Agribusiness survey: Nearly half say Georgia has a labor shortage
A survey of farmers by the state Department of Agriculture, to gauge the impact of Georgia’s new illegal immigration bill on the summer labor supply, is due out by Friday.
But the Georgia Agribusiness Council has released its own survey this afternoon – of 132 farmers and related business operators from at least 61 counties, many in metro Atlanta.
Read the complete results here. But in brief:
– 46 percent said they were currently experiencing a labor shortage.
– 24 percent said they had an adequate number of workers.
The survey comments were the most interesting. One batch:
– Many Hispanics are telling us they will leave the state prior to July 1. Some have left
already.– Georgia residents do not want to do the hard physical labor required in my business.
– Employees quit last week to move to Florida because of the new law.
– I tried to hire more workers, but they lived too far from the work area. Tried out a new worker, but he didn’t last past 2:00 p.m.
– Today I needed 20 pickers and got 10.
And these:
– Local people show no interest in the types of jobs that we need filled and the few who do apply last only a couple days before quitting or possess the work ethic to make it through the season.
– Agriculture desperately needs a workable labor solution–perhaps a user-friendly guest worker program.
– I do understand the need for reform, but this sudden aggressive approach has many far reaching repercussions. Not only to my workforce, but to the local economy.
– I know some of this problem lies more with the federal government, but with the new laws, even my legal Hispanic workers don’t want to stay in our state for fear of being harassed! During exit interviews they stated that they were moving to South Carolina or North Carolina.
– The labor pool has dried up because Hispanic are leaving Georgia as fast as they can. They are terrified about what will happen when this law goes into effect. Since we cannot find immigrant labor, we are trying to hire non-immigrant labor. Even with pay rates above $10 an hour, we cannot find people interested in working outdoors, in the heat. They will stay for one or two days and then leave. Our work is labor intensive, so we are losing money every day by not having dependable, hard-working laborers. This is just another blow to our business on top of what we have already lost due to the economy.
– I have a 9-year employee moving to Texas in 3 weeks because he is afraid that HB 87 will affect his family. His wife is not documented, and they are fearful of increased profiling. My company is losing its most valuable install foreman as a direct result of this bill.
– We sell to farmers that cannot hire enough part time labor for harvest which directly affects them and, in turn, affects our business with them.
- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider
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123 comments Add your comment
Ga Values
June 7th, 2011
5:11 pm
Are these cry baby farmers going to pay for the illegals, when they go to the emergancy room or just shift the cost to the taxpayer?
RetiredSoldier
June 7th, 2011
5:13 pm
Two points, illegal is illegal, period. You can’t justify breaking the law. Farmers need to do one of two things, either increase their wage so locals will do the work and yes pass the cost to the consumer or convince Congress to have a real guest worker program like most other countries WITHOUT a path to citizenship and without birth rghts to the newly born.
If you want to join the path to citizenship get in the other line and await your turn. Problem solved.
Mother Nature
June 7th, 2011
5:15 pm
Something tells me they won’t needed regardless of the “law”
RBN
June 7th, 2011
5:17 pm
HB 87 was a knee jerk reaction to a very complicated issue. The ramifications for Georgia’s future are unpredictable. Agriculture is feeling it today, but keep an eye on Dalton with its carpet industry and depressed housing market and Gainesville with its chicken plants. Both are Republican strongholds today, but who will be blamed for this mess?
R U Kidding Me?
June 7th, 2011
5:25 pm
RBN:
Well said! It was absolutely a knee jerk reaction by the ultra right-winger/tea baggers who thrive on the politics of fear and the politics of hate. Illegal immigration is a complicated problem and a rational solution on the federal level is what is needed. The feds have largely ignored the problem which has resulyted in this crazy ultra right-wing, take our government back mentality. I’m pretty conservative and I think illegal immigration is a serious problem. However, the political opportunists who voted for HB 87 failed to understand the consequences of their actions. I agree, Dalton and Gainsville are next.
