Dear Soons Orchard patron and friend:
Although the trees are still “asleep” and it continues to snow in April, I am writing at a critical moment for in the year, and perhaps decade, for me, the apple grower and you, the consumer who cares about his/her food. In a few short months the 2007 harvest will begin … and that’s when the trouble begins. Unless we work together now to make sure our farm and others have the manpower necessary to bring in the harvest. If you would like to know exactly how to help, jump to the end of my letter. If you’d like some background, keep reading.
What are we talking about?
We’re talking about immigration reform, specifically the federally-regulated guest worker program that farms and orchards* participate in to arrange for labor during portions of the farm season. For us the program is called H-2-A. (For “skilled” labor, such as engineers, doctors, nurses, computer programmers, etc, it is called H-2-B.)
Why is H-2-A important?
Many farms, especially small family farms like ours**, depend on H-2-A workers to get our harvest in on time and within budget. For many farms, ours included, have the same workers return each year to work the harvest. This saves us enormous training time and expense. It also improves their experience and builds rapport amongst all farm employees. Our “guys” are also our friends
Can’t you hire other people to do the harvest?
Once upon a time, we did. Along with every family member available and a full time foreman, we hired local people or American “migrant” farm workers – men who traveled around the country doing farm work. Times have changed though. To find someone available, reliable and skilled to do this hard work for just a few months time is rare. While we do provide housing, we are unable to provide the extra benefits that local workers have come to expect. And we understand – the cost of living has soared in Orange County and health care costs continue to spiral upward.
Today we have no full-time foreman, and I’m not getting any younger (I’ll be 74 in May. Thankfully my son Jeffrey has returned to the farm, and we have a local student who has been working with us for almost three years, so he has learned many invaluable skills.)
So what’s the problem with H-2-A?
After 9/11/01, all immigration regulations became increasingly onerous, which is understandable. At the same time, however, labor demands continued to grow, while labor availability through this program, which was created in 1986, became increasingly unreliable as the federal government failed to keep up with the growing demands on the program. In 2006 the program supplied 45,000 agricultural workers across the country. Even processing these limited numbers through the various levels of bureaucracy, including the U.S. Dept. of Justice and Homeland Security, results in typical delays of four weeks (and in one case for one of our men last year, a delay of six full months).
Meanwhile, one conservative estimate puts the actual annual need at something like 1.2 million workers. Witness the abundance of crops lost last year due to labor shortages, including 1.2 million pounds of pears which fell to the ground in the Northwest. This is simply untenable and unsustainable, period. Farmers are asked to use this program to attract the labor they need, and yet the program “was never designed to work,” according to one U.S. Senator.
Why Should I Care?
If you aren’t worried about where you food comes from, or how it was grown, then you may not care. As a Soons customer though, I’m guessing you do care, and you appreciate the connection between national security and a strong agricultural sector. And that imported food costs are anyone’s guess. And that the safety and environmental rules we follow here don’t really exist elsewhere. (Indeed, the 800-pound gorilla hanging around the recent pet poisoning cases is the foreign origin of the contaminated wheat used – from China by way of Canada.) And, of course, there’s always the high quality and great taste of fresh local food.
Why must we act now?
In a word, politics. The presidential election is looming… if we don’t get action this summer/fall, when Congress returns from summer recess, then we risk not having anything done until 2009. Or even later. We can’t wait that long, the time for immigration reform is now. Once we lose a family farm - that’s it. Besides losing open space and altering our quality of life, we lose those local farm products. New York has about 700 apple growers left (that includes so-called “hobby” orchards) – join me in working to keep all of them growing.
What can I do?
Speak up. Reach out to your local elected officials, from Congress on down. They represent you after all. Tell them you want immigration reform that supports farms. In our view, the guest worker program needs to be streamlined even as border security is tightened. One is essential for the other. For the past few years our politicians have been hearing a one-sided view of immigration, one that doesn’t seem to recognize that it’s always been immigrants that made America great. You can call, fax, e-mail, write, or tell your reps in person. Our web site will list when various elected folks are conducting local outreach. You can learn about the latest legislative efforts through various websites we’ll list here.
You can also reach out to family, friends, neighbors and co-workers. Tell them what you’ve learned – that our farms need help to make these reforms happen. If they want a safe, secure food supply at very reasonable prices then they should join in this effort.
Finally, you can let opinion leaders and pundits – whether they are from the local paper or on FOX news – know how you feel. A quick e-mail to the station or a letter to the editor actually goes a long way.
Want more info?
There’s lot more out there – we'll be posting links and numbers below.
And you can always talk to me or any of the Soons family. We’re around, trying to make this farm thing viable for the next generation. As always, our thanks to you for supporting us and voting for local food with your dollars.
Thanks for listening… now get out there and talk!
Sincerely,
Art Soons, on behalf of all of us – Sandy, Jeff, Laura & Scott, Sharon and the next generation - Julia and Conor.
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*dairy farms are not allowed to participate in the H2A program because it supplies “temporary workers”
**large federal subsidies continue to be directed to large Mid-Western grain producers. Fruit and vegetable growers have never received those federal subsidies.