Posted on 08/22/2007 10:25:14 PM PDT by neverdem
HAMPTONBURGH, N.Y., Aug. 16 — With a look of supreme satisfaction, Jeff Crist squinted at the Ginger Golds and Jonamacs ripening under an incandescent sun at his apple orchard here: the trees were so laden that they almost seemed to strain under the effort.
“It’s a vintage crop — a solid quality crop, which means good sugars in the apples,” he said. “They should eat very nicely, almost like a good wine.”
This is the third year in a row of near-perfect weather, and Mr. Crist, a fourth-generation apple grower, like many other growers in the Hudson Valley, is finally feeling secure after a disastrous string of harvests marred by early frost and hail. In fact, Mr. Crist is so bullish that he recently bought a 164-acre orchard nearby, bucking the decades-long trend of apple orchards being sold to housing developers.
But while weather conditions have cooperated and industry experts say demand for apples nationwide has approached an all-time high, there are new fears in New York and around the nation over whether there will be enough hands to pick the crop. This month, the Bush administration announced new measures to crack down on employers of illegal immigrants.
Nationwide, growers’ associations estimate that about 70 percent of farmworkers are illegal immigrants, many of them using fake Social Security numbers on their applications. Under the new rules, if the Social Security Administration finds that an applicant’s information does not match its database, employers could be required to fire the worker or risk being fined up to $10,000 for knowingly hiring an illegal immigrant.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
There’s already a legal means to do that, but it brings responsibilities and expenses to the employer that they would rather not have.
I currently live in Wash state, which has a large apple agri industry.
But I grew up in good old upstate NY, and can tell you with no holds barred that the apples in the northeast are the BEST!!
Period. No contest. Large and delicious, there is so much sugar in them it’s practically crystallizing inside, wonderfully, velvety fragrant...
And the raspberries, especially the black raspberries which are not unknown here, but are pretty rare, grow like weeds back there. I’ve even thought about calling my brother and have him dig up about twenty BR roots and ship them to me. Nutritionally,the black raspberry is just about the single most nutritious berry there is. Loaded over the brim with antioxidants and chemicals that are very good for your joints and lungs. YUM!!
Slavery ended a long time ago. It’s time to learn how to make a buck without it.
There’s lots of high school graduates who are functionally illiterate, unskilled laborers
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Yep, and some college graduates fit the same description!
...there are new fears in New York and around the nation over whether there will be enough hands to pick the crop.
Because illegals discovered they could make more money in the construction trades?
You are asking WAY too much. Today’s students are told a big monster lie now - they are “entitled to” a college education...and it is A-OK to get in debt up to your eyelids to do it. This is now the American Way of starting off your career- already choking in debt.
Personally - I think welfare and unemployment rolls should be scrubbed for people who are physically capable of working. If they won’t take such jobs, then no more benefits...
What? You want inmates to give up their AC’d cells, color TV, weight rooms and butlers in Attica to do Manual Labor?
Heathen conservative!!
You must report to the re-education camp immediately.
I can’t speak for New York apples. but I can tell you about California pears.
A woman I knew packed pears at a pear orchard. It was piecework pay - the more she packed, the more she made. And she was a green-eyed American citizen.
She would make between $250-$300 per day for the season. That’s $1,800 per six-day week. Not bad pin money, right?
A day Without a Mexican; Let’s make it happen!
With a search on the internet I was able to find that in 1965 the growers used Tomato Picking machines that put people out of work. The government was promoting the development of crop picking equipment. Then came Caesar Chavez, a labor union leader, he complained loud enough that the government stopped funding the development of machines.
Australia’s grape harvest is machine picked because they don’t have access to cheap illegal labor.
Bottom line, if there isn’t enough cheap labor to do the job machines will be invented to do it. This creates fewer but higher paying jobs to design, build, operate and repair the machines.
And small “specialty crop” growers will make a premium for tree ripened, handpicked fruit and produce.
Those who whine that they “need” cheap illegal labor are just people who hate change and don’t want to invest in the future, so they try to stop it instead.
ping
Most of the orchards went to "pick your own". A lot of the families found a day in the country picking apples was more enjoyable than yet another day in the city shopping. Even a few wholesalers found locals willing to pick to order.
The truth is that no one wants to do regular field work for $6 an hour. My dad saw this coming twenty years ago with hay and corn. You can’t find anyone who wants to do regular farm work at such a low scale. So he invested his money into vehicles that could handle a one-man operation. Fruit can’t be handled via vehicles...so this drags up the subject of Mexican workers. They are willing to work for $6 an hour, and we are stuck with this solution.
Perhaps now that will motivate someone to devise a machine to pick the apples.
Yeah, I was wondering if that was the situation...I wish there was a better way to solve it than hiring illegals though. Caught between a rock and a hard place - farmer having to fund the operations, government assistance is not ideal, and the only ones willing to work for such low wages are illegals. Yet a lot of people choose to work for fast food joints...surely they dont give much more than that per hour??
No more calls please. We have a winner.
L
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