The Quote Below—More Misinformation from the Media
“The age-old saying goes “If you ate today, thank a farmer.
“We have an opportunity to thank our farmers in Idaho and help provide them with what they need. Senate Joint Memorial 101 is an answer to the pleas of those in agriculture who are becoming casualties at the hand of President Joe Biden’s failed immigration policies.
“The joint memorial states; “The Federal government has failed to meet its responsibility to secure our Nation … and has failed to provide a guest worker Visa program that can meet the labor demands of domestic business. . .. This Memorial expresses the desire of Idaho citizens and businesses that the Federal immigration system be modernized to secure the border, to provide for a legal workforce of guest workers, and asks that Idaho’s delegation become National leaders on this topic.”
“This is a no-brainer for anyone who has interacted with farmers and ranchers recently. Those with the responsibility of feeding the world will tell you that labor is the issue that keeps them awake at night. Too many politicians who don’t understand what it takes to feed the world are doing what they do best, getting in the way of helping Idaho farmers.
“It’s an idle politician who panders to the political talking points and hopes that the voters stay uninformed. Those who are criticizing this bill have never known the panic of digging spuds before they freeze or bailing hay before it rains. . . .
“Make no mistake, we are not soft on immigration. We do not support amnesty and neither does Idaho’s agriculture industry. No reasonable human is suggesting we look the other way while illegal immigrants flood into our nation. We are calling for the same thing that the Trump administration called for; secure the border, have a legal and merit-based immigration system.
“Unfortunately, there are consequences to inaction on this issue. Idaho’s economy is synonymous with agriculture. It is our heritage, our culture and how many of our friends and neighbors pay the bills. The ripple effects of Idaho farming affect every facet of our economy. This industry will fail without employees to support it.” — We’re Fighting for Idaho Farmers, Not Illegal Immigration, Guest Editorial, MV MagicValley.com, 3/17/23 [Link]
Fact Check of Above Quote: This editorial makes some good points, and it seems well-intentioned. Unlike some who advocate for agriculture, the editorialist does not justify illegal immigration as a means to meet farmworker shortages. Instead, it advocates legal temporary labor by foreigners to do farm work, with the implication that there aren’t enough Americans available for this kind of labor.
Nevertheless, the editorial misinforms—probably not intentionally—by leaving out another option, the mechanization of agriculture. Yes, farm work is hard work, and is often lowly paid. Consequently, many people don’t want to do it. So how have we handled this problem in the past? Consider that people in the early 19th century said that we could not have cotton crops without slaves or people working in slave-like conditions. We changed that by mechanizing cotton production.
Mechanization has proceeded with other crops, thereby making production more efficient. Still, we have many areas where sowing and harvest are about as primitive as they were more than a century ago. Is there any reason why mechanization couldn’t happen there too? Certainly, it could. In recent years, agricultural technology has rapidly advanced. Showing particularly promise is robotic technology which can harvest delicate crops.
Unfortunately, mechanization has proceeded much too slowly because many people are fixed on the idea that foreign workers, whether legal or illegal, are the only answer to providing an adequate workforce on farms. This thinking needs to change.
The following are two steps to promote mechanization. 1) Allow legal importation of farmworkers—which would be phased out after a specific time limit. Seeing that limit, farmers would have incentive to plan for changes. 2) To deal with the high start-up cost of mechanization, the government could grant tax credits to farmers who mechanize.
America has always been a world leader in innovation. Modernizing our agriculture would carry on that tradition.