Thread: Cerabino: Crops rot as Georgia feels effects of immigration

Cerabino: Crops rot as Georgia feels effects of immigration


Updated: 12:37 a.m. Wednesday, July 13, 2011

In Georgia, crops are rotting in the fields because migrant workers aren't there to pick them.

"We don't have a workforce," said Bryan Tolar, the president of the Georgia Agribusiness Council, a group that represents about 700 farmers and agricultural businesses in that state. "Where are we supposed to get it?"

Wait a second. Isn't unemployment in Georgia as high as 14 percent in some farming communities?

"I think there are people here who can do it," Tolar said. "But we can't find people who will do it."

Georgia is what Florida could have been if immigration hysteria here had actually turned into immigration law.

Lucky for us, it was all just useful nonsense. Gov. Rick Scott, who campaigned on a pledge to bring a let's-see-yer-papers-amigo law to Florida, didn't push very hard for it once he got across the finish line. And elements of the tea-addled Florida Legislature ran into the state's agriculture lobby, which put an end to this political puffery with some last-minute adult supervision.


Migrant labor migrated


The Florida Senate's Budget Committee Chairman, J.D. Alexander, a term-limited Republican citrus farmer, was an important roadblock to Florida getting into the immigration enforcement business. Alexander told his colleagues that he resented being asked to "choose between hard-working people and somebody's uninformed knowledge."

Georgia, on the other hand, went with the uninformed knowledge.

That state's new governor, Nathan Deal, who also promised to bring an Arizona-style immigration law to Georgia, got the job done in May when he signed a repressive immigration bill.

The Georgia law establishes new identity verification requirements for workers, 15-year prison sentences for those who use a fake ID to get a job, and up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine for anyone who, while committing another crime, knowingly transports or harbors illegal immigrants.

The law establishes an Immigration Enforcement Review Board to investigate complaints about local and state officials not enforcing the state's new law; and government officials who fail to use the E-Verify identity system for workers face $10,000 fines and removal from office.

The law went into effect this month. Court challenges have already put a couple of its onerous provisions on hold. But much of Georgia's migrant farm labor didn't stick around to see how things shake out.

"They started seeing a lot more roadblocks with police doing license checks on country roads," Tolar said. "It didn't used to be that way.

Jobs are posted, but no one's applying


So now, as Georgia's onions, cucumbers, squash, blackberries, blueberries and watermelons need to be picked, the migrant workers are gone, working in Florida, North Carolina and elsewhere.

"About 75 percent of our farms either don't have enough workers now, or anticipate not having enough workers when their crops are ready," Tolar said.

There are about 11,000 unfilled fieldworker jobs, Tolar said, and despite posting the job openings at the state's labor offices, they remain unfilled. The pay range is about $8 to $12 an hour.

"You can make more money than you would at McDonald's," Tolar said. "But McDonald's is air conditioned, and you can get a cool drink when you want one."

And you don't have to pick crops for 12 to 14 hours a day in the summer heat.

"Watermelons are real work," said the 42-year-old Tolar. "I tried picking blackberries for a day. I couldn't keep up. The farmer told me it'd be good if I tried another farm down the road."


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~frank_cerabino@pbpost.com

"We don't have a workforce," said Bryan Tolar, the president of the Georgia Agribusiness Council, a group that represents about 700 farmers and agricultural businesses in that state. "Where are we supposed to get it?"

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Well, Bryan .. back in the day when this was still the United States of America, you could PAY an American to do it.

Who was doing the work before the Mexicans were?

Martians?

Here are your options, GA farmers:

1. Hire Americans
2. Use one of the myriad of official foreign worker programs

Both involve finding your workforce in a legal manner. What a concept!!

Isn't GA in the middle of a drought right about now? If so, I guess that has nothing to do with crops rotting, eh?

Couldn't agree more with ReggieMay. They can also use prisoners, can't they? How about those illegals in jail, waiting for deportation?

We do have a major drought and unbelievable heat indexes. These are big farmers, richly subsidized by agriculture subsidies and taxpayer subsidized labor forces. Our supermarkets are full of produce and there does not seem to be any problem with supply.

I wonder why the migrant farm workers are not working in the fields yet we are covered over with illegal aliens everywhere else. Most are producing children and receiving benefits.

They are lying traitors.

You are right GaPatriot they are lying traitors who would rather see their produce rot in the field to make a lying point then up wages and working conditions .

They remind me of children throwing a hissy fit,stamping their feet to get their way no matter the cost to our country.

It is time to rethink farm labor. We have thousands of convicts/parolees in every state who are young and healthy. Surely there are enough low risk prisoners who need to be working instead of lifting weight,watching tv etc. and it would give them some spending money and help pay for their incarceration.

Also any young healthy adult on welfare should be required to work if work if available. This should be a requirement to continue benefits.

These clowns are just trying to score political points by allowing their produce to rot in the fields. They are being subsidized and coddled to a ridiculous degree and now they are throwing a hissy fit because they are going to have to pay taxes and decent wages now. Serves them right.

More bull to try and get open borders and no immigration enforcement...

They use the industry now as a POLITICAL WEAPON in fact...

They have plenty of other sources of labor. Put the inmates to work I say.

Also....if you are on unemployment for the 99 weeks.....why give up unemployment to take a job when you can sit back and get the unemployment......there is no incentive to get a job until you have collected for about 97 of those weeks

You know what the hell makes these backstabbing farmers think that even if illegals picked they're produce that "we the people" would buy your crops, hell I make it a point not to buy a damn "Valdalia Onion" matter of fact you know where you can stick that onion traitor!