Crops rot as workers vanish to avoid crackdown

[thecoolnessrune]

It was good enough, actually. Not good enough for Americans accustomed to meaningless government jobs and/or social bennies, but good enough to make a living off of.

No it wasn't. If someone said they felt like they weren't getting paid enough, Businesses everywhere would likely tell him "we pay enough to keep a good number of employees here."

If the employees aren't staying, they aren't paying enough. It's that simple. One doesn't just get to pick and choose which pros and cons of capitalism are real.

 

[Victorian Gray]

Frankly, I'm amazed that more legal Americans don't want produce picking jobs, what with all the travel one gets to do being a migrant picker and all. I'd think just the adventure of traveling across states, living in your car would be so attractive.....who wouldn't want that life?

Ah, the good ol' days when you could exploit your fellow Americans and didn't need so many poor brown folks from Mexico.

 

[Svnla]

That guy needs to ante up some cash and get one of these.

Just wait until you need to maintain those expensive farming machines - https://www.extremetech.com/computing/246314-farmers-pirating-john-deere-tractor-software-stick-man

 

[VirtualLarry]

Just wait until you need to maintain those expense farming machines - https://www.extremetech.com/computing/246314-farmers-pirating-john-deere-tractor-software-stick-man

Just another reason why we NEED "Right to Repair" legislation in all 50 States.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

No it wasn't. If someone said they felt like they weren't getting paid enough, Businesses everywhere would likely tell him "we pay enough to keep a good number of employees here."

If the employees aren't staying, they aren't paying enough. It's that simple. One doesn't just get to pick and choose which pros and cons of capitalism are real.

True if the only alternatives are other forms of private employment, but that's not the case in the USA.

 

[Zaap]

It amazes me people still swallow the horseshit that no one can afford a product simply because those producing it are paid well.

How many dumbasses believe that with your OWN employer?

"Nope! Can't ask for a fair wage... proper work conditions and for my employer to obey the law! No one will be able to afford the product!"

Hint: big Agri-biz has fed you a line of horseshit on that one.

Pulling a crop out of the ground (hell, something you can do yourself in your own backyard) does not require paying some exploited labor peanuts in order for you to afford it any more than publishing a newspaper/manufacturing something/designing something etc etc. does.

Big Ag isn't trying to make food cheap for you. They like making MORE MONEY.

"Boo hoo we can't find anyone to pick a crop for peanuts in shit conditions!" Sure. And the local slumlords can't find anyone to squeeze 4 families into a 1 family shack and pay top dollar between them either. Shit Americans won't (and shouldn't have to) do. Cry me a river.

Let these businesses work out finding homegrown labor. Oh my god! They might have to swallow some gross profits and offer what an American IS willing to work for! Small family owned farms might become viable again. They might have to arrange LEGAL migrant labor.

Heaven forbid! Won't somebody please think of the poor fatcats?

 

[OutHouse]

*sigh* I can't wait to see the prices of fruits and veggies in the next few months.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/14/alabama-immigration-law-workers

ohhh bullshit. H-2A Visa's for Temporary Agricultural Workers have been around a long fricking time. they don't use H-2A legal labor because they have to pay the workers more.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Indeed, this isn't a new problem. We already have existing immigrant and worker visa laws. As a country, we should try enforcing them from time to time.

 

[brycejones]

Indeed, this isn't a new problem. We already have existing immigrant and worker visa laws. As a country, we should try enforcing them from time to time.

We can't hold jerb creators accountable for following the law. We need to focus on the desperate looking for a better life.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Indeed, this isn't a new problem. We already have existing immigrant and worker visa laws. As a country, we should try enforcing them from time to time.

I remember when I was a preteen and a military brat we moved to Beaufort, SC. It was my first time being around rural farms like that and I noticed all of the migrant farm workers but I didn't understand the mechanics of the situation. I believe that our laws should be enforced and it has nothing to do with what letter we have associated with our political affiliation. If those people come in legally then they won't have any problems and work as many farms as they'd like. I don't have any sympathy for the farmers who've been taking advantage of them either paying lower than legal wages to increase their margins. With all of the modern farm equipment that's available they can find alternatives that won't land them in court.

 

[Ns1]

Soooo, what's he's saying is, the compensation wasn't enough to hire good, reliable labor to do the job.. Almost like capitalistic supply / demand skew is way off.

Maybe he should do something about that.

he did. he ripped out all his shit that required labor and moved to stuff that can be harvested by machines.

 

[Capt Caveman]

It amazes me people still swallow the horseshit that no one can afford a product simply because those producing it are paid well.

How many dumbasses believe that with your OWN employer?

"Nope! Can't ask for a fair wage... proper work conditions and for my employer to obey the law! No one will be able to afford the product!"

Hint: big Agri-biz has fed you a line of horseshit on that one.

Pulling a crop out of the ground (hell, something you can do yourself in your own backyard) does not require paying some exploited labor peanuts in order for you to afford it any more than publishing a newspaper/manufacturing something/designing something etc etc. does.

