Farm workers found living in Calif. cherry orchard

[Kadie]

Farm workers found living in Calif. cherry orchard

Saturday, May 10, 2008


(05-10) 13:49 PDT SHAFTER, CA (AP) --

Farm labor organizers say they have discovered more than 100 migrant fruit pickers living in a Central Valley cherry orchard where they have been sleeping outdoors and bathing in drainage ditches.

United Farm Workers representatives say they found the men, women and teenagers camping in the orchards west of Shafter on Thursday.

Union organizer Armando Elenes says many of the workers traveled from Washington state at the request of Wenatchee, Washington-based Stemilt Growers Inc.

The company denies involvement, but public records show that a partner in the company owns the land.

The workers are upset at being evicted because they say they have no money to rent rooms.


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/05/10/state/n134934D62.DTL&tsp=1

[fullofdrama]

1. Good idea

Gotta love that $0 a month rent. Hehe. I'd do it.

[seemslikeadream]

5. Would you really?

[Richard Steele]

7. It would be a lateral move...

Since this one already lives under a bridge, if ya knowhutImean...:eyes:

[Webster Green]

8. Indeed!

And, he's getting ready to order pizza. :rofl:

[Quantess]

10. Pizza is here!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=user_profiles&u_id=220353
:party:

Thanks, mods!

[seemslikeadream]

9. damn I'm a little bored

I wanted a little amusement

[Richard Steele]

11. Too late to have any fun with that one:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=user_profiles&u_id=220353
"He's dead, Jim."

[seemslikeadream]

13. fullofdrama was fullofshit

[RedCappedBandit]

24. ROFL!!!

Nice graphic! Hahaha.

[nadinbrzezinski]

36. You have NO CLUE what you are talking about

[rubberducky]

2. Unless you`ve actually seen how badly migrant workers are treated you wouldn`t believe it.

I treat my animals better.

[Two Americas]

41. that is misleading

Blanket statements as to "how badly migrant workers are treated" are not helpful. I work with immigrants and farm workers. The way people are treated by the authorities and by locals away from the farm are the biggest problems I hear about. There are good employers and bad employers, just as in any industry. Labor laws should be enforced no matter what the industry or who the employees are. With the chronic shortage of workers, small farmers are competing for workers. More and more immigrants are settling down and are being integrated into the farming communities - sending their kids to college, buying homes.

Talking about "how immigrants are treated" and comparing that to how we treat pets is condescending and racist. Or did you mean the Russian and Polish and Hungarian immigrants working in agriculture as well? How workers of all kinds are being treated in this country is a disgrace. Immigrants are organizing and fighting back - which is more than you can say for most native born people.

Harvesting crops is a stepping stone for people. Until the 70's dust bowl refugees were still doing that work. The work must be done if we are going to feed the population. Money is tight, because the money is being drained out of farming and out of the farming communities by the corporations.

[Gman]

3. At least they had cabins with no running water

in The Grapes Of Wrath.

[eleny]

4. I was looking forward to cherry season this year

Now, not so much. Not that I want to deny the pickers their livelihood. But I won't purchase them without remembering this story.

[knitter4democracy]

14. Michigan cherries are better anyway.

;)

Migrant workers' living conditions are inspected quite often here. I'm not saying they're treated great (I've seen the cabins and trailers), but I can't imagine this going on that long here. Granholm takes that stuff seriously, as do people who live in the area.

[Two Americas]

18. thanks

:hug:

Granholm has a deaf ear to the plight of the cherry growers in Michigan - I have spent hundreds of hours on this. We are going to lose the entire industry of several hundred small family growers. Everyone is struggling. There are bad employers among the growers, of course, just as in any industry, but they can't afford to mistreat the workers because the labor shortage is just too desperate.

[knitter4democracy]

27. We do our part every year to keep you guys in business.

When Hubby and I got married, we had our honeymoon in Pentwater at the height of cherry season. On the way to the cabin, we stopped at a farm stand (the one on the first exit off of 31--I love that place!), and I asked him how many pounds of cherries to get. He told me that he didn't like cherries. I was shocked! I couldn't understand how I could have married anyone who didn't like cherries! Turned out he'd never had fresh sweet cherries, and we ended up eating many pounds on that trip. So, every year, I hit a local farm and buy pounds and pounds. We're still going through last year's freezer jam, too.

