Latest / Bloomberg Intelligence / Bloomberg's Bjerga on Immigration Backlash Hurting Crops(Audio)

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Bloomberg's Bjerga on Immigration Backlash Hurting Crops(Audio) · Bloomberg Intelligence

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  Speaker 1: and Pat's a Bloomberg Business flash. June. Listening to Taking
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  Speaker 1: Stock with bim box in Katlee Hayes on Bloomberg Radio.
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  Speaker 1: You're listening to Taking Stock, broadcasting live from Pershing's Inside
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  Speaker 1: twenties sixteen conference at the Higher Regency in Orlando of Florida. Well,
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  Speaker 1: Florida is no stranger in the world of agriculture, and
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  Speaker 1: many crops are rotting, while there has been a backlash
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  Speaker 1: having to do with immigration meaning farm workers. Here to
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  Speaker 1: tell us more is Alan bjorga food and agriculture reporter
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  Speaker 1: from Bloomberg News, joining us from Washington, d C. Allen
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  Speaker 1: is also the co host, along with Amy Morris, of
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  Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio's Politics, Policy and Power, which can be heard
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  Speaker 1: each weekend on Bloomberg ninety nine one in Washington, DC
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  Speaker 1: or online at Bloomberg dot com. Alan, always a pleasure
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  Speaker 1: tell us about your most recent story having to do
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  Speaker 1: with the relationship between crops that are rotting in the
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  Speaker 1: fields and immigration policy in the United States. Well them,
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  Speaker 1: it's always a challenge do a story about something that
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  Speaker 1: isn't happening, UM, but this is a significant thing that
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  Speaker 1: isn't happening, which is the lack of immigration reform which
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  Speaker 1: is affecting American agriculture um U s Farm employers chronically
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  Speaker 1: complained about worker shortages, UM difficulties recruiting folks to harvest
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  Speaker 1: crops UM and it's getting to the point where starting
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  Speaker 1: to affect bottom lines. UM. In my story, I interview
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  Speaker 1: one form farmer in California, Carlos Castaneda. UM. He saw
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  Speaker 1: some of his cabbage crop go un harvested because he
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  Speaker 1: was involved in some bureaucratic paperwork issues that kept him
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  Speaker 1: from getting workers when he needed needed it. This is
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  Speaker 1: a highly seasonal industry, especially in fresh produce that requires
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  Speaker 1: labor um in terms of those crops, a dairy needs
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  Speaker 1: farm labor year round. Of these are largely immigrant workforces,
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  Speaker 1: and of course in Washington here you've seen such a
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  Speaker 1: chilling in the environment toward immigration reform in the past
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  Speaker 1: few years that you have the agricultural lobby, which is
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  Speaker 1: one of the more powerful lobbies in wash Ington, actually
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  Speaker 1: having to stand on the sidelines and tinker a little
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  Speaker 1: bit because they just don't see a hope of change,
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  Speaker 1: which slowly erodes US competitiveness with other countries. Ironically, we
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  Speaker 1: end up losing business to Mexico because we actually won't
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  Speaker 1: let workers from that country in Well, of course, uh,
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  Speaker 1: there's a couple of issues here that have been in
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  Speaker 1: place for some time. You could say, well, this is
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  Speaker 1: a race to the bottom. We will let in immigrant
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  Speaker 1: workers who will work for less and less and less,
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  Speaker 1: and that will put maybe pressure on the workers are
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  Speaker 1: already here, which is one reason why some people are
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  Speaker 1: are wondering if we're on the right track. And then,
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  Speaker 1: of course there's been loss in place for many years
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  Speaker 1: old as you know, that have made it illegal for
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  Speaker 1: large corporations to hire workers are undocumented, but instead they
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  Speaker 1: have there have been precious few uh prosecutions along those lines,
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  Speaker 1: and so we've had more and more people come in undocumented. Uh.
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  Speaker 1: Do you think that the corporations maybe just to need
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  Speaker 1: to step up, maybe a little bit bit more honest
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  Speaker 1: about their labor needs and maybe get things rolling that way. Well,
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  Speaker 1: And Kathleen, you bring up a couple of excellent one points. Um.
