Thread: Rotting pear crop illustrates farmers' plight

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Rotting pear crop illustrates farmers' plight
Issue Date: September 13, 2006

By Kate Campbell
Assistant Editor


Lake County pear grower Toni Scully surveys fruit loss in her Scotts Valley orchard due to a lack of harvest labor. Workers for her growing and packing operations were down by as much as 50 percent to 75 percent during this summer's harvest. Lake and Mendocino county pear orchards are a hopscotch of ruin--some blocks have been harvested, others have been abandoned. Orchard floors are littered with pears turning to mush.

Packinghouse operators say only the very best fruit is being packed and sent to market, harvested by skeleton crews in the worst local labor shortage in memory.

Although consumers won't notice much difference in the supermarket, it's estimated this year's severe labor shortage will result in about 10,000 tons of pears being overripe and dumped.

"It's really sad," said Toni Scully, a pear grower and co-owner of Scully Packing in Scotts Valley. "It's a beautiful crop of pears, and we couldn't pick it in time."

The crop has been struggling to remain profitable for some time and pear farmers were cheered when the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Statistics Service forecast the California Bartlett pear crop would be up about 17 percent compared to 2005.

Many Lake and Mendocino county growers say they had hoped this year's strong crop would help them catch up financially. Instead they say they're experiencing crop losses of 20 percent to 30 percent, perhaps more.

While California farmers who produce specialty crops with short harvest windows have been hit the hardest by the current labor shortage, growers throughout the state say they face the very real prospect of crop losses in the future.

They're calling on Congress to reform the U.S. immigration system and help assure a stable agricultural work force. A team of California Farm Bureau Federation leaders is in Washington, D.C. now, joining farmers and ranchers from across the nation in a "fly-in" to continue pressing for comprehensive immigration reform.

"We're going to Washington again to give an account of the concerns in California and emphasize the crop losses farmers have already experienced due to a lack of labor and advise them of the potential for future losses," said Jack King, CFBF National Affairs manager. "We cannot let up."

Scully blames this year's pear crop losses on a number of factors, including a late harvest due to weather conditions. But she said the biggest problem by far is the lack of skilled pickers--in some cases a labor shortage of as much as 50 percent to 75 percent.

"They (members of Congress) all say they love the family farmer, but I don't feel that love," Scully told local media last week in the midst of her ruined crop. "They're putting me out of business."

Tighter border security, competition for workers from other industries and a broken temporary worker program have all conspired to create a dire labor shortage for this small, but valuable crop, she said.

Pears have been grown in California since the Gold Rush, but each year the acreage shrinks.

"We're facing crop losses as high as 30 percent," said Scully. "Almost every grower has had to go in and pick and choose his strongest blocks, turning his back on others.

"What people don't realize is that we're a small community," Scully said. "At the peak of our season, we need about 900 pickers to get our crop off in the three-week window Mother Nature provides. We need another 600 in the packinghouses.

Kelseyville, where much of Lake County's pear growing and packing is centered, has a total population of about 3,000. During the harvest that's just wrapping up, Scully said the community pitched in to help in the crisis. Retired people, stay-at-home moms and high school kids have been filling some jobs in the packinghouses, but she said the picking on 12-foot ladders needs to be done by experienced workers.

If the border crackdown continues without a guest worker program, she said, "most family farmers around here will go out of business."

"Do people want to maintain the high-quality food supply we have in this country?" Scully asked. "If they do, then they need to recognize that some agricultural areas need a way to get skilled workers, particularly from Mexico.

"These people aren't immigrants. They come here and work and then go home to their families and the country they love."

Scully said several of the growers who use her packing shed have already told her they're going to bulldoze their orchards.

"I don't know if I'll try one more year," said Nick Ivicevich, 69, who has been growing pears in Lake County for 45 years. His orchards include one of the county's oldest, a 3-acre block first planted in 1885.

He chokes up when talk turns to the possibility of removing his orchards, which his family had hoped to continue farming.

Ivicevich said production costs for his crop are about $2,500 an acre, with an additional $1,000 an acre needed to cover harvest costs. The past few years have been financially challenging, he said. Rising production costs, competition from China and weather conditions have all made it hard for Lake County pear growers to make a profit.

But this year's crop looked so good he said he felt like the struggle was worth it.

"This is what I waited for my whole lifetime, is what I was thinking," Ivicevich said.

He expected to harvest 2,100 tons of premium pears, compared with last year's 1,400 tons. His hopes began sinking when his contracted picking crews were held up by late-ripening crops in the Sacramento Valley. They arrived 10 days late for harvest.

Ivicevich is not alone in his disappointment and concern for the future of what has been Lake County's signature crop. Growers say beyond this year's labor disaster there's anxiety about the availability of an adequate work force in the future.

Bob Rentsch of Bella Vista Farming said the farm management company picked pears last week in Lake County and ended up leaving about 1,000 tons of fruit on the trees of an orchard that produced about 8,000 tons.

"There just weren't enough people to pick them," he said. "I've never seen this happen before. We figure we were at least 20 percent short of the workers we needed to get the crop in."

