ASSOCIATED PRESS April 27, 2007 Harvest is great but workers may be few By JULIANA BARBASSA Associated Press FRESNO, Calif. – Cherries are starting to blush red in the state's warm southern reaches, but farmers are eyeing the first big summer crop with concern, unsure if they'll have enough hands for the harvest. In recent years, growers in America's most bountiful farmland have watched tighter border enforcement and competition from the booming construction industry threaten their labor supply. The building bubble has burst, but will laborers come back to lower-paying, backbreaking jobs in the fields? Growers are doubtful. "We're hoping they'll show up," said Bruce Fry, whose Bing cherries near Lodi are starting to turn from straw yellow to the first pale shades of red. His family has worked the land since 1855, and seasonal workers have always returned for the harvest in mid-May after the long growing period when they're not needed. Fry believes he might attract enough workers, but the number of people who come by looking for jobs is dwindling. California harvests about half the nation's fruits, nuts and vegetables - a massive undertaking that requires about 225,000 workers year-round - double that during the peak summer season. More than half are immigrants who cross the Mexican border illegally and travel from field to field picking some 400 different crops that each ripen at different times. Last year, that seasonal migration was marked by spot worker shortages, and some fruit was left to rot in the fields. President Bush's plan to secure the border relies on raising the number of U.S. Border Patrol agents from about 12,000 to 18,000 by the end of 2008, which would further limit the number of immigrant workers who can reach the farm jobs waiting for them. The labor pool has been further diminished by the exploding Central Valley real estate market of recent years. Former farm fields have sprouted subdivisions. But the demand for new homes cooled following a boom in foreclosures in the state's rural heartland brought on partly by the collapse of mortgage lending to homeowners with weak credit. But Wenceslau Covarubias, who doubled his salary to $15 when he left the fields three years ago to help build homes, isn't going back. "You can't go backward in life," he said. "In construction, I can learn more, I can keep going up." He traded his aging Honda for a new Ford Explorer and learned to lay cement for home foundations and do detailed tile work. Farmers realize they can't match the wages and stability that led immigrants to take 60 percent of the 1 million construction jobs created during the 2004-06 building boom, according to census data. "You get used to a certain lifestyle, a certain pay scale, and it's difficult to go back," said Henry Vega, of Ventura County, a labor contractor who grows 65 acres of strawberries and avocados. So far this year, there's been no measurable shortage of farm workers, said Phil Martin, a University of California, Davis labor economist. But growers working winter crops like strawberries said they're already feeling the pinch. One of Vega's strawberry plots, normally harvested by 240 workers, is being picked by 160. That shortfall is forcing him to harvest more slowly, hurting profits. Aware of the relentless demand for field workers, farmers like Vega are keeping one eye on their crops and one on Capitol Hill, where in the next few months President Bush and Congress will discuss immigration proposals that could hinder or help their plight.
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