[SteveMcKing]

If farmers weren't "hurting" before - and they are now - then they obviously must have been hiring illegals. And now we're suppose to cry for them, and feel threatened by the TRAGIC loss of their lousy vegetables.

If you can't find the labor you want and need for your business, then here's some free capitalist advice: Go out of business like the failure you are.

Don't come crying to government that American laws need to be changed in order to serve you.

[NonValueAdded]

What is he paying?

[bonehead4freedom]

The drum bleat begins for shamnesty dream II with the msm leading the chorus.I bet our President will want to join in to leave a legacy of compassion & fairness.

[NordP]

Yah, screw the rest of your Country, right? Come on Farmers...you all know what crops to grow to make the best yields...you guys aren't dumb...you HAD to know that the end of cheap labor was near--after 9/11.

We should hire Sheriff Joe in Arizona to have HIS "workers" work those fields for yah!

[ThisLittleLightofMine]

So use those in the prison system.....modern day chain gang...picking produce. It is a win-win situation.

[TheDon]

Let it rot.

[Brad from Tennessee]

During the summer of 1969, right after I was discharged from the military, much of the watermelon crop in South Florida ripened weeks before it normally did. Migrant workers who normally picked the melons were elsewhere on the harvest cycle they followed, picking some other crop. The melon growers ran ads in Florida newspapers offering $4 an hour cash to anyone who would come and pick. I lived in Orlando at the time. A friend and I drove down to Omokolee where we joined hippies, college students, young and old black people, and all variety of people to pick melons for a week. We slept in the car some nights and shared a cheap hotel room with other workers. All the melons got picked. We made a lot of money. The minimum wage was about $1.30 an hour then.

[upsdriver]

Either end welfare payments so more people HAVE to work or let the damn crops rot.

[Gritty]

We still have 38 million illegals in this country. Why can't some of them pick the vegetables?

Or, have they found other higher paying jobs Americans "won't do" and moved on to occupations?

[Cinnamon Girl]

There are other people willing to work. LEGALLY. My sister brings in workers from Jamaica every year. LEGALLY.

[Professional]

I doubt anyone will read my comment, but here goes.

Lots of Mexicans are now in Canada, as the currency issue, and an abundance of jobs up there, is a better deal. Also, you simple have a situation where the economy in Mexico just might be good enough to keep folks at home???

One of my best friends is in AG in E Washington. As far as machinery goes, nothing replaces the human hand, to keep fruits from breaking and bruising.

Finally, it is beyond silly and STUPID to think that just because you raise wages to a “livable standard” that your average educated American has even the slightest interest in picking fruit for a frickin living. Get real why don’t you?

Oh, yeah, and like the welfare crowd would do it, just because it paid decent? Nothing better than being paid to do nothing, in their minds.

[Rembrandt]

“If farmers weren’t “hurting” before - and they are now - then they obviously must have been hiring illegals. And now we’re suppose to cry for them, and feel threatened by the TRAGIC loss of their lousy vegetables.
If you can’t find the labor you want and need for your business, then here’s some free capitalist advice: Go out of business like the failure you are.
—
Currently, I can buy tomatoes for about $2/pound plus what I spend in taxes supporting all the illegal immigrants.

If a lot of the illegal immigrants are gone and, as a result, I spend $3/pound for tomatoes, I think I’ve got a bargain.

If I can do without tomatoes, I have hit a home run, no high priced tomatoes and no wasted health care dollars.

[John Leland 1789]

You are correct.

First, the northern Cal farmers (that is where I grew up and would have gladly picked fruit and vegetables as a teenager or high school graduate) ought to advertise in all the local and regional newspapers for labor. I believe they would get a lot of laborers. Legal laborers.

Second, the state should stay off the backs of young people who want to work, with regard to insurance, workers comp, and so forth.

To divert from agriculture a moment. I graduated from high school when I was 17 years old. I was strong in body and able and willing to work. I had taken sheet metal classes and went to look for work at the lowest scale as a trainee. I filled out a couple of dozen applications. This was 1973. Eight employers called me for interviews. I went to all eight interviews, and could have had my pick of the eight, except, within days of each interview, I was called and informed that California workers compensation wouldn’t cover me because I was only 17. That was the ONLY reason I was never hired!

If I had known that there were jobs in the agricultural sector, I would have gone looking there. I figure, though, that I might have had the same problem with regard to workers comp laws. I am not sure. But I was ignorant of the work force needed in the orchards and fields. I could have learned quickly to pick lettuce from the ground or plums from the trees. I would have been perfectly willing (at age 17 especially) to do that work and try to save some money.

[Hostage]

Lettuce prices will rise but maybe property taxes will come down? I won’t hold my breath for the latter but know for a fact that schools, courts, clinics are jammed by illegals.

The real cost of that cheap lettuce ain’t cheap at all.

[afnamvet]

Don't come crying to government that American laws need to be changed in order to serve you.

Well said.

[Empireoftheatom48]

I think it’s time for Victory Gardens. I grow my own tomatoes herbs, melons, cucumbers, beans, and carrots. In the desert. We all should be able to help our selves!

[KoRn]

THEN GO HIRE SOME PEOPLE!!

I’m sure if the hiring rate is desirable, people will come to work...

[onedoug]

So what?

[Wil H]

Try paying a decent wage and you will find workers that will do the job....

[Colorado Doug]

The problem is that their illegal workers have found better paying jobs and have moved up the ladder.

[VeniVidiVici]

Prisoners.

Pay the State what they would normally pay the illegals to pick and let them use prisoners.

I’m sure Arnold won’t mind.