I'm all about Michigan produce. I've travelled, I've lived in Ohio, and nothing beats Michigan produce. Nothing. We're getting asparagus right now from a farm not far from the Tekonsha office (is it just me, or are the farmers really not raising their prices much?), and we're getting everything set for canning and freezing season. I need to get out the dehydrator, too. I'm going to try cherries this year, since I buy dried Michigan cherries (only kind to eat!) in bulk. The kids eat those like candy.

[Two Americas]

28. that is great

Michigan has the most diverse agriculture of any state: first, second or third ranking for apples, strawberries, blueberries, sweet cherries, asparagus, sugar beets and bunch of other crops. And of course, world leader for tart cherries. Michigan has more roadside stands and farm markets than any other state. Agriculture is the second most important industry in the state after you-know-what lol. I sound like the tourism bureau now.

Michigan ag is still dominated by thousands of small family farms, and they are notorious for not asking enough for their produce.

Check out Herb and Liz Teichman's place in Eau Claire this year if you get a chance. They have over 300 heirloom apple varieties growing there.

Drying your own cherries will work. Montmorencies are best, Balatons work good too - dark sweet cherries are pretty bland when dried in my opinion. The ones you are buying in bulk (from Smeltzer Orchards I am guessing) are Montmorency tarts.

[knitter4democracy]

32. Damn straight--best produce in the country.

I might be a little biased. ;)

I head down to Eau Claire at least once a season, often twice. They have amazing peaches. They also have the variety of winesaps I love, which hardly anyone does anymore.

My go-to place for apples and peaches is Schwartz's Fruitridge Farm in Mattawan (great Honeycrips, good peaches, bison, too). I just found Harrisons Orchard in Albion last year, and I was shocked at their low prices. Last year being a bad apple year, everyone had doubled their prices but for Harrisons, so we went back twice more to stock up. I still didn't dry enough for my kids, and Hubby has already offered to help do double the amount of apple pie filling we canned last year.

I'm a bit obsessed with apples (have an entire page on local apple info I keep in my planner--why, doesn't everyone?), but we do our best to buy as much locally as possible. I found a great farm south of Vicksburg with pesticide-free blueberries that I'm going to try this year, since I got some of her free-range eggs and Finn-Cross wool and fell in love with her stuff.

Mmmm. Strawberry season's coming up soon! That means jam and fruit leather. Then, early tomatoes for canning and eating, cherries for drying and jam and eating by the pound, summer veggies, peaches, apricots, plums, and then my apple season (Honeycrisps, Jonathans, Galas, Mutsus, Winesaps with a few others thrown in, too). It's going to be a busy summer with all the canning, freezing, and drying. I've got to get my asparagus for freezing this week and get the deep freezer ready for the freezing season and another half a bison from either AJ's Bison Ranch or Schwartz's.

You know what kills me? I know people who live here who don't eat much local produce. Most of them are transplants and just don't know what-all we have, but some of them are born-and-bred Michiganders! Blows my mind. I about died from withdrawal when we were first married and living in Cleveland--couldn't find Michigan produce anywhere, and I don't eat Washington apples or California cherries.

[Two Americas]

38. you know your apples

Mutsu and Honeycrisp are both spectacular apples, aren't they? Jonathon and Winesap are starting to disappear, unfortunately. Some of my favorites: Knobbed Russet, Ashmede's Kernel, Grimes Golden, Cox's Orange Pippin, Arkansas Black, White Winter Pearmain, Fameuse (Snow), Spitzenberg, Blue Pearmain, Tolman Sweet, Golden Russet, Belle de Boskoop, Ribston Pippin, Winter Banana.

[knitter4democracy]

39. I agree with all of those--harder to find, unfortunately.

I love a good winesap, but I've had the dickens of a time finding the variety I fell in love with when we lived in Cleveland (small orchard on the east side with great apples--how I survived that place, frankly). Harrisons and Schwartz's both have Jonathans and Jonagolds, which we like.

Pippins of any variety are really good. I've had Golden Russets, and I love the depth of the flavor. I've had Boskoop before, too, and liked that. Heck, any apple with depth of flavor and a bit of tang gets my vote.

I actually found a winesap sapling at our local Big Lots this spring for $13.50 and snapped it up. It's now in a place of honor in our yard and getting babied. I know it'll be years before we have apples, but I figure any winesap is worth saving.

