Some farms oppose changes in ag-worker program
SUSAN CARROLL

Bruce Frasier’s family has been growing fruits and vegetables near Carrizo Springs since 1913, when Woodrow Wilson was president and a gallon of gas cost 12 cents. The farm survived the two World Wars, the Great Depression and the oil crisis of the 1980s.

But, Frasier said, a persistent shortage of workers may finally drive the farm out of business.

This week, the Bush administration proposed major changes to the nation’s agricultural farm worker program — called the H2A program — aimed at helping farmers such as Frasier, who complain that chronic labor shortages are hurting harvests. The changes would relax some bureaucratic requirements that critics say make the program too costly and cumbersome to import foreign workers.

It would also ease worker pay and housing requirements, prompting serious concern from farm worker advocates.

Frasier isn’t swayed. He said no matter how the program is tweaked, he still won’t use it.

“I will shut my doors before I go to H2A,â€