Farm worker shortage? Where is the cost?
[ quote:b]U.S. Farm Worker Shortage? Where?
An Unaffordable Head of Lettuce? Doubtful.
Dear Americans,
A report just released through the Washington, DC based Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) seriously challenges the boundless myth that there is a shortage of farm workers in the United States.
The unsubstantiated claim, espoused by illegal alien invasion proponents, has been repeated widely as a reason that the U.S. should not enforce its immigration laws.
According to some U.S. political and business interests the United States economy would come crashing down without an unlimited supply of illegal alien slave labor to do all the work.
In addition, they claim, the cost of an apple or a head of lettuce would skyrocket. In fact, this is just not the case. These have always been bogus theories propagandized by the "no-border!" fanatics and unscrupulously hustled upon a na?ve public as truth.
The full report, entitled Farm Labor Shortages: How Real? What Response?, authored by Philip Martin, a professor of agricultural and resource economics at the University of California, Davis, is available at http://www.cis.org/articles/2007/back907.html
Among the findings:
# Production of fruits and vegetables have been increasing. In particular, plantings of very-labor-intensive crops such as cherries and strawberries have grown by more than 20 percent in just five years.
# The average farm worker makes $9.06 an hour, compared to $16.75 for non-farm production workers.
# Real wages for farm workers increased one-half of one percent (.5%) a year on average between 2000 and 2006. If there were a shortage, wages would be rising much more rapidly.
# Farm worker earnings have risen slower in California and Florida (the states with the most fruit and vegetable production) than in the United States as a whole.
# The average household spends only about $1 a day on fresh fruits and vegetables.
# Labor costs comprise only 6 percent of the price consumers pay for fresh produce. Thus, if farm wages were allowed to rise 40 percent, and if all the costs were passed on to consumers, the cost to the average household would be only about $8 a year.
# Mechanization could offset labor higher labor costs. After the "Bracero" Mexican guest worker program ended in the mid-1960s, farm worker wages rose 40 percent, but consumer prices rose relatively little because the mechanization of crop harvesting dramatically increased productivity.
# Labor-saving mechanization can be difficult for one farmer, since packers and processors are usually set up to deal either with hand-picked or machine-picked crops, but not both. Government has a key role to play in facilitating mechanization.
Cheers,
Jim Gilchrist, BAJ, BSBA, MBA, CPA - Founder and President
Jim Gilchrist's MINUTEMAN PROJECT, INC. (DBA The Minuteman Project)
- A multi-ethnic, immigration law enforcement advocacy group.
- Operating within the law to support enforcement of the law.
- The power of change through the power of peace.
MAILING ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE AND DONATIONS:
JIM GILCHRIST'S MINUTEMAN PROJECT, INC.
DBA "THE MINUTEMAN PROJECT"
JIM GILCHRIST, PRESIDENT
P.O. BOX 3944
LAGUNA HILLS, CA. 92654-3944
Visit us at: www.MinuteManProject.com
Also visit my personal web site at:
www.JimGilchrist.com
[/b]
An Unaffordable Head of Lettuce? Doubtful.
Dear Americans,
A report just released through the Washington, DC based Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) seriously challenges the boundless myth that there is a shortage of farm workers in the United States.
The unsubstantiated claim, espoused by illegal alien invasion proponents, has been repeated widely as a reason that the U.S. should not enforce its immigration laws.
According to some U.S. political and business interests the United States economy would come crashing down without an unlimited supply of illegal alien slave labor to do all the work.
In addition, they claim, the cost of an apple or a head of lettuce would skyrocket. In fact, this is just not the case. These have always been bogus theories propagandized by the "no-border!" fanatics and unscrupulously hustled upon a na?ve public as truth.
The full report, entitled Farm Labor Shortages: How Real? What Response?, authored by Philip Martin, a professor of agricultural and resource economics at the University of California, Davis, is available at http://www.cis.org/articles/2007/back907.html
Among the findings:
# Production of fruits and vegetables have been increasing. In particular, plantings of very-labor-intensive crops such as cherries and strawberries have grown by more than 20 percent in just five years.
# The average farm worker makes $9.06 an hour, compared to $16.75 for non-farm production workers.
# Real wages for farm workers increased one-half of one percent (.5%) a year on average between 2000 and 2006. If there were a shortage, wages would be rising much more rapidly.
