Thread: Picker puts steel in immigration debate

Labor - A mechanical grape harvester could be the answer to a shortage of farmworkers in Oregon's vineyards Monday, July 16, 2007ANGIE CHUANG The Oregonian Staff
Surrounded by shiny new tractors, Carl Capps spends most days talking about horsepower, hydraulics and transmissions. He paid little attention to anti- and pro-immigrant-legalization activists who marched at the state Capitol.

Then the immigration debate came to him last fall, after he sold a quarter-million-dollar machine that harvests wine grapes -- the first in the Willamette Valley.

The New Holland Braud grape harvester can do the work of 40 handpickers in a fraction of the time.

Suddenly, vineyard owners were calling Capps to schedule demonstrations, saying they couldn't cope with worsening worker shortages -- or immigration raids. Their concerns were heightened after a U.S. Senate immigration bill that would have offered legal status for up to 900,000 undocumented agricultural workers failed, and immigration officers detained nearly 200 workers at a Portland produce processing plant.

Oregonians for Immigration Reform, a restrictionist group, touted the European machine as a beacon of a future without illegal labor.

"As soon as word about this got out, the immigration issue was the first thing that came up," Capps said. "The bloggers are all over it. They're saying, 'Finally, see? We told you that you could get by without all this immigration.' "

The harvester is a powerful and controversial symbol as Oregon and the nation struggle with the economic realities of immigration. As public pressure drives a border crackdown and increased enforcement, farmers nationwide face labor shortages as high as 30 percent to 50 percent during harvest. Further complicating matters, large numbers of former migrant laborers have switched to construction jobs for the higher pay and year-round stability.

The high-tech machine -- which uses "shaker rod" technology to coax grapes off the vine into molded silicon rubber collection baskets -- may herald a future of all-mechanized agriculture.

"Oregon doesn't have the scale or the research to make an immediate leap," said Brent Searle, special assistant to the director of the Oregon Department of Agriculture. "But in farming, it's always taken a crisis to make big changes.

"Necessity is the mother of invention."

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonia ... xml&coll=7

I have no doubt in my mind that we can produce machines that can do the work illegal aliens think they are entitled too, at least in agriculture.

yahoo...and convicts too...See we can live without them

I couldn't agree more. I'm tired of funding taxpayer leeches.


Ron Paul 08

I agree whole heartedly! It has always been the case that when the need arises Americans have found a way to cope. Our government overlooks the brain power of necessity in this country. I think it is all a scam to bring the North American Union to fruition!

Avenger if you want to see a real scam / Fraud just look into the way the 16th amendment was implimented.

Fraud and deceit of the highest order. But that's a discussion for another topic.

I would gladly pay higher taxes (for awhile) to help fund the cost of implementing automated harvesting of fruits and vegetables.....if it would elminate the "need" for the illegals.

That's a good one Hapexamendios!

That's why we need Tom Tancredo in the white house. He is a big believer in the flat tax. The more I see and read about him the more he makes a believer out of me. Everything he says he has stood for is true. He hasn't pandered like the rest of the Republican party has. Believe it or not he was even thrown out of the white house for opposing bush boy and his main squeeze Rove(r).

I like Tancredo as well, big fan of his.

Although for some reason I'm drawn towards Ron Paul.

Fred Thompson lost my vote after learning that he's a member of the Council on Foriegn relations.

I can't possibly vote for someone that is a member of that.

Being a CFR member doesn't mean that someone automatically supports all the agendas thereof anymore than a member of any organization doesn't back all their efforts......witness the Catholic Church and immigration. Fred's position on issues should be looked at and I will not discount him for CFR membership. We could have an ally in the CFR. JMHO

Gofer

Then let me ask you

Would you continue to belong to an organization that was pushing for the NAU? Even if you expressed vocal opposition to the matter?