U.S. Farmers can't find enough workers to pick crops

[BOSSHOG]

Just heard on NPR this morning. Well this will just outrage the patriotic conservative community when their favorite crops start rotting in the field. Surely all will be Clinton's fault.

[Birthmark]

1. I can offer them advice

Increase the wages they pay. It's sound economics.

[MadHound]

26. That's nice and all,

But the problem is that the farmers can't correspondingly pass that cost onto the consumer. And extra wages that are paid come out of their profit, which is razor thin to begin with. Thus, away goes the farmer's profit, and then away goes the farmer. Until we have meaningful agricultural reform that allows the farmer to pass on these sorts of costs, all that's going to happen is that more and more small farmers will get squeezed out of the busniness, leaving farming in the tender hands of corporate America. And we see how well that's working out.

Tell you what, are you willing to pay the farmer what it takes to raise those wages?

[Le Taz Hot]

2. This is big ag's way of scaring

us into allowing more undocumented workers. It amazes me that so many "liberals" fall for this one.

[BOSSHOG]

4. What would be the solution then?

Tap into the vast reserve (wink, wink) of Americans who will take those jobs? Ensure those crossing the border are documented? Stop farming? Mechanize the process (that's what the crux of the story was)? Big Ag doesn't want to pay Americans more money for doing the job and yet there is a move on in the country to keep out those who will work for less. What, praytell is the solution? The facts are rather transparent. I don't know what I fell for.

[xchrom]

10. just move the farms to mexico -- problem solved!

[sybylla]

14. The problem is - we let our food be traded as a commodity

not sold for the cost of production and handling. So a farmer can pay high wages for picking the vegatables, but if they can't recoup that cost on the giant gamble that is the commodities market, they lose.

This is an economic problem, not the problem of "greedy farmers" who refuse to pay decent wages. Yeah, it is a way of scaring us. But there's more than one way to skin a cat and immigration is only one. I would like to think the result is to scare us into looking at better ways to get food to market rather than letting ourselves be distracted by those old Republican rattles they're shaking before our eyes to distract us.

[Norquist Nemesis]

25. Ding ding ding!!

That the farmers do not get to set the price is something that rarely, if ever, comes into the "debate". It's not the farmers that are setting the prices.

[MadHound]

27. Perhaps, but it also Big Ag's way of driving out even more small farmers.

Big Ag can absorb these sorts of costs, but the same will drive the small farmer under.

[panader0]

3. "Prick crops"?

Sorry, Boss, I couldn't help it. LOL

[Double T]

5. Sounds like an 'amnesty' ploy to me. Perhaps there are NOT enough agricultural workers.......

because the American construction and trades jobs are MORE attractive, specially the pay.

[qwlauren35]

6. This troubles me.

I don't think it's as simple as increasing wages for crop harvesters. Increased wages mean increased costs of produce. Increased costs of US produce send grocery chains, livestock vendors and users of corn for sweeteners to seek cheaper food from overseas, and/or to pass on higher food costs to consumers. Food prices go up, and Americans get annoyed. And, as we know, those already making only minimum wage will be hard pressed to afford food if prices go up, and we increase hunger issues, or issue more food stamps.

I saw the article about "Illegal Employers", and I'm not convinced that farmers fall into this category of those getting *rich* from hiring illegal aliens.

That's why I want to see data. I won't pretend that I have any solutions. But I'm not convinced that increasing wages solves EVERYTHING.

[Cobalt Violet]

7. Pay higher wages.

I know plenty of people who have taken shittier jobs because they paid more.

[valerief]

8. Maybe they all left with the bees. nt

[PsN2Wind]

9. Sorry Chief

But if out of the 11 or 12 million illegals (estimated, probably underestimated)in the country now, there are not enough to harvest the crops, it becomes evident that stoop labor is just a stepping stone to those jobs citizens will do.

[BOSSHOG]

12. Interesting

On the story this morning someone they interviewed suggested that the lack of farm hands was a recent phenomenon and tied it to success in keeping illegal aliens out of the country. They also suggested that mechanization of the tasks might be the solution. I still do not believe the line that "they" are taking jobs away from Americans, when the jobs we are referring to are lettuce picking and motel cleaning. I'll spot you the hiring of Mexican day laborers on the gulf coast in construction jobs; however, they aren't hiring themselves. Your point definitely has merit, but I'm wondering where one finds the education and skills to move up the employment ladder while laboring in a produce field.

