Americans don't do farm labor

[Boojatta]

However, farm labor is important. So non-American people who do farm labor in America should be rewarded with American citizenship. Then they will be Americans, and they won't do farm labor, but they could become delicious soylent green.

[leftstreet]

1. LOL was it McCain who said lettuce picking paid $40 an hour?

I tried to find a Lettuce Corporation and sign up

[Subdivisions]

11. Maybe his feeble mind meant to make his mouth say $40 a day. n/t

[LostinVA]

30. No, he said Americans wouldn't do field work even if it paid $50 an hour

If I could physically keep up with it, I would pick lettuce for $50 an hour plus benefits.

[burnsei sensei]

2. My husband was a milker and herdsman for

decades.
He worked with people who ran tractors, shoveled manure and also milked cows.
None of them spoke a foreign language, all of them were born in this country.
I have never encountered a rural worker, in a fixed job on a farm, who was not U.S. born.
And I can tell you that the great majority do not earn anything like the minimum wage even.

[Oregone]

3. Americans do farm labor

They don't do cheap, low-wage, exploited labor

[sarge43]

10. If they own their own farm (98% of US farms are family farms),

bet your butt they do farm labor.

If any Amish would read the OP, s/he'd laff.

[Boojatta]

19. Amish use DOS instead of Windows.

[sarge43]

21. Actually, they use Mennonites. n/t

[MadHound]

4. Don't get out to the farm much, do you?

I know tons of Americans, including myself, who do farm labor. The fact is that small and family farms can't afford not to do farm labor, and they usually do it all themselves.

The farms that are using non-American farm labor are the corporate farms. They use non-Americans because they can pay them low, low wages and increase their bottom line. Perhaps if we started busting corporate farmers for using illegal immigrants, and force them to pay a decent wage, then you would see more Americans out in the field.

But hey, there are plenty of Americans doing farm labor. I'm going out to do some now, care to join me?

[Bandit]

29. They don't pay them wages

They are considered subcontractors, and are paid by the basket or barrel or truck load or some such. There is no way Companies could afford to pay them an hourly wage, even at minimum wage. It is the Giant loop hole most are not aware of.

[DefenseLawyer]

5. Pay a decent wage and they will.

Trust me.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

13. +10000

[LWolf]

6. My grandmother-in-law did.

She was a migrant farm worker for 20 years. She lost one baby to pneumonia while living in a tent near the fields.

She was half Cherokee, and all American.

It's true that most Americans in the 21st Century won't do farm labor. Of course, what farms adhere to reasonable labor standards?

I'm fine with giving citizenship to farmworkers in the U.S. who need it. More important is to make sure that wages and labor standards are acceptable.

[DatManFromNawlins]

7. Yeah, except for my cousins, dad, uncle, both grandfathers, great grandfathers

Clearly, they sat around sipping martinis all day before a quick jump in the sauna and a stop at the office to pick up their paychecks.

[SwampG8r]

8. i wish someone told my grandmother that

i spent summers on the farm and this american did a lot of labor

[Lost4words]

9. I would really at this point, I dont know how to find these jobs,

where to go, who to call. Do they provide room & board, close to cheap hotels. I have no problem picking. But what is the typical compensation, typical hours, time length. If anyone has info please post, I can honestly say this is one type of work I havent applied for.

I just can not be turned down again, I am having visions of mayhem toward "thanks for coming in, we'll keep your resume on file".

[Jkid]

12. "thanks for coming in, we'll keep your resume on file"

Is a code phrase for: "We're going to trash your resume as soon as you walk out of our office."

[Lost4words]

17. We Both know that, I was a hiring mgr a number of times.

been on both sides now!

[NNN0LHI]

14. The American guy who farms the land behind me does a lot of labor

I have watched him labor on his farm for over 20 years. He works harder than I have seen any three men work before. I am not exaggerating. I have watched him carrying rocks out of his field that had to weigh almost as much as he did. I couldn't pick them rocks up off the ground. I have tried and couldn't budge them.

Don

[femmocrat]

15. Sure we do!

I just came in from toiling in the fields, myself. Well, it was my garden, but it's only a matter of scale.

I am actually surrounded by farms. No one works harder. Many of these family farmers hold other jobs in addition to farming. They put in long hours before and after work tending to their farms. And a lot of local teens get part-time summer work on farms.

[IcyPeas]

16. Please watch this clip from the Colbert Report.....

He is going to do some manual work on a farm.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/340925/july-08-2010/arturo-rodriguez

[GSLevel9]

18. not so much...

if unemployed, 80 or 90 week'ers can't find a "preferable" job maybe they SHOULD get out in the fields... just sayin'

[marmar]

24. Obvious much?

:think:

[LostinVA]

31. +1

:wtf:

[Obamanaut]

25. self delete due to excessive snark nt

[DefenseLawyer]

27. "And the union workhouses? Are they still in operation?" n/t

[LostinVA]

33. If he is a GS9, then we are paying his salary

PARASITE!!!

[Erose999]

20. Has anyone following this thread ever read Wendell Berry's essays?

in The Citizenship Papers or What are People For?

Because ugh... I don't even know where to start.

But basically farm subsidies for agribusiness, genetic engineering/modification of crops and animals, and the consolidation and centralization of agribusiness are artificially de-valuing farm work.

Farm work would be much, much more rewarding for the farmers and the farm laborers if everyone got their food from local family farms and co-ops the way nature intended.

[Yehonala]

22. Make Criminals Do It

Make criminals do the dirty work. Rather than sit all day in a jail/prison cell. That way they'll earn their keep and not leech off of taxpayers while getting to watch television.

[DefenseLawyer]

23. So the more people we put in prison, the greater the profits!

What could go wrong?

[NNN0LHI]

26. That is what Honda did in Ohio for a while

Pretty tough for the other automakers to compete with those wages though.

Wouldn't you say?

Don

[cali]

32. wtf? first of all, farming isn't "dirty work"

secondly, prison is this country, which imprisons far, far too many people, isn't a picnic.

[LostinVA]

34. My, my

:eyes:

[zabet]

28. The blueberry season

in eastern NC was short 10s of thousands of migrant workers this year. Surprisingly, American citizens who are jobless filled the gap. It is stupid to say that there are jobs Americans will not do when in fact, if they need the money bad enough, they will do the work. Nothing in the Constitution guarantees that the job you will have access to do will meet the pay scale you desire or will be something you want to do in the first place.