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

I tried getting work on a few farms but they were full of illegal aliens and said they didn't need anyone. I know a few legal Americans that were displaced from their farm jobs by illegal aliens. Different regions must have different work ethics. Even the local potheads will work at tree farms and out in farm fields picking rock where I live. The short duration of employment gives them a little extra pocket money to buy some more special herbs While I can believe the reason why a lot of folks won't work on a farm full time out in California because the cost of living is too high I can't understand why places like apple orchards and the like don't just hire a bunch of high school kids. There was an article I read that claimed that an orchard out in Washington state couldn't find anyone for 12 bucks an hour to pick fruit. If that orchard was here there would be a line a mile long of people willing to pick apples.

I make 8.50 an hour cleaning up mold, raw sewage, and a ton of other nastiness. Most of the people I work with have been doing this work for years for not much more yet I get the impression that in other areas of the country American citizens would never do that sort of work. I also am doing a short stint at a cranberry bog working the harvest, not an illegal in sight. The funny thing is the USDA's little poster about farm work hazards in the shop has warnings written in Spanish above the English warnings and all the pictures have Hispanic looking folks in them.

I have a feeling the closer an area is to a major metropolitan area the more likely it is that either the people will have a poor work ethic or consider certain jobs too beneath them.

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http://www.xanga.com/shackman A blog about whatever

Don't know about picking.... it may have been physically easier than the last job I had, which was freight receiver at a well known national farm store chain. Started at $9/hr, ended at a whopping $10.19/hr, which was the top of the pay scale they could pay me, even running the forklift half the day.

Great attitude. Pretty much the same thing people said about the 'Okies' back in the 30's

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"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist"- Archbishop Camara

The Mad Luddite

Okay - lets get this back into a Survival type of thread, instead of GC.

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"Live your life, and forget your age." Norman Vincent Peale

I would gladly work minimum wage to pick, I doubt they'd let my take the little one, though, not that he'd be an issue in a sling... he'd likely sleep the whole time. My dream job happens to be farming, lol.

If I needed to and could, I would do it. If there were a farm close by and I had trustworthy babysitters (and, and if Tristan would take a bottle, we can't seem to get him to) I would jump at the chance. Transportation has always been an issue for me.

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Shara

"The only point to this life is to raise the children right."
~William K. Gilmore

"Being slightly paranoid is like being slightly pregnant - it tends to get worse."
~Molly Ivins

Stephen Colberts' testimony on Capitol Hill last week covered this exact subject. He spent a day picking, and never ever wanted to go back. The UFW ran ads looking for 'workers' to come out and pick, so that the illegals wouldn't have a job. Out of the entire country, 7 folks are working, displacing maybe one poor migrant family.

I've picked in the past... still have scars on my leg where I filed away the ankle chains... Today, doubt if I could get in more than 2 hours without breaking for the rest of the day... bending over is a young persons game.

Can't imagine too many folks 'wanting' to do hard manual labor, out in the bald sun all day and sometimes night, amongst the insects and snakes and dirt... oh, and for low pay. That old bugaboo of supply vs. demand will always keep wages down for farm labor ('specially picking)... it can be done by anyone, regardless of education, and there's always an excess of anyone's out there looking for work.

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Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Seneca
Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. W. Edwards Deming

I'd imagine picking beans and strawberries all day might be tough but picking apples, blackberries, and oranges just doesn't seem like it would be that hard. I picked a few apples and it seems like easy work. I can't figure out why that orchard out in Washington state couldn't even have found some high school kids wanting to pick apples for 12 bucks an hour I've done much harder work for less.

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http://www.xanga.com/shackman A blog about whatever

Temp labor, i tmight work. I have ahard time taking care of myself.

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We will meet in the golden city, called the New Jerusalem,
All our pain and all our tears will be no more.....

I once had a job picking cucumbers. Never again, I will have to be really hungry before I try it again.

I remember seeing a contraption someone built to make bean picking a little easier. I wish I could find some pictures of it. Basically there were like 6 or 7 pads for people to lay prone on. There were also round supports for people to lay their heads on it. I think it was self propelled with a little gas motor. People would drive the machine up a little at a time looking for beans to pick. It seems to me like that would take the back breaking part out of picking beans, cucumbers, strawberries, ect.

