Posted on 04/07/2020 10:53:48 PM PDT by zeestephen
On March 26, the State Department announced that the applications of new and returning farm and non-farm seasonal workers would be immediately expedited by waiving requirements for most visa applicants to be interviewed...Clearly the Department of Agriculture is pleased to deliver the cheap labor that U.S. growers have become accustomed to, rather than adopting farm modernization trends used successfully in the rest of the developed world...The number of visa issuances to H-2 guestworkers has more than doubled in the last decade, from 103,324 in 2010 to 280,183 in 2018.
(Excerpt) Read more at cis.org ...
Cuz abortion in the USA is killing off large pieces of "the next generation".
I think it is a bit early, for your article’s title.
Have you ever tried hiring someone for hard physical labor? How many fellow citizens will pick crops? Especially with helicopter money flowing down.
Always a moronic response. I have seen it so many times. Bush used to put it "they are doing the jobs Americans don't want to do"
But what you and he actually mean is they are doing the Americans don't want to do at the current wage scale. If you can't get workers at the wages you are offering, you have to increase the wages. If you increase the wages, you either increase prices or efficiency.
...Or you import illegals.
Re: How many fellow citizens will pick crops?
More than you think.
USA agricultural and ranch workers have been 50%-60% Green Cards or citizens for at least two decades.
The most important issue for me is the total failure of USA fresh fruit and vegetable farmers to invest in expert software and labor saving devices.
US Chamber of Commerce, among others, are proud of you. GG. /s
Sure it’s magic. The grower just happens to have some inefficiencies he has never bothered with and of course people will pay more. Makes you wonder why we don’t have $20/hr minimum wage. It will drive efficiency increases and increase selling prices.
Higher wages will help attract labor but higher prices drive off customers. Some products cannot support higher wages.
We are the rest of the developed world. This bitch has never been outside her own zip code.
“She is frequently cited in news media reports on immigration, and has appeared on NPR, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and PBS’s NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.”
Adequate qualifications for constant ridicule and shame.
Take for instance when Ike initiated Operation Wetback. Because of this there were no tomato pickers. Well instead of letting them rot on the vine, someone invented a picker.
In Europe/Italy there are automated gathers for almonds to grapes to olives. The American producer falls short in utilizing these machines
Bingo. Not using time and manpower saving equipment that is on the market, they would rather flood the fields with wets.
We are going to have to follow the money to get to the answer for why.
BS. Americans will work if they are paid market wages.
Funny thing how all the economic experts on Fee Republic throw out all of their precious free market theory when it comes to labor. Then they use all kinds of justification to bend and break all the rules.
Big corporate “farmers” ( slavers ) are nothing but punk human traffickers.
Free Traitor™ propaganda because fruit and veggies are not in that group. You do realize that cost of picking and packing fruit is a tiny part of the price the final consumer pays. Even if Americans picked it we are talking pennies on the dollar.
The labor is not cheap if you add in the disease, crimes, drunk driving with no insurance or license, no questions asked welfare benefits for both them and the Americans made unemployed, police and jail costs, emergency rooms overflowing with non-emergencies, and most of them overstaying their visas for years. But the taxpayers pay for all that, not the farmers, and big government loves hiring more Democrats to manage the imported disaster. You would think America learned a hard lesson from the last time slave labor was imported.
I’ve said for years that “paying more” in some industries isn’t the solution it is made out to be. The seasonal/cyclical nature of the work in these industries makes it almost impossible to fill these positions with American workers at any wage. I know a few people who abandoned their careers as electricians and telecom technicians in the construction industry after the last recession because they couldn’t stand the instability of the work. You couldn’t get them back even for $500/hour right now.
I’ve seen large apple orchards in upstate New York where every tree was cut down and replaced with a new sapling. I asked a local business owner about it, and he explained that it’s a labor-saving move. Someone figured out that a 5-6 foot tall apple tree grows almost the same number of apples as a full-size tree, so they just let them grow to the smaller height before pruning them constantly so it’s easier to pick the apples with fewer workers.
And after all, these corporate farms are all about net profit. To hell with America and its people. The government also likes this arrangement because it puts jobs out of reach for people and keeps them on the dole.
There is a piece of machinery that will shake the apples loose, wind row them and then pick them up in one pass.
Same with oranges, limes, and peaches.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.