Ga’s farm-labor crisis playing out as planned
NOTE: This post includes substantial material published earlier on this blog. It is published here as the electronic version of today’s AJC column.
After enacting House Bill 87, a law designed to drive illegal immigrants out of Georgia, state officials appear shocked to discover that HB 87 is, well, driving a lot of illegal immigrants out of Georgia.
It might be funny if it wasn’t so sad.
Thanks to the resulting labor shortage, Georgia farmers have been forced to leave millions of dollars’ worth of blueberries, onions, melons and other crops unharvested and rotting in the fields. It has also put state officials into something of a panic at the damage they’ve done to Georgia’s largest industry.
Barely a month ago, you might recall, Gov. Nathan Deal welcomed the TV cameras into his office as he proudly signed HB 87 into law. Two weeks later, with farmers howling, a scrambling Deal ordered a hasty investigation into the impact of the law he had just signed, as if all this had come as quite a surprise to him.
The results of that investigation have now been released. According to survey of 230 Georgia farmers conducted by Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black, farmers expect to need more than 11,000 workers at some point over the rest of the season, a number that probably underestimates the real need, since not every farmer in the state responded to the survey.
In response, Deal proposes that farmers try to hire the 2,000 unemployed criminal probationers estimated to live in southwest Georgia. Somehow, I suspect that would not be a partnership made in heaven for either party.
As an editorial in the Valdosta Daily Times notes, “Maybe this should have been prepared for, with farmers’ input. Maybe the state should have discussed the ramifications with those directly affected. Maybe the immigration issue is not as easy as ’send them home,’ but is a far more complex one in that maybe Georgia needs them, relies on them, and cannot successfully support the state’s No. 1 economic engine without them.”
According to the survey, more than 6,300 of the unclaimed jobs pay an hourly wage of just $7.25 to $8.99, or an average of roughly $8 an hour. Over a 40-hour work week in the South Georgia sun, that’s $320 a week, before taxes, although most workers probably put in considerably longer hours. Another 3,200 jobs pay $9 to $11 an hour. And while our agriculture commissioner has been quoted as saying Georgia farms provide “$12, $13, $14, $16, $18-an-hour jobs,” the survey reported just 169 openings out of more than 11,000 that pay $16 or more.
In addition, few of the jobs include benefits — only 7.7 percent offer health insurance, and barely a third are even covered by workers compensation. And the truth is that even if all 2,000 probationers in the region agreed to work at those rates and stuck it out — a highly unlikely event, to put it mildly — it wouldn’t fix the problem.
Given all that, Deal’s pledge to find “viable and law-abiding solutions” to the problem that he helped create seems naively far-fetched. Again, if such solutions existed, they should have been put in place before the bill ever became law, because this impact was entirely predictable and in fact intended.
It’s hard to envision a way out of this. Georgia farmers could try to solve the manpower shortage by offering higher wages, but that would create an entirely different set of problems. If they raise wages by a third to a half, which is probably what it would take, they would drive up their operating costs and put themselves at a severe price disadvantage against competitors in states without such tough immigration laws. That’s one of the major disadvantages of trying to implement immigration reform state by state, rather than all at once.
The pain this is causing is real. People are going to lose their crops, and in some cases their farms. The small-town businesses that supply those farms with goods and services are going to suffer as well. For economically embattled rural Georgia, this could be a major blow.
In fact, with a federal court challenge filed last week, you have to wonder whether state officials aren’t secretly hoping to be rescued from this mess by the intervention of a judge. But given how the Georgia law is drafted and how the Supreme Court ruled in a recent case out of Arizona, I don’t think that’s likely.
We’re going to reap what we have sown, even if the farmers can’t.
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116 comments Add your comment
Lord Help Us
June 17th, 2011
8:25 am
The Gov may have bigger issues still given some other issues. Clue to the Gov…when you fire and/or reduce the pay of someone that is investigating you, people may ask questions…
Moderate Line
June 17th, 2011
8:41 am
Passing law will perhaps force the issue to be address. The argument that we need illegal migrants for this work is false. The employers only hire illegal immigrants because they are cheaper. They are also more likely to be abused.
