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Picking a Battle Over Shortage of Farmworkers
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| Contributor | RP |
| Last Edited | RP Dec 05, 2005 01:00pm |
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| Category | General |
| Media | Newspaper - Los Angeles Times |
| News Date | Monday, December 5, 2005 06:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | The farmers who grow most of the nation's winter vegetable crop say they won't have enough workers — legal or otherwise — to harvest all the produce when the season hits high gear next month.
Growers in the winter farm belt that stretches east from California's arid Imperial Valley to Yuma County in Arizona will fill barely half the 50,000 field hand positions needed to gather the region's tons of ripening produce, according to Western Growers, a trade group whose members account for 90% of the nation's winter lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower and other vegetables.
"Come January, we could see lettuce rotting in the fields because there will be no one to pick it," said Jon Vessey, who farms 8,000 acres near El Centro.
Growers blame more frequent patrols and raids targeting illegal workers in agriculture, tighter border enforcement and the migration of undocumented workers to better paying or less physically demanding trades. |
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