Ripe crops languish in the fields. It's harvest time, but where are the farmworkers?

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 9/18/05 | George Raine

[Crackingham]

It's the middle of harvest season for California raisin grapes, and only half of the farmworkers needed are in the fields. What holds for raisin grapes is happening widely in California agriculture. In the Central Valley alone, there is a shortage of from 70,000 to 80,000 workers to bring fresh fruits, nuts and vegetables to market, according to an estimate by the trade association Western Growers.

Some growers are planting fewer acres than normal as they scramble to save the season. Western Growers is worried that the lack of workers -- mostly immigrants from Mexico and Central America -- could cause $1 billion in losses to California agriculture this year.

Manuel Cunha Jr., president of Nisei Farmers League in Fresno, is getting 50 calls a day from growers asking where the workers are.

"It's a disaster," Cunha said. "We have an immigration program that is broken."

Many of the farmworkers who year after year make the trip from their homelands to California, doing the work Americans shun, have found their own ladders of success to climb. They're taking better-paying jobs in construction and landscaping in the booming Central Valley communities where they once picked a cornucopia of crops.

SNIP

The cries for help from growers are rekindling interest in a jobs bill by Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., that would give an estimated 500,000 illegal immigrants temporary worker permits and put them on a track to citizenship.

The legislation was developed over eight years by some strange bedfellows, including growers, the United Farm Workers, the AFL-CIO, the Republican caucus and more than 500 liberal and conservative advocacy groups. The proponents disagree about the root causes of the labor shortage but share the view that agriculture needs a fix.

[VeritatisSplendor]

I wonder how much you would have to pay me to work long hours in the hot sun, and either uproot my children constantly, or leave them behind...these industries are dependent on a good supply of poor people.

Mrs VS

[NavySEAL F-16]

As I said in response to Ruth, I was referring to U.S. citizens that have been evacuated from their homes because of Katrina. Notice the word "evacuees".

[okie01]

Wow, fascinating. This means that they will have to pay higher wages to make up for the labor shortfall. hmmm, I wonder if you could base an entire economy on this? Someone really ought to try...

Except, in agriculture, it doesn't work that way. Farmers can't and won't pay higher wages, because it would force them, in turn, to charge a higher price for their product -- which would cause, in turn, the market for their product to shrink.

Over the long haul, supply and demand economics will work as you posit. But, in the short-term, it makes no difference whether the crop rots in the field or in storage -- because the farmer has gone broke in either case.

An extended labor shortage will result in fewer and fewer independent farmers and more and more corporate farms. It will mean reduced domestic farm production and more imports. Maybe you believe that's the way it ought to be; maybe you don't.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

Neo-Great Depression = Abundant farmworkers

[Ruth C]

Sorry, I should have been clearer. The top line referred to those from Katrina, I doubt you'll find very many who would be willing to pick crops. The second part was about the bill being sponsored.

[pillbox_girl]

The cries for help from growers are rekindling interest in a jobs bill by Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., that would give an estimated 500,000 illegal immigrants temporary worker permits and put them on a track to citizenship.

This very article says "They're taking better-paying jobs in construction and landscaping in the booming Central Valley communities where they once picked a cornucopia of crops."

And somehow granting these 500,000 illegals undeserved legitimacy will get them back into the fields and picking the crops?

What planet are Larry Craig, Ted Kennedy, and George Raine living on? 'Cause it sure ain't planet earth.

[starfish923]

Wow, fascinating. This means that they will have to pay higher wages to make up for the labor shortfall. hmmm, I wonder if you could base an entire economy on this? Someone really ought to try...

I was thinking the same thing.
Imagine, luring farm workers with HIGHER wages.
WHAT a concept.

[Nalu]

Bogus Story they have machines that do that job.

http://www.midland-tractor.com/sales/korvan/korvan.htm

[Itzlzha]

Just think for a minute.... if the left and media used Katrina to scream racist and GWB hates black people, what they would do if he suggested they might 'pick' things in a field!

