LAKELAND (Florida) LEDGER

August 29, 2006

Bag Men (and Women)

By Kevin Bouffard

The Florida Farm Bureau Federation is asking its members to flood their congressional representatives with empty, brown-paper grocery bags with the message: "Border security and enforcement is vital to our national security. A safe, affordable and abundant domestic food supply is too." The bags also advocate creating a guest-worker program as part of immigration reform, which Congress is not likely to take up again until after the November elections. The Polk Farm Bureau will hand out the bags at its annual meeting at the end of October. If Congress approves an "enforcement-only" bill that leads to farm labor shortages, the legislators will need the bags -- for their heads.