In response to CFBF's 2006 harvest survey, one Lake County pear grower commented: "Lack of workers resulted in a loss of fruit due to maturity and consequently a large decrease in revenue. Also, due to a shortage of workers, we have been held hostage for increased costs.

"We need a guest worker or other program to increase the labor supply for all perishable crops."

Another Lake County pear grower said: "We faced a record large crop this August with a record shortage of pickers. We've gradually added a few more, but it's too late now. We've lost 15 percent to 20 percent to ripeness. We'll know more about losses when harvest concludes."

(Kate Campbell is a reporter for Ag Alert. She may be contacted at kcampbell@cfbf.com.)

Permission for use is granted, however, credit must be made to the California Farm Bureau Federation when reprinting this item. Top

Hello! All the illegals are doing construction work or working in the factories. Picking fruit is work that they won't do.

Originally Posted by sawdust

Hello! All the illegals are doing construction work or working in the factories. Picking fruit is work that they won't do.

Yep they need more illegals who havent been here very long to pick the crops. Perhaps they could force people out of welfare who wont work (not those who need it) and prevent the crop losses. I've worked on a farm. It's hot and dirty work but it is an honest living.

I'll bet we could find an ample labor supply from Africa, Asia or some of the eastern European countries. When quotas are eased, I'd hope a balanced ethnicity is mandated for the express purpose of preventing excessive Mexican political influence.

Do not fall for this SCAM JOB

I don't believe these farmers. This is a dirty trick. This is a win-win for them. They can claim that they can not find labor and let the crop rot. Then they turn around and get government subsides for the lost crop sighting economic hardships.... The government pays way too much for the crop. So they make even more than they should have. Then they get the pity for not having the farm labor to manipulate the government into allowing them a continued supply of cheap labor.

They can afford to let the crop rot to make a political point because the tax payers are going to pay them for it.

I bet they didn't put a sign up on the road saying $3 a bushel all you can pick either. Can't get subsides if you sell the crop.

Dixie

Instead of sitting and waiting for illegal work crews to arrive, they should have had reliable Americans lined up; bussed them in; paid them well and their expenses and Bingo.

Relying on illegal labor with its "eye" constantly on the opportunity is not how you build a reliable labor supply.

You need legal reliable American workers who will never let you down when you need them.

It's heart-breaking, truly heart-breaking....to see these farmers fail by their own hand and stupidity.

There are workers all over the United States that would have loved to save the day for the pear farmers.

Why?

We care about our pears.

It does not take much experience to pick pears on a 12 foot ladder and thousands if not hundreds of thousands of Americans have this experience doing things much more difficult from ladders than picking pears.

Now is no time to find out you needed help.

I am sickened by the temptions created by illegal immigration and "migrant workers" and what that temptaion and reliance on it have done and are doing to our country and our people.

It's so sad that so many have fallen victim to their own temptation to pay less and make deals with these illegal networks.

And you know there is a LEGAL SEASONAL AGRICULTURAL PROGRAM where they can hire seasonal foreign workers...Legally.



GRRRRR!!

Fall for it? No way!!

I'll pay more for USA Pears if they will hire legal American workers.

Thirty million illegal aliens and these farmers can't get their crops picked?

They shouldn't be in business if they can't function without doing it illegally.

I think they are just whining for the media. I wouldn't be surprised if the government wasn't involved in with these stories in some way.

Surely if they honestly wanted help they could draw enough interest in the job at an honest wage.

P.S. I heard about a group of Minutemen that volunteered to help their neighbor farmers. The farmers snubbed them and said they were appalled that their were Minutemen groups in their area.

StokeyBob, I was thinking what about the Minute Men since they are in the area and might be available....and there you have it....these farmers would rather lose their pear crop than hire Americans and pay a man's wage for a man's job.

Unbelievable!

Is there some way to confirm this...that would make such a story!!

They could have called the Second Harvest Food Bank, which could have sent volunteers out to pick the crops from local churches and non-profit orginizations. It could have become a charitable donation. However, you can't get your federal welfare if you do that.

What they are saying is a bunch of CROP CRAP!!!!!!!!

Farmers really abuse the system. Don't kid yourself.

Can you make wine out of pears? All is not a total loss.

Dixie

Thirty million illegal aliens and these farmers can't get their crops picked?

If these people WANTED to be picking crops this farmer wouldn't be crying...because he would still have his cheap labor! There are enough of them here...why aren't they picking your crops???? Of course when they march they tell us they are here to pick our crops, mow our lawns...etc.

They have moved on. They don't want these jobs anymore.
Construction, landscaping, roofing...you know...they want ALL THOSE JOBS....AMERICANS WILL DO!!!!

I don't feel sorry for any of them.

THE PEOPLE THAT USE TO PICK YOUR CROPS HAVE MASSIVELY OVERTAKEN OUR BORDERS...NOW PICKING CROPS IS A JOB ILLEGALS WON'T DO. You had leverage when those were the jobs they were coming here to get...now they are coming after the jobs...THAT AMERICANS WILL DO!!! So...either way...NOW...you will have to pay higher wages to pick your crop!