Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Can someone explain how we can have a shortage of farm jobs and farm workers at the same time?

Hold on, I keep hearing the big problem is farm worker unemployment because we aren't growing enough vegetables.

OK, I admit there is a lot to the AgJobs bill, much of it good, and immigration is not an area of my expertise. Is it too much to expect Senators to at least update past statments to reflect current conditions? After all, there is no shortage of farm labor now, and it is a very legitimate question to ask whether this bill would have helped or harmed the situation this year. What are the impacts to the economy beyond agriculture?

According to Senator Feinstein,

“Today across the United States, there are not enough agricultural workers to pick, prune, pack or harvest our country’s crops,” the senator said, noting that the shortage has led to thousands of farmers having to watch their crops rot or fallow their farmland in recent years.

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