[Two Americas]

40. that's great

Most apple varieties are not self-fertile and need another variety nearby for cross-pollination. If you get trees on dwarfing rootstock they will come into bearing much sooner. There is another variety - Stayman - that is called "Stayman Winesap" and also a "Turley Winesap" but they don't compare well with Winesap itself. I should have mentioned Northern Spy, Newtown Pippin and Rhode Island Greening - the best cooking varieties, and all three are disappearing now. Hey, I am excited that you recognized those varieties I mentioned. More good old varieties - Smokehouse, Maiden Blush, Strawberry Chenango, Westfield Seek-no-further, Gravenstein, Pomme Grise, Calville Blanc. Swiss Gourmet and Macoun are newer ones - great fresh eaters.

Jonagold is a great variety, but since it doesn't color up real well it flopped with the buyers and sadly trees are being pulled out everywhere. There are some high color sports, but they don't have the flavor of the original sport. The best Jonagolds I have ever eaten were from right down in your area.

The best varieties have a balance between tart and sweet, with a syrupy or wine-like aftertaste.

I have documented some 800 varieties of fruit in northern Michigan, and you are right that many locals, especially transplants, have no idea what is right under their noses.

[knitter4democracy]

43. I don't like Turleys as well, sadly.

That's all I can find in our area. When I asked the orchard owner which variety of Winesap, he said it was just winesap. *sigh* I might have to go down to visit the in-laws (they're not that far from the orchard) and get a couple of bushels this year.

I've had Macouns, and I love Northern Spies for baking. Gravensteins are good, too. Like I said, I'm an apple fiend. It's nice to find someone else who is, too, since most of my friends think I'm insane during apple season. They fight for my homecanned apple pie filling, though (last year's Mutsu/Turley Winesap batch turned out quite well).

You're saying I'm going to lose my Jonagolds?! Dangit! Why is it that every apple I like gets ripped out for freakin' Red Delicious crap?!

I would love, love, love to read your work on apple varieties and where you found them. I'm constantly trying to find new orchards that have the varieties I'm looking for (especially winesaps!).

[Edweird]

6. They live cheap to save money.

They are only here to make a quick buck and go back home.
Here's a thought; maybe we could pay Americans a decent wage to do the job and solve two problems at once.

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. How much are you willing to pay for cherries?

[Edweird]

15. I don't give a crap about the price of cherries. They will cost whatever they cost.

Americans need jobs. We are in a depression (or soon will be) and having desperately needed jobs filled by people driving wages down to third world levels and then removing those wages from circulation is terribly terribly wrong. If you don't see the problem with this, don't worry, you will. No matter what you do (or your children or grandchildren - don't think just because you are retired you won't feel the pain) there is somebody figuring out a way to give your job to someone that will work for a fraction of the cost. Then you will be stuck with third world wages and first world bills. Just like some of us peons (aka blue collar workers) have been outraged about for a while now.

See here for an example:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3268993&mesg_id=3268993

[Two Americas]

17. don't be ridiculous

We all have a responsibility to keep food prices within reach of everyone. "I don't give a crap about the price" of food is a selfish and irresponsible statement. Farmers are under all sorts of restrictions and regulations, all for the purpose of keeping food costs to the public as low as possible. Food is not some manufactured widget - "oh well it will cost whatever it costs." There is a huge lead time, an enormous investment, an enormous regulatory burden. It is food we are producing. Come help us. We will put you to work. There is no glamor, no status, no security and no guarantees - all of the things that sp=oiled Americans look for in a career. The rewards are different, the kinds of rewards that disconnected and self-centered modern Americans no longer value or appreciate.

Farm work is seasonal work, hard work. It doesn't lead to anything except more farming. Native born people do not want to farm, they are not interested in farm work at any level. There is a chronic shortage of managers, and of owners. There is no way to raise the price that farmers get for their crop, and that is a fraction of what the consumer pays - less than a dime on the dollar according to one estimate I saw recently. That means that for every dollar you pay for food, the farmer gets a dime.

Development pushing up land prices, fuel prices, competition from unregulated imports - that is the problem, and that is why very few make decent money at farming no matter where they are from or what their skills are.

Jobs are not being taken away from Americans. Any person who wants a career in farming, I will tell them exactly how to do it - we desperately need people. But there are no "jobs" in the sense that corporations offer jobs. There is no career you can just walk into. Everyone scrambles in farming, and everyone starts at the bottom, and it is all hard and unpredictable and dangerous work. We can't keep the local kids working for us - they will go work at McDonald's for less money - let alone get unemployed people from the city to come work. Of course, the city is a long ways away. Why? because the price of land close to the city is too high to farm.

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. Well you SHOULD give a crap about food prices

As for my job, I was smart and went to college. I teach school. So I have better job security than 99% of the working population.