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http://www.xanga.com/shackman A blog about whatever

I picked raspberries by the pail when I was a kid. Take pail to collection point and get a punch on your card...then hope they don't send you down a "clean-up pick" row while their favorites get to pick a fresh row. Major sunburn on the backs of my legs( I was a kid..duh!), scarce potty facilites and nasty scratches to arms. I got a lot better by the end of the harvest.
Would I do it again...harvest crops? Yes, but my back(bad lower back disks) would make bending over constantly very painful. Picking apples,citrus,corn or other stand/reach up type crops would be do-able. The bonus is I like to work with plants/animals outside. In my younger days I worked with a landscaper planting/trimming shrubery. We sold wreaths and christmas trees in the winter season.
Of course, they way things are going I am more likely to be spending time on survival farming rather than picking for a paycheck!

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" As needs-MUST!!"--- in other words..a gal does what a gal has too!

Anyone have any ideal of how the big commercial bean pickers work? I'm wondering if a small bean picker could be made for one person to operate in his/her own garden? But I've never seen a bean picking machine operate in order to understand how they pick the beans only. We use to go to bean fields after the big machines got thru going over the fields and we would pick grocery sack after grocery sacks full that the machines would miss. The machines would pick the beans one day and within the next day or two they would till everything under and plant something else. So you had only a small time frame to pick.

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r.h. in oklahoma

Raised a country boy, and will die a country boy.

Things will change alright. A few millions will take to the street while a few thousands will take on the fields. I have little faith in modern society. It may take a decade, or a generation to change mentality.

This is currently listed on our state web site:

Job Information
Job Order ID :
NY0944569
# of Positions :
3
Minimum Education Level :
Less than High School
Experience Required :
1 months
Salary :
$10.16 +
Duration :
Full Time Seasonal
Shift :
Hours per week:
42
Job Description

Seasonal jobs from 8/03/2010 to 6/03/2011 Manually plant, cultivate, and harvest vegetables, fruits, berries and field crops; use hand tools, such as shovels, trowels, hoes, tampers, pruning hooks, shears, and knives; tilling soil and applying fertilizers; transplanting, weeding, thinning, or pruning crops; applying pesticides to crops; cleaning, packing, and loading harvested products; handle bees and bee hives; construct trellises, repair fences and farm bldgs. and set up and operate irrigation equipment; clear and maintain irrigation ditches; operate tractors, tractor-drawn machinery, and self-propelled machinery to plow; harrow and fertilize soil, or plant, cultivate, spray, and harvest crops; repair and maintain farm vehicles, implements, and mechanical equip.; inform farmer of crop progress and identify plants, pests, and weeds to determine the selection and application of pesticides and fertilizers. Must have one month experince in above. Entire job duty description (ETA 790) can be found on NYSDOL website under Workforce Information, H-2A Job orders.

How many of us on this board could boast of having this skillset and if you do, would you work for $10.16 per hour without health insurance?

When the goberment quits giving them a handout they have 3 choices.
1. starve
2. work
3. rob

I'm afraid a lot of them will pick #3.

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A good time to keep your mouth shut is when you're in deep water.

I've done very similar work for 8 bucks an hour.

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http://www.xanga.com/shackman A blog about whatever

The problem is the folks like Colbert are playing a lying game that all illegal immigrants pick produce...

Many more work n the back of restaurants, and even more work construction jobs.. You won;t find a house being built, a road being built, or anything like that without illegals on the job here. Been that way for decades.

I just put in an irrigation system this year, the whole crew was illegals.

Americans would work those jobs, but you won't hear Colbert even mention them.

As for Americans learning how to grow things to eat if they have to, folks are smarter than ya think.. and they can read.. and they can learn.. and they would share that info up and down the roads from neighbor to neighbor etc. just like they share info and such now they see as important..

I have most of the skill set, and I doubt a large farm would let go of me at seasons end after a season of me working there... Been that way most of my life, I tend to be a lot more useful at a lot more things than I get paid for.

But then I started out without a high school education and worked manual labor jobs for a long time. And just like the smart migrants who so it now I used it as a stepping stone to eventually running my own business.

But yeah even now at 50 I'd do it again if I had no other options to feed myself, if it didn't kill me dead in the first couple of months I would be fine and work my way back up again to something better.