UNDOCUMENTED FARM LABOR SMALL PORTION OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

LEGAL WORKERS WILL HAVE TO BE PAID MORE, TAX MAN SAYS.

I recently watched a news program that claimed 50% of tomato pickers and dairy workers are undocumented immigrants (aka illegal aliens).  I also saw a PBS report that vegetable farmers and vineyards in California are struggling to find enough labor.  These reports raise an obvious question: How much risk does the ag industry face from deportations?

According to the USDA, wages make up about 40% of costs in labor-intensive crops such as fruits and vegetables. The labor component is a big factor for those farmers who are struggling. I think farmers across the country are torn on the matter – on the one hand, they need low-cost farm labor to make a profit, and on the other, they would prefer to hire legal workers.

According to the Pew Research Center, an estimated 11.1 million illegal immigrants lived in the U.S. in 2014.  Somewhat surprisingly, only a small portion of those 11 million work as farm labor.  According to the latest Farm Labor Survey, the number of hired and contract farm workers ranges from about 800,000 in winter to 1.1 million in the summer. The portion of hired farm workers who are not legally authorized to work in the U.S. fluctuates around 50%, according to the USDA Economic Research Service. The other half comprises legal U.S. citizens (33%) and green card holders. Do all the math, and we’re running somewhere around 500,000 illegal U.S. farm workers, out of a total U.S. population of 327 million. That’s only 0.15% of the population, and there are many millions of people not working. 

The headline unemployment rate is about 5% now. It sounds like only 5% of the population is not working. Not so. The calculation has been changing for decades, and it excludes all kinds of people. When considering actual unemployment in this country, I look at the employment-to-population ratio, which is the number of people employed divided by the total number of working-age people. 

A February 2017 report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said that our employment-to-population ratio was 59.9%, which means 40.1% of working-age folks are not working. If you take approximately 200 million working-age residents and multiply them by 40%, you arrive at 80 million people. Bottom line, the workforce is available. But what does it take to motivate those folks to do farm labor?

According to a 2015 USDA report, average hourly farm worker pay was $12.27, which is above minimum wage, but well below the average hourly pay of $21.80. Motivating legal citizens with more pay may be one of the solutions. It could be difficult to get U.S. citizens to pick avocados for $12 an hour, but there is a number that will motivate them. Of course that number will have to exceed available benefits, which can include state unemployment payments, ACA subsidies, SNAP cards, SSI, Section 8 Housing, etc.

Another obvious solution would be to increase the number of green cards issued, which I suspect a business-minded administration will do. The last solution is increased mechanization, which has been under way for over 100 years.  (Did you know there are now strawberry picking robots?)

My opinion is that if it takes more pay to employ legal workers, as a society, we’re going to have to devote more pay to getting our vegetables out of the ground and fruit off of the trees. That will mean higher costs for fruits and vegetables. If it takes more machinery because people won’t do the work, then we’ll have to invent it.  Life will go on, and people will eat.

WHEAT LOSING GROUND IN 2018 PROJECTIONS

Wheat has been losing ground – literally – to corn and soybeans since sowing peaked at 88.25 million acres in 1981. The last time plantings topped 70 million acres was 1997 at 70.4 million. The last time they exceeded 60 million acres was 2008 at 63.6 million. At its Outlook Forum, USDA projected the smallest all-wheat acreage – 46 million – since 1919 due to low market prices and vast world stocks following four years of record crops. 

By coincidence, soybean plantings, projected for a record 88 million acres this year, would nearly match wheat’s 1981 total. 

The International Grains Council and the FAO forecast a dip in world wheat production by about 2% this year, led by the projected 20% drop in the U.S. crop.

This article was produced in collaboration with the Food & Environment Reporting Network, an independent, nonprofit news organization producing investigative reporting on food, agriculture, and environmental health.

FG to reinvent cassava bread initiative – Ogbeh

The Federal Government has revealed plans to revive the cassava bread initiative to encourage the use of cassava in food production and processing.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, made this known in Abuja during an interaction with journalists.

Ogbeh lamented that although Nigeria was the largest producer of cassava in the world, the economic and industrial potential of the crop had yet to be fully explored and utilised.

The minister  expressed confidence that the restoration of the cassava bread initiative would curb importation of wheat, as flours used for baking bread will be produced from both wheat and cassava.

He added that this initiative would save a lot of foreign exchange, being used in importing wheat, for Nigeria, as well as encourage cassava farmers to increase their productivity.

According to him “The use to which we have put cassava has been very low. We haven’t produced industrial starch even though we are trying to revive textiles, we haven’t done ethanol, we are importing ethanol”.

“We haven’t exported cassava chips because of the cost of transportation from the hinterland to the ports.The bread one is still coming up. There is something you must add to bread if you use the cassava flour called bake shop.

“There is a Nigerian who wants to come and set up the factory here. You add that so that the bread can rise; that is what we are waiting for, it will be done.’’ he said

Ogbeh said that the Federal Government was also working to get flour millers to add 15 per cent cassava in the wheat they milled.

AgroNigeria recalls the cassava bread initiative was launched by former president Goodluck Jonathan in 2012, which was made from composite flour containing 40 per cent cassava and 60 per cent wheat.

#FactsFeed

FG warns Nigerians on smuggled harmful frozen fish

The Federal Government has alerted Nigerians that smugglers are beginning to flood the markets with harmful frozen fish illegally imported into the country through land borders.

This was revealed by the Minister of State for Agriculture, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri while speaking at the Abuja headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD).

According to him, the harmful frozen fish include tilapia, red pacus, river bream, pangassius, horse mackerel, sardine and croaker.

The Minister noted that those involved in the act were undermining the efforts of government despite the fish importation policy and ban of frozen farmed fish importation into the country.

He lamented that the circulation of unhealthy fish and fishery products in Nigerian market had resulted in grave health implications such as kidney disease and cancer.

“It has become necessary for the Federal Government through the FMARD to address the Nigerian public on the sale of smuggled unhealthy frozen fish, especially farmed tilapia, in Nigeria. These smuggled frozen fish are very harmful to the health of Nigerians” he said.

The minister therefore warned those involved in the illegal importation to desist, as anyone caught will be made to face the full wrath of the law adding that the government had been collaborating with countries in the Gulf of Guinea, Nigeria Customs Service, maritime police, Nigerian Navy and the Nigerian Agriculture Quarantine Service.

“The ministry is using this medium to warn all those involved, colluding, aiding and abetting these nefarious activities to stop or face the full wrath of the law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Importation of fish without licence attracts five-year imprisonment or a fine of $250,000, or both, in addition to forfeiture and destruction of the vessel and its products” he vowed

“For the avoidance of doubt, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture has put in place measures to arrest, detain and prosecute offenders as provided in the Sea Fisheries Act Cap S4 laws of the Federation 2004. Such persons will be dealt with as criminals and economic saboteurs” he stated.