Thread: Major grower ends crop, lacking workers

Major grower ends crop, lacking workers

3/24/08

CLARKS SUMMIT, Pa. --Saying the nation's immigration system is broken, Pennsylvania's largest grower of fresh-to-market tomatoes announced Monday he will no longer produce the crop because he can't find enough workers to harvest it.

Keith Eckel, 61, a fourth-generation farmer and the owner of Fred W. Eckel Sons Farms Inc., said he saw a dramatic decline last summer in the number of migrant workers who showed up to pick tomatoes at his 2,000-acre farm in northeastern Pennsylvania.

He said Congress' failure to approve comprehensive immigration reform had hindered his ability to hire enough workers to get his crop to the market. Most of Eckel's workers came from Mexico.

"There are a number of workers hesitant to travel, legal or illegal, because of the scrutiny they are now under," said Eckel, whose tomatoes have been shipped to supermarkets and restaurants throughout the eastern United States. "So there are less workers crossing state lines."

Eckel, who planted 2.2 million tomato plants last year, said he also will stop growing pumpkins and will plant half as much sweet corn as usual, resulting in a loss of nearly 175 jobs.

Eckel, one of the largest growers of fresh tomatoes in the Northeast, said it cost him $1.5 million to $2 million to plant and harvest a tomato crop - too much of an investment to risk not having enough workers at harvest time.

"The system to provide our labor is broken and the emotion surrounding the immigration issue is standing in the way of those in the political arena moving forward to solve it," Eckel told a news conference at his farm in Clarks Summit.

Congress failed to pass legislation last year that would have allowed immigrants - some already in the country illegally and some who would come from abroad - to work through guest-worker and legalization programs.

Carl Shaffer, president of the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, predicted other farmers would follow Eckel's lead and stop growing labor-intensive crops unless the government developed a reliable guest-worker program.

"The American consumer really needs to wake up to this issue," said Shaffer, who joined Eckel at the news conference. "It's not just an immigration issue, it's an issue that's going to affect everyone's food supply."

Eckel does not participate in the federal government's H-2A guest worker program, which allows farmers to bring in foreigners if they can prove that workers can't be found locally. Like many farmers, Eckel believes the program is too cumbersome. He said he wouldn't qualify for it anyway because his growing season is too short.

According to the U.S. Labor Department, U.S. farmers hired only about 75,000 H-2A workers in 2007 - while an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 workers in the United States were illegal immigrants.

The Labor Department has announced plans to overhaul the H-2A system, but the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau is calling for a guest-worker program to be built from scratch that will provide a stable, legal supply of labor.

Though Eckel's tomato pickers made an average of $16.59 per hour last year, he said the relatively high wage is not enough to attract local labor to work the fields.

"A lot of people think with immigration that we're talking about immigrants taking jobs from others. Let me tell you, there is no local labor that is going to go out and harvest those tomatoes in 90-degree temperatures except our immigrant labor," Eckel said. "They come here to do a job that no one else will do in this country."

Eckel said he is scrupulous about asking workers for immigration documents. Nevertheless, he wants to avoid the risk of a federal immigration raid. He cited national surveys that found as many as 70 percent of U.S. farm workers are in the country illegally.

The acreage he previously devoted to tomatoes and pumpkins will be converted to field corn that is harvested by machines.

Ray Vega, 64, who came to the United States from Mexico as a boy and has worked seasonally at Eckel's farm since 1970, said many migrant workers "are scared to travel anymore" because they're afraid of being picked up by immigration authorities.

MORE B.S. FARMERS NEED TO START PAYING DECENT WAGES.

http://www.kentucky.com/473/story/356032.html

NAFTA has driven the tomato farms out not a labor shortage.

Whatever.....Geee maybe your illegal workers are now in construction, you think!!

Don't blame us for your stupidity, if you idiots can't come up with a temporary worker program where they go home afterward you don't deserve them...they don't need their whole family to have anchor babies for us to support when the worker is not working.

The American consumer really needs to wake up to this issue," said Shaffer, who joined Eckel at the news conference. "It's not just an immigration issue, it's an issue that's going to affect everyone's food supply."

Great! We will be living in a third world toilet bowl, but atleast we will have plenty of affordable tomatoes on the table.

No thanks!

Oh, and he claims his pay averages $16.59 per hour to pick tomatoes? What does that mean, some make $19.00 an hour, some make closer to $14.00 I have a college degree and I would settle for $17.00 on hour since the only tomatoes I have ever picked have come from a salad bar and/or the little cherry tomatoes I grew in the garden once. Too bad he's not in California.

Come to think, if his operation were in California he probably wouldn't need me since he would have plenty of illegal invaders to pick is tomatoes.

It's alright, I just started a garden.......opps, thats a job Americans won't do...I have a delema, Oh well I will do it anyways. I also am planting a garden for my retired parents.

The acreage he previously devoted to tomatoes and pumpkins will be converted to field corn that is harvested by machines.

I think the entire motive is to convert to corn for ethanol, since corn is so high and so much easier to grow. The rest of it is just a political statement.

No he is not converting to corn for ethanol but his decision is helped by the ethanol market. There are undoubtedly midwestern farmers who were in sweet corn who are now producing for ethanol plants. Their having left the sweet corn market has driven up the amount that Keith Eckel can now sell his production at. I think that the shift out of tomatos is beneficial even if more tomato paste comes in from Mexico.

In my neck of the woods, "field" corn is not "sweet" corn, it's normally feed corn.

I agree this guy is just making a political statement to gain support for workers we do NOT need.

My local news says local small time family owned vegetable growers who sell at farmers markets is the coming trend.

I see it happening here and other places and it makes more sense because the veggies will be fresher and no long haul diesel guzzling tractor trailers involved.

Our prison population could and should be used for picking crops. What a waste to not tap into this hugh workforce and the prisoners could pay for their own incarceration instead of the tax-payers.

I'm willing to do without tomatoes if it will help to stop the invasion of ILLEGALS. I have grown my own tomatoes and other vegtables in the past and I can continue to do so as I think most United States Citizens are willing to do to SAVE our country. Of course I think he has found it to be of more profit to grow corn and not tomatoes instead of the loss of HIS ILLEGALS as the reason to change!!!

Now if he can only find farm machines produced in the United States without the benefit of ILLEGALS!!!