Its interesting that nobody else will do the work. Jobs are damn hard to come by right now. It just proves that for years we have allowed illegal immigrants to cut our grass, clean our houses, pick our crops, while we sat on our big fat asses and became a bunch of lazy redneck racists.
jconservative
June 7th, 2011
5:31 pm
The comments in the article confirm what most of us have known for decades – Americans are fat, lazy and do not like to work.
That is why we have an all volunteer military – Americans are fat, lazy and do not like real work.
And unless you have pulled 10 hours in the sun in a south Georgia corn field you are not entitled to an opinion.
“…but who will be blamed for this mess?” The party in power, as always.
Doc
June 7th, 2011
5:32 pm
Spare me the sanctimony Retired Soldier. You ever speed in your car? Even 1 mph over the limit? Lets take away your military pension that sucks up my tax dollars. After all, what part of illegal speeding don’t you understand?
Coming to the US illegally is right up there with speeding on the area’s highways. It’s so common and while both against the law, we’re not talking about locking up anyone but the worst offenders. How about those brought here as young children? Certainly they themselves did not break any laws but are here, and have only known life in the U.S.
They pay into social security (those with ss#’s whether their own or someone elses), they pay rents/property taxes/mortgages, they pay sales taxes, pay fees for having to conduct transactions by cash instead of credit card. They PAY into the system far more than they get out even with the paranoid rantings about them using services.
That is the best part of the US, immigration. The promise of freedom and a new life as memorialized with the Statue of Liberty.
These GOP-supporting farmers are reaping what they sowed politically. Let their crops whither on the vine and rot in the ground. Let them lose their farms and their families suffer the full brunt of their actions.
This miserable state deserves everything bad that happens to it.
dixiedemons
June 7th, 2011
5:32 pm
Does the state give farmers a tax break ?
Farmers keep the profits ….
The workers get paid just enough to eat and keep a roof over their heads so they lose nothing when they leave for another low paying job….
Farmers ship the produce to other states and or countries…
Help me understand how the trickle down economic theory helps Georgia and our economy…..
Yankee in GA
June 7th, 2011
5:35 pm
It is amazing that my relatives in upstate NY can survive without illegal labor in their fields or to do their lawn work. I wonder if friends and family in other parts of the US that don’t use illegal labor are going to be okay? Help us here in GA, were going to starve !!!!!!!
Ga Values
June 7th, 2011
5:36 pm
The U.S. government subsidizes cotton farming, which is a big boon to states such as Georgia. The amount of the subsidy varies considerably from year to year, depending on the international price of cotton. In 2005, federal cotton subsidies totaled more than $4 billion. Last year, with the price of cotton high, the subsidy was only $900 million.
Without such taxpayer support, it’s very unlikely that cotton would be grown here at all, because other countries, including Brazil, can grow it considerably cheaper than we can. In the 10-year period between 2000 and 2009, for example, Minor Brothers Farms of Andersonville, Ga., received a total of $11.38 million in government cotton subsidies.
Brazil, however, has protested those subsidies to the World Trade Organization, which in turn has ruled the subsidies illegal. To compensate for the damage being done by the U.S. to their cotton farmers, the WTO gave Brazil the authority to ignore intellectual property rights for U.S. companies, including the right to ignore patent protections on genetically engineered seeds.
Emelie Kaye Peine picks up the story from here:
“This constituted a major threat to the profits of U.S. agribusiness giants Monsanto and Pioneer, since Brazil is the second largest grower of biotech crops in the world. Fifty percent of Brazil’s corn harvest is engineered to produce the pesticide Bt, and Monsanto’s YieldGard VT Pro is a popular product among Brazilian corn farmers. By targeting the profits of major U.S. corporations, the Brazilian government put the U.S. in a tough spot: either let the subsidies stand and allow Brazilian farmers to plant Monsanto and Pioneer seeds without paying royalties, or substantially reform the cotton program. In essence, Brazil was pitting the interests of Big Agribusiness against those of Big Cotton, and the U.S. government was caught in the middle.”
