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Now harvest time has passed and tons of pears have ripened to mush onTo View More Click Here
their branches, while the ground of Mr. Ivicevich’s orchard reeks with rotting fruit. He and other growers in Lake County, about 90 miles north of San Francisco, could not find enough pickers.
Stepped-up border enforcement kept many illegal Mexican migrant workers out of California this year, farmers and labor contractors said, putting new strains on the state’s shrinking seasonal farm labor force.
Labor shortages have also been reported by apple growers in Washington and upstate New York. Growers have gone from frustrated to furious with Congress, which has all but given up on passing legislation this year to create an agricultural guest-worker program.
From the U.S. Newswire:Maureen Torrey, 11th generation farmer from Elba, NY, and Co- Chairman of United Fresh echoed the sentiments of growers across the country, “The choice is simple: import needed labor or import our food. Agriculture needs access to a legal and stable workforce. Secure America’s borders, but please pass immigration reform. Without it, we’ll be outsourcing farm jobs and endangering our food supply.”
Craig Regelbrugge, co-chair of the Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform (ACIR), an organizer of the rally, acknowledged that labor shortages and even crop loss are already occurring. “We have had reports of shortages from coast to coast, from north to south, and crop losses in oranges, pears, blueberries, and other crops,” he said. ACIR and the United Fresh Produce Association support increased border security, but want to ensure that immigration legislation does not leave American growers and farmers behind. ACIR and United Fresh support reforming the H-2A program, to meet the special needs of agriculture and allowing trained and trusted farm workers a chance to earn legal status.
“American agriculture needs Congress to step up now,” said Tom Stenzel, President & CEO of the United Fresh Produce Association. “Time is running out. We need comprehensive immigration reform, or American farms will fail and American jobs will be lost.”
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