# Farm worker earnings have risen slower in California and Florida (the states with the most fruit and vegetable production) than in the United States as a whole.
# The average household spends only about $1 a day on fresh fruits and vegetables.
# Labor costs comprise only 6 percent of the price consumers pay for fresh produce. Thus, if farm wages were allowed to rise 40 percent, and if all the costs were passed on to consumers, the cost to the average household would be only about $8 a year.
# Mechanization could offset labor higher labor costs. After the "Bracero" Mexican guest worker program ended in the mid-1960s, farm worker wages rose 40 percent, but consumer prices rose relatively little because the mechanization of crop harvesting dramatically increased productivity.
# Labor-saving mechanization can be difficult for one farmer, since packers and processors are usually set up to deal either with hand-picked or machine-picked crops, but not both. Government has a key role to play in facilitating mechanization.
Cheers,
Jim Gilchrist, BAJ, BSBA, MBA, CPA - Founder and President
Jim Gilchrist's MINUTEMAN PROJECT, INC. (DBA The Minuteman Project)
- A multi-ethnic, immigration law enforcement advocacy group.
- Operating within the law to support enforcement of the law.
- The power of change through the power of peace.
MAILING ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE AND DONATIONS:
JIM GILCHRIST'S MINUTEMAN PROJECT, INC.
DBA "THE MINUTEMAN PROJECT"
JIM GILCHRIST, PRESIDENT
P.O. BOX 3944
LAGUNA HILLS, CA. 92654-3944
Visit us at: www.MinuteManProject.com
Also visit my personal web site at:
www.JimGilchrist.com
[/b]
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quote:# The average household spends only about $1 a day on fresh fruits and vegetables.
I dont know what he uses for "Average" I know when I go to the store to buy the vegetables for a salad, just one green pepper is 3 bucks, bunch of green onions a buck fifty, Lettuce almost 2 bucks a head, Tomatos 89 cent a pound and ya get two in a bag for a buck seventy eight. Bag of baby spinach leaves, 2 bucks. We do this three times a week for a cost of 26.34 . For a month that averages to 3.51 dollars a day. If it were to increase as reported then add another 1.40 per day or 511.00 bucks a year for our salads we eat..
The strawberry pickers here do not work for an hourly wage.. When I picked strawberries here we were paid by the flat. If ya hustled you could make anywhere between 10-13 bucks average per hour .
There may not be a labor shortage but the figures in that report arent even close. But of course the stats are always skewed in favor of the person makeing the report or the complaint..0 -
Even at your figures it's still cheaper than paying 89 Billion a year in Social cost for all illegals. On the Average we would save 25 Americans a day that we are losing to illegals thru Murder or drunk driving. Send them home I will pay the extra for the Veggies. 0 -
I dont see where Illegals even entered the picture here, you are obsessed with "Illegals" and try to attach them to every thing wrong with this country..
The topic was "No shortage of Farm Workers" No where were illegals mentioned. except for the quote:# Mechanization could offset labor higher labor costs. After the "Bracero" Mexican guest worker program ended in the mid-1960s, sand that has nothing to do with Illegals..
There have been many reports of large farms moveing because of lack of Farm workers, Legal and Illegal..
Lets beat the drum to the tune of not only illegals but lets get the 18 percent of american citizens off Welfare..The estimated numbers are around 60 million welfare cases for American Citizens, The latest report I read was the poverty rate for American Citizens is around 36 percent of the population, based on income..
Get rid of the Illegals and make the people that dont want to work , work..
I was in Europe (Germany) for many years and they had a program, if you lost your job, you got Ninety days of unemployment pay, after that you either had a job or they gave you one. No one got on the Free bandwagon for long. Over there you could walk through the Forests and enjoy them, Over here you have to fight your way through the brush and weeds and fallen timber.. Put the people that are on welfare and able to work cleaning up this country..
But that would be Cruel to actually make someone work for what they get..[:(]0 -
Maybe you should look around the Dems were trying to attach Amnesty to the farm bill in the Senate NOW. DUH Most farm jobs are being Mechanized and need less and less help. Corporate farms are so huge and owned by wealth Americans that they recieve most of the money set aside for real American farmers trying to make a living off the land. Farm subsidies are in the Billions and like stated above most go to corporate boards that don't give a damn. Just mark the loss off in tax breaks. 0 -
I was just having this debate with a friend in Sonoma Cal. last Saturday. I believe that there are Americans that will do these jobs. Heck I worked on farms when I was a youngster. 0 -
Sav99: Times are different now.. too many people in this country think the country owes them something.. When I had my two business here in Florida, I couldnt get good help, and the pay was damn good, my body man at my detail shop made of 2 grand a week. My detail people made around 600-900 a week according to how many cars they turned out.. They would last maybe a week and then say the work was too hard. People looking for a fast buck would come wanting work, they werent looking for a job.. I wound up getting day labor from the prison system which was even cheaper. Best workers I ever had.. Hell ya cant get a high school kid to mow your lawn down here.
