Just where in my post did I tell you that "you had to like illegals". Just where in my post did I excuse or advocate any farmer or anybody else hire illegals. Point it out to me please.
We don't hire illegals and I don't know a single farmer who does. And we know hundreds of farmers in Texas (have been on their farms) and some in other states as well.
I was trying to explain (and inform people) about the difficulty of finding temporary farm labor. And trying to make the point that it wasn't because they were underpaid but because it's hard, hot, dirty manual work.
Long ago, the illegals discovered they could get easier, more permanent and usually better paying jobs in construction or landscaping in the cities and they began to by-pass the farms. Although construction is also hard work, it beats the "stoop" labor some crops require.
I've spent the evening responding to over a dozen people and have enjoyed the interaction with everybody but you, a person who wants "our crops to die and for us to go bankrupt".
We've been in agribusiness for 50 years. A business which supplies America with cheap and plentiful food. A business which feeds much of the world. Just think what our nation's balance of payments would be if not for our exports from American agriculture. I'm sorry you hold the industry and the people who spend their lives in it in such contempt.
From many of the posts on this thread, it was clear that many people (non-farmers) were ill-informed or had misconceptions about our industry. My many, many replies were an effort to increase understanding. No doubt other farmers could have done a better job. But so be it. I was the one here. Good night.
May GOD bless the American farmer.
(Besides, I don't like starving).