Yes, politicians can overcome partisanship and unite around something: making New York state the next yogurt capital.
However, that can't happen without a new immigration process. And our political leaders have not been able to break through the logjam of inaction on immigration.
Coupled with an enforcement crackdown by the Obama administration, this inertia is leaving farmers across the country in crisis, with too few hands for the harvest this season.
And cows don't milk themselves. That means New York farmers will need more hands.
Compare the promise of this new industry's ability to grow the economy with the reality of an immigration approach that takes away the necessary legal workforce. Dairies are among the most vulnerable to our enforcement-only approach: No program allows them to hire temporary immigrant workers for jobs that otherwise go unfilled.
"The Department of Homeland Security has been doing the job it was hired to do," says Maureen Torrey of Torrey Farms Inc., a 12th-generation family farm in western New York. "By aggressively conducting I-9 audits, they are taking away our experienced and skilled workforce."
Torrey is concerned that not far away is a place willing to fill in the gaps and reap the economic benefits: Canada. "They have a viable workers program that we in this area lack," she says.
If Democrats and Republicans cannot come together on an immigration strategy, the Empire State will not be able to foster its upstate dairy farmers' dreams for a yogurt cluster economy.
That cluster economy is good for all of upstate New York, not just dairy farmers, because each skilled farmworker sustains about three nonfarm jobs -- someone has to package and deliver the fruits of farmworkers' labor. And with a 13 percent poverty rate, upstate New York could use those additional jobs.
New York is by no means alone. It's a good year for apples in the state of Washington, but with no system in place for highly skilled, experienced immigrant farmworkers, growers are racing against time.
"The skilled labor source that we depend on is rapidly disappearing," says Ralph Broetje, president of Washington's Broetje Orchards, one of the largest privately owned orchards in the country. "Somehow we need to have the courage to show some compassion for them and some respect for their work."
Without enough labor, farms in New York, Washington state and elsewhere have made the difficult decision to switch to crops that machines can pick. Such a decision not only eliminates jobs but also takes money out of the local economy.
And Broetje notes that producers already are moving their operations outside of the U.S., to countries such as Peru and China that have an adequate labor supply and are better for the bottom line. Such outsourcing has serious implications for food security.
Farmers have a hard enough job as it is, with uncertain factors such as the weather or the price of fuel determining whether they can meet their bottom line each year. Add an unpredictable supply of labor, and farmers are downright vulnerable.
Farms can always cut back production, but that won't decrease Americans' demand for fresh, unblemished vegetables and fruits on our tables. Perhaps our friends north or south of our borders will help meet that demand.
That's right: If Congress can't come together on an immigration process that makes sense for agriculture, your holiday dessert might be as Canadian as apple pie.
If we want our apple pie and other produce to remain "made in America," the time to act is now. Congress must stop sitting on its hands while farmers watch crops rot in the field, and the Obama administration must offer solutions -- not just I-9 audits that point the weapons of government enforcement on agricultural employers.
These are solvable problems. We need an immigration process that is responsive to our economic needs. For farmers, that means a stable and skilled agricultural workforce.
In our economy and on our dinner tables, all of us will reap the benefits.
Ali Noorani is the Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum.
Follow Ali Noorani on Twitter: www.twitter.com/anoorani
The H-2A program is broken and inflexible - rules make it difficult. Crop size changes based on the size of the fruit or vegetable - get warm weather and more rain - the crop gets bigger, get hail & drought the crop gets smaller - it does not meet grower needs for changes in the number of harvesters needed based on factors beyond the growers control.
I am really tired of all the "experts" who know so much about making a living farming that constantly accuse growers of being greedy corporations who take advantage of everyone. I would like to see you try to make a living growing food. Farmers work very hard and risk everything to produce food for people who take their meals for granted. Think you know everything about food production - well give it a
Just like ~ the U.S. Immigration Program?
You know, the one that allows legal immigrants into the USA, 1 every 38 seconds, 24/7 for the past 11 straight years? 11 million legal immigrants in 11 years
Doesn't appear broken to me ~ unless, you consider "broken" as working too good!
http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb1d4c2a3e5b9ac89243c6a7543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=889f0b89284a3210VgnVCM100000b92ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=889f0b89284a3210VgnVCM100000b92ca60aRCRD
source: U.S.C. 8, Section 1324A
U.S. Farmers can avail themselves to a steady unlimited source of legal workers by using the USCIS H2A "guest worker" Visa holders.
Just last week, HP ran two articles about Alabama farmers insourcing Eastern African refugees with H2A Visas & paying the U.S. Gov't mandated $10.85/hr wage
Companies do not even want to pay minimum wage.
Chang shows how free trade is not the way to grow and points out that the USA was the world's most protectionist country during its phase of ascendancy, from the 1830s to the 1940s, and that Britain was one of world's the most protectionist countries during its rise, from the 1720s to the 1850s.