I dont thinks some people know just how big some farms are down here.. I can take ya places where you can drive for an hour and see nothing but orange groves. Many are going out of business due to the lack of people to pick. A few of our wine companys have gone out of business because of this problem.. Maybe its geographical , I dont know, But Florida is full of Welfare, too lazy to work people, and those that think the world owes them a living.0 -
That point came up in the conversation too Classic. You are right, young people don't want to work for money now days. I topped onions for 45 cents a bushel. And was glad to do it. Besides my Dad made me get a job when I turned 12. But thats the problem, parents don't make their kids work nowadays. As I said to my friend from cal. if there really is not the labor needed to harvest crops in the U.S. then migrant workers should be allowed, but documented and taxed like the rest of us.
What about mandatory labor in the orange groves for the welfare that able bodied people are receiving? Sounds like a fair trade off to me.0 -
As I posted earlier, In Europe,, 90 days free ride on the government then they give you a job.. Their forests are clean enough to enjoy a walk through, their Highways and streets are or were when I was there void of trash and beer cans thrown out of cars. People actually swept the street in front of their houses .
There is no reason that able bodied people on welfare can not contribute something for what they are getting.
As a kid I worked in the wheat fields of Kansas, humping bales of straw onto a wagon at the cost of 2 cents a bale.. Wheat straw bales as far as the eye could see. a day of that made ya go to bed early.
Later I worked tobacco fields in Kentucky, got paid by the gang and per acre. gang of 5 or 6 people cutting , spikeing, and hanging tobacco in the barns , ifn ya hurried ya could make 20 bucks a day..
With the businesses leaving this country and mosty of the industrial jobs gone, its either High Tech or Service jobs that are going to be available. Waitresses, mechanics, maids, ETC. And not many will stoop to the lower jobs on the market..
And whoever said mechanized picking.. They dont have a machine to pick oranges and strawberries yet..People Required.[:D]0 -
quote:Originally posted by Classic095
With the businesses leaving this country and mostly of the industrial jobs gone, its either High Tech or Service jobs that are going to be available. Waitresses, mechanics, maids, ETC. And not many will stoop to the lower jobs on the market..
Thats exactly where we are at. [V]0 -
Which means increasing the welfare state created by the government..[:(] 0 -
quote:Originally posted by Classic095
Which means increasing the welfare state created by the government..[:(]
Yep.0 -
Posted by Classic:
quote:I dont see where Illegals even entered the picture here, you are obsessed with "Illegals" and try to attach them to every thing wrong with this country..The topic was "No shortage of Farm Workers" No where were illegals mentioned.
I guess we read different threads.
quote:The unsubstantiated claim, espoused by illegal alien invasion proponents, has been repeated widely as a reason that the U.S. should not enforce its immigration laws.
According to some U.S. political and business interests the United States economy would come crashing down without an unlimited supply of illegal alien slave labor to do all the work.
Am I on the wrong page??0 -
I don't know about the validity of the posted article, however, be prepared for a cost increase in the price of some foods, mostly veggies.
FL is under drought conditions, as is GA and AL.
Just heard on the radio that this year's farm yield has decreased and expected to be even worse next year if drought conditions continue.
BTW, FL is now entering it's traditional "dry" season.0 -
I wish someone would take me on a field trip to see some of the starving impoverished people in America. I'm 48, have traveled the country extensively, and so far I haven't seen any. I have noticed alot fat "poor" people tho.
Poverty in the U.S. is a JOKE compared to the rest of the world. The vast majority of "impverished Americans" live in homes that have both heat and A/C. Own a Televison, most likely w/Cable service. Own at least one (running) automobile. And are overweight.
I know, up until I became a truck driver at the age of 37, my average yearly income was $12K-$15K.
