason he imported 150 Braceros every cotton picking time.
Then the liberal socialists ended the Bracero Program......and he bought a mechanical cotton picker.
"We need more lettuce-picking robots"
End the welfare greavy train and there will be plenty of help to pick lettuce.
There were plenty of people to pick crops before the socialists made welfare so lucrative.
"This manure that we need illegals to process our food so our food costs don't sky-rocket is just that - BS."
What makes you think that the illegals work cheap?
Even the street corner hires won't work for less than $10/hr cash plus free lunch and tranportation. The ones working construction make $20/hr or more cash.
It's only stupid americans that will work for minimum wage.
What really cracks me up is a lot of this machinery had been developed back in the 60s and 70s and we're just now getting around to expanding it.
I used to live in Yuma over 20 years ago, and it was common knowledge that everyone should really wash their veggies very very well, because the illegal immigrants who worked the fields, would also use the restroom in those fields! YUCK!!! I haven't eaten lettuce since then. Hope everyone was done with dinner before reading this! LOL
I've found that the best Italian restaurants have Italian cooks.
True, its hard to find such establishments anymore.
Oh you got to come to the Northeast then. Up here Italian restaurants rule and many of the cooks are direct from Italy.
Here all the 'italian' cooks are mexicans cooking up pasta & pollo purchased from Costco. It all tastes the same.
Enforce the law.
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