Thread: Prisoners help farmers harvest crops.

Originally Posted by Jrhino

This is still subsidized labor. It postpones the need for major changes in how farming is done. Dont kid yourself either, this subsidy goes to agribusiness as well.

Yes, but it is a good plan because it takes illegals out of the picture. Use of prisoners for certain tasks is not unusual or unconstitutional.

From what I recall from history Georgia Highway Commision jobs didn't vanish due to the use of their famous chain gangs.

Let's talk about the Thousand Pound Elephant in the room everyone ignores when the topic of ag jobs comes up ...

MECHANIZATION. Until farmers and ranchers start investing in new technology they won't quit the "habit" of cheap labor. They are "hooked" and will need to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st Century.

It's an addiction all these corporate entities have and we better wake up and get them some legislative "rrehab" real soon.

It is the ONLY way we will get rid of the demand for cheap labor.

If we had just a percentage of the criminals in the government, business and the others that have been aiding and abetting the illegal invaders, not only would we have enough to get the crops picked, we could also get a few crops planted!

There might even be enough left over that the snobs might find themselves mowing their own lawns!

Paige, (If you can't figure out what I'm talking about don't worry about it. It's not easy at first.)

If you post a link that comes out to long and makes the page real wide you can do this.

real long one

Then change it like this.

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Take enough out of the middle to still have it make sense... or you can use a new name if you want like this.

http;//www.fark.com/

Fark

and http://www.fark.com/ comes out like this.

Fark

I am having a real brain fart when it comes to doing the correct thing on this forum. I am even having a problem getting a picture up. You would never guess that I am really not a computer beginner. Thanks for the help. I need to write your information down.

Thanks

The American Farmer has taken hit after hit after hit. We can't live without the American Farmer. We have really found that out this last month after our dogs started dying due to tainted wheat in China. I won't even eat mac and cheese anymore. It probably all comes from China too. Why the hell do we go to other nations for food. It is just crazy.
The American Farmer and what they do for our nation is what we were built upon. When the American Farmer started getting screwed so did we.
I believe that if the Farmer can get any help at all it should be given. This is a noble profession and one we need to put our arms around at any cost.
Build a small jail on every farm and support the farmer!!!!!!!!!!!! Send the Illegal Immigrant home. If the illegal Immigrant is in jail now hey. put him to work then deport his ass.

Paige

I agree mechanization is the wave of the future but until we are able to convert farms to mechanical harvesting, this is a perfect interim solution. I expect that there will be areas or crops that will still require farm workers and this way we are training American citizens to fill those jobs. As an added bonus, at least we know the health status of the prisoner-workers. I doubt that anyone with an active contagious disease will be permitted to work in the fields. Our prison population is aware of or can be easily trained to observe First World sanitation practices. They will use Portable Toilets because it is not an American custom to relieve oneself in a row of crops.
I have a surprise for those who shout about the unfairness, etc. of using prison labor to work on farms. During World War 2, when US troopships dropped off GIs in Europe they often returned to the US filled with German POWs. Since so many of our young men were serving overseas there was a tremendous shortage of farm labor. What better way to fill that need than to put young German POWs to work? They planted and harvested crops, worked in canneries, etc. Many had been raised on farms in Germany and were used to farm labor. German-American farmers often served as employers because they knew the language. The POWs did not require many guards- where were they going to escape to? This was a win-win for everybody. So having our prison population help alleviate a manpower shortage on farms is not a new idea. It worked then and it will work now.

from a site on Texas history:

GERMAN PRISONERS OF WAR. When the United States went to war in 1941, what to do with enemy prisoners of war was among the last considerations of a country reeling from a Japanese attack and preparing for war in Europe. The nation had never held large numbers of foreign prisoners and was unprepared for the many tasks involved, which included registration, food, clothing, housing, entertainment, and even reeducation. But prepared or not, the country suddenly found itself on the receiving end of massive waves of German and Italian prisoners of war. More than 150,000 men arrived after the surrender of Gen. Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps in April 1943, followed by an average of 20,000 new POWs a month. From the Normandy invasion in June 1944 through December 30,000 prisoners a month arrived; for the last few months of the war 60,000 were arriving each month. When the war was over, there were 425,000 enemy prisoners in 511 main and branch camps throughout the United States.

Since the war had drawn most of the nation's young men overseas, the War Department authorized a major program to allow labor-starved farmers to utilize the POWs. Consequently, in addition to the base camps, Texas had twenty-two branch camps, some containing as few as thirty-five or forty prisoners, to provide labor to farms and factories located too far from the main POW camps. The branch camps, like the labor program, were temporary and often housed in school buildings, old Civilian Conservation Corpsqv facilities, fairgrounds, even circus tents like those erected for the Navasota branch camp. Grateful farmers paid the government the prevailing wage of $1.50 per day, and the prisoner was paid eighty cents in canteen coupons. The difference went to the federal treasury to pay for the POW program. German officers, like their American counterparts in enemy hands, were not required to work, and few volunteered. German POWs worked on such projects as the Denison Dam reservoir and the construction of state roads; they also served as orderlies at Harmon General Hospital (now LeTourneau College in Longview). Their greatest contribution, however, was to agriculture. From 1943, when the POWs arrived in large numbers, until the end of the war in 1945, the POWs in Texas picked peaches and citrus fruits, harvested rice, cut wood, baled hay, threshed grain, gathered pecans, and chopped records amounts of cotton. Many Texas farmers recalled their POW laborers with admiration and even affection; indeed, many farmers maintained warm friendships with them, and periodic reunions often saw entire communities turn out to renew those memories.

http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/onl ... /qug1.html

I think this is a good idea! Many people are in jail because they feel they don;t fit into society and this will give them the opprotunity to be a part of something and help give them a work ethic.
Out here in Ca. many volunteer to train in fighting wild fires, this will greatly increase their chances of finding work apon their release.

Originally Posted by Paige

The American Farmer has taken hit after hit after hit. We can't live without the American Farmer.

I totally agree. But here is my point -- WHY with the billions Congress spends on farm subsidies every year, can't we start subsidizing farmers to MECHANIZE?

The more they mechanize the LESS they will be seduced into jumping into a cheap labor pool.

As for the use of prisoners in the meantime -- I say GO FOR IT.

Originally Posted by CitizenBob

Originally Posted by Paige

The American Farmer has taken hit after hit after hit. We can't live without the American Farmer.

I totally agree. But here is my point -- WHY with the billions Congress spends on farm subsidies every year, can't we start subsidizing farmers to MECHANIZE?

The more they mechanize the LESS they will be seduced into jumping into a cheap labor pool.

As for the use of prisoners in the meantime -- I say GO FOR IT.

I agree that farmers should be encouraged to mechanize. Why not offer low or no interest loans to help with the initial purchase of expensive machinery? Another advantage of mechanical harvesting is that it improves food safety because the food is not touched by human hands during the picking.