So what would the U.S. government do? Would it stop the cotton subsidies, thus hurting the politically influential cotton farmers, or would it keep the cotton subsidies and let the politically influential agribusiness giants take the hit?
The answer is neither. To settle the WTO case and allow the U.S. government to keep subsidizing its cotton farmers, U.S. taxpayers now pay cotton farmers in Brazil an offsetting subsidy of $147 million a year.
That’s right. As one irate U.S. congressman put it, “To protect our right to continue to subsidize American cotton farmers, we are going to subsidize Brazilian cotton farmers. Lunacy.”
In February, an effort to kill the Brazilian subsidy died on the House floor. Most of those voting to save it were Republicans, but more than 80 Democrats also joined the effort to keep the payments flowing.
dixiedemons
June 7th, 2011
5:46 pm
you can pay a mailman ( union) $ 25 plus an hour to put a piece of paper in a box…. but will not pay a field hand $ 25 plus an hour to put a of corn in a box…. let me know when the wages go up… ready, willing & able
Painting and Construction Businessman
June 7th, 2011
5:53 pm
The qualified labor pool has dried up for construction, painting, landscaping, etc as well. It is getting bad. We will have to pay less qualified, less hardworking labor a higher price. Also, the work is just not getting done on a timely basis. Georgia really has shot itself in the foot. This will make us much less competitive as a state for business. It is going to hurt everyone, even the government. They are just not smart enough to have figured it out yet, but other states will zoom past us if we maintain this ignorance.
And you think your taxes will drop if we drive 10% of the population away? Think again!
Drooly
June 7th, 2011
5:53 pm
Golly – Galloway doesn’t mention the H2A Ag worker visa again. Maybe he is waiting for the farmers to reveal that they can get all of the legal workers they need using the H2A – but that they must pay a living wage.
Wow
June 7th, 2011
5:59 pm
Thanks GA Values for that piece of info..all I can say is wow..only Lord knows what other “offsetting” subsidies are being paid out in the name of “protecting” businesses..and how much are being paid out!..
The Centrist
June 7th, 2011
6:02 pm
Some folks like the “redneck” moniker, but forgot what it really meant.
Wow again
June 7th, 2011
6:03 pm
@ Drooly- Have you even bothered to inquire about how mind-numbing and regulation-intensive the process of securing H2A Ag worker visas are? I really doubt you have been within 10 miles of a farm..
The Centrist
June 7th, 2011
6:05 pm
The answer: Ag Sec. Gary Black told NPR that those field folks make as much as $20 per hour, and I am waiting on the survey. The question: Why aren’t more “Americans ” (who want their country back) working in the fields? The Centrist’s Question: Did Black answer the question?
Another Cynic
June 7th, 2011
6:06 pm
@Dixie
Um… don’t hold your breath on that one. I see two scenarios with your example;
1) Govt subsidies (our tax dollars) will increase to offset the increase in wages (see GA Values post)
2) “Cheaper” corn will be imported from other states and/or countries = Loss of jobs here in GA
Face the facts… farmers want to make a profit and Americans aren’t willing to stomach higher prices for goods and services.
Serious Robuck
June 7th, 2011
6:09 pm
Wow. Some of those protected businesses (cotton farms) belong to Saxby Chambliss’ offspring’s in-laws. Go figure.
The Centrist
June 7th, 2011
6:15 pm
Liberals have fought for living wages and conservatives fight for free enterprise. There is a reason for the phrase, “buyer beware!!
The Centrist
June 7th, 2011
6:18 pm
Who is doing the real work in upstate NY and what is their pay scale?
Einsteindawg
June 7th, 2011
6:19 pm
This has absolutely nothing to do with Jim’s blog, but…I just watched the GSP video of Derek Lowe’s alledged D.U.I. arrest. What has happened to recruitment of our State Patrol? Is this what you get for $10 p/hour and benefits? Has the MADD (mothers against drunk drivers) lobby gotten so out of hand that this is the result? I’m thinking it’s past time for DAMM (drunks against mad mothers) to start protesting. Just my humble opinion.
