When it's peach pickin' time in Georgia...
Jay Bookman at the Atlanta Journal Constitution...
After enacting House Bill 87, a law designed to drive illegal immigrants out of Georgia, state officials appear shocked to discover that HB 87 is, well, driving a lot of illegal immigrants out of Georgia.Hat tip to J.P. Green at The Democratic Strategist
...Thanks to the resulting labor shortage, Georgia farmers have been forced to leave millions of dollars' worth of blueberries, onions, melons and other crops unharvested and rotting in the fields. It has also put state officials into something of a panic at the damage they've done to Georgia's largest industry.
Labels: Agriculture, Food Security, Georgia, Immigration, Labor, Legislation
posted by Shaun at
10:37 PM
4 Comments:
The Western Growers Association's president, Tom Nassif, has been saying for years that such would happen, if the agricultural workforce - many of whom are here illegally - were chased away. Native born Americans don't want to do the hard labor involved.
In fact, from what one reads, even American Latinos don't want to do that work, in part, because of the stigma if one is Latino.
Those who own the farms have been pushing for some sort of guest worker program, as part of needed immigration reform - across the country. But Congress, and some state legislators, just keeping playing political football with this issue.
Good. Let them pay decent wages so that legal residents will want to work there. I would be willing to pay a bit more for my produce if it meant that legal resident were getting a decent living wage for working there.
How much more? $5.00 a pound for Granny Smith apples? $6.99 a pound for Walla Walla Sweets? What price is too high? What wages do you think these lily white workers deserve?
The last time I picked apples (1994) I received $10 for filling one bin (4ft box) of A or B grade apples. It took me an hour and 20 min to do it. The next bin I picked was rated at C grade 'cause I had too many stemless fruits. I got $8 for it.
The migrant workers along side of me helped me pick the right way, showed me better methods to ensure a higher grade. Some of them even added apples from their trees to help me get a higher grade. They managed to pick a bin in 30 to 45 min easily and worked from the crack of dawn until it was too dark to see the apples.
Decent wages? They made good money because they worked their asses off. Lazy Anglos like myself would last perhaps a week or two then bail.
Produce is important to me and my family's diet so I don't give a rat's butt cheek if the worker who picked it was legal or not. I do care if he or his family is being harassed by ingrate anti-American bigots who can't wait to blame all the brown people for every misfortune that befalls their sad, pathetic existence.
Bigotry, intolerance, and ignorance have no place in America. None.
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