Normally I don't post this but your reply is just so nasty. I can remember when I was in college I had friends who quit school and went to work at "blue collar" jobs and 30 years later, most of them are unemployed or underemployed. So the one time I did listen to my parents and stayed in school was one of the smartest things I ever did.

It's about choices. You chose to be a peon. I chose to have a career. And no it wasn't easy. I literally starved while going to school. By the time I graduated, I was married and pregnant. By the time I started my career, I was nearly 30 and in debt up to my eyeballs.

I now teach the children of the undocumented. They are human beings who deserve to be treated with compassion, not derision.

[Rage for Order]

20. I guess Edweird should've "pulled himself up by his bootstraps" like you did

Did it ever occur to you that the "blue collar peon" jobs you're referring to, like construction work for example, used to pay very well prior to the wages of the construction industry being undermined by the deluge of cheap, illegal labor?Not that long ago ago a carpenter or mason could raise a family on the prevailing wages of their craft. Not anymore. The constant flow of illegal aliens continues to drive down the wages of jobs across a variety of blue collar industries. Apparently you're okay with that though, because "you got yours", and you have better job security than 99% of the working population.

[proud2BlibKansan]

21. As an educator, I encourage people to get an education

I had many friends who chose to take those "blue collar" jobs instead of going to college. And they have gone through layoffs, company bankruptcies, work slowdowns and stoppages, weather that prevents them from working, etc. The difficulties of maintaining work in a "blue collar" job did not begin when undocumented workers entered the work force. It is a hard way to make a living and they knew that going into it.

This isn't about me pulling myself up by my bootstraps, it's about choices. Choices that were available to all of us when I was in college. And choices I fight to restore today. I am far more concerned about the lack of student loans and financial aid and vocational programs for students than I am about blue collar workers losing their jobs. The writing for them has been on the wall for as long as I have been in the work force. The smart blue collar workers are trained in other professions as well. I have taught school with more than a few carpenters and masons. They also made a choice to get an education. Now they are coming back to teaching. I also know a few nurses who went to nursing school while they worked as plumbers and carpenters. My cousin is a doctor who worked his way through school as a mechanic. And he made less money as a doctor when he first started. Now his job as a mechanic is in an assembly plant that went out of business a long time ago.

We have advised our kids to be trained in more than one occupation. And as an educator, I always promote education. That's pretty much a no-brainer.

[Rage for Order]

23. We both agree that education is important

However, not everyone is college material. What happens when too many people decide it's no longer worth it to learn a craft such as plumbing, carpentry, masonry, or electrical work? It's hard enough for working families to get by in America. Asking people to learn two or three unrelated skills to guard against possible downturns in their chosen profession, while also working full-time so they can provide for their family, seems to be a bit much.

[Two Americas]

37. the ethic of self sacrifice

Just as most of our ancestors did, immigrants seek to make sure their children have a future and get an education. Farm work here is the path - the only path open to illiterate impoverished indigenous people - to educate their children, send money home to care for their parents, bring medicine and other benefits to their villages, and for an increasing number to own homes here and even their own farm.

There is education and then there is education. A higher and higher percentage of farmers are now college graduates, but that education may not be what you are talking about. The notion that we can all be, or all want to be white collar workers or corporate cubicle rats - the main point of higher education too often today: status and security - is foolhardy and unrealistic.

I am glad that we still have people who can drill a well, prune a tree, build an irrigation ditch, repair a tractor, and do all of the other invisible jobs that we take for granted and that keep everyone fed while they get that education and pursue that professional career. I am glad there are still those who take risks rather than playing it safe.

[roody]

22. A quick buck?!

Have you ever done farm work for the wages they make?

[Edweird]

25. No, but I've watched wages in my industry (construction) get decimated by transients

and drive living wages down to fast food levels. For what?

[roody]

26. For the rich to get richer, and the poor to stay poor.

[knitter4democracy]

33. It's freakin' hard work. It's no quick buck, that's for sure.

Here in Michigan, we're getting more and more farm workers bringing their families to live. I say the more the merrier. Everyone I've met is hard-working, nice, and they do their level-best to treat their kids right. Good people.

I've done farm work. Have you? It's damn hard work. Back-breaking work, and that's not a figurative statement. Most migrant workers follow the crops while trying to keep from getting hurt and staying alive to work the next crop. It's hard work, and they deserve good treatment and respect.