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  Speaker 1: You know a lot of people who have read my
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  Speaker 1: story have written back and said, hey, you know, just
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  Speaker 1: let the market work. Um, if you offered better wages
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  Speaker 1: and work conditions, you could get a better domestic workforce,
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  Speaker 1: a larger domestic workforce. Yeah, maybe there'll be a few
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  Speaker 1: more pennies for your fruit in the grocery store. But
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  Speaker 1: Americans will do these jobs if you simply offer them
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  Speaker 1: the conditions that they want. Um. The other issue in
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  Speaker 1: terms of employers is again it's very gray what's required
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  Speaker 1: of companies in terms of what they're looking for in
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  Speaker 1: their workforce. It's you could almost call it a don't ask,
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  Speaker 1: don't tell policy um, where farmers are not on the
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  Speaker 1: hook for verifying their employees documents. So if somebody has
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  Speaker 1: some papers and they look okay to the farmer, it
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  Speaker 1: all kind of moves along. But this under the radar
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  Speaker 1: system that takes place some estimates saying that half of
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  Speaker 1: the agricultural workforce in the United States is undocumented ie
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  Speaker 1: illegal um. It's not as to stay annable system. And
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  Speaker 1: and again the employers, of course they look at the
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  Speaker 1: foreign workforce and they see folks who will come in
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  Speaker 1: and they'll do the job, and they're willing to do
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  Speaker 1: it despite their efforts to recruit American workers. It's backbreaking labor.
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  Speaker 1: The conditions are not great. Even if the pay is improved.
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  Speaker 1: There are other jobs of comparable pay that you know,
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  Speaker 1: native born workers will gravitate toward. And it puts them
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  Speaker 1: in a real conundrum here. They're trying to be competitive,
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  Speaker 1: they're trying to get crops harvested. They're seeing problems having
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  Speaker 1: this workforce At the same time, these potential workforce solutions
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  Speaker 1: that would be sought could actually price themselves out of
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  Speaker 1: their own marketplace. So it's kind of a rock and
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  Speaker 1: a hard place, and of course there aren't easy solutions.
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  Speaker 1: Otherwise this would be an easy to paint Alan and
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  Speaker 1: you talked about the theories about offering these jobs at
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  Speaker 1: higher wages to American workers. Is there any evidence to
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  Speaker 1: support the notion that that would actually happen. Well. A
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  Speaker 1: good example is the current visa program, which is called
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  Speaker 1: the H two A visa program is a temporary farm
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  Speaker 1: worker visa program. About a hundred and twenty thousand workers
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  Speaker 1: came to the United States under this program last year.
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  Speaker 1: In the lack of comprehensive immigration reform, H two A
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  Speaker 1: m for the flaw all the flaws that the agriculture
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  Speaker 1: industry says it has, is being relied on more and more.
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  Speaker 1: Under that visa program. There are requirements in terms of
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  Speaker 1: how much advertising you have to do for native born workers.
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  Speaker 1: Um the requirement that native born workers come first. That
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  Speaker 1: if somebody shows up and says, hey, I want to
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  Speaker 1: do this job, you have to hire them before you
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  Speaker 1: hire a foreign born worker. These employers are still not
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  Speaker 1: filling these jobs with those requirements, and that becomes part
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  Speaker 1: of their argument of look, we're doing everything the government
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  Speaker 1: is asking us to do to have a native born workforce.
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  Speaker 1: It just ain't working. We need a workable immigration policy
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  Speaker 1: so we can remain competitive both of the domestic and
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  Speaker 1: the global marketplace. Alan Berga, thank you so very much
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  Speaker 1: for joining us these food and agricultural order for Bloomberg
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  Speaker 1: News based in Washington, d C. So we are wrapping
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  Speaker 1: up day one of our coverage here at Pershing Insight
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  Speaker 1: twenties sixteen at the Highatt Regency in Orlando. We want
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