Most of what goes into the American salad bowl was picked by illegal immig

Monday, December 5, 2005

Most of what goes into the American salad bowl was picked by illegal immigrants

By: JULIANA BARBASSA - Associated Press

EXETER ---- Pushing back the silvery-green canopy of an olive tree, Don Stutsman examines clusters of ripening fruit and wonders whether he will have enough hands to pick the blushing berries.

He usually finishes his harvest by the end of October. But this year a number of unusual factors have collided to leave fruit hanging longer, jeopardizing his crop and highlighting the industry's dependence on illegal immigrants.

A booming construction industry is offering better pay, and beefed-up patrolling along the Mexican border has made it harder for unauthorized workers to reach farms, offering a preview of what would happen if this source of labor dried up.

(snip)

While other industries ---- service, construction, food processing ---- have larger total numbers of undocumented immigrants, the majority of farm workers are illegal immigrants... "The fact is, the fresh produce industry couldn't exist without a foreign work force, but we don't have a mechanism to bring in foreign workers," said Tom Nassif, president of Western Growers Association, which represents more than 3,000 farmers in Arizona and California.

(snip)

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/12/05/news/state/12405190629.txt

I'll bet the boss owners aren't on food stamps.

How about you buy my salad at the increased price then? I can't afford it at the price it is NOW.

Hell, if they earned a living wage, I'd be happy to go down there and PICK the goddamned fruit!

The only reason Americans don't do those jobs NOW is because they wouldn't get paid a livable wage doing it.

I dunno about any of you, but I'm not afraid of hard work. But I refuse to work for sub-standard, non-livable wages.

a bit on that.

When I see people spend $3.00 for a cup of coffee I figure I can splurge on salad and make my coffee at home.

Read Reefer Madness, by Eric Schlosser, specifically the third section about Strawberries. (Despite the title, the book is about the American underground economy, or black market, which does include, but is not limited to, drugs.)

Most growers are in debt up to their eyeballs; often the only thing that lets them eat is the fact that every year they go a little deeper into debt until finally a bad year brings it all down on them in a house of cards move.

Being a produce farmer in the US is effectively a sharecropping proposition and we all know who benefits in that relationship.... and it's not the guy with the dirt under his nails.

farmers having a hard time finding harvest workers even though the pay is between $7 and $15 an HOUR! (so much for the myth of the poor braceros working for slave wages.)

still the problem is being complicated by the labor shortage.

Msongs
www.msongs.com/chinamart.htm

PS - I just "harvested" 20 pounds of luscious fat ripe tomatos from my own vines this afternoon.....yummmmmmy.

Make Republicans own up to how bad they really want illegals for cheap easily exploited labor.

I'd pick ther goddamn fruit. For seven bucks an hour, I don't get out of bed!

I love tomatoes!

Seriously, I'm aware, as a 47-year-old Californian that the salad I ate for dinner tonight came to me by virtue of the work of many undocumented farm workers, and that my house was probably built from start to finish primarily by undocumented workers. You see, when I walked up to buy it, it was already done, and I'm betting that the builders hired contractors, who, in turn, hired undocumented workers. We are experiencing a huge construction boom out here in SoCal AND a shortage of workers.

We have a huge economy out here in SoCal, and I appreciate the efforts of all, including the undocumented workers, who should be paid a living wage (largely, they are now), and who should have benefits.

I'm sensitive to both sides of the issue, and hope to continue treating ALL workers with respect.

address the scarcity of labor. It's supply and demand. When the supply of a certain something becomes less and less available, of course the price will rise. It's the same with labor because firms are competing for fewer and fewer workers, and the firm that fills its needs first will be the one that compensates its workers the best.

if i could get $15 for a season, i'd be on it, but i bet i'm too unskilled! (suburbs kid)

Would this not instantly destroy the demand for illegal labor to begin with? Grapes and olives are luxuries anyway. As a result, they should be more expensive. Crops such as wheat are necessities though.

99.99999% of the national crops of staples of that sort are harvested mechanically. They can realistically be harvested by one guy on a tractor with the harvester and wagon.

Lettuce, tomatoes, strawberries (evil little nasty fruit when it comes to harvesting, by the way), apples, oranges, peppers, cucumbers.... those all have to be picked by hand.

Besides, while grapes and olives are luxuries, what about green beans? Peas? Carrots? Basic vegetables are necessary for health and many of us don't have a place for a garden big enough to do our year's canning. The staple lunch of every kid in the country - PB&J, carrot sticks and an apple - requires at least 3 pick-by-hand harvests: the apple, the carrots and the fruit used to make the jelly. We can't survive on mechanically processed food entirely....

What I am saying is that if we extend minimum wage/labor standards protections to cover all workers (illegal or legal) within US borders, we would destroy the demand for illegal labor.

As a result, a component that has been depressing wages in these areas will be removed, and wages will eventually rise again, not fall. As a result, the owners would most likely pass on the rise in prices to consumers. This means handpicked foods would probably get more expensive, but I would find it acceptable. I would rather pay more if it means somebody will not be paid at substandard levels with no safety protections, no job security, and relatively little if any prospect of attaining a higher economic position.

They would have to forego fresh fruits and vegetables.

Without making a Heritage payment (sort of like the Alaska Permanent Resident Fund) available to all citizens that covers the basic costs of living, when we advocate a market price rise for necessary goods, we're talking about pricing part of the population out of the market.

Substandard wage earners in Minnesota are not affected by the wages paid to lettuce workers in Imperial Valley, California. So I don't see how your argument that raising the wages for lettuce workers would improve everyone's lot works.

Of course, this would mean retooling the tax code as well, but the code needs to be retooled anyway, given the large amount of loopholes and gimmicks that have been written in over the decades by politicians bankrolled by corporate special interests.

uses the workers, as well as the farmers, could earn a good wage. It is the corporations and their asinine bureaucracy and distribution schemes that force prices up and wages down.

I buy & support only local organic farmers (and there's a ton of them here in Humboldt County, CA). As well as what I grow organically to eat.