LOL! You do have a point...

Hell, they ALREADY accuse him and us of it...if we are already tarred, might as well put it to use then! Can't do worse then they already do.

I say "if you are gonna get falsely accused and punished for something, might as well go ahead and do it!"

Besides, I'd LOVE to see Calypso Louie, Rev Al and Je$$e Jacka$$ respective heads explode in an apoplectic fit!

[digger48]

Well, it is a challenge to the American ingenuity to mechanize and automate these jobs. I'd like to think we'll meet this challenge.

That's what they did with tomatoes here in the midwest. Develop a type of tomato that can be 50% machine harvested. Durable skins for transport, drought resistant plants. I know a fellow and his brother that are becoming quite rich from this. Red Gold

[one more state]

I believe that IS how the "free market" works.

[Mister Da]

I can tell California where the Mexicans are - right here on the Gulf Coast helping rebuild after Ivan, Cindy, Dennis, & Katrina. They are simply following the money.

[ClaireSolt]

Cities where people run or drown instead of sandbagging levees, where busses rust for lack of drivers, and farm communities that won't pitch in and bring in the harvest.

[GSlob]

Could you please explain "50% machine harvested"? Is it 50% losses at machine harvesting or is it the humans picking the other 50%?

[Happy2BMe]

Some growers are planting fewer acres than normal as they scramble to save the season. Western Growers is worried that the lack of workers -- mostly immigrants from Mexico and Central America -- could cause $1 billion in losses to California agriculture this year.

=====================================

Myths and lies of illegal immigration

* * * *

Because the pro-illegal alien lobby has a bottomless pit of money and can hire PR people to spin (and fabricate) anything any way, there are an undue number of myths and lies that the public (and many politicians) has bought into. The FACTS are:

7. Without illegal aliens, the price of agricultural products and other goods and services will NOT soar. The definitive study on this subject is the University of Iowa's "How Much Is That Tomato?" The study concludes that 'since labor is such a small component of the end-price of agricultural products (which includes price to the growers, transportation costs, processing /storage costs, grocers' profit, etc.), using minimum wage workers instead of illegal aliens would increase prices of agricultural products by approximately 3 percent in the summer and 4 percent in the winter ... hardly the making of $10 heads of lettuce, $25 hamburgers, $1,000 per night Days Inn hotel rooms like the pro-illegal alien lobby claims.

8. Consumers are NOT benefiting from lower labor costs. Again, it's CEOs and business owners who benefit from taxpayer subsidies for their illegal alien workers. The Big Three automakers say they moved so many jobs to Mexico because their labor costs are 80 percent less than in America. Anybody notice the price of new cars spiraling downward under NAFTA?

[vpintheak]

Are you kidding? Most of those people either don't or won't work, or don't know how, seriously.

[one more state]

You are right on track. The MSM has everyone believing all crops are picked by hand. It's very rare for any crop not to involve machinery in harvesting. This goes for crops around the world. The MSM would have us believe that the only transportation in China was the rickshaw too.

[Nalu]

Here are more
http://www.ultimatecitrus.com/harvest/

http://www.nal.usda.gov/services_and_products/ag_pubs/asparagus.htm

http://www.mindfully.org/Farm/2004/Cheap-Labor-Machines22mar04.htm

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3824/is_200406/ai_n9455084

http://www.agricultureinformation.com/directory/Farm_Inputs/Farm_Equipment/Harvesting_machines/

[willyd]

I worked installing HVAC systems through college and you are exactly right. Most of the gringos that worked in construction were notoriously unreliable. The Mexican crews that worked on the projects we were on were unbelievably efficient...sometimes electrical stuff didn't get done properly but that was about it. It was obvious that they took their jobs seriously and were happy to be employed.

[digger48]

The hand pick once, in August, for the early fruits on a plant, then total harvest now, with machine and about a dozen hands.