|
PUBLIC OPINION NEWS (Chambersburg, Pennsylvania
By ROB LUFF Staff writer
Farm owners are unsure whether they will have enough laborers to harvest
their fruit and crops this year, as migrant labor is becoming harder to
find due to stricter state and federal immigration policies.
During the September apple harvest season Tonya White, co-owner of
Knouse Fruitlands in Adams County, hires 85 to 90 additional employees
to boost her year-round 10-man labor force. The workers are usually
migrants, and this year she is unsure whether she will find enough.
"(The problem is) not knowing what the (labor) climate is going to be
this fall. I'm very worried about it," White said.
Migrant Hispanics are constantly settling down, pulling out of the
migrant lifestyle in favor of a year-round home. That has historically
been the trend, White said, but there have always been replacements
coming in to fill their job openings.
"(The labor force) is probably dwindling, but it's that they're more
cautious," White said.
Typically, though not always, the workers are not legally documented,
using false documents that employers believe to be legal. Although they
may be able to get them past employers, they are less successful with
immigration officials, so they become wary with seeking employment in
some employment sectors, particularly agriculture.
White worries that her 900-acre orchard will not make a profit this year
if she does not get the necessary labor force. She cannot simply hire
locals, because they are not willing to work the hard labor.
"I don't think I could pay an American enough to pick apples," White
said, "and if I could, you wouldn't want to buy them because you
couldn't afford to."
The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau announced in March that Pennsylvania
farmers could lose an estimated $175 million each year if they cannot
rely on a federal guest worker program that would give temporary legal
status to necessary Hispanic workers. Legislation to pass such a program
was dropped in May. Farm owners like White are having trouble getting
workers from elsewhere.
Tammy Kriner of Lady Moon Farms, an organic grower outside Chambersburg,
said the farm is getting less of a response for part-time employment
than expected.
"Because of all the legalities right now there are less migrant laborers
available," Kriner said.
The farm recently placed a help-wanted newspaper advertisement, and
after three days it had received no response. The farm hoped to lure
employees with an hourly rate of $9.75 per hour but did not get a single
bite from locals. Instead, Kriner said, the farm will stick with its
usual batch of Hispanic migrants when it starts harvesting tomatoes and
cucumbers at the beginning of next month.
According to a 2002 agricultural census survey conducted by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, Franklin County had 27 farms that depended on
migrant labor, and Adams County had 88 out of the 745 such farms in
Pennsylvania. Tara Baugher, a tree fruit expert at the Penn State
Cooperative Extension, said those numbers have likely declined.
Becky Andrews, owner of Andrews Mountainside Farms, recently stopped
employing migrant help due to downsizing her apple orchard because she
could not turn a profit. She continues to employ resident Hispanic
workers living in the Chambersburg area.
Before reducing the size of the orchard from 200 acres to about 60 two
years ago, Andrews and her husband relied heavily on the migrant help.
Laborers would work at the Andrews farm and other farms in the area
before moving on to New York, which has a slightly later season due to
cooler temperatures. Decreasing apple prices forced the farm to reduce
its size.
"It's just been harder and harder to grow an apple and turn a profit,"
Andrews said.
Other farmers in the area rely on Hispanic help throughout the year,
even when using machines to help with the harvest. Machine harvesting
will not likely replace migrant labor on most farms, Chambersburg farmer
Brent Barnhart said.
Barnhart, owner of Country Creek Produce on Etter Road, will begin
harvesting his smaller tomatoes with a machine by mid-August to sell to
Furman Foods in Northumberland. Primarily Roma and grape tomatoes,
Barnhart's crop will be turned into spaghetti sauce and pizza sauce to
be distributed across much of the East Coast. The rest of his tomatoes,
the larger kind that tastes great on a hamburger, need to be handpicked,
a job for his Hispanic help.
Even if Barnhart were to grow only Roma tomatoes to be harvested by a
machine, he would still depend on the foreign laborers, Barnhart said,
because he needs them to sort through the harvest. Machines might reduce
the number of migrants on a farm with a very large work force, but
smaller operations would be less affected, he said. Meanwhile he relies
on migrant and local Hispanic laborers for his larger tomatoes that have
to be tied to stakes.
"Two Hispanic guys in a day will get more done than you can imagine,"
Barnhart said. "They work a steady pace. They don't rush but they keep
the same pace the whole day." They often move faster along the row of
tomatoes than Barnhart, skilled at what they do.
Finding locals to do the same kind of work in dirt-filled conditions
from dawn until dusk is nearly impossible, Barnhart said. His helpers
wanted to keep working when he sent them home on June 20, when lightning
and thunder announced the arrival of a storm.
Barnhart has kept four to six Hispanic workers on staff throughout the
season, not hiring them unless they show a driver's license, a Social
Security card and a work visa or permanent resident card. He complies
with federal I-9 guidelines.
Barnhart's workers tend to rotate in and out, moving on to other farms
and businesses, he said.
|