Thread: Ruben Navarrette: Where guacamole really comes from

Ruben Navarrette: Where guacamole really comes from
By Ruben Navarrette
Posted: 08/13/2011 08:38:42 PM PDT

I'LL never look at guacamole the same way.

I'm standing in a grove of avocado trees on a ranch about 40 miles northeast of San Diego. Even for someone who grew up in the farmland of Central California, I've never seen anything like this. The trees are hunched over and on a hillside, about 20 feet apart. The ground is moist, not dusty like the fields back home.

I'm going to need a guide. I have a good one in Al Stehly, the organic avocado grower who owns this land. Stehly is a third-generation farmer but doesn't look the part. The 55-year-old pulls up in a hybrid car, and greets me dressed in shorts, T-shirt and tennis shoes. This is farming, San Diego-style.

It's 10 a.m. and about 75 degrees, just right for this finicky crop that doesn't fare well when it's too hot or too cold. In California, there are only a handful of regions where the weather is suitable for growing avocados. This is one of them.

Supply is one reason you're probably shelling out $2 per avocado at the supermarket. One dollar goes to the grocer and the other to the farmer who has to pay for equipment, water, fertilizer, packing - and workers.

Ah yes, the workers. They're the reason I'm here.

I've been hearing some far-fetched theories from members of Congress. Get rid of illegal immigrants, some insist, and Americans will gladly do the jobs that are left behind.

Farmers don't know whether to laugh or cry. They know better than anyone that these olks are doing -- as George W. Bush used to say -- jobs that Americans won't do.

Like picking avocados. There are five pickers tucked back amid the trees. They've been out here since 6 a.m., and they'll work until 3 p.m. They will spend all day with a leather sack around their necks, climbing up and down ladders, and then carrying the ladders from one part of the grove to the other.

One tool of the trade is called a "picking pole." It's a 10-foot plastic shaft with a clipper at the end and a small basket attached. The picker holds the pole while standing on a ladder. Yanking a string, he clips a few avocados into the basket. Then he pulls in the pole, collects the avocados, and transfers them to the sack around his neck. Later, he will dump the avocados into a bin.

Workers earn $60 per bin. A fast worker can fill three bins per day and earn $180. An average worker makes about $120. The law requires that a worker be paid at least minimum wage.

Now guess what ethnicity these folks are. Or what country they're from. Here's a hint: At lunch, they ate tacos.

The supervisor is from the Mexican state of Guanajuato, and he's been working in the fields for 25 years.

When I ask if he thinks Americans could do these jobs, he is diplomatic but honest. He doesn't think so.

While Stehly doesn't believe that Americans won't do these jobs, he also doesn't buy into the idea that immigrants take jobs from Americans.

"If there are people who want to work," he says, "there's work in agriculture."

You heard the man. Don't push. Not everybody at once.

Ruben Navarrette's e-mail address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com.



Read more: http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/opinion ... z1V2L1byMX

I've spent 26yrs. roofing, you pick the God damn produce or let the shit rot in the fields and orchards!

As the discriminating palates of our liberal elites get fussier and fussier they want more and more specilaized foods.

For example, there has been an explosion of "organic farms" just for the nit pickers, and these are universally dependent upon labor intensive methods.

Guacamole is something, however, that is used in such small quantities it would probably make more sense to import it. Or at least the avocadoes. Just how much of a percentage of our agriculture does the avocado industry account for, anyway? I didn't even know what an avocado was until Californians started growing them.

Workers earn $60 per bin. A fast worker can fill three bins per day and earn $180. An average worker makes about $120. The law requires that a worker be paid at least minimum wage.

Wow! I know this work is seasonal but at 120 bucks a day that is a $28,000 + a year job!

That's 5k per year higher than the average salary in North Carolina of $24,000 per year even with almost half a million illegal aliens here pushing down wages for legal immigrant and American citizens.

W

We don't need illegals picking avocados or any other crop. There are unlimited H-2A visas that can be used for agricultural workers.

Originally Posted by stevetheroofer

I've spent 26yrs. roofing, you pick the V*******V produce or let the V****V rot in the fields and orchards!

Just stop growing the damn things. Nobody has to be eating avacados. Same thing with squash and radishes and turnips. Stop the madness.

Of how about grow your own stuff?

I rarely eat guacamole, do not like avacados by themselves, so this crop means little to me.

Here is one crop we do produce a lot of in the U.S., apples and pears, especially up here in the Pacific Northwest, and yes, up until the 60s/70's, Americans did do this work, and they were being pushed out by cheaper labor, illegals. I know this because I had one uncle, who worked as a migrant worker for decades, and he and the other guys who did this were getting pretty bitter about the illegals coming in and taking the jobs.

All of these men were usually veterans, bachelors of one sort or another, and since they found it hard to fit into society completely, this was their way of life. It helped them not be on the streets (as you see now) and they were productive members of society, they could also be proud of themselves.

Now this is being dominated by illegals, and I have actually talked to younger people who had wanted to work these jobs as summer jobs, but were turned away. Same with nursery work.

Now we have illegals in the jobs that Americans did do, and they have brought with them, the culture of a corrupted society, which permeates their lives here, and causes more problems in our own towns, and creates more financial burdens for the taxpayers.

Where's the benefit in that?

Isn't it just a little disturbing that people like Navarette are constantly trying to justify why our farmers and companies should be hiring illegal workers?? How refreshing would it be if everyone would start finding it rewarding to hire tax paying citizens!!!

Originally Posted by TexasBorn

Isn't it just a little disturbing that people like Navarette are constantly trying to justify why our farmers and companies should be hiring illegal workers?? How refreshing would it be if everyone would start finding it rewarding to hire tax paying citizens!!!

Only 3% of illegals are picking crops and there are unlimited visas for legal, foreign pickers. What are the rest of the 97% of illegals doing?