Agriculture Calls For Action on Immigration Reform

Whatever happened to the AgJobs bill. Anyone up to date on it? Lets not forget the other side of the immigration debate...the agricultural workers. They are just as important as Dreamers for the future of this country. Just curious..what would happen if all of a sudden every single one of them decides to go on strike for a week? Interesting to see the results...

http://www.hoosieragtoday.com/wire/n...ion_155259.php

The issue of immigration is one that produces strong emotions on both sides; and, for American farmers, immigration is also a serious business issue. Immigration reform has been needed in this country for a long time, but Congress and the White House have been reluctant to confront the problem head on. Both Republicans and Democrats have been unwilling to find a compromise that works. Last week, a top administration official and the president of the nation‘s largest farm organization teamed up to call for action. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack told reporters, “Every time someone in America takes a bite of American food, someone has picked it, processed it, shipped it, stored it, trucked it, shelved it; and many of these folks who have done all these tasks are immigrants.

American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman says most consumers are unaware that immigration is a food issue not just a social issue, “I think consumers have such a disconnect now with modern ag production. They think that fruits and vegetables come from the fruit and vegetable factory down the road, and that’s not the case. The factory is the farm. The farmer is the producer, but he needs workers to plant, to tend, to harvest that crop, to provide the high quality supply of - in this case - fresh fruits and vegetables that our consumers have come to expect."

While the Obama Administration has not presented a clear-cut plan on immigration, Vilsack said Congress is the one that needs to lead the way, “It’s not enough to simply secure the border. There needs to be a comprehensive immigration system that deals with the 12 million people who are here, many of whom are working in our farm fields, and to allow us to continue to enjoy the kind of agricultural production, the diversification in food, the affordable nature of the food we have in the United States. All of this is tied ultimately to getting an immigration system that works, that allows the farmers and ranchers of this country to be confident that they will always have the workforce they need to get the work done.”

The issue is complicated by the large number of undocumented workers in the US, but Stallman says simply eliminating this workforce is not the answer, “We don’t know really how many illegal workers are working in agriculture, but we know there’s a significant number, that between five and nine billion dollars per year - billion dollars per year - in production is dependent on that labor. So then you have to ask the question, if you don’t have that labor here what happens to that production? Well that production, given food demand, is going to come from someplace and it will come from outside the borders of this country. Now I don’t know what the net effect that would be on consumers’ prices in their local grocery store, but the source of their product would definitely change if we did not have that workforce.”

Vilsack said the solution must provide a workforce for US agriculture, “Our preference is for comprehensive immigration reform so that it’s a consistent set of rules that basically says to employers, you’ve got to play by the rules and if you’re not then you’re part of the problem not part of the solution. It says to workers who are undocumented that look you’ve got to acknowledge that you’re undocumented. You may have to pay a fine. You’ll have to pay unpaid taxes. You’ve got to learn the language and if you do there’s a pathway to legitimacy here that we want to create given the fact that our system has been broken for so long.”

Something like that was happening to some farmers whose states had passed strict immigration laws, their crops were dying. Some continue to have problem attaining legal labor. You should see the movie A day without a mexican, its funny.

When has any call for action worked..