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CapitalPress.com
January 9, 2015
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O ur V iew
Presidential order likely to hurt agriculture
F
or several years now
farm groups have been
talking about the need
for immigration reform — but
apparently not the piecemeal reform
unilaterally undertaken by President
Obama.
The United States needs
immigration reform, but of a far
more comprehensive nature than
provided by the latest executive
action.
After November’s election,
Obama announced he’d take
executive action to temporarily lift
the threat of deportation for as many
as 5 million illegal immigrants who
have been in the country for five
years and who have children born
in the United States, and to children
brought by their parents prior to Jan.
1, 2010. Those immigrants would be
eligible for work permits under the
program, allowing them to legally
hold jobs in the United States.
Farmers who raise vegetables,
fruit and nursery crops depend
on immigrant labor, as do many
processors and packers. It’s
generally agreed that most of
these workers, as many as 85
percent in some areas, are in the
country illegally and are providing
employers with fake papers.
So you might think that 5
million newly legal — at least for
the moment — workers would be
a boon to agriculture. You would
be wrong, according to agriculture
leaders in California.
Growers and processors in the
Golden State employ some 330,000
farmworkers. Their labor makes
possible California’s $46 billion
agriculture industry. But by even
the most conservative estimates,
more than 200,000 of these workers
are in the country illegally and are
ineligible for employment.
Manuel Cunha, president of the
Fresno-based Nisei Farmers League,
told The Associated Press last month
that he thinks as many as 50,000 of
those workers will take their new
work permits out of the field and
into more stable, year-round jobs off
the farm.
We must be honest. Farm work
is hard and mostly seasonal work.
Workers who have both the skills
and the ability to legally exploit
other options are going to take
that opportunity. Armando Elenes,
national vice president of the United
Farm Workers, said Obama’s
program changes the equation.
“It’s going to open up a whole
new world for workers,” he told The
Associated Press. “A lot of times, if
you’re undocumented, you feel like
you’re stuck.”
Good for workers, bad for
growers.
Jason Resnick, vice president
and general counsel of Western
Growers, saw the flaw in the Obama
plan — it lacks a mechanism to
bring in new workers to fill jobs
vacated by workers able to chase
new opportunities.
Growers need changes to the
H-2A guest worker visa system
to remove the politics and the
nonsensical requirements now in
place. It should not take months
to apply for and obtain needed
temporary, legal workers from
overseas. If a farmer has a shortfall,
he should be able to obtain help
quickly.
Comprehensive immigration
reform also must include a pathway
for permanent legal status that
imposes strict requirements on
immigrants, a secure border, and a
requirement that employers verify
the legal status of their employees.
All of this must be passed by
Congress, not through executive
fiat.
Farmers’ efforts
Minimum wages and other people’s money put ag a few steps
ahead for 2015
O ur V iew
H
ere’s a conversation that
occasionally takes place in
state capitols around the
nation.
Political Genius No. 1: “We need
to raise the minimum wage.”
Political Genius No. 2: “Why is
that?”
Political Genius No. 1: “Well,
it’ll give our constituents more
money, which they will like, and
best of all, it uses other people’s
money.”
Political Genius No. 2: “Sold!”
Political Genius No. 1: “Just
don’t tell people it could cost them
their jobs.”
Political Genius No. 2: “I didn’t
hear a thing you just said.”
The idea of raising the minimum
wage has gained a certain amount
of political currency, so to speak,
as politicians, having emptied the
public coffers, look for other ways
to make themselves look good using
other people’s money.
For many, it means increasing
the minimum wage. Nine states’
minimum wages increased as of Jan.
1 because of automatic increases.
Overall, 29 states have minimum
wages higher than the $7.25 per
hour federal minimum.
In the Northwest, we know about
increasing the minimum wage.
For years, Washington and Oregon
employers have been stuck on an
inflation-adjusted treadmill that
forces their minimum wages upward
each year. Washington employers
will pay $9.47 an hour this year, and
their counterparts in Oregon will
pay $9.25.
