04/26/06 Who will pick the Fruit

The cherry trees are blooming profusely in my neighbor's orchard . All indicators point to a fabulous crop yet despite the weather and the market the out look is far from rosy if there is no one to pick the fruit. It's not just cherries, with new immigration laws the pending labor shortages could wreak havoc for Northwest agriculture from asparagus to hops, apples and dairies. You name it. In Washington State alone, more than 43,000 of the states 220,000 farm workers are here illegally. A recent Farm Bureau Federation report was sobering stating that agriculture would lose nearly 9 billion in annual production. There is no pat solution, deport illegals, and you remove our farmers ability to compete globally. We have only ourselves to blame for this precarious predicament. We embraced the Xbox culture. As a kid summers with friends were spent picking berries. Today there isn't a nary teen to be seen in the fields or fast food, while drugs, obesity and violence ravage our children and the fruit falls unpicked