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hel_ana.. by not bein' here.
But, as a co-worker points out, there's this perception that *we're* doing *them* the favour when they come here and pick the food that we've decided we must have.
Piles and piles of rotting fruit, due to California labour shortages:
Some economists and advocates for farm workers say the labor shortages would ease if farmers would pay more. Lake County growers said that pickers’ pay was not low — up to $150 a day — and that they had been ready to pay even more to save their crops. “I would have raised my wages,” said Steve Winant, a pear grower whose 14-acre orchard is still laden with overripe fruit. “But there weren’t any people to pay.”
The California Farm Bureau's take:
Kelseyville, where much of Lake County's pear growing and packing is centered, has a total population of about 3,000. During the harvest that's just wrapping up, Scully said the community pitched in to help in the crisis. Retired people, stay-at-home moms and high school kids have been filling some jobs in the packinghouses, but she said the picking on 12-foot ladders needs to be done by experienced workers.
If the border crackdown continues without a guest worker program, she said, "most family farmers around here will go out of business."
"Do people want to maintain the high-quality food supply we have in this country?" Scully asked. "If they do, then they need to recognize that some agricultural areas need a way to get skilled workers, particularly from Mexico.
"These people aren't immigrants. They come here and work and then go home to their families and the country they love."
But, as a co-worker points out, there's this perception that *we're* doing *them* the favour when they come here and pick the food that we've decided we must have.
Piles and piles of rotting fruit, due to California labour shortages:
Some economists and advocates for farm workers say the labor shortages would ease if farmers would pay more. Lake County growers said that pickers’ pay was not low — up to $150 a day — and that they had been ready to pay even more to save their crops. “I would have raised my wages,” said Steve Winant, a pear grower whose 14-acre orchard is still laden with overripe fruit. “But there weren’t any people to pay.”
The California Farm Bureau's take:
Kelseyville, where much of Lake County's pear growing and packing is centered, has a total population of about 3,000. During the harvest that's just wrapping up, Scully said the community pitched in to help in the crisis. Retired people, stay-at-home moms and high school kids have been filling some jobs in the packinghouses, but she said the picking on 12-foot ladders needs to be done by experienced workers.
If the border crackdown continues without a guest worker program, she said, "most family farmers around here will go out of business."
"Do people want to maintain the high-quality food supply we have in this country?" Scully asked. "If they do, then they need to recognize that some agricultural areas need a way to get skilled workers, particularly from Mexico.
"These people aren't immigrants. They come here and work and then go home to their families and the country they love."
