By JAMES S. ALLEN
The Times Union
April 6, 2010
Now that health care reform is on the books, it's time for Congress to get on with immigration reform, especially as it relates to the needs of agriculture.
Specifically, the apple industry, along with most other New York commodity groups, is looking for immediate consideration from Rep. Scott Murphy, D-Glens Falls, and Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, of the Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits and Security Act.
The bill proposes to create a stable guest worker program to allow migrant laborers to continue to work in our orchards and other farms throughout their districts.
We're grateful Sen. Charles Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand have already signed on to the Senate version of the bill. Several members of New York's House delegation are supporting the measure as well.
But we need Rep. Murphy and Rep. Tonko, who collectively represent close to 3,000 acres of apple orchards. In order to bring this bill to the floor, their support with a signature is critical, especially too since Murphy sits on the House Agriculture Committee.
The legislation restructures and reforms the federal government's H-2A temporary agricultural worker program by substantially streamlining the program's administrative procedures. The program currently is awash in red tape and extremely difficult for farmers to navigate.
Over the past three years, immigration raids throughout the state have left apple growers with tremendous uncertainty over their labor supply. These raids would cease if there were a solid immigration policy coming out of Washington.
The AgJOBS legislation will ensure labor-intensive industries like agriculture have access to a legal and predictable supply of skilled labor. New York farmers do not support illegal workers, they support legal immigration.
Our preference would be to have local folks working in our orchards. And many do. In fact, apple growers are required to recruit local workers as much as possible before we can access foreign workers through the H2A program.
The problem is that there are not enough local workers available to meet the demand in the fall. It takes more than 8,000 workers to harvest more than 3.4 billion apples in New York.
Even in this down economy, most domestic workers are not interested in physical labor and don't have the necessary skills to do the work anyway.
So we are wholly reliant on a work force of foreign laborers to get the apples off the trees each fall.
Meanwhile, consumers have a major stake in this issue. Without immigration reform, many of our farms will go out of business. That will lead to higher food costs, lesser quality and lower regulatory standards. New York farms are the backbone to the local economy across the state.
We urge the public and our members of Congress to support us in this fight. This is a fight to not only protect local food production but also to help preserve the overall agricultural heritage and economy of upstate New York.
James S. Allen is president of the New York Apple Association, Inc. His e-mail address is jimallen@nyapplecountry.com.
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=918764&category=OPINION
