Labor shortage forcing San Diego-area farmers to downsize

[left-of-center2012]

A crippling labor shortage is forcing San Diego-area farmers to rethink the way they do business. “We have a real shortage of labor right now,” said Eric Larson, executive director of the San Diego Farmers Bureau. Fallbrook, Pauma Valley, Escondido, Valley Center are all places in San Diego County with vibrant farming communities. They are also struggling to adjust the lack of workers.

“Agriculture is a big important industry in San Diego,” said Larson. It’s an industry worth $1.8 billion in crops, with a $2.8 billion impact on the local economy. In San Diego, roughly 16,000 people work in agriculture throughout the year. According to Larson, there’s approximately a 25 percent labor shortage, which he believes is a direct impact of new immigration regulations.

“We have not really had immigration reform that allowed more foreign-born workers to come into this country for a long time, 40 plus years, so what happens is the population of farmworkers has diminished over time, so we have this continuing shortage of labor that gets worse year after year,” Larson said.

This shortage could mean a change you see in the grocery store. “Consumers won’t see a lack of fruit and vegetables in stores. What they will notice is they are coming from foreign countries,” said Larson. The solution Larson sees is a new program that makes it easier for guest workers to come into the U.S. to plant and harvest crops. If that doesn’t, happen, he believes the problem will get worse.

“We expect the shortage to get worse over time and have a bigger and bigger impact on agriculture,” said Larson.

https://www.10news.com/news/local-news/labor-shortage-forcing-san-diego-area-farmers-to-downsize

[tblue37]

1. K&R--whoda thunk it?

https://m.

[Newest Reality]

2. It begs the solution...

There just has to be some effective way to force...I mean help, non-immigrant Americans to do that kind of work. Surely we can apply all the wasted labor from our vast and overcrowded, (we're #1) prison empire, can't we? It won't be that hard to do and I bet the Republicans can come up with a plan, since they are good at that kind of thing.

Just think of all those elders and children getting a free ride out there who could be doing a service like picking fruits and vegetables in the fields all day! We have about 10,000 boomers retiring every day now and we can tap the ones who don't have any assets to get out there and pick our food. I mean, what do they think, they just get to live on SS and eek out a living? Wasted!

And all the farmers, and their families, who will eventually go bankrupt and lose everything will certainly need a jobs, so it is going to be win, win. Those illegals tuk ur jebs and now we get them back. MAGA!

Just call it: Job creation, from the job creators creating jobs for truth, justice and the American way.

All sarcasm aside, how are food prices going to be effected? How much is getting wasted, rotting in the fields right now? Is the $5 tomato gonna' be a thing?

[greymattermom]

3. Farms will just "move"

to where the cheap labor is. Live everything else.

[Farmer-Rick]

4. It's NOT a labor shortage they have

It's a cheap, cheap labor scarcity they have.

I hire US citizens and pay minimum, along with SS and other labor expenditures. No one pipelines me foreign immigrants willing to work for pennies.

Here's a well worn idea: try paying higher wages. Average wages are pretty low right now for most Americans and yet, Big Ag can't compete. Why is that? Is there something wrong with their business model? No One is entitled to cheap labor. It is not in the constitution. It is not a right.

Yeah, cheap foreign produce is going to be cheaper than local, American grown produce if they have to pay more for their labor. But that's Not a problem of labor and farmers. It's a problem of the free trade policies in affect throughout the US.

If you think you are entitled to cheap produce and farm products, and you don't want the cheap crap from foreign countries sprayed with unknown chemicals and polluted water, then you are going to have to pay more for it. OR, and it is a big OR, you can make policy that protects your farmers and instead of the USDA subsidizing just Big Ag, it subsidies all farmers.

Big Ag managed to get a flow of cheap, cheap labor so people the likes of Traitor Trump can make money off it and the agriculture USDA subsidies. But nothing is free and small farmers are the ones who pay for it and lose their markets in this corporate/foreign food/cheap, cheap labor farming environment.

Where do you think the Big farms found their markets? They took them away from small farmers. Just like Amazon took away markets from the Malls.

So, I for one am glad to see Big Ag struggling with having to pay the same price for labor that I do.

[Liberty Belle]

5. San Diego's farmers are small family farms in remote areas. Higher wages hasnt worked.

I know farmers in this area who have tried and can't get anyone to do the work. They are too remote in the locations. Gas prices in San Diego are the highest in the nation. So it takes people willing to live out in the rural areas, not just commute there.

The farmers in San Diego County are not rich agri-businesses. Our county has more family-owned small farms 10 acres or less than any other county in America. They grow citrus, wine grapes, flowers and other ornamental plants, cacti and succulents, raise bees for honey and more.

I have heard the president of our region's farm bureau call for comprehensive immigration reform. The farmers understand the need for this. I've heard over and over from the Farm Bureau spokesman and farmers themselves that they can't find enough workers; advertising hasn't helped. Our minimum wage in CA is nearly $12 an hour and going up to $15 an hour soon. There are plenty of other jobs at that rate that workers can get in the tourism industry in the urban areas.

The farmers need immigrants who are willing to work hard and take entry level jobs.

Farming isn't the only area where we see a shortage. I've heard there aren't enough construction workers and there definitely aren't enough gardeners and day laborers anymore, either. Our border community is really hurting due to Trump's stupidity.

[Farmer-Rick]

6. What you describe is not a labor shortage

A labor shortage would mean absolutely no one works in the fields. Produce rots, farmers abandon their homes, only foreign food in the grocery stores, .....

What you have is a cheap labor complaint. Try paying people more and more....eventually you reach a price point high enough to lure workers. Geez it's like you folks don't understand how capitalism really works. The oil industry up their wages when booms develop. Why can't farmers up their wages? What is wrong with their business plan that they can't raise wages? Seems maybe capitalism isn't working for them.

So what if you need a vehicle. All my employees drive in to work. I'm out in rural TN with no visible neighbors.

Here's the thing. If I grow high price crops, I get enough to buy high price labor. If I wait for the USDA to subsidize me (And there are subsidizes for paying only immigrant labor, that has not changed.) and get dependent on underpriced labor to run my farm, yeah I'd scream when an idiot in charge starts shipping off that cheap labor.

But it doesn't mean there aren't other ways to run a farm. You really don't absolutely need cheap, cheap labor. Same thing goes for construction and landscaping. But I'm not sure the USDA subsidises them to hire foreign workers.