Posted on 10/08/2007 6:32:46 PM PDT by SteveMcKing
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Farmers in and around the Bay Area are starting to feel the pinch from tighter border security and visa requirements, NBC11's Daniel Garza reported Monday.
Some farmers told Garza they expect some of their fields to remain unpicked.
Some said they believe their fields will end up filled with rotting produce.
The Bush administration has learned of the possible loss of millions of dollars for thousands of farmers throughout the country, and is attempting to loosen visa requirements for workers.
However, farmers told Garza the attempt is "too little too late."
(Excerpt) Read more at nbc11.com ...
If there are 30 million illegals, why aren;t there any farm workers?
When the south used a similar flawed argument, I remember there was a bit of a war...
Contract the work out to the prisons. Prisoners aren’t coddled, prices stay low, crops don’t rot, illegals have no incentive to stay here. Sounds like a winner to me.
US: "Hey farmers! If you can't find enough illegal aliens to pick the produce, just use child labor!"
FARMER: "Hey, we can't do that! It's illegal!"
US: "Exactly!"
Kind of like de-seeding cotton used to be. The Eli Whitney of lettuce is just around the corner.
So either pay people better or open Pick Your Own Produce farms.
I agree with paying fair wages. However if they are going to just let it rot, why not let people come pick their own produce for a fair price? We have many you pick it farms where I live & people make a whole day out of it. At least the stuff doesn't just rot. The people get cheaper produce & the farmers get money.
How is this possible.
We’ve been overrun by illegal aliens.
What are the illegals doing?
You say this as some kind of defense.
"Easy, visible targets" are easy and visible because they flagrantly break the law.
What is he paying?
I’d specifically look for that produce in a heartbeat and I’m positive I’m not alone.
When some foreign workers are hired the lefties will say the workers are being exploited and strike for more wages and better living conditions, the crops will rot in the fields anyway.
This might seem inconceivable to "progressives" and many Republicans, but what you say is absolutely 100% true.
I was rebuilding a house with a guy who had just gotten out of The Navy. He was a die-hard Dem, who would basically accuse me of being a racist for complaining about illegals while we worked.
One day, I mentioned how, here in San Diego, you don't see Anglos or African-Americans (if I can get all my PC lingo together) working in construction very often because of the easy access to illegal Mexicans. He stopped and said, "You know, you're right. I really want to get into construction, but have been told, even though I just finished two stints in The Navy, that I'm not qualified because I don't speak Spanish." (Although he did paint the cutting board along with the cabinets, but that could be just because he was a Dem.)
This is absolutely what is happening in the U.S.
(And to those who might say, "Well, you were working on a home at the time, what's the problem with getting into construction?" This house was owned by the mother of a former in-law, and the in-law hired the other guy to help through an agency because he was afraid to hire any more illegals, thanks in no small part to me.)
We should hire Sheriff Joe in Arizona to have HIS "workers" work those fields for yah!
My son-in-law was laid off and getting desperate for work and he tried to get hired in the fields. He only met with rejection at first, but was finally hired as a supervisor by a farmer only because my son-in-law speaks fluent Spanish.
The first few weeks the farmer had only praise for my son-in-law. Because of my son-in-law's get down in the fields and pick right along side of his workers approach the picking was going well ahead of schedule. But, after 2 weeks my son-in-law was fired. The workers staged a rebellion because my son-in-law expected them to work as hard as he was working and they were having none of that. Faced with the threat of losing his whole lazy slave labor pool the farmer chose to fire my hard working son-in-law.
I hope they are paying above minimum wage for Skilled Jobs. Don't most of those firms pay by the piece to speed production?
Way too many farmers want cheap labor so they can maximize their agriculture handout W increased. And by the way MSN Farmer, thanks for overcrowding the prisons, schools, hospitals, social services, etc. with your ilk illegals. You deserve it if your crops rot. I’ll grow my own!!
Let it rot.
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