The Centrist
June 7th, 2011
6:22 pm
How come there is very few comments from the right on this subject? Just asking.
Einsteindawg
June 7th, 2011
6:31 pm
@The Centrist…”How come there ARE very few comments. Simple, it’s a boring subject.
R
June 7th, 2011
6:39 pm
Wow,
You ever deal with the USDA, FSA, ACRE, counter cyclical program payments or NCRS? Farmers do every day, the H2A program is a walk through the park in comparison … SO who hasn’t been by a farm lately??
The real shame is folks apparently like yourself that won’t demand the application of H2A requirements ACROSS all industries for the COMPREHENSIVE worker solution. That would be a change we could believe in.
The “worker” is the business responsibility from the border back to the border, if current law abiding farms can do it (we are out here and TIRED of our gray market brethren whining) – EVERYONE can do it.
One last point is a market plus people – our workers under H2A are TB FREE and DONT drive on the highways.
cary
June 7th, 2011
6:48 pm
Well, GA Values, are you going to pay a whole lot more for your produce if you can get it because there’s a shortage? And what are you going to do about the ecoonomic downturn that is brought about because of lost jobs? People will just buy products from other states where the prices are reasonable.The hospitality, poultry, carpet, and agricultural industries will be severely hurt by this law, but you racists don’t seem to care. Let’s just rid of those “aliens.” The people who are adversely affected by this law will remember the legislators who voted against the best interests of their constituents come election time.
Edward
June 7th, 2011
6:52 pm
When the farmers have to start paying a higher wage to attract people to work, then passing that cost on to the distributor, then to the manufacturer or grocery store, then to the consumer… are you people willing to pay the higher prices for your food and products? Or are you going to continue shopping at Walmart where everything is imported from third world countries so you can have your cheap strawberries and beans? Do you actually think the price of healthcare is going to drop because you’re running the illegals out of the state? You think the price of ANYTHING is going to drop because you ran the illegals away?
You reap what you sow… oh wait, you don’t! BWAHAHAHAHA
double
June 7th, 2011
6:53 pm
centrist LMS would say caveat emptor.
eatmotacos
June 7th, 2011
7:02 pm
Laws are established for a reason, and most people comply.
If you want to be a doctor, you have to meet the requirments, which are difficult and expensive. Doctors would make a lot more money if they didn’t have to go to medical school, or pay for malpractice insurance.
Truckers have to spend a lot of money and time complying with the rules. They would make a lot more money if they could ignore the rules, never be inspected, load more weight and just drive by the weigh stations.
Airlines have to meet a lot of requirements, like inspecting the planes so that the wings don’t fall off in flight. It is difficult and they would make a lot more money if they didn’t comply.
Farmers have access to all of the workers they need, but they have to comply with the rules. It is difficult and it cost them more, but SO WHAT?
EITHER COMPLY WITH THE RULES OR FIND ANOTHER PROFESSION. YOU MAY PERSUADE THE FEEBLE MINDED, BUT I’M NOT BUYING YOUR LIES.
yuzeyurbrane
June 7th, 2011
7:06 pm
I have confidence that farmers will adapt, perhaps modifying their busn. model by next year. Or they will leave the busn. Either result is economically OK. If they can’t offer fair wages and decent working conditions sufficient to attract an American workforce, I have no sympathy for them. However, I do think they were all caught off guard by the unforeseen fact that some legal Hispanics as well as illegals are leaving even before the law goes into effect out of rumor and fear of racist profiling. The e-verify part of the law doesn’t even go into effect until 2013 so the immediate problem has been caused by the demagogic parts of the law that amt. to harassment of Hispanics, both legal and illegals (”Achtung, show me your papers!). It is not necessary to carry out the law’s main purpose of stopping employment of illegals and I hope the legislature will repeal those provisions next year after they have seen that greater law–the Law of Unintended Consequences–occur.