At one time the left would be for workers rights to protect wages and protect against abuse but now they are more concerned about trying to get Latino votes than protecting worker rights.
Also note making them citizens doesn’t help because they Latino unemployment is higher running currently at 11.9%.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
Mighty Righty
June 17th, 2011
8:42 am
“Thanks to the resulting labor shortage, Georgia farmers have been forced to leave millions of dollars’ worth of blueberries, onions, melons and other crops unharvested and rotting in the fields. It has also put state officials into something of a panic at the damage they’ve done to Georgia’s largest industry.”
Not intended to be a factual statement.
rwcole
June 17th, 2011
9:02 am
Mighty, you’re just wrong. The problems farmers are facing right now will show up in your grocery store very soon. Here in southern GA, watermelons, tomatoes, and other crops are literally baking in the 100 degree heat without the necessary help to harvest these crops. I shouldn’t feel too sorry for the farmers or you because you asked for this, but this law will affect all of us in GA in a very negative way. Open your wallet, dude, cause food is about to get very expensive.
Diane Smith
June 17th, 2011
9:54 am
No crops to be picked in Dalton, GA where illegal aliens have displaced the American workers. Americans who are not bilingual in Spanish are not considered for jobs. Use the probationers and prison trustee labor to pick your crops.
The Dustin Inman Society Blog » D.A. King in the Marietta Daily Journal today
June 17th, 2011
10:04 am
[...] in lawsuits to stop immigration enforcement in Georgia, one of my favorite sources of amusement are smug, leftist columnists who wail in anguish that we must continue to employ illegal aliens because Americans and legal [...]
Bob Andrews
June 17th, 2011
10:07 am
I feel for Georgia’s Farmers, however there are procedures to get TEMPORARY work Visas.
Adam
June 17th, 2011
10:16 am
It does seem a bit ridiculous that in order to actually implement the principle of no illegal workers, we destroy our crop producing capabilities. This has gone on for so long that apparently we have no choice now but to leave it alone to get worse, or do something like this and make things worse in another way.
That said, a more responsible solution is in order here.
American worker who can read
June 17th, 2011
10:28 am
There is an excellent rebuttal to this nonsense in today’s Marietta Daiuly Journal
http://mdjonline.com/view/full_story/14351476/article-D-A–King–Pro-law-Americans-turning-tide-on-immigration?instance=special _coverage_right_column
American worker who can read
June 17th, 2011
10:34 am
conjuring up the decades-old, alarmist, boogey-man of a “$4 apple” — like the equally absurd “$10 head of lettuce” — as a talking point in favor of another amnesty is fruitless.
According to Philip Martin, a professor of agricultural and resource economics at the University of California-Davis, the labor cost in a head of lettuce is less than 10 percent. We could (and probably should) double the wages of legal “lettuce labor” and not significantly increase the retail price. Same for apples and onions, too.
joe farmer
June 17th, 2011
10:47 am
After all the small frams go out of business, deal and his cronies will buy farmland at very good price.
joe farmer
June 17th, 2011
10:52 am
We hire mexicans because they are good, hardworking, honest people unlike the durg addicted highshool dropout you propose I hire instead.
BADA BING
June 17th, 2011
12:14 pm
This reply is also a repost. The bill was intended to make illegal immigrants leave GA. It is working AS INTENDED. The labor shortage is a side effect. Do you take any RX or non RX drugs? There are side effects to everything, you still take the medicine,don’t you? In the long run, you do what is best for GA citizens.
Robert C.
June 17th, 2011
4:21 pm
Well, joe farmer, you can hire all the good, hardworking, honest foreign laborers you want for temporary agricultural work–LEGALLY–and you know it! The Federal program that allows you to do that is the H2A Visa; a numerically uncapped, NON-IMMIGRANT, temporary agricultrual worker program. Here’s a link so that others can see what joe farmer and the author of this idiotic article don’t want you to know:http://faq.visapro.com/H2A-Visa-FAQ.asp.Enough lying from farmers, so-called journalists, and mush brained leftists. The reason joe farmer hires illegal aliens is because he is dishonest and has been allowed to foist the social services of his slave-labor work force on the rest of us for far too long, now. Or is there some other reason you don’t use the H2A Visa program, joe?