Big Ag isn't trying to make food cheap for you. They like making MORE MONEY.

"Boo hoo we can't find anyone to pick a crop for peanuts in shit conditions!" Sure. And the local slumlords can't find anyone to squeeze 4 families into a 1 family shack and pay top dollar between them either. Shit Americans won't (and shouldn't have to) do. Cry me a river.

Let these businesses work out finding homegrown labor. Oh my god! They might have to swallow some gross profits and offer what an American IS willing to work for! Small family owned farms might become viable again. They might have to arrange LEGAL migrant labor.

Heaven forbid! Won't somebody please think of the poor fatcats?

Do you do your food shopping at Whole Foods? Most people don't b/c of the cost. With imported produce and vegetables at lower prices are you going to spend more money to buy American at your regular grocery store?

 

[stormkroe]

I

Do you do your food shopping at Whole Foods? Most people don't b/c of the cost. With imported produce and vegetables at lower prices are you going to spend more money to buy American at your regular grocery store?

Wait, why would food prices go up? I thought paying $15/hr wouldn't affect your burger, er, I mean tomato prices?

 

[alien42]

Do you do your food shopping at Whole Foods? Most people don't b/c of the cost. With imported produce and vegetables at lower prices are you going to spend more money to buy American at your regular grocery store?

foods are imported primarily because of seasonal issues, not cost.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Some plants can't reasonably be harvested by machine, so certain crops may stay the same/go up slightly (if farmers have to switch to automation) and the farmers will take a hit on the cost, pass it to distributors, then to buyers. If a crop can't reasonably be harvested by machine and the labor cost is too high, they'll simply stop growing it and those will move out of country to places with lower labor, and price will go up due to importing the product instead. Prolly won't be as good either due to transit times.

 

[Fern]

foods are imported primarily because of seasonal issues, not cost.

Exactly. Those of who actually do the grocery shopping know this.

My stores carry mostly crops grown in this area. They have displays showing the farmers who supply the produce etc. Heck, I know some of them.

The exception is for things we don't grow around here. Oranges are from FL. Almonds from CA.

In the Winter a lot of produce is from South America.

Fern

 

[thecoolnessrune]

he did. he ripped out all his shit that required labor and moved to stuff that can be harvested by machines.

Which is fine. Either get on to machine labor and basic income, or keep people and pay them a living wage. This dawdling around of bringing in illegal labor to work for low, off-the-books labor benefits only the business owner. It does our country no good to prolong a lie.

 

[Ns1]

It does our country a lot of good via cheap & fresh fruits and veggies that I enjoy daily.

 

[werepossum]

MARCH 17, 2017 | REPORTING FROM STOCKTON, CALIF.



http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-fi-farms-immigration/

Ahem. From your article:

Last year he could barely get together 45 laborers, and his grapes sold for only $350 per ton. Klein knew his vines were done for when California passed laws raising the minimum wage to $15 by 2023 and requiring overtime for field laborers.

“There’s not enough guys, and everybody is fighting for everybody else’s guys,” he says. “In Napa and Sonoma, they’re getting $2,000 a ton [for grapes]. So, those guys can afford to pay $15. For me, I’m just trying to break even.”

When farmers are requiring below-market wages to remain profitable, the solution is not to import a subclass of non-citizens.

 

[werepossum]

Low IQ lefty OP didn't bother to check the date in the byline. The OP article was published October 2011. You're 5 years late for your outrage.....

Isn't it amazing that pointing this out makes absolutely no difference in the discussion?

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Which is fine. Either get on to machine labor and basic income, or keep people and pay them a living wage. This dawdling around of bringing in illegal labor to work for low, off-the-books labor benefits only the business owner. It does our country no good to prolong a lie.

It benefits the laborers that have traditionally seen waves of amnesty every once in a while, under both Democrats and Republicans. That's obviously changed now though.

 

[Skyclad1uhm1]

The US is so used to getting lots of food very cheap that the only way to keep that up is either heavily underpaying the labourers or importing it from countries where labour is a lot cheaper to begin with.

If you have a house in the US and have to save up money for your pension then what is currently being paid is not enough by far. The reason illegal immigrants are willing to work for so little is because they would get paid less at home and by living in crappy conditions they can save up money to send back home or to save up to have some when going back.
For US citizens however there is no going back to a different country after working a while, they have to pay a lot for their families to have a decent life and therefor they'd need a decent salary.

You basically have 3 options. The first one is paying more for food and having less left for other things (which won't be popular with most of the population), the second is to heavily subsidize agriculture, but that means taxes won't be lowered the first while, and the last is to end all non-competitive food production and import it all. Which means the US becomes fully dependable for most of the food on foreign countries. Which opens the way for those countries to wait a few years for the infrastructure to produce certain food items to vanish in the US and then to slap an export tax on it.

I'm happy to see what no matter which route Trump and friends take it will piss off most of the US. Either they have to pay more for food, jobs will be 'exported', or Trump will have to break another promise.