RALEIGH NEWS & OBSERVER

May 3, 2009

Flu delays migrant farm laborers

Tar Heel farmers who rely on help from Mexico get anxious as they prepare to plant tobacco.

By John Murawski and Kristin Collins, Staff Writers

Hundreds of farmers in the state who depend on seasonal migrant workers may not get Mexican laborers in time for planting this month because of the global outbreak of swine flu.

The migrant workers travel across the border each year to plant, cultivate and harvest tobacco and sweet potatoes, which are dependent on manual labor. North Carolina is the nation's leading producer of those two crops, and hundreds of farmers rely almost exclusively on the migrants to work their fields.

Without the laborers, the crops could be lost, damaging the state's agricultural economy. Tobacco and sweet potatoes together generate more than $700 million for North Carolina's farmers each year. Even planting a few weeks late can have ruinous effects.

"The effect of losing a crop would be the same if your boss man told you to take a year off without pay," said Kinston farmer Jimmy Hill, who grows tobacco and sweet potatoes on more than 1,300 acres in Eastern North Carolina.

About 3,000 migrants have arrived for the annual influx under a special temporary visa program. But about 4,000 more await entry and have been stuck in limbo after visa processing was suspended last week in the wake of the swine flu outbreak in Mexico.

The processing of temporary worker visas, optimistically set to resume Wednesday, has been delayed until May 11 in some U.S. consulate offices. Farmers now fear it could be postponed indefinitely if the flu spreads unabated. The virus has claimed the life of one child in Texas and has sickened 182 others in this country. The flu has caused 19 confirmed deaths in Mexico.

"This could get worse," Hill said. "If it persists much longer, we're going to be in a jam. We need to get started planting by the 18th or 20th of May."

Twenty-six of Hill's workers have arrived, but he was counting on 40 more by May 14. At the least, he could be looking at one week's delay in the logjam of temporary visas.

In this state, legal migrant workers account for 3 percent of the agricultural work force. They start planting tobacco in May, switch to sweet potatoes in June and then harvest in the fall. But the seasonal workers cover the agricultural spectrum and harvest Christmas trees, flowers, landscape plants, cucumbers and other vegetables from early spring through late winter.

The unavailability of the workers would be devastating to the state's 1,400-plus farmers who depend on them, said Stan Eury, head of the N.C. Growers Association.

Many of the workers come every year; some returning with brothers, cousins and sons for 10 years or more to the same farm, where they spend half the year tending crops that end up at local grocery stores.

Farmers are already beginning to think about their options if the visa delays drag into June. With state unemployment at 10.8 percent in March and much higher in rural areas, it would seem like there would be plenty of help available. A few farmers said they have had people show up in search of a few days' work. But the work is difficult, and reliable help is hard to find.

"There are a lot of people, mister, but they don't want to do this kind of work," said Jerome Vick, owner of Vick Family Farms in Wilson. "We're trying to hire people now, people who live in the area, but they are very hard to come by."

Vick has six migrant workers on his farm now and was expecting 40 more Wednesday. Farmers also can request workers from Guatemala, the Dominican Republic and other countries, but that could entail delays of several weeks or more.

Another option is to hire undocumented immigrants. Eury said such workers make up about 85 percent of the farm laborers in this state. Still, farmers who use legal guest workers say they'd rather not hire illegal immigrants.

"I'm not saying I'm above using illegal labor, but I don't want to do it," Keith Parrish said. "Before losing a crop, a farmer will do almost anything to get his crop in."

Parrish is expecting four seasonal migrant workers May 15 and four more in June on his farms in Johnston and Harnett counties. He has worked out a temporary plan to share workers with a neighboring farmer.

The workers come on an H2A visa and typically live in trailers or barracks, sometimes as many as several dozen cramped under one roof. They are paid between $6.76 and $11.85 an hour, depending on the county where they work and their experience. State regulations require that the workers be provided with a bed and mattress, running water and at least one electrical outlet per room. Air conditioning is not required.

Most of the Mexican workers who are already here left Mexico ahead of the flu outbreak. The N.C. Growers Association, a cooperative in Vass that helps farmers bring in migrant workers, is distributing information to farmers explaining that the symptoms of the respiratory disease are similar to the conventional seasonal flu and are not spread by eating pork. The swine flu is transmitted through human contact.

State health officials have outreach programs to disseminate medical information and offer help to farmworkers, but those efforts reach only an estimated 20 percent of laborers. The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services has updated its Spanish-language notice, distributed to Hispanic radio stations, to include a culturally-relevant reminder not to kiss when greeting.

Eury said there is no health screening required for the workers already here, and there have been no suspected cases. Eury is not aware of any North Carolina farmers refusing to accept migrant labor from Mexico because of the flu.