US unemployed workers seek jobs, but won't do farm work

[ovsfarm]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100927/...gration_jobs_4

This article talks about how they have now documented what many of us already suspected, that the average American won't do farm work even if they are without a job.

It worries me on many levels. If the SHTF, will these people actually change their tune and start doing farm work, for themselves or as a "job"? If no one will work the commercial farms, then who will feed the masses who live where they cannot produce enough to feed themselves and their families? Would the military ever be diverted into food production instead of peace keeping/law enforcement? If not, then where would the workers come from?

Notice, I said Americans won't do farm work if they are without a job, not if they are hungry. Due to our welfare system, I doubt all that many of the adults are actually hungry. I imagine that some of their children are, but as I look around today, I often see such selfishness that I believe that many would not go to extreme lengths to feed their children. They're not doing it now, so why would they suddenly start later?

So...this has underscored for me the importance of not only doing much of my own food production, but also making sure my daughter knows how. If I am living when any future grandkids get old enough, I want to make sure they know how also. IMO, food production is an incredibly critical skill and it amazes me that it has become so undervalued in our society.

[TnAndy]

Si, yo comrende.

[edcopp]

When the unemployment (compensation) runs out the tune will change some. When the food assistance programs are cut to the bare bone things will change some more.

I work hard to produce some of my needed foodstuffs. Recently it has been my thinking that I should not overproduce, that is to produce enough that I need to give a lot away or sell into a market that does not value my effort.

So if I am able to produce what I need, and the needy are not willing to produce anything, then I guess they can eat grass.

[pancho]

We already have people who will do these jobs. Most people call them illegals. They have been doing the job for many years and will do so in the future.

[bee]

I must point out there is a huge difference in working a field for dollars to buy food and working a field to eat. The learning curve will be a *itch.

Once the programs are gone(and the dependant upon them) we will see a change in the survivors. Those that don't turn to thievery will have to get their hands dirty.

[Bearfootfarm]

Most people call them illegals

Only because they are

Is anyone really surprised that the "average" EDUCATED American won't take a job that is largely performed by ILLITERATE workers?

Most Americans wouldn't take a nice OFFICE job if it required them to move all over the country from month to month.

That's no big deal to an ILLEGAL ALIEN who had no real "home" here to begin with.

[wyld thang]

It depends a bit on the area, there are a lot of families in my county who are farmers or who live next to one, lots of white people doing farm work. Teens who dont' have the money to go to college, teens who just want to drive something(tractor, combine, hay truck), handy men, machinery mechanics. My son is working for a temp agency doing work at wineries/vineyards and the bottling plant--which he actually enjoys. And he's going to community college.

Personally I would love to pick stuff, but my husband would never let me(he thinks I'd get jumped or something). I loving picking stuff. I'm all scratched up from spending 3 hours a day picking blackberries here at home(if there was more to pick I would have picked longer). Amazing how sore you get, all that leaning and yoga poses to not fall into the brambles(never did!)

[mnn2501]

How many farms are advertising for help in the city newspapers? or even on Monster.com etc?

Come on, you really need to look at "the rest of the story" as Paul Harvey used to say. How do y'all hire a farm hand? do you go into the city to get someone? probably not.
As far as the article, you can't live on $10.25 an hour (the amount mentioned by one person in the article) in California (the place the article talked about) - unless you live like an illegal. and my guess is that $10.25 is more than 90+% of the illegals are actually being paid.

[AuntKitty]

Originally Posted by mnn2501

How many farms are advertising for help in the city newspapers? or even on Monster.com etc?

Come on, you really need to look at "the rest of the story" as Paul Harvey used to say. How do y'all hire a farm hand? do you go into the city to get someone? probably not.
As far as the article, you can't live on $10.25 an hour (the amount mentioned by one person in the article) in California (the place the article talked about) - unless you live like an illegal. and my guess is that $10.25 is more than 90+% of the illegals are actually being paid.

$10.25 an hour? That's what alot of the office jobs here are paying...

[mnn2501]

Originally Posted by AuntKitty

$10.25 an hour? That's what alot of the office jobs here are paying...

Do you know what the cost of living is in California?
No where did I or the article mention wages anywhere else.
McDonalds pays more than that in CA

[Forlane]

Originally Posted by mnn2501

Do you know what the cost of living is in California?
No where did I or the article mention wages anywhere else.
McDonald's pays more than that in CA

HAH! I live in Salinas, CA. Farmhands do not make $10.25/hour and neither do McDonald's workers as I used to be a Manager for one in my town.

The fieldworkers make 50c/basket of strawberries.
McDonald's workers make $8/hour Management makes $9+

Rent for our 900 sq ft 3bd 1bath house with no backyard and a 1 car garage that doesn't fit a car is $1250 a month I could run and jump from our roof to the neighbors and so on all the way down my street.

[mpillow]

Heck I work for free! Milk goats, garden, preserve, cook, clean, home school, drive the kids around, pull ticks and weeds....cut wood.