The Quadfather
June 18th, 2011
11:25 am
Go down the welfare rolls. Pick the ones that are not working at all, and send them a work subpoena. If they refuse to show up and work, stop the deposits on their EBT cards. I remember the lines outside the welfare office before EBT was inplemented. They could stand in the hot sun all day for a free check, but somehow they can’t get a job? I wish I had taken a picture of it.
Stevenator
June 19th, 2011
3:04 pm
Mexican immigrants are the hardest-working agricultural workers in the world, bar none. It will take more than twice as many probationers to bring in the same amount of crops — if they show up. Deal done screwed up, big time.
independent thinker
June 19th, 2011
11:56 pm
you want to have three or four illegitimate children with three or four different fathers and get the government to pay for food housing, your car, your cell phome and big screen TV??? go pick fruit and vegetables to qualify and the state will pick up your childcare bill. Otherwise go to the back of the line.
Misty
June 20th, 2011
1:24 pm
Go JOE FARMER! My landscape company does this for the same reasons. Amen! The only people that do not understand this are the ones so far removed from the reality of it. I actually believe these people mean well, but just really have no idea the reality of the situation. I just read someone claiming that they hoped people like me would be run out of business after getting rich off of “slave labor”. The condemned my “obscene profits”. I make a comfortable living and my husband works 60-80 hours a week to make that happen. I am not getting fat off of slave labor, just getting a small, portioned piece of the American Pie! After this July, I will probably be out of business and have no idea what we will do.
A Criminal Probationer
June 20th, 2011
2:20 pm
We will die under the sun. There is no way. We have been watching TV and getting great meals at the cost of GA taxpayers. Let those farmers lose their crops.
Morning Links | The Agitator
June 21st, 2011
7:44 am
[...] lawmakers show their contempt for illegal immigrants, cripple the state’s agriculture sector in the process. Enjoy your “day without a Mexican”, [...]
Mike
June 21st, 2011
8:00 am
This is called a market adjustment. The farmers have been enjoying labor below the actual value of the labor and they’re going to have to adjust. The produce prices will increase eventually, but the problem here isn’t that the immigrants are doing labor “no American will do”, the problem is that no American’s want to do that labor for the wages being offered.
Zero
June 21st, 2011
9:45 am
Robert C.
I fail to see your point in mentioning Social Services for Illegal Immigrants in relation to the H2A visas.
Either you and I are going to pay more for food as the farmers pass their costs on when they use the H2A visa program or you and I are going to pay more taxes for Social Services when they hire illegally. Either way you and I will pay. There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.
The Source 96.7FM & 1370AM – WOCA » the costs if illegal alien crackdowns
June 21st, 2011
9:59 am
[...] http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blo…ut-as-planned/ [...]
In unrelated news, Georgia now has farm issues « Quotulatiousness
June 21st, 2011
10:14 am
[...] a passing a hugely successful bill to exclude illegal immigrants from the state, politicians are astounded to find that actions do have [...]
AnotherAZJoe
June 21st, 2011
11:02 am
Speaking from Arizona, we’ve not only seen an exodus of illegals from recent legislation but from lack of jobs. They are self-deporting. In better times this would have had a severe impact but the fact is that if you have an $8 job for somebody here it’s filled in 24 hours no matter what kind of work it is. Cost of living is probably a lot cheaper here though. People are still tough too.
Chris Lindsay
June 21st, 2011
11:12 am
Those who are saying that the farmers need to suck it up and pay more for their labor should probably realize that the solution will not be that they will pay more for food (although it should be), but rather the government will probably start giving subsidies and tax breaks to farmers to off-set the increased labor prices?
So it’s still a lose-lose situation for the consumer, but with the government’s involvement, it’ll mean more bureaucracy?
You Mean Forcing Illegal Immigrants Out is a Bad Idea? | TightWind
June 21st, 2011
4:31 pm
[...] things, makes using fake identification to get a job punishable by up to 15-years in prison, and here are the results: Thanks to the resulting labor shortage, Georgia farmers have been forced to leave millions of [...]
mb
June 21st, 2011
6:17 pm
Just goes to show you how stupid Republicans are and how stupid the people are who vote for them. I bet an awful lot of those farmers voted for these fools. I say they get what they deserve; I hope their crops rot.
