Power Breakfast: Immigration law causes labor shortage at Georgia farms, pay by cellphone, Georgia Power, Popeyes

AJC reporter Jeremy Redmon has written an interesting story about fallout from the state’s new immigration law:

Migrant farmworkers are bypassing Georgia because of the state’s tough new immigration enforcement law, creating a severe labor shortage among fruit and vegetable growers here and potentially putting hundreds of millions of dollars in crops in jeopardy, agricultural industry leaders said this week.

Charles Hall, executive director of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, said he has been in close contact with Labor Commissioner Mark Butler and Agricultural Commissioner Gary Black about the shortage, calling it the most severe he has seen. Hall said it’s possible state officials could hold job fairs to steer some of Georgia’s unemployed workers to these farm jobs, which pay $12.50 an hour on average. The state’s unemployment rate is now at 9.9 percent.

Farmers, however, say they often have little luck recruiting Georgia residents to work in their fields because it is temporary, hot and physically demanding. To recruit more workers, some farmers are offering signing bonuses, Hall said.

The law doesn’t take effect until July 1 but is already making migrant Hispanic farmworkers skittish, said Dick Minor, a partner with Minor Brothers Farm in Leslie in southwest Georgia who says he is missing about 50 of his workers now, threatening as much as a third of his crops.

Also in the AJC:

• Cobb growth collides with anti-tax views
• Settlement reached in Eddie Long case
• Atlanta firm at center of Google’s pay by cellphone venture
• Economy takes small bite from area fans’ support
• Georgia Power bracing for emission rules
• Real estate firm Carter selling business lines to St. Louis company
• Popeyes profits up, plans to raise prices

In other media:

• U.S. Supreme Court upholds immigration law
• G-8: World banks to give $20 billion for Arab Spring
• Energy prices held back growth in first quarter

- Henry Unger, The Biz Beat

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