Posted on 03/24/2008 3:39:21 PM PDT by raybbr
CLARKS SUMMIT, Pa. - Saying the nation's immigration system is broken, Pennsylvania's largest grower of fresh-to-market tomatoes announced Monday he will no longer produce the crop because he can't find enough workers to harvest it.
Keith Eckel, 61, a fourth-generation farmer and the owner of Fred W. Eckel Sons Farms, said he saw a dramatic decline last summer in the number of migrant workers who showed up to pick tomatoes at his 2,000-acre farm in northeastern Pennsylvania.
He said Congress' failure to approve comprehensive immigration reform had hindered his ability to hire enough workers to get his crop to the market. Most of Eckel's workers came from Mexico.
"There are a number of workers hesitant to travel, legal or illegal, because of the scrutiny they are now under," said Eckel, whose tomatoes have been shipped to supermarkets and restaurants throughout the eastern United States. "So there are less workers crossing state lines."
Eckel, who planted 2.2 million tomato plants last year, said he also will stop growing pumpkins and plant half as much sweet corn as usual, resulting in a loss of nearly 175 jobs.
Eckel, one of the largest growers of fresh-market tomatoes in the Northeast, said it cost him $1.5 million to $2 million to plant and harvest a tomato crop , too much of an investment to risk not having enough workers at harvest time.
"The system to provide our labor is broken and the emotion surrounding the immigration issue is standing in the way of those in the political arena moving forward to solve it," Eckel told a news conference at his farm in Clarks Summit.
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
He complains about the government, but I don’t see him refusing those farm subsidies.
Keith and Fred Eckel have collected more farm subsidy money than than anyone else in Clarks Summit, Pa from 1995 to 2005. Top two slots, as a matter of fact.
$271,853.49 plus $142,702.39.
I picked tomatoes after the ex dropped me and kids off in TN and took off (that's one reason for being the ex) and I needed money to get back home. My kids helped pick, and they were 7 and 8 1/2 years old. We picked from 6 a.m. until dark. The crews were all US citizens, mostly teenagers and a few older gentlemen, none hispanic.
As kids from about age 12, my brothers and I picked strawberries, peaches, apples, watermelons, cataloupes, detassled corn, and bucked bales during summer break-whatever work we could get. I milked 75 cows for an elderly farmer who couldn't do it anymore my last 2 years in high school-before and after school. That included cleaning tanks, rounding up the cows, feeding the cows, etc. One brother put himself through college cleaning tanks in a cheese factory. My job was cushy compared to his.
And, I'm female.
If folks in this country get hungry enough, they will work. Until then...well, I don't know what to think about our spoiledness anymore.
I didn't find that in the article. He claims he can't find workers, not he could not pay them enough.
But at some point, the doesn't pay to plant if you have to pay wages to don't leave you any profits
You're familiar with the old adage: "Necessity is the mother of invention"? Well, robotics and mechanical solutions are in the works for a whole lot of harvests where it was previously deemed impossible.
I recall seeing a "Modern Marvels" on harvesting equipment, where they brought up the topic of illegal immigration, and migrant worker shortages, and how they were driving innovation.
I'll take a little higher price for tomatoes or whatever in the short term while the farmers and farm equipment mfg's, improvise, adapt and overcome. Rather than rely on cheap slave (illegal) labor.
Bingo! We have a winner!
Nailed that right on the head. That used to be considered the traditional student job.
You would think the 4H groups would be leveraged for harvesting.
Ever grow tomatoes? It’s about the most labor intensive crop on the face of the earth. A neighbor of mine grows thirty acres. He has to employ around fifteen people to manage the crop over about three months. That’s just for thirty acres! Too much water, too little water, too much sun, too little sun, cracking, blistering, bugs, fungus, and picking from each plant when the fruits are just right is endless. He drives a truck load of around 2000lbs to markets in Chicago from July thru September almost every day. Good summer job for college kids. $8.00 per hour.
Well, another generation and the kids of those illegals won’t do it. The work ethic is an endangered species. Thanks for picking strawberries and cukes. While my work was labor-intensive, it was at least nice and cool. Harvest back then didn’t start until at least one good frost had killed the vines. Then it was breakneck speed to harvest before a killer frost got down to the potatoes themselves. I understand things have changed since then, with potatoes being harvested earlier in order to cut down the bruising that increases with the cold. I know it increased our bruises.
I remember (boy am I getting nostalgic) one year in high school when I returned to school after three weeks on a combine. I became close with an adult woman on my crew and one evening I was doing a Candy Striper shift at our hospital when I saw her in the emergency room. She was lying on a gurney, holding a wad of cloth on her hand. She smiled when she saw me and then whipped off the bandage to show me her index finger now an inch shorter than that morning. Combines were dangerous to fingers. More than once a glove would be ripped off or torn, just missing fingers. She said she got careless.
Life was tough back then but the people were even tougher.
“Why doesn’t he use the same harvesting machines we use in California?”
High tech farm equipment costs BIG $. Insurance & maintenance is a huge chunk of chump change. Repairs can run one out of business. However, it is more cost effective to just pay a bunch of unauthorized immigrants less than survival wages and save on the aforementioned expenses, not to mention insurance on the workers themselves. When unauthorized immigrants brake down, just send them off to the emergency room, (so WE have to pick up the tab), and hire new expendables to perpetuate the cycle.
Very true, but you are the one who started it thinking it was cute or an intelligent way to dialog instead of having a reasonable conversation without personal attacks.
It is too much to ask the people who represent us to act in reasonable and sensible fashion when it comes to protecting our borders?
I for one, think not. It's their job.
Yes, I do feel better knowing that I am an adult and don't have to lower myself anymore to your personal attacks and I do think amnesty is a non starter for what it's worth.
If you want to help this man get inexpensive workers, lobby to eliminate welfare, food stamps, and other relief for able-bodied people. He will end up with tons of Americans willing to work for him.
No problem - who wants tomatoes that taste like wet cardboard.
Tar and feathers anyone????
Stop buying their clothes. They'll suddenly have a new attitude. :-)
That works for me.
Get rid of welfare and I’ll bet he’ll get all the workers he needs.
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