import it from china
June 7th, 2011
7:31 pm
You can’t pay a mailman 25 an hour. The postal service is broke as a joke! You cant pay a pea picker more than 10 an hour or you have to raise the price of the peas. Nobody wants to hurt anyone feelings and that is just not realistic. We need to cut cut cut the welfare programs and secure the borders,end the birthrite and start asking those people using our hospitals How do you want to Take care of this VISA OR AMEX. Refuse service for any non life threatening illness.stablize those in dire straits and send them home.WHEREVER Home IS!!! Further if a child enrolls in school his guardian at least one of them must be legal or THEY DON’T GO TO SCHOOL!! See not everyone would be HAPPY. But this problem would be fixed!! Next We should drug test all people who are on the governments hip. Everyone from the welfare mom to the unemployed pipe fitter. No profiling I’m talking drug test everyone who is asking for a check? Make it a requirement of welfare moms that they have to be enrolled in a education class of some kind at least 35 hours a week. If they need daycare they can watch each others kids. If they miss for any reason their check is shorted. I am not pickin no taters
Another Cynic
June 7th, 2011
7:39 pm
@import
Yes….I agree! cut, cut, cut, the welfare programs and START with the corporate fellas. Why subsidize big oil when they are earning record profits? The social welfare subsidies you describe are a problem but only a drop in the bucket… Corporate welfare is the real problem. More bang for your buck.
Trial Lawyer
June 7th, 2011
7:44 pm
Farm work in ga tobacco fields is the reason I went to law school. Farmers are getting what they deserve for voting Republican they must wake up and see just who the Republicans really represent
BOB FROM ACCOUNT TEMPS
June 7th, 2011
7:45 pm
CUT OFF THE UNEMPLOYMENT PAYMENTS TO THE ABLE BODIED AND MAYBE THAT WILL MOTIVATE THEM TO PICK CROPS FOR $12 00 PER HOUR?
eatmotacos
June 7th, 2011
7:49 pm
As for the redneck contractors, driving around in their monster trucks,chatting on their cells, while their unsupervised and unskilled illegal alien crews slap together building materials. I FEEL YOUR PAIN. Heaven forbid that you would have to get out of your truck and actually do something, or even worse, keep up with withholding taxes, or pay worker’s compensation; otherwise play by the rules. You will not only have to do more work, you won’t be dumping your cost of doing business on the rest of us.
The Goobernator
June 7th, 2011
7:58 pm
Bring a bus, plenty of folks up here at every Home Depot parking lot ready to work!
eatmotacos
June 7th, 2011
8:15 pm
@ Trial Lawyer
The Republican cacophony is paradoxical. The employers of illegal aliens are virtually all Republicans, who are well aware of the millions they have added to the welfare rolls, which is by design – it is a forced taxpayer subsidy.
There seems to be a disconnect with other factions of the party who are vehemently complaining about the numbers on the welfare rolls.
Serious Robuck
June 7th, 2011
8:36 pm
I really miss LMS. Guess he’s got a dinner engagement.
wigglwagon
June 7th, 2011
8:40 pm
Listen to them whine. They will do and say anything to avoid having to pay wages and benefits determined by supply and demand as other businesses do. Even a lot of working people think that anyone who works on a farm or in a carpet mill or processes chickens should have to accept less than their own job pays. When the illegals are gone and they employers get the money right they will have plenty of legal workers just as they did in the sixties and before.
RetiredSoldier
June 7th, 2011
8:50 pm
Doc-
Comparing violating a national border with speeding is silly. If I speed I pay the fine, if I enter say….Mexico illegally I go to jail. Just because we are so lax don’t think for one second the rest of the world is. Want to take my retirement? Convince Congress and it’s gone. Just don’t ecpect anyone to serve in the future.
Your example of paying more in in fees and taxes is equally wrong, particullary using the child example. Think for a moment what it costs to educate them. I’m all for having a viable guest worker plan, do it legally and without promise of citizenship.