With that I lived in comfortable (rental) homes. Owned 1 car (or truck) apiece for BOTH my wife and I. And a Motorcycle. Managed to stay healthy and NEVER went hungry.
The PRIMARY difference between then and now (where my income is more than triple what it used to be), is that now I can afford more things I WANT.0 -
FASTRAT: go to cumberland gap region, go to any ghetto setting in any big city, You just havent turned the right corners yet to see the squaller and horrid conditions some people live in.. How many bridges ya been under lately?? It is everywhere you look if you open your eyes..[:(] 0 -
I guess you should check with Google and most experts are saying we won't need that many manual labors in the furture.
http://www.ultimatecitrus.com/harvest/
The net is full of stuff about Machines and workers.0 -
quote:Originally posted by Classic095
FASTRAT: go to cumberland gap region, go to any ghetto setting in any big city, You just havent turned the right corners yet to see the squaller and horrid conditions some people live in.. How many bridges ya been under lately?? It is everywhere you look if you open your eyes..[:(]
Baloney. People who live in squaller in America, do so by their own choice. No one is forcd to stay in Cumberland Gap or the ghetto. And stats say the vast majority of the "homeless" (who live under bridges) are either mentally ill, alcolholic, or drug addicts. They are living the life THEY HAVE CHOSEN.
I know many people who live below the poverty line. Alot of them do so for reasons as STUPID as they won't quit smoking pot and won't even consider taking a job that requires a drug test.0 -
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quote:Originally posted by Fatstrat
quote:Originally posted by Classic095
FASTRAT: go to cumberland gap region, go to any ghetto setting in any big city, You just havent turned the right corners yet to see the squaller and horrid conditions some people live in.. How many bridges ya been under lately?? It is everywhere you look if you open your eyes..[:(]
Baloney. People who live in squaller in America, do so by their own choice. No one is forcd to stay in Cumberland Gap or the ghetto. And stats say the vast majority of the "homeless" (who live under bridges) are either mentally ill, alcolholic, or drug addicts. They are living the life THEY HAVE CHOSEN.
I know many people who live below the poverty line. Alot of them do so for reasons as STUPID as they won't quit smoking pot and won't even consider taking a job that requires a drug test.
Didn't have time to finish this last nite before I left for work.
I'm sure that there are some cases where there are truely needy people who are suffering and need help.
But coming FROM poverty, I can tell you that most people in America who are living below the proverty level, do so by their own choice.
It's all about comfort levels. Sure, everyone would LIKE to live better. But alot of these people don't want to do what it takes to achieve it. Lots of excuses. " I won't take a drug test", "I don't want to move." etc. So they stay where they are and complain. Why not complain? It's gets them more freebies.
Even w/the illegals working in America, we currently have one of the lowest unemployment rates in history. Companies that are paying good wages are BEGGING for help. Trucking companies are offering free training, as are many other industries.
Why do think the Hispanics are coming here? Because they know they CAN make it here. AND send money home to Mexico as well.
What's the difference between them and America's poor. They are willing to put forth the effort.
In my case I finally got tired of waiting for "my ship to come in". And decided I'd better get started building one. It was as easy as a trip to the unemployment office where I found the Govt. offered job training programs. Went to truck driving school, paid 100% by the Govt. Graduated 2nd in my class in May 1997. Started a new job the following Monday. By years end, I more than DOUBLED any previous years income in my life.
Had to move from my small Kansas hometown. Went back to visit riding a new Harley a year later. Within a couple months, 3 of my old friends were in Truck driving school.0 -
For many there is no way out of poverty, There just are not that many CEO jobs to be had. Working at Mickey D's is not going to lift anyone out of poverty, I am sure many people choose to live that way but I dont think the millions of Children that are on welfare have a choice in the matter, and study shows they start there they stay there. I too buy new harleys, have a good income, and consider myself lucky to have been able to do it, some people couldnt do it if you handed it to them. Just because you and I made it doesnt mean that the 42 percent that live in poverty can. I dont believe 42 percent of the population in this county choose to live in poverty.. Geographics has a lot to do with it.
Lets go back to cumberland,, ya got no money, how are you going to get out to start again??? I have been there, I have seen the people there, the desperation , the hopelessness, and the ones that bear the brunt are the children..Bottom line is the government started a Welfare state, and If you read my post, I stated the ones that are on welfare that are able should be given a job, even its it is cleaning up a couple miles of Highway right of way a day. Free lunches for the Adult free loader should stop..0
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