Calif. farms losing millions due to immigration crackdown

[TitanTiger 20,506]

 

Quote

A recent NBC News investigation has found that farms in two California counties have already lost $13 million this harvest season because vegetables are rotting in the fields.

According to the report, farmers are having trouble finding workers because of the recent immigration crackdown. Research shows that the vast majority of the area’s farm workers are migrants from Mexico, and with them leaving the country faster than they are coming, farmers can’t find anyone else to do the work.

The issue could soon mean that vegetable prices for consumers will rise as farmers attempt to recoup losses.

https://relevantmagazine.com/slice/california-farms-have-lost-millions-during-immigration-crackdown-because-of-lack-of-workers/

Is America great again yet?

This is what happens when you implement policies in a hamfisted way.  Unintended consequences.

[creed 1,642]

You provided a conclusion that was not based on any facts in the attached article. Could it be possible the job situation in Mexico has improved to the point that the normal migrant workers can earn just as much without leaving Mexico?

[augolf1716 21,253]

So the farms took a 13 million dollar lost maybe pay a higher wage to entice workers would have help. Not trying to be smart ass but taking a 13 million lost I think somehow I would have been better prepared 

[GiveEmElle 1,559]

Consumers will pay for that loss when produce prices increase. This whole little immigration roundup is going to hurt the pockets of the very people who cheered it. 

[creed 1,642]

I don't think there is a roundup of legal documented migrant workers. Plus the attached article doesn't infer or mention deportation or as you imply "roundup" as a reason for the lack of workers.

[GiveEmElle 1,559]

52 minutes ago, creed said:

I don't think there is a roundup of legal documented migrant workers. Plus the attached article doesn't infer or mention deportation or as you imply "roundup" as a reason for the lack of workers.

Then what exactly is an "immigration crackdown"?

[creed 1,642]

3 minutes ago, GiveEmElle said:

Then what exactly is an "immigration crackdown"?

I believe you left off an important adjective from your question. So I'm assuming you meant to say "Then what exactly is" illegal "immigration crackdown? Is that what you meant to ask?

[GiveEmElle 1,559]

6 minutes ago, creed said:

I believe you left off an important adjective from your question. So I'm assuming you meant to say "Then what exactly is" illegal "immigration crackdown? Is that what you meant to ask?

I said what I meant. 

I'm willing to guess the farm workers were illegal immigrants. I'm also willing to guess that many of these people here illegally cannot afford the costs of becoming a legal immigrant. Regardless of their status these immigrants perform work that quite frankly American workers aren't willing to do. 

[creed 1,642]

And I'm guessing the workers are legal migrant workers. The use of migrant workers is common practice around the world for seasonal farming jobs. 

[TitanTiger 20,506]

3 hours ago, creed said:

You provided a conclusion that was not based on any facts in the attached article. Could it be possible the job situation in Mexico has improved to the point that the normal migrant workers can earn just as much without leaving Mexico?

You're proposing an alternate reason to one that we know about (a crackdown on "illegal" immigrants).  Any data to back up this sudden uptick in the job market in Mexico for migrant produce pickers?

[creed 1,642]

7 hours ago, TitanTiger said:

You're proposing an alternate reason to one that we know about (a crackdown on "illegal" immigrants).  Any data to back up this sudden uptick in the job market in Mexico for migrant produce pickers?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-18/record-job-growth-supporting-mexican-economy-as-nafta-talks-loom

[TitanTiger 20,506]

9 minutes ago, creed said:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-18/record-job-growth-supporting-mexican-economy-as-nafta-talks-loom

While that's interesting, a less than 3% downturn in the "informal economy" since 2009 wouldn't really account for a sudden loss of workers.   Something more recent would be a more reasonable thing to look at.  In fact the unemployment rate in Mexico has been rather low since mid 2014:

https://tradingeconomics.com/mexico/unemployment-rate

[Mikey 16,668]

Cut California's welfare benefits in half and thousands of our native-born would be heading to the fields. The people that should/could be gathering those crops are sitting on their butts swiping EBT cards instead of picking cabbage. Jobs going begging is what caused the recent flood of migrants in the first place.

[TitanTiger 20,506]

29 minutes ago, Mikey said:

Cut California's welfare benefits in half and thousands of our native-born would be heading to the fields. The people that should/could be gathering those crops are sitting on their butts swiping EBT cards instead of picking cabbage. Jobs going begging is what caused the recent flood of migrants in the first place.