When I was 12yo I went picking blueberries to earn $$ for school clothes and the older white trash kids went thru everyone's lunch pail and took buckets of berries from younger kids....I made $7.37 and walked 16 miles home(left by 10am).....my parents were LIVID but I didn't have to go back after they found out what happened....I got work cleaning houses after that...

So I would do it but I wouldn't go without someone to have my back...

[BillHoo]

Originally Posted by Forlane

....Rent for our 900 sq ft 3bd 1bath house with no backyard and a 1 car garage that doesn't fit a car is $1250 a month I could run and jump from our roof to the neighbors and so on all the way down my street.

Only $1250 a month? I guess there is a living room there also?

I could fit 2, maybe three bunk beds in the living room and two bunk beds in each bedroom to house 10-12 people per shift. Night shift workers can come in and sleep during the day - so that's a total of about 24 people I can get in that house.

Cost of operation per day is about $45. I charge each "tenant" $5 a day to sleep and take a shower. That's a profit of $75 a day!

I could be making $2250 (profit) a month off that house!

I haven't even touched on what could be done with the garage!

Honestly, no, I wouldn't do that. However, a few years ago, I was looking at an investment property in a heavy latino area of town and the realtor wouldn't give me a straight answer on how much rent the tenants were paying.

He just pulled me aside and whispered that they "rent from day to day and the current owner charges $10 for them to hotswap the bunks".

A way to make money, but not the business I want to be in.

[ovsfarm]

Although not commercial farm work, I have often offered people in my area that I had heard were having trouble making ends meet the opportunity to come and pick extra produce from my garden and fruit trees. I have been astounded at how many of them told me they couldn't come pick it, but could I pick it and bring it to them. I even had one woman tell me that I could pick her some green beans if I wanted to, but that she didn't think her kids would eat them because they didn't come from the store.

I didn't bring this thread up to argue over illegals or to rehash what constitutes a living wage. I brought it up because it really bothers me that so few American residents know how to grow or harvest food and how few have any interest in learning. The article mentions how one worker, who soon quit, was putting the plants in the ground upside down. This does not bode well for our ability to feed ourselves in time of crisis.

As most here know quite well, the learning curve for food production can be pretty steep. And certainly takes at least a couple or three growing seasons to really get the hang of. I fear those who hope that everyone will start container gardening at home, a chicken in every garage and vegetables in every median strip will be sadly shocked at what is ahead.

[katydidagain]

I work as a landscaper right now which is not much different than farming; I earn 1/3 of what I did in the 80s as a CPA. Anyone in NE Ohio seeking to hire someone with brains and brawn should contact me; I'm old but wiry and don't mind hard work.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

i would suspect that to a certain extent if they take a farm job that is temporary but full time for the time being it will end their unemployment , this was part of the problem with cencus jobs people who took them were then no longer eligable for unemployment

so they didn't take them or if they did they found out the hard way they shouldn't have

i do also suspect it depends a lot on the area , and frankly hiring a office worker to work with animals , tractors and equiptment they have never seen unless you have a extensive training program is likly to be dangerouse for all involved.

when the biggest thing you have ever driven was a civic and now they are handing you the keys to a grain truck , combine , tractor , skid loader it's just plain dangerouse

i had the benifit of working with lots of equiptment when i was young ,not everyone was driving a dump truck at 14 , most still don't know what double cluching is

[Bearfootfarm]

frankly hiring a office worker to work with animals , tractors and equiptment they have never seen unless you have a extensive training program is likly to be dangerouse for all involved.

The article mentioned that many of the jobs were posted with the unemployment offices, but they won't usually send you out to any job if you don't already have experience

I've had to argue with them to get sent for an interview for some jobs

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

a freind of mine was a mechanical draftsman , spent 28 years working for modine , they layed him off , he looked and went on interviews for a while , there was nothing for him , he signed on as a prison gaurd and now picks up every odd shift at the medium max untill he builds up seniority and gets a steady shift , but it pays ok and comes with insurance. but sure doesn't use his skill at all.

[Pelenaka]

I have worked as a picker on an aunt's farm when I was 13. I was one of oh 3 Americans. The other two were my brothers. The Mexicans made a joke of it, saying that it was the Puerto Rican in us that was bending over to pick.
Most urban unemployed would find transportation to rual employment an issue. However if that technicality was removed I doubt that farm work would become the main j-o-b.

~~ pelenaka ~~
http://thirtyfivebyninety.blogspot.com/

[Oldcountryboy]

Originally Posted by AuntKitty

$10.25 an hour? That's what alot of the office jobs here are paying...

Yep and wouldn't most people rather be in a air conditioned building, setting on their gluteousmaximus making $10.25 a hour then to be hunkered over picking cucumbers with sweat dripping off the end of their nose for the very same wage? We americans are told to study hard so you wont have to work on the farm like our parents did. A high school education was suppose to get you off the farm and into a city where higher wages and a better life is suppose to exist.