Thread: NC Farmers Say Immigration Plan Desperately Needed

http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/1487312/

RALEIGH, N.C. — Failure to pass immigration reform in Washington has North Carolina farmers worried about a labor shortage and a major downturn in their business.

They say workers are also becoming harder to find because of an increase in enforcement raids that have made it more costly for laborers to sneak into the U.S.

"You can just see, with the border tightening, that it's going to get bad," said Pat Gaskin, owner of Laurel Springs Christmas Tree Farm in Alleghany County.

Without reform that provides a simple method for bringing in unskilled workers, farmers who grow labor-intensive crops such as tobacco and sweet potatoes face a crisis and could end up out of business, said Larry Wooten, president of the North Carolina Farm Bureau.

A comprehensive immigration reform plan supported by President Bush and a group of bipartisan senators fell 15 votes short of the 60 needed on Thursday. It included an agricultural worker program that many farm groups strongly support.

"They just want to stand outside and throw rocks. You wonder whether any of them want to do anything," said Thomas Joyner, president of Nash Produce, a Nash County cooperative that sells sweet potatoes, cucumbers and tobacco. "They still can't solve it."

If the Senate fails to approve a plan by Labor Day, farmers say they're bracing for a prolonged shortage of laborers. Some fear North Carolina will suffer like California did last year, when a shortage of workers there resulted in rotting crops because there wasn't anyone to harvest them.

Brent Leggett said his labor contractor promised him 80 workers and showed up with 32 last year at his Nash County farm, where he grows cucumbers, sweet potatoes and tobacco. He estimates he lost 30 percent of his cucumber crop.

"We had as pretty a crop as we've ever had, but we couldn't get them picked, so it didn't matter how they looked," Leggett said.

Some farmers aren't even bothering to plant as many cucumbers as they could, Joyner said.

"They asked me, 'Well, if I plant them, can you promise me I'm going to get them picked?' " Joyner said. "And I can't."

Ron Woodard of Cary-based North Carolina Listen, an advocacy group that supports less immigration, said farmers should pay more, then they'd find domestic workers.

"They want to pay dirt wages," he said. "It's not that they're evil; it's that they want cheap labor."

Farmers disagree, saying domestic laborers rarely respond to their job advertisements because field work is so difficult.

"Americans today don't want to sweat and get their hands dirty," said Doug Torn, who owns a wholesale nursery in Guilford County.

A labor shortage could spread into other nonseasonal jobs that rely on illegal immigrants, said Tony Plath, a finance professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte who monitors the construction industry.

"Unskilled labor in the Carolinas has never been a problem," Plath said. "But if there's any change in the rate of illegal immigration, what we're seeing now in agriculture could be just the tip of the iceberg."

Brent Leggett said his labor contractor promised him 80 workers and showed up with 32 last year at his Nash County farm, where he grows cucumbers, sweet potatoes and tobacco. He estimates he lost 30 percent of his cucumber crop.

In this part of NC, it's become very popular to let customers pick their own fruit and veggies. There are always ways to get the crops harvested, including paying higher wages to attract local workers. They'll never admit it, but it really is about cheap labor.

Same story in N&O today. I emailed the writer of the article & wasn't very nice to her.

WavTek wrote:

In this part of NC, it's become very popular to let customers pick their own fruit and veggies. There are always ways to get the crops harvested, including paying higher wages to attract local workers. They'll never admit it, but it really is about cheap labor.

I agree! I'd be glad to come out and pick fresh produce myself. It would be relatively easy to organize community co-ops to share in the labor in exchange for cheaper prices. There are a number of ways to attack the problem...

What is really at the root of the problem is CHEAP LABOR and competition from excessive imports also picked by CHEAP LABOR! The consumer would pay a little more for the product if the supply was not so plentiful. Unrestricted imports inflate the supply, driving the prices down for domestic producers.

It's also true that many Americans do not want to sweat and get dirty. Simple solution there too....CUT BACK SOCIAL GIVEAWAYS! Work is a lot easier when you know it's putting food on the table, no matter how sweaty and dirty it is. I think the old saying is, "Beggars can't be choosy"!
We've allowed the government to create a generation or two of welfare dependents who are going to get a rude awakening no matter how this immigration issue turns out. I think it's time to move welfare towards work-fare and soften the blow that has to be coming! The middle class isn't going to be the middle class much longer, and then who is going to support this country financially? The elitests maybe? A form of Socialism perhaps?

Didn't Lou Dobbs say if farmers doubled wages and hired citizens that a head of lettuce would only go up ten cents?

Eeeeuuuuwwwww!
Had-Enuf????

You spoiled my appetite right here at dinner with that awful new Avitar!
Aren't you concerned that is being associated with you???
Looks more like an advertisement for "Brokeback Mountain" than a post avitar!

Yuck!!!!Disgusting....

What I can't understand is Why don't they do it threw the legal channels. Like my Grandfather did. He applied for workers that were allowed to work in U.S. and paid to have them transported to his farm. When they were were done some other farmer would do the same. When they were done for the season they were returned to Mexico or where ever they were from. He did this every year he needed seasonal workers and couldn't find any local ones, or the local workers would be crew leaders. He did it threw the legal channels and it worked out fine for him. The problem is today no one wants to bother with filing out the paperwork or making sure they return home. I can't feel sorry for these farmers that don't bother to do it threw the legal channels. They are part of the reason we are overrun by illegals today!

Farmers do not need a reform bill. All they need is workers and they are coming in at a million a years. This immigration reform deal should be done one item at time. They only need temporaty workers.

The industry needs to mechanize a pick up truck with a Bobcat, cell phone and GIS can replace a dozen of those "indispensable" ditch digging illegal aliens.

posylady, you're right. These farmers/dairymen/growers can use temporary visa holders. There's no limit. But, it's too much out of their pocket so they hire illegals instead.

There was a story posted a couple of weeks ago where a woman said if they hired visa holders it would cost them $9 per hour. By the time they paid for housing, utilities, transportation, etc., these workers ended up being $13.00 per hour.

Too much money for farmers. They'd rather hire illegals at $7 per hour and let taxpayers pay expenses associated with their cheap labor and their families.

tired, sorry about you loosing your dinner. This is what goober looked like last week after constituents got on him.

I'll change it if it upsets you. I can go back to Bush reading a book upside down or looking through binoculars with the lens covers still on.