Though politicians point out
that people with minimum wage
jobs get more money — that much
By ERIN ANTHONY
For the Capital Press
W
Rik Dalvit/For the Capital Press
is true — they somehow miss the
fact that employers also scour their
operations for ways to reduce their
payrolls to offset the increase. In
addition to layoffs, many have
switched to part-time and on-call
employees as ways to save
money.
Mechanization and automation
are also options and have gotten
more of a boost from the push
for higher wages. For example,
retailers and grocers are installing
self-service checkout stands by
the thousands. Each represents
more lost jobs. Even McDonald’s,
which is known for hiring entry-
level employees with no skills and
teaching them what it takes to hold
down a job, is testing a self-service
ordering system that will reduce the
number of employees needed.
The undeniable result of
artificially high wages at the bottom
rung of the employment ladder is
fewer jobs.
Proponents of higher minimum
wages say the cost can just come
out of the employers’ profit margin.
That wouldn’t work for most small
businesses, food processors and
farms, where the margins are slim,
if they exist at all.
That reality is something young
men and woman just entering the
workforce and others, including
politicians, need to understand as
they agitate for higher minimum
wages.
The key to success in the work
world is possessing a skill set that
employers want and need. Without
that, a young man or woman will
not be able to get and keep a job at
any wage.
If politicians want to help those
at the bottom of the pay scale, they
can help them afford training and
education, the costs of which are
rapidly spiraling beyond the grasp
of all but the wealthiest Americans.
A well-educated and well-trained
population will make the question
of how high the minimum wage is
immaterial.
That’s something every politician
should be able to understand and
support.
Readers’ views
Citizens ignored
by lawmakers
Increasingly we as
U.S. citizens are being
ignored and put upon by
bad legislation, either to
be voted on or already in
place.
We all should be very
disturbed by what our
so-called representatives
everywhere are doing and
creating in our names.
For instance, there’s the
ongoing U.S. Department
of Labor case against the
blueberry farmers in Or-
egon. Return their money
already!
It’s time for all of those
kinds of things to stop. We
are all U.S. citizens — no
more Gestapo here.
Any judge that can’t
decipher good laws versus
bad laws may need to go.
D. Tankersley
Willits, Calif.
Stand up for the
Constitution
With interest the arti-
cle, “Forest Service betrays
its heritage, assaults water
rights,” was read. How many
see the tentacles of the United
Nations slowly violating our
Constitution and destroying
our rights?
We, the people, are the
stewards of the land. It is our
responsibility and duty to see
that those whom we have
elected uphold the rule of law
— the Constitution. We have
legislators who are members
of the Bilderbergs, Trilateral
Commission and the Council
on Foreign Affairs who fur-
ther the U.N.’s encroachment.
We are more concerned
with the latest movies, foot-
ball games, “Dancing with
the Stars,” et cetera — they
are planned to be misleading
and distracting — but pay lit-
tle or no attention to the path
this nation is heading. Yes, we
need relaxation, but we need
to pay attention to the busi-
ness of our republic.
How many have re-
searched Agenda 21 and the
U.N. 2000 Millennial Goal?
The goal is to control all land,
air and seas (the Clean Water
Act now controls all our wa-
ters), control all monies (sure-
ly, you see this with the push-
ing of a cashless society) and
a dependent society (more on
welfare).
Are we all so intent for
the nation to be controlled by
the U.N.? Why are our heri-
tage sites under U.N. control
and we furnish the upkeep
and money and are restrained
from some of these sites? Are
you allowing your own en-
slavement?
You can start a change by
demanding the legislators cut
off all funds (your tax mon-
ies) to the U.N., getting them
out of our nation and quitting
the organization.
Then demand the officials
follow and uphold the word
of the Constitution and re-
move from office all officials
who violate the Constitution.
Remember, it is your duty.
You pay all of the bills. Don’t
let political correctness still
your voice. You are an Amer-
ican and standing up for your
rights, the Constitution and
the legacy to your children.
Mrs. Mary A. Novak
Yamhill, Ore.
eather. Input costs.
