Will the unemployed work on farms?
To find workers to pick, pack and ship peaches, Lane Packing participates in a U.S. Department of Labor guest worker program.
To address unemployment, Georgia governor proposes farm work
By John Sepulvado,
CNN Radio
June 2, 2011
Excerpt:
In Colorado, 1,799 U.S. citizens applied for farm jobs in 2009, according to the state’s Department of Labor and Employment. That was up from 39 in 2008, although state officials say the number again fell in 2010 to the “low hundreds.”
With a 9.6% unemployment rate in Georgia, University of Georgia Economist Jeff Humphries thinks the governor’s plan could work.
“Employers have the upper hand, and people looking for jobs are more desperate than ever before,” Humphries said. “Given that unemployment benefits are starting to run out for an increasing number of workers…this is the best time to try it out.”
For some unemployed Georgians, however, the idea is not so appealing.
Marci Mosley, who lives in Atlanta, has been out of work for more than a year. She said she would only work on a farm as a last resort.
“I have a phobia of snakes,” Mosley said. “I hate spiders…You have to get up early in the morning, and it’s hot.”
Mosley, an African-American, said she used to work on her grandfather’s farm in Texas, where he stressed the importance of a good education to get off the farm. Mosley believes Deal’s plan would be a tough sell for many other African Americans, who saw their older relatives struggle farming.
1 comment
Good luck selling that idea! Americans have become to fat and lazy to work that hard. I’d love to be proven wrong, but in inland Washington State they’ve tried hiring high schoolers to pick fruit, the kids didn’t want the jobs and the fruit ended up compost. If we insist in becoming to unfriendly to migrants our food prices will only continue to climb and consumers may begin to see the important connection between the valuable work that frequently illegal aliens do and their pocketbook. Just maybe they’ll then stop being so hard on these people. They keep our country eating.
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