Immigration and Ag Labor
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with today’s Fruit Grower Report. The debate over immigration reform and ag labor has some big holes on both sides of the argument.
Washington Post columnist, Megan McCardle was the keynote speaker at last month’s Washington State Tree Fruit Association Annual Meeting and immigration was a key talking point …
McCARDLE … “Which is, of course, a huge issue for our tree fruit growers and for other people who are in agriculture. You know, immigrants are 30% of the labor force for construction. They are 25% for trucking and transportation, which is a big part of fruit. You’ve got to get it somewhere. And they are 20% of the agricultural workforces.”
But the debate, McCardle says not been practical …
McCARDLE … “I think that the debate in Washington has been so theoretical. It has been, you know, progressives who have this ‘moral’ idea that we just owe everyone the opportunity to come here. I’m sympathetic to that. It’s a beautiful sentiment. But you ask, okay, well it three or four hundred million people showed up tomorrow, where would we put them?”
Then Republicans want answers for our labor challenges …
McCARDLE … “If you don’t get the guestworker programs right, if you don’t get all of these details right, what happens to the food, to the housing that we want to build, to the voters who are going to be extremely angry if their grocery bills go up any further.”
And their response, McCardle says is, Americans should get those jobs …
McCARDLE … “The idea that you’re just going to ship random people who’ve never done this out there. And also, our unemployment rate is 4.5%, so where are you getting all of these Americans? What other jobs do you not want them to do so that they can pick fruit.”
McCardle says this just builds on everyone’s frustration.
