Page 14 - Index

FROM PERISHABLEPUNDIT 7.25.19
Preaching To The Choir: Shouldn’t The Industry Seek To Persuade Constituencies Who Have Other Priorities?
The produce industry is not really responding to the interests that are pushing the policies it doesn’t like. If your main concern is illegal immi- gration across the Mexican border, then you will hope [President Trump’s
tariff threats] work, and then, after Mexico steps up and controls the immigrants coming from Central America, the tariffs will be dropped.
Similar thoughts came to mind when we read Kevin Murphy’s recent op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal, “American Farmers Need Immigration Reform.” Kevin was the chief executive of Driscoll’s and is an immigrant from South Africa, so he is well positioned to make this case. His plan is simple:
The American Farm Bureau Federation notes that “50-70 percent of farm laborers in the country today are unauthorized.” Why so many? Because “few U.S. workers are willing to ll available farm labor jobs.” It’s not possible, then, simply to replace this workforce with American citizens. The only question is whether foreign-born workers will produce our food here in the U.S. or in other countries for us to import.
There’s a three-step solution: First, ensure a viable guest-worker program for the effective in ow of farmworkers. They’re often called low-skilled, but many are highly skilled for speci c and essential jobs.
Second, workers who are otherwise in good legal standing should have the opportunity to earn legal status. That would provide safety for them, and much-needed stability for their employers.
Third, pass laws that enable a system of legal workers and secure borders. This will ensure we’re not back at this same place 30 years from now.
None of this is new, though, and it is hard to see why it will suddenly be persuasive. Even within the produce industry, though, few see an upside in publicly challenging big growers, we often hear of a different opinion. As far back as 2006, one of the most important buyers in the industry wrote us with his thoughts and we reprint excerpts from that piece here:
On immigration, much to the dismay of my shippers, I’ve long contended that the agricultural community is hooked on the drug of cheap labor. In the 60s, people were mechanically harvesting certain vegetables for Campbell’s Soup. They had to quit doing it because labor was so cheap and the machine wasn’t ef cient enough to overcome it. The point is, it was being contemplated 40 years ago, and it should have been an industry-wide effort ever since.
We haven’t worked on mechanization and automation in this industry because we have had no motivation to do so. Now, with fear of labor shortages, we see a frenetic pace of R&D on mechanical harvesters. I’m already hearing tales of at least four companies that will be mechanically harvesting lettuce in Yuma with less than 50% of the labor previously needed, and they also claim better quality! And this is only the start of an industry revolution.
Where there’s a will, there is a way. We haven’t had the will because there was no need to abandon our reliance on cheap labor and nd a better way.
Murphy echoes many of the industry’s leaders when he concludes, “The only question is whether foreign-born workers will produce our food here in the U.S. or in other countries for us to import.” But those two scenerios — either foreign-born workers producing our food here or in other countries for us to import — are simply not a complete listing of all available options.
No less a publication than The New Yorker recently ran a piece, “The Age of Robot Farmers,” which starts with the interesting efforts of Gary Wishnatzki of Wish Farms. (Gary’s grandfather bought produce from this Pundit’s grandfather and great-grandfather, and both of our families eventually became wholesalers off both the Washington Street Market and, eventually, the Hunts Point Market in New York.) Now Gary is a true industry leader on the production side. In his Gary’s Post Blog, he tells a funny story:
JIM PREVOR EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
“You Have Less Than a Year to Live”
For the last ve years, I have dedicated a signi cant amount of time to Harvest CROO Robotics. In the summer of 2017, we were invited to the Forbes Ag Tech Summit in Salinas, CA to be recognized for our efforts to bring an autonomous strawberry harvester to market.
An estimated 2,000 growers, academics and technology experts throughout California attended the event. In addition to the exhibits, there were speakers and panel sessions that went on throughout the day.
The session on farm automation particularly interested me, so I made a point to sit in on it. The panel included Brian Antle of Tanimura & Antle, Dan Steere of Abundant Robotics and independent strawberry grower Javier Zamora. The discussion centered around robotic solutions for the farm. When Javier was asked about automation in strawberries, he said how hard it would be for a machine to pick strawberries. He ultimately said it was nearly impossible, and he would not see an automated solution for strawberries in his lifetime.
At this point, I’m getting agitated. We’ve spent countless hours trying to bring a solution to market, so this subject has been very near and dear to my heart. Now, here I am listening to a person who was speaking as if he was some expert in the robotics industry! I was more than a little miffed. As I sat there, teeth gritting, I remember thinking “not in his lifetime, huh?”
When the discussion was over, I sprung to my feet and made a beeline toward Javier. As he came down the steps, I greeted him and extended my hand: “Hello Javier, my name is Gary Wishnatzki. It’s very nice to meet you.” I put my hand on his shoulder. I stated in a somber tone: “I am very sorry to be the onetoinformyou,but(Itookadramaticpause)...youonlyhaveayeartolive.”
At rst, Javier was taken aback by my brash statement. Eventually, he began to chuckle once I explained the context. I urged him to come by our booth and see the video of our technology. After he did, I’d like to think that his perspective shifted on the prospect of a robotic berry picker happening in his lifetime.
We are headed for great things, as long as we live long enough to accomplish them.
Whether Gary’s efforts succeed or not, the point is that simply saying Americans won’t do this work is not going to be persuasive. The key phrase in the Farm Bureau statement is “fill available farm labor jobs,” and the key word is “available” — but in capitalism, if you can’t attract labor, you change the job or the compensation so you can attract labor.
The 2006 letter to the Pundit from the big buyer and Gary’s work with robotics both allude to a kind of tipping point. Surely in an age when we can do robotic surgery, and artificial intelligence applications are becoming commonplace... surely we can develop the technology to limit the need for laborers. The challenge is that the availability of inexpensive labor makes it uneconomical to do so.
There are many reasons different people oppose using immigrant farm labor:
1) Some see externalities in their employment — crime, cost of law enforce- ment, social and medical costs, etc. — as our letter-writer alludes to.
2) Some see the immigrant labor force as depressing wages for unskilled Americans.
3) Some see a political issue as in a democracy if people become citizens they become, in a sense, your partners. Fully able to vote. But not everyone wants to become partners with new people.
4) If they believe we should have a certain number of new immigrants each year, they would prefer us to prioritize on other criteria, such as allowing in people who are well-educated, who have resources to invest in the country, etc.
We’re not completely persuaded by any of this, but if the industry is going to move the needle on public policy, we need to engage heavily in the debate. That means taking a greater role in communicating on tariffs, labor and a host of other concerns. It also means understanding the concerns of those
who think differently and doing the difficult work of changing their minds.
14 / AUGUST 2019 / PRODUCE BUSINESS