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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

Labor Shortage in Agriculture


Bob King, director of MCC's Agriculture and Life Sciences Institute, discussed the labor shortage on area farms with WHEC-TV 10. Following is the article on their Web site. Or watch the video at https://www.whec.com/article/stories/S203267.shtml?cat=565

 
ORLEANS COUNTY - Area farmers say the political atmosphere over illegal immigration is making it close to impossible to harvest their crops. The farmers say they are completely dependent on migrant workers, many of them undocumented, to work their fields. Some say agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement have raided their farms and deported seasonal workers on repeated occasions this growing season.
        
"We didn't have this problem 30 years ago," said one Orleans County farmer. "American kids used to want to do this work."
      
Most farmers do not want to be identified out of fear that ICE will raid them in retaliation for speaking out.
      
"It makes you wonder what kind of country you're living in," said another farmer. "It reminds me of Germany when the Nazis were in power."
      
Michael Gilhooly, a spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said his agency does not keep records on illegal immigration sweeps in Western New York but says ICE does keep track of the number of overall deportations in upstate New York. Those figures were never made available, however, and Gilhooly did not respond to requests for an on camera interview.
       
Bob King, a farm industry expert at Monroe Community College, says area farmers are looking at a chronic labor situation. He points out that many of the seasonal jobs can pay between $10 and $20 an hour but adds area farmers still can't fill the jobs with American workers.
     
Agriculture is Western New York's top land-based industry. Farmland accounts for a quarter of all private property owned in Monroe County. King says if farms are forced to foreclose because of a labor shortage the ripple effect on rural towns and villages could be considerable.

Dianne E McConkey
College and Community Relations
09/25/2007