Marvin Chapman
June 21st, 2011
6:49 pm
Where are all the high school students who used to do this labor. Or have they all gone to the mall to hang out.
jana
June 21st, 2011
6:56 pm
I have an idea: what if we took the money we spend on war and bailing out Wall Street, and used it to pay human beings enough to live on instead? Mr. Buffet and Mr. Gates, may we have our money back now?
Jason
June 21st, 2011
7:33 pm
What are you babbling about, jana? Bill Gates doesn’t have anything to do with any of our wars or the Wall Street bailout. He hasn’t stolen your money or mine or anyone elses, and he’s done more though his charity organization than you or anyone else reading this ever will.
poor richard
June 21st, 2011
8:10 pm
Any business that decides to conduct their business illegally will suffer. The farmers decided to hire illegal aliens instead of using the LEGAL H2A Visa program, that has worked for many many people for many many years. Now they will either have to conduct their business legally or pay the consequences.
Georgia’s Harsh Immigration Law Costs Millions in Unharvested Crops | LesBnB.com
June 21st, 2011
8:25 pm
[...] Bookman provides some unsurprising news about Georgia’s illegal immigration crackdown: there are unintended, [...]
Heron
June 21st, 2011
8:28 pm
It’s hilarious how many of you commentors suggest slavery/forced labor of one type or another as an excellent solution to this labor shortage. You idiotic yankee bigots just shot your own feet off, and this Chicano-loving Texas boy could not be laughing harder. Have fun with all the farmers who have to turn to meth production to keep their families fed; I’m sure you’ll feel sufficiently righteous about it while looking over mile after mile of fallow, wasted acreage, and wondering how you’ll afford all the new prisons to keep them in.
Georgia’s Farm Labor Crisis : Delaware Liberal
June 22nd, 2011
8:01 am
[...] If the purpose of the law was to make undocumented people feel unwelcome, it worked like a charm. It worked so well, in fact, that the nudge, nudge, wink, wink agreement that the agriculture industr… Barely a month ago, you might recall, Gov. Nathan Deal welcomed the TV cameras into his office as [...]
Farms in Georgia stuck with fruit rotting on the vine as new law sends illegal immigrants out of the state | The Bovine
June 22nd, 2011
12:16 pm
[...] Farms in Georgia stuck with fruit rotting on the vine as new law sends illegal immigrants out of the state From Jay Bookman at Blogs.AJC.com [...]
Judas Gutenberg
June 22nd, 2011
12:24 pm
Sorry, nose, but you gotta go! Because we really don’t like that face you’re attached to!
Adel Antado
June 22nd, 2011
12:40 pm
Arrest the illegals, then force them into the fields to pick the crops. Its an old southern tradition.
Bill in Tennessee
June 22nd, 2011
12:51 pm
If it would mean all illegals “self-deporting” due to lack of work, I wouldn’t mind seeing crops not picked (and the resulting higher prices at the store) here in Tennessee too. Too many of the illegals here have brought with them their social pathologies, such that on any given weekend we can read about yet another murder one has committed, or DUI accidents, a knifing here, a shooting there… PLEASE, all of you, just get out of our state and go back to whatever mud-puddle town you came from, and take your drunken ways and your many, many children with you. I’ll PAY the extra for food if it means getting rid of your sorry asses.
6/21 – The Atlantic – Georgia’s Harsh Immigration Law Costs Millions in Unharvested Crops – Megan McArdle – Business – The Atlantic « GIRRC – Georgia Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition
June 22nd, 2011
1:02 pm
[...] Bookman provides some unsurprising news about Georgia’s illegal immigration crackdown: there are unintended, [...]
You Get What You Vote For
June 22nd, 2011
1:04 pm
Georgia deserves to see their economy tank due to their ignorance and hatred of mankind. It’s that simple. If the legal immigration standards today were applied to the 1800s, America would have never have grown into the great nation that it is. We have always needed immigrants and we always will. Who were your forefathers? Where did they come from? If they were judged by the standards you’re trying to use today would you be here?