Commodity pric-
es. From planning
to harvesting, there’s plenty
that’s out of farmers’ and
ranchers’ control. Perhaps
that’s why when they have
the chance to hold sway,
they go all in.
There’s hardly a better
example of that than the
American Farm Bureau
Federation’s Ditch the Rule
campaign, launched this
spring to challenge EPA’s
proposed “Waters of the
U.S.” rule. The rule could
ultimately lead to the un-
lawful expansion of federal
regulations to cover routine
farming and ranching prac-
tices as well as other com-
mon private land uses, such
as building homes.
Through official com-
ments to EPA, hundreds
of thousands of tweets and
Facebook posts, testimo-
ny before Congress, calls,
emails and in-person meet-
ings with policymakers, in-
terviews with reporters and
much more, Farm Bureau
members were relentless in
telling EPA, the media and
Congress why this propos-
al is such a threat to agri-
culture, not to mention an
end-run around congressio-
nal intent and rulings by the
U.S. Supreme Court.
While Ditch the Rule
focused on administrative
action, immigration reform
is Congress’ job. Growers
were optimistic that Senate
passage last year of an im-
migration reform bill that
addressed agriculture’s la-
bor needs would provide
momentum for House ac-
tion in 2014, but that was
not to be. Nearly everything
ground to a halt this summer
with the mid-term elections
looming.
Still, farmers’ and ranch-
ers’ leadership on the issue
became even clearer when
President Obama’s execu-
tive order made everyone
ask: “What does this mean
for agriculture?” Although
the president’s move does
little, if anything, for farm-
ers and ranchers in dire
need of a stable workforce,
Farm Bureau has success-
fully made the agricultural
labor crisis a political real-
ity that cannot be ignored in
2015.
Farm Bureau was also
front and center in the push
for a national food label-
ing policy. Legislation in-
troduced earlier this year
would provide a federal
solution to protect consum-
ers from a patchwork of
individual state GMO label-
ing policies, and the con-
fusion and high food costs
that would come with them.
At a congressional hearing
Guest
comment
Erin Anthony
earlier this month, Kansas
Farm Bureau board mem-
ber Stacey Forshee made
a strong case for why law-
makers should pass the Safe
and Accurate Food Labeling
Act (H.R. 4432).
Labeling foods with
biotechnology traits “will
mislead consumers into be-
lieving such food products
are materially different, cre-
ate undue risk and should
be avoided — all of which
are scientifically false,” she
said.
Also this month, Con-
gress extended retroactively
for 2014 a series of tax pro-
visions that expired at the
end of 2013. These “extend-
ers” are important because
they help farmers invest in
the machinery, equipment
and other depreciable cap-
ital that they can’t do their
jobs without. In addition,
a number of the provisions
encourage the production
and use of clean, renewable
energy.
In the end, Congress
took longer than farmers
and ranchers would have
liked, but the final extend-
ers bill, which included
Farm Bureau priorities like
Section 179 small-business
expensing, was one of the
few pieces of legislation
the House, Senate and the
president agreed upon in the
second half of the year — a
testament to farmers’ and
ranchers’ ability to deliver
a strong message. With the
extenders secure for 2014,
farmers and ranchers will
push forward in 2015 to
make some of the key small
business provisions perma-
nent.
Stepping out of the pol-
icy arena, Farm Bureau
led the way with a historic
agreement on data privacy
and security principles that
will encourage the use and
development of a full range
of innovative, technolo-
gy-driven tools and services
to boost the productivity, ef-
ficiency and profitability of
American agriculture.
The data privacy and se-
curity principles detailed
in the agreement provide
a measure of needed cer-
tainty to farmers regard-
ing the protection of their
data.
From Ditch the Rule to
immigration reform, tax ex-
tenders and big data, look-
ing at farmers’ and ranch-
ers’ 2014 successes shows
us agriculture is clearly a
few steps ahead for 2015.
Erin Anthony is editor
of FBNews, the American
Farm Bureau Federation’s
official e-newsletter.