BTW Doc, name another country in the world that does it like you propose. Thought you couldn’t.
import it from china
June 7th, 2011
9:00 pm
Ill dig taters for twenty years if you pay me 90% of my three best years in retirement benefits. I need at least 65k plus bens Were talkin taters here. how much do you think tater pickers should earn? If the post office raises the rate of a stamp to cover their short fall are you going to pay? 3.00 to send a letter? i wonder sometimes if the solar batteries on some peoples calculators have quit working. Its just math. the price of goods will go up no doubt. you cant sell taters at the same price this year if your cost of wages have doubled. I’m still out Not pickin no taters
double
June 7th, 2011
9:02 pm
yeah Lms probably eating fresh plucked chicken,fresh vidalia onions,and having a margarita all prepared by——–
Liberals R Liars
June 7th, 2011
9:03 pm
“The employers of illegal aliens are virtually all Republicans, who are well aware of the millions they have added to the welfare rolls, which is by design – it is a forced taxpayer subsidy.”
Oh, Hell Nope, they are liberals – that’s why the liberals want to keep the illegals here. That’s about the biggest outright lie I have seen on these blogs! It is purely amamazing the crap that you folks make up.
Your compassion for illeglas is pure hypocrisy. You liberals beed the illegals for cheap labor and an added entitlement class, nothing more.
Liberals want to keep socialism alive and well and they have to have the lowest common denominator (illegals) to keep the entitlement class alive.
LMAO
The Illegal Hop
June 7th, 2011
9:08 pm
Illegals will move from state to state until they find out the welcome mat has been pulled out all over the US.
How stupid can you be to not just pack up your entire family and GO HOME.
Serious Robuck
June 7th, 2011
9:23 pm
Liberals are liars, every landscape company and builder and farmer and carpet manufacturer and chicken processor I know is a liberal Democrat. Hasn’t that been your experience? The legislation at issue here only slaps the employers’ hands (a misdemeanor with a possible fine) while offering a 15 year prison term to the illegal worker. That’s the case because all the liberal Democrat employers of illegals have so many friends among the Republicans who run this state. Right.
It’s clear, buddy, who’s lying here. Or who’s on drugs.
td
June 7th, 2011
9:27 pm
Cut off the welfare benefits to current 25% in Georgia receiving and the unemployment to all these 99 weekers and they there will be a good labor pool that will be willing to pick anything. The state could also let the farmers pay their wages to the state prison system and put the prisoners back in the fields. Problem solved.
eatmotacos
June 7th, 2011
9:28 pm
@ Retired Soldier
The ruling class in Mexico, which Goldman Sachs predicts will be the 5th largest economy in the world in 20 years, knows exactly what they are doing. Imagine if we could pack up the lowest socioeconomic segment of our population and ship them off to another country. Imagine the savings if we could wash our hands of millions of dependents.
The top socioeconomic segement of our population recognized the opportunity to make a buck, and gleefully opened up the gates. In the process they not only added millions of Mexican nationals to our welfare rolls, but they also added millions of blacks, who were displaced from the workplace.
It is just another redistribution of the wealth. Aided by our corrupt politicians, they are successfully shifting money out of our bank accounts into theirs, and we are letting them get away with it.
GaPatriot
June 7th, 2011
9:31 pm
The farmers are lying – they exploit the illegals as slave labor and that is why they need a fresh crop of new illegals every year. With all other industries down, we have enough illegal invaders here already to pick South Georgia clean in a couple of hours.
curious
June 7th, 2011
9:35 pm
All you farmers that are commenting.
Please enter your latest idea before going to the farm to pick your crop. Your farm is called “Kroger”, isn’t it?
td
June 7th, 2011
9:36 pm
eatmotacos
June 7th, 2011
9:28 pm
@ Retired Soldier
The ruling class in Mexico, which Goldman Sachs predicts will be the 5th largest economy in the world in 20 years, knows exactly what they are doing. Imagine if we could pack up the lowest socioeconomic segment of our population and ship them off to another country. Imagine the savings if we could wash our hands of millions of dependents.
I would make the trade today in a heartbeat, one hard working illegal here for one of our sorry welfare recipients to Mexico.