My grandparents came to America when they were persecuted HERE by people just like those who support bills like this. They were Italian, Polish and Irish. All of these groups were considered dirty, disgusting, lazy people at the time. Just like you think ‘Mexicans’ are. All were denied jobs, denied the ability to rent housing, denied their humility. It was the American government that created a level playing ground for them to show their worth – not the ‘free market capitalists’ and not the ignorant jerks who you have voted for in office today. My grandparents would be turning in their grave to know that you have yet again risen up and have begun stomping your ignorance all over this great country. You’re despicable. And seriously, I hope your economy tanks. You get what you vote for.
Bill in Tennessee
June 22nd, 2011
1:13 pm
To “You get what you vote for” above: I bet your grandparents came here legally, didn’t they? Learned the language, accepted the customs, followed the rules, paid taxes, became upwardly mobile and bequeathed something to their children, and probably contributed to society at large. Eh? I’m just guessing here, but I GUESS that’s what happened. And I will also bet they brought something to work with, such as a skill or perhaps a college degree, maybe even the ability to create wealth in the New World. You know, something that America is known for. It’s not that people hate Mexicans, it’s that for the most part they are here illegally, bring social pathologies with them, refuse to learn the language, create their own little portable ghettos wherever they go, and loath America as much as any Marxist ever did. One of my best friends is a former Canadian who came here, became naturalized, swore an oath, and became truly American. Do you see the difference “You get…”, or are you so addled by your own smug pomposity and love for all that letting barbarians in the gate really doesn’t matter to you?
dgnb3g98fvowltkhgv
June 22nd, 2011
1:16 pm
The problem with hiring typical americans to do this work is that they are not in physical shape to do it. After a few hours or days they will develop injuries and be unable to work.
Georgia’s anti-immigrant law leaves millions in crops rotting in the fields | gadgetguruonline.com
June 22nd, 2011
1:36 pm
[...] Ga’s farm-labor crisis playing out as planned [...]
Fej
June 22nd, 2011
1:40 pm
@American worker who can read: You say the labor cost in a head of lettuce is 10% and propose doubling the wage of the person who picks it. Problem is, farming is a low-margin business. A farmer is doing well if his margin is 5%. Using your figure, if you double his labor costs he’s suddenly losing 5%. Sure, he could jack up his prices, but his customers could also buy lettuce from Florida and the Carolinas instead (in which case he’d be losing 100%).
So you’re right, while food prices might go up in the short term while this all gets sorted out, long-term prices would probably not be affected much by doubling the cost of labor. That doesn’t mean Georgia’s agricultural sector won’t be destroyed by ever-so-slightly cheaper produce from neighboring states that turns farmers’ small positive margins into small negative ones — permanently. After all, the markets really couldn’t care less where their lettuce comes from if they can save 10 cents a head.
Jeff B
June 22nd, 2011
1:58 pm
This is redistribution of wealth. When all of the family owned farms have been bankrupted and absorbed by large corporate farms, you will see this law overturned. This is not a singularity. This is not unique to Georgia this year. This is a machine that destroys Americans to feed its sociopathic world-headquarters.
iluvhatemail
June 22nd, 2011
2:12 pm
but the repubs are always right… right?
Just Another Idiot
June 22nd, 2011
2:17 pm
Easy. Send the politicians in to pick the crops. Problem solved, and they’ll finally be doing something productive for once in their lives.
Rotten to the core: Georgia’s enforcement-only policy | Sutherland Daily
June 22nd, 2011
2:31 pm
[...] News out of Georgia (well, it’s not really news because everyone knew it would happen) is that the state, which just passed an enforcement-only bill, is losing millions of dollars from crops rotting in the fields where illegal immigrants used to work. Now state officials are scrambling to save Georgia’s “number one economic engine.” American citizens may very well lose their livelihoods. [...]
Slippy
June 22nd, 2011
2:53 pm
The voters of Georgia have gotten what they deserved for listening to extremist Republicans.
Y’all voted in the most extremist nutjobs you could find, and they went and instead of pretending to talk about doing those dumb things, they went right out and actually did them. Hope it hurts like hell, guys. You deserve every bit of it. Next time try using your brains when you vote.