LETTER: Who is taking our jobs?
Who is taking our jobs?
In the March issue of Eating Well magazine, a publication filled with healthy recipes including lots of fruits and vegetables, I came across an article about a farm crisis in California. While the current administration is announcing how much danger we are in if we don’t build a wall dividing Mexico from the United States, farmers in California are begging for workers to harvest their crops.
A man who entered this country with his parents illegally at the age of 3 and is now a citizen has a farm on the central California coast with fields that look very different. One section of his farmland has plants that are shriveled and rotted from disease and drought while another field a half-hour away is rich with zucchini and squash. The stark difference between the two was mainly his inability to secure workers despite offering nearly twice the wages. In essence, he had to abandon one field to secure another. This farmer sells to Costco, a company that supplies all of our homes, so this is not a fake news story. This man states that when he first started the farm, workers were begging for jobs and now he is the one begging for workers.
Since 2011 farmers have lost $75 million as a result of the scarcity of migrant workers due to the crackdown on illegal immigration. California is the nation’s largest farming state, yet it is central in today’s crisis. The majority of their workers are here without documentation. Two decades ago they were abundant, eager to relocate to fill these jobs. Now these same people are getting older, unable to work as they once did. Because of the fear of deportation, new experienced workers are either returning to Mexico or leaving agriculture for higher paying jobs in construction and landscaping. The high rental market in California makes it almost impossible for a migrant worker to survive.
While we go comfortably into our supermarkets to buy our fruit and vegetables we don’t realize how many fields of food are left to rot because of this dilemma. The claim that immigrants are taking our jobs is a fallacy because the only jobs they can take are those our “citizens” refuse to take. Instead of giving legal status to the immigrant workers and allowing them a sustainable wage and security against ICE, we demand an expensive wall to further lock them out. In reality, that vanity wall will only force more farmers’ fields to go uncultivated and cause a shortage of healthy food. The question should be asked, “Do Americans want a system where we import workers or import our food?” Think about this the next time you shop for fruit and vegetables.
Anita Biers
Washington