And part of that is that the farms don't want to pay a wage that a person can really live on.  They'll say the hourly wage can be anywhere from $10-18 an hour, but it's really based on how fast you can pick and usually the wage ends up in the $8.60 an hour or so area.  And the work isn't steady and predictable.  It depends on Mother Nature and the crop.  To see those kinds of wages on average, you'd have to have a really good stretch of picking weather and put in 12-hour days when you do.  On top of that, given that many of these jobs are well outside urban areas, poor people without transportation would find it hard to consistently get to and from the fields to work.  Because they are poor, they don't have extra money lying around to uproot and move out to the countryside and even if they did, there isn't exactly abundant housing out there anyway.  It's a vicious cycle.

Simply dumping people off public assistance (which already has a time limit anyway) doesn't magically produce jobs that will make ends meet.  There has to be more thought going into it than that.

[WDavE 332]

If you went back and looked California farmers have been complaining about a labor shortage for several years.

This year crop losses wouldn't be because of the drought or the heat that California experienced this year.

Nah! Doesn't fit the narrative being presented currently.....

 

[alexava 6,973]

9 hours ago, TitanTiger said:

And part of that is that the farms don't want to pay a wage that a person can really live on.  They'll say the hourly wage can be anywhere from $10-18 an hour, but it's really based on how fast you can pick and usually the wage ends up in the $8.60 an hour or so area.  And the work isn't steady and predictable.  It depends on Mother Nature and the crop.  To see those kinds of wages on average, you'd have to have a really good stretch of picking weather and put in 12-hour days when you do.  On top of that, given that many of these jobs are well outside urban areas, poor people without transportation would find it hard to consistently get to and from the fields to work.  Because they are poor, they don't have extra money lying around to uproot and move out to the countryside and even if they did, there isn't exactly abundant housing out there anyway.  It's a vicious cycle.

Simply dumping people off public assistance (which already has a time limit anyway) doesn't magically produce jobs that will make ends meet.  There has to be more thought going into it than that.

Well...... Nevermind then.lol

[creed 1,642]

57 minutes ago, WDavE said:

If you went back and looked California farmers have been complaining about a labor shortage for several years.

This year crop losses wouldn't be because of the drought or the heat that California experienced this year.

Nah! Doesn't fit the narrative being presented currently.....

 

I agree. When I conducted additional research the lack of migrant farm workers has affected harvesting a number of times since 2010 so the original post is more agenda versus fact based.

 

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/05/28/479633481/farmers-wait-and-wait-for-guest-workers-amid-h-2a-visa-delays

[TitanTiger 20,506]

13 hours ago, WDavE said:

If you went back and looked California farmers have been complaining about a labor shortage for several years.

This year crop losses wouldn't be because of the drought or the heat that California experienced this year.

Nah! Doesn't fit the narrative being presented currently.....

 

Or because the issue isn't that the crops dried up and burned I. The fields, its that they have crops needing to be picked, and not nearly enough workers available to pick them. 

[creed 1,642]

54 minutes ago, TitanTiger said:

Or because the issue isn't that the crops dried up and burned I. The fields, its that they have crops needing to be picked, and not nearly enough workers available to pick them. 

Shortage of H2A workers is a common occurrence according to the information available. You're trying to attribute the shortage due to the current administration and using a weak article and argument. I get it, i know where you're coming but you probably shouldn't have started this thread because it makes you look obtuse to the real dynamics and data concerning the real issue.

[TitanTiger 20,506]

I'm sure the dunces at Fortune are obtuse to the real dynamics and data too.

http://fortune.com/2017/08/08/immigration-worker-shortage-rotting-crops/?utm_campaign=time&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&xid=time_socialflow_facebook

[Mims44 1,884]

On 8/10/2017 at 11:41 AM, TitanTiger said:

 

Is America great again yet?

This is what happens when you implement policies in a hamfisted way.  Unintended consequences.

Honestly though this a deeper problem than immigration.

The fact that these farms can not afford to pay a worker more than 4 dollars an hour and still exist is a bigger problem.

[homersapien 11,409]

1 hour ago, Mims44 said:

Honestly though this a deeper problem than immigration.

The fact that these farms can not afford to pay a worker more than 4 dollars an hour and still exist is a bigger problem.

They've been doing that because they can get away with it.  And that kind of labor is about as hard as it gets.

I think we should apply a required minimum wage for farm workers and just let the market respond however it has to.

 

[FormerlySec38Row34 56]

This administration is focusing on criminal illegal foreign nationals. Not your everyday run of the mill illegal. The reason for the lack of workers is that they have decided to cross our border in fewer and fewer numbers. It's called self-deportation. Although it can be attributed to the Trump administration's tougher stance, it's not because anyone is being rounded up en masse.