I recall a T-Shirt in the French Quarter - FEMA - FIND EVERY MEXICAN AVAILABLE.

[PsN2Wind]

15. I'm a Gringo Chief, that worked as a roofer

for about 15 years. Pretty good pay and it didn't require much more than a willingness to do heavy, dirty and somewhat dangerous work. Of course that was when Tucson had union shops. Now there is very little construction done in Arizona by people like me because the illegal workers have undercut the compensation. The current workers are making less or little more than I was as a journeyman roofer when I got out of the trade in 1980.
And the story that keeping out illegals meant there are not enough farm workers, I believe, only supports my contention that those jobs are only stepping stones. If not, what are those 11 or 12 million already in the country doing?

[BOSSHOG]

16. Fair Enough My Friend

"Illegal workers have undercut the compensation." Did they hire themselves? Are not employers culpable? What jobs, from a produce field, does one step up to? Are they going to school to learn skills and what skills would they be? Not being contentious here but I'm extremely underwhelmed by conservative rationale. You may want to checkout Underpants post in this thread. Interesting.

[PsN2Wind]

17. I've always advocated going after those that offer the jobs

The ICE wouldn't have to tear up the licenses of very many contractors or other employers before they would see the error of their ways.
You refer to my take on illegal immigration as "conservative rationale" but I volunteer with some of the most liberal people you'll find in Southern Arizona and you'll find little support for amnesty among them. Of course those of us near the border pay a disproportionate share of the cost of educating, medicating and incarcerating illegals so the problem isn't abstract for us, it is a reality we live with daily.

[BOSSHOG]

24. Sorry

I did not mean to infer that. You are not a fake patriot flag waver who thinks(someone else should)kill those who cross our border. Those who choose not to pick lettuce also choose to enable those who hire the illegals, their logic escapes me. Since Katrina we have been flooded (literally) with undocumenteds (Mississippi and Louisiana) and I really do not believe the existing population could provide the manpower for the building projects going on now. I am not for amnesty either, but seemingly our policy is giving amnesty to those who hire, because they know they can get away with it, just as the illegals know they can find employment here.

[curlyred]

28. "the illegal workers have undercut the compensation"???

Those evil illegals, hiring and paying themselves. What will they use their superpowers for next?
Typical knee jerk reaction. Demonize the illegal immigrant and immunize the employer.

[underpants]

11. ABC News reported something like this a few years ago

Security at one particular border crossing was beefed up (uniform INS official) and suddenly the lettuce wasn't being picked. Normally a crew of 25 was needed to pick the lettuce and about $1,000,000 per acre was made but now crews were only 16 deep and money was being lost. The "Western Growers Association" called the people they own in DC and got the guard pulled off the crossing and they stopped checking every single truck and WALLAAA problem solved.

[BOSSHOG]

13. So might I surmise from your research

tht conservatives are full of shit when they blather on about how "they" are taking "our" jobs? And I've yet to find a case where an illegal alien hired himself.

[underpants]

18. Yyyyyyyyeppers

:thumbsup:

[rodeodance]

21. lots of stories like that all over America.

[libodem]

19. maybe the farmers can use some criminals?

They could pick crops like those old movies where they have chain-gangs. They could spread them out tree to tree in ankle irons. Then if one falls out they will all be drug to the ground. If they run off they can screw the farmers daughter and run off with the silver. And by god none of the bambinos in Mexico will be getting any of THOSE American dollars. Heaven forbid a poor family should profit off that $5.00 an hour for backbreaking labor. :sarcasm:

[rodeodance]

20. Lots of fruit crops----berries reotted in the fields last summer also.

[bunkerbuster1]

22. They're offering $50/hour, right?

this is exactly what McCain predicted!

http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/13/ldt.01.html

My friends, I'll offer anybody here $50 an hour if you'll go pick lettuce in Yuma this season and pick for whole season. So -- OK?

Sign up. OK. When you sign up -- you sign up, and you'll be there for the whole season. The whole season, OK? Not just one day. Because you can't do it, my friend. Sign up.

[w4rma]

23. Subsidize the wages until the market corrects itself. (nt)