Well no matter what your feel is on immigration control the new laws implemented by Alabama and Georgia are a reality that will affect all of us in some way or another. The reason I bring this up is it has caught up to us in the Florida Ag business. We started harvesting the early oranges to be used in orange juice yesterday and the labor situation is anemic. We normally have between 50 - 100 people harvesting the oranges and we had 16. After talking to the people everyone has a story to tell where families were driving down from Michigan or Illinois to Florida and were pulled over for looking Mexican and deported or harassed to the point where they turned around. The crew leaders tell us that there is lots of labor up north wanting to come work the crops but are too afraid to cross through Alabama or Georgia. What does this mean to the you the consumer? If you think your grocery bill has risen the with the recession be prepared for a nuclear explosion of prices you will now pay. Some of this will be the added cost it takes to pay for a labor force in short supply where everyone is bidding for the small pool of help. Most of it will be the fact that fruits and vegetables will not be harvested because there is no labor to get it done. This in turn will make what does find its way to the grocery store a very high priced commodity. The United States has always had the benefit of a cheap affordable food supply. Yes we have swings where drought or weather events effect the short term supply of some items but it is never a long term event. I am telling you those days are gone. It may not happen next week or next year but we are for the first time going to experience an era where food items will not be available. The simple answer is we will buy our products from another country, this will work for a while until the price gouging and political currents make these products unaffordable. Not really ranting here just disappointed. The politics to control immigration are not going to be fixed anytime soon. This hot potato topic once again pits right vs left and we have all seen that this means a state of limbo where nothing gets accomplished. I am all for enforcing the laws we have in place to control illegals but a common sense work visa program must be in place first. I am talking Florida in this conversation and not even mentioning the crops grown in Georgia and Alabama that will not be harvested. Here are the numbers of Florida food products from 2008 and how they rank, I personally consume a good portion of these products.
Ralph, Thanks for a common sense post on the impact of ignoring work visas. I'm copying this post and sending it to friends and family members to enlighten them on the issue as you have explained it.
so instead of eating my oranges or giving them away I should be making Orange juice with them my tree is so full... I end up giving most of them away. I am afraid I may have lost some Saturday night it was below freezing, but last night was 39 they still have about a week or so to go. the week is suppose to be in the 60 but next weekend another cold storm . .... Can you pick them if they are still a little green
It depends how long you were below freezing mrsjoco, do you know the durations? Citrus can withstand limited freezing down to 28 degrees for a few hours. You can pick them green if they are close to harvest time but the sugar may be lacking...
Tell them to pass through New Jersey. My son pulls them over all the time and is ordered to let them go, even the previously deported, the ones with no I.D. and those with criminal records. ICE tells them they can't deal with it.
The legislation passed in Georgia is bad, the law in Alabama is atrocious. It literally makes pulling people over legal for their appearance. In the long run, I see no way that law stands up. The country regions of this state drive me insane. They are filled with white trash welfare babies living off the government tit, but there's no way they'd do the work that immigrants are willing to do... but they are sure they don't want 'those people' out there taking 'their jobs.' Once again, we do this so well in this country, we are so busy worrying about things that don't matter or that we can't change while real issues just burn at our core.
Corey, you touched on the main issue for those that only accept political sound bites. "Get rid of them illegal immigrants and put Americans to work" This is a great idea and sounds smart for every politician out there saying it and the masses who listen to them and think they actually know what they are talking about. The other brainy idea is lets get all the welfare people out there and give them a job by having them prune, pick and sweat in the fields. Georgia went a step farther and put prison labor in the fields. When the white folks and black folks went to work in the field last summer in Georgia the average length of employment lasted 2 hours. The prison labor fared better but ended in the same results. The end result for Georgia farming interest was just under $500 million dollars in crops were left to rot in the field. Farming is not brain science but we now use the same science that brain surgeons use. Think about this 1.5% of the population feeds the remaining 98.5%. Farming is all about timing and knowing when to water, fertilize, spray and harvest. If the harvest is off by one day the entire investment can be lost or destroyed by weather or mature fruit. So when you hear someone say put the welfare folks out there doing it, they have just put the food you hope to eat in the responsibility of someone who could care less what happens to it. The backwoods mentality of those who want to bitch about how its getting done but would never dream of doing it themselves are only showing their intelligence. The smart approach once again is to have a work visa program that enables immigrants to work in conjunction within our existing laws. Racial profiling families running down the highway is UnAmerican in my book and the quickest way to removing what makes America great.
:cry: Ralph thank you for the advice however we just had a thunder and lightening storm that was unbelieveable it also left 2 inch's of hail on the ground my poor dog wont even go to the back yard. I posted a pix on facebook I dont know how to post them here. I will check them in the morning. power just came back on a little while ago.... hopefully we are done w. surprises tonight its bad enough listening to the cars go down the street good thing we are parked in the driveway next to our house. feel bad for anyone on the street they are slipping and sliding it is only 38 right now and the ice isnt going any where but tomorrow is suppose to be in the low 60's