He shows how immigration controls keep First World wages up; they determine wages more than any other factor. Weakening those controls, as the EU demands, lowers wages.
He challenges the conventional wisdom that we must cut spending to cut the deficit. Instead, we need controls capital, on mergers and acquisitions, and on financial products. We need the welfare state, industrial policy, and huge investment in industry, infrastructure, worker training and R&D.
Chang takes on the free-marketers' dogmas and proposes ideas like - there is no such thing as a free market; the washing machine has changed the world more than the internet has; we do not live in a post-industrial age; globalisation isn't making the world richer; governments can pick winners; some rules are good for business; US (and British) CEOs are overpaid; more education does not make a country richer; and equality of opportunity, on its own, is unfair.
http://books.google.com/books?id=qUqoS7MTwPwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=23+Things+They+Don%27t+Tell+You+About+Capitalism&source=bl&ots=2pT7UU0EPS&sig=-oUoGwV7T0LeFAuA5bJJC0uTaXI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=AoJBULTpOsWN6QGf84DIAQ&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=23%20Things%20They%20Don%27t%20Tell%20You%20About%20Capitalism&f=false
However, the only way they will get what they want, i e farm visa reform and STEM/high-skill visa reform is if their US Senators and Representatives support immigration reform, including legalization of the 11 million undocumented immigrants.
There are too many other stakeholders and important voting blocs, so piecemeal reform is not an option. (As I have said before, if Obama gives away farm and STEM visa reform for nothing, there is no way to get 60 votes in the Senate and a majority in the House for broad legalization later.)
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/immigration-and-guest-worker-policies-undermining-us-tech-workers-finds-new-report-from-fair-133835948.html
The STEM Worker shortage claim is just a smokescreen to push amnesty for the "undocumented immigrants" you think are so valuable to the economy. Here is a little food for thought - Pew Center studies by Jeffrey Passel show Illegal Immigrants compete directly with USA Citizens and Legal Residents for jobs. When compared to BLS statistics the studies indicate only one Labor Market in the last decade where working Illegal Immigrants consistently outnumbered unemployed Americans - Agriculture. A "comprehensive" solution is just a way to hide the devastating impact that Illegal Immigrants have had on the American Worker by claiming that they deserve a seat at the negotiating table in spite of having broken the law.
Many pay income taxes, others pay sales taxes and payroll taxes and everybody contributes to GDP, so they have already earned legalization.
The undocumented immigrants are here because the AMERICANS hire them and they should be legalized swiftly!!
The next step is swift legalization combined with implementation of mandatory E-Verify in 2013.
Too bad there are no Americans looking for work. (looking for jobs, yes... work, no)
"producers already are moving their operations outside of the U.S., to countries such as Peru and China that have an adequate labor supply"
Yup, no labor supply here. And why not offshore food production, like everything-else production? When you are funding consumption with government debt, who needs to produce? (other than countries such as Peru and China, etc.)
All we need to do is print more money. Everything will be fine.
It is insane to give lip service for reducing consumption while importing millions of new consumers.
Oh, and has anyone noticed there are millions of unemployed in the country? Adding millions of job seekers makes sense?
What we actually need first is effective immigration enforcement since without a reliable means to regulate immigration and employment - all other discussions are moot since the door remains wide open to abuse!
Our 13th Amendment said that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist in the United States," but that ideal has never been followed. Both "agricultural slavery" and "industrial slavery" continue to exist. The slaves are the illegals, who know that they are illegal, and who are afraid to speak up for fear of being deported. Again.
Immigration laws are designed, first and foremost, to protect THE IMMIGRANT. If we need immigrant labor to harvest seasonal crops, then let us nevertheless protect THE IMMIGRANT. Who is a human being.
The way to do that is with ... scrupulous demands that EVERY immigrant MUST have proper documentation, of a suitable type, and that EVERY employer must prove that compliance at all times and under severe penalty. There must be no "people who do not exist." There are minimum standards by which every HUMAN must be treated, and every HUMAN must at all times be "on the radar" to assure that his or her HUMAN rights are being maintained.
Yes, we can "afford to" do this, and we as a nation (especially "THIS nation") must demand nothing less.
I live in one the biggest Diary areas of the country. It is not seasonal work. The cows must be milked every day in the same way. Today we have big corporate dairy farms trying to dominate the industry by undercutting the family farm with cheap labor. Soon the family farm will be gone.
Why should we pander the corporate farmer? If they have built their business on a model of illegal wage exploitation should they not go out of business when that wage exploitation is stopped? Or maybe pay a fair wage to attract those people who are part of the 13% unemployment mentioned at the end of this opinion piece? After all, farm labor is only 7% of the cost of food. Increasing farm wages would only increase the price of food by an amount comparable with current annual inflation. And it would help the local economy more than importing low wage workers. And it would make things a lot fairer and maybe give the family farmer a chance to survive.
Farming, fishing, forestry occupations - 10.9% Unemployment
Tell me again about how few Americans want to do Farm Work...