Thread: Region's top crops don't require much manual labor(Michigan)

http://www.thetimesherald.com/apps/pbcs ... 60306/1002

Article published Jun 26, 2005
Region's top crops don't require much manual labor
Other areas in Michigan offer more work


By HILLARY WHITCOMB JESSE
Times Herald

The type of crops grown in St. Clair and Sanilac counties and the work required to tend them are why the area has fewer migrant workers than other parts of Michigan.

Counties such as Ottawa, Kent and Van Buren take over prominence in the fruit and vegetable crops that still require a lot of hand labor to grow.

"When we start to look at fruits and vegetables, (Sanilac and St. Clair counties) drop out of the picture," said Martha Gonzalez-Cortes, director of the Michigan Department of Human Services' Office of Migrant Affairs.

This year, conservative estimates expect about 55,000 to 60,000 adult migrant workers to be in Michigan for the fruit and vegetable harvesting and processing industry. If each adult worker brings one dependent, that's easily 120,000 migrants all told, Gonzalez-Cortes said.

Michigan has the largest farm-worker population in the Midwest, she said, and ranks about sixth nationally.

Sanilac County is one of the state leaders in the production of cattle and calves, dry beans, hay, milk cows, oats, soybeans, sugar beets and wheat, Gonzalez-Cortes said.

She shared that information from a 2003-04 state Department of Agriculture report she had that includes county comparisons. The 2004-05 report isn't complete yet.

St. Clair County doesn't make it into the top-ranked agricultural counties for production, but the crops in which it makes a fair showing compared to other counties are hay, oats, soybeans and wheat, Department of Agriculture statistics show.

The state doesn't keep track of workers by county because they sometimes migrate from area to area depending on which crops need their labor.

One way to show how Sanilac and St. Clair counties compare is to look at the number of licensed migrant housing camps. The latest year for which numbers are available is 2004; not all sites necessarily are filled this year.

Of 824 sites statewide last year with a maximum capacity of 22,609 workers, St. Clair and Sanilac counties together had six sites with room for 79 workers, according to the Department of Agriculture.

Combined, Allegan, Barry and Van Buren counties in southwest Michigan had 148 sites with room for 4,627 workers.

RIGHT!! We don't need additional agricultural labor. There is less need every year for the past 50 years!! So why is agriculture asking Congress for a whole bunch more immigrant workers?

I've been thinkin' about this and I think they use the visa program to get them and then they might rent them out. Rented labor, like a tobacco quota.

Disgusting!!!

Moratorium on Immigration until we figure out What in the World is Going On!!