[Two Americas]

16. misleading and inflammatory

I have slept in orchards often, and many people do when working or traveling from farm to farm. If you were traveling through - say as a pruner or a beekeeper or a seasonal worker or just as a visitor - and wanted to camp in the orchard overnight, we would of course say yes. How would you like the cops showing up and hassling you for that? These men wanted to take the temporary work for a few days, make as much money as they could, and have the least expenses possible. There is very little income in farming - that is set up that way so that all of us can have affordable food. No one (very few) live high on the hog or compares farming to a corporate job. Immigrants in the Northwest are the fastest going group of new farm owners - and we desperately need new farm owners - and that is what they are working toward in many cases. More power to them. Everyone starts on the bottom in farming and works their ass off. We have people here complaining about the price of food on the one had, and then decrying supposedly substandard wage - $120 a day in this case - to workers who are acting as free agents and trying to get ahead. You can't have it both ways, and if a handful of corporate giants were not controlling the whole food system, and if the right wingers were not destroying and dismantling the pubic infrastructure, we could all make a decent living at farming AND people could still get cheap, safe food. There is no free lunch here, people.

The link is not to the original article, and the origanal article gives a distinctly different impression than the summary does.

From the original article:

About 60 pickers who had gathered beneath a shade tree in the cherry orchard’s center around 11 a.m. shouted they wanted to return to work in peace. “See these hands?” asked Jesus Romero, 42, as he held his battered skin out for inspection. “It means a good worker.”

<snip>

Three cruisers from the Sheriff’s Department circled the fruit trees Friday, responding to a call from a project manager concerned about angry workers, Senior Deputy Don Wiggins said.

The deputies found no trouble.

The Romero cousins just wanted to return to work Monday.

“Pure work,” Juan Manuel Romero said.

http://www.bakersfield.com/hourly_news/story/440612.html

[knitter4democracy]

35. Amen to all of that.

I've heard much the same thing from fellow students in my school growing up.

[Anarchy in Detroit]

29. They're taking all of our good jobs! Damn foreigners!

that sucks

[Two Americas]

30. yeah

All of the corporate management jobs in the country are dominated now by illiterate indigenous peasants from tiny villages in Central America. They are taking over everything. I don't know what is going to happen to white people.

[Anarchy in Detroit]

31. I know! I was planning on being a fruit picker/janitor!!!

haaaa

[knitter4democracy]

34. Hey, fellow Michigander!

:hi:

Many of those "damn foreigners" are bringing their families here, becoming citizens, and staying here in Michigan, though. Drive through Hart and Shelby up north or Lawrence or any small town on the western side of the state. You'll find neighborhoods that are mostly Latino with hard-working, good people living there.

[Xithras]

42. Migrants live near the fields...this is not news or new.

I live in the Central Valley (waay north of Shafter, but the same overall ag region). I could take you to three different migrants campsites within 30 minutes of my own house if you wanted to see them. For the most part, the migrant workers prefer living this way...it's cheap and allows them to send more money back home.

Keep in mind that these are highly mobile populations. A group might be picking grapes outside of Fresno one week, be working the tomato rows outside of Sacramento two weeks later, be up in the Willammette in Oregon a month after that, etc. It's not exactly like they can rent an apartment for a week, and they'd be losing money if they bought hotel rooms (not to mention that it's pretty much impossible to rent a hotel room in California these days without showing ID).

When I was a kid, we had dorms that these guys could rent for a few nights, but most of those have shut down because the migrant workers themselves don't want to pay for them...even at just a couple bucks a day. Especially with gas prices the way they are, no farmworker wants to spend money to sleep in a camp, and then have to drive 20-45 minutes to reach their worksites every day (the Central Valley is HUGE). Most would rather just park their car in a nearby orchard or alongside a canal or river for the night.

[knitter4democracy]

44. Many are bringing their families to Michigan, though.

They get a home in a more central location in SW Michigan, and then they follow the crops, starting with asparagus in spring (it's wonderful this year, too!). The workers, though, often do stay closer to the fields, that's true.

[KamaAina]

45. Bathing in drainage ditches?!

:puke: :puke: :puke:

Oh joy. Cherries are supposed to be good for me, the season is coming up -- and guess who the dominant supplier is out here?!

[knitter4democracy]

46. See if you can find Michigan cherries.

They're better. :)

[KamaAina]

47. In Hawai'i?

As my grandfather, Scots on both sides, would have said, "I hae me doots!"

[knitter4democracy]

48. You never know.

We ship all over, from what I hear. At least the good dried cherries from here--those would make the trip okay.