Who will work the fields?
The strawberry harvest is months away, but new immigration policies and a worker shortage in California have farmers asking the question.
By HELEN ANNE TRAVIS
Published October 6, 2006
PLANT CITY -- Rows of black plastic stretch across the fields of eastern Hillsborough County. The plastic, affectionately called black mulch by farmers, marks where 8,000 acres of strawberry plants will soon blossom.
The black plastic glimmers like water in the afternoon sun. In their tractors lumbering across the fields, farmers prep the land.
This year, in addition to the usual worries about fickle weather and a fluctuating market, Hillsborough County farmers are concerned about farm labor shortages.
Stricter border enforcement kept many Mexican workers out of California this year, according to the New York Times. Unable to harvest their crop in time, California farmers watched tons of pears ripen to a smelly mess.
It may also mean headaches for Hillsborough County farmers, who typically employ 8,000 to 9,000 migrant workers, most of whom are Mexican.
"I would be surprised if we don't have problems too," said Chip Hinton, executive director of the Florida Strawberry Growers Association. "At one time, farmers only had to worry about Mother Nature and the market. Now there are so many influences on their ability to survive that occur outside their fence posts."
It's a concern for farmers when immigration issues and border security get wrapped in the same red tape.
"What's really driving this thing is homeland security," said Gary Wishnatzki, a Plant City produce broker and strawberry farmer. "But I don't think they are going to find too many terrorists out in the fields picking strawberries."
Congress is divided in dealing with the immigration issue.
"The House is focusing on border enforcement only, while the Senate is focusing on combining border enforcement with legal channels for workers to be in the States," said Douglas Rivlin, communications director for the National Immigration Forum in Washington, D.C.
Billy Simmons, a fifth-generation farmer in Plant City, just wants a practical guest worker program.
"If they just shut down borders and not take into account the guest worker situation, there's going to be problems," said Simmons, who usually employs 85 workers during the peak of the harvest.
Simmons was already short of workers to lay the black plastic that insulates strawberry plants' roots.
He had about half of the normal turnout. They worked harder and longer than usual, "but we got the job done," Simmons said.
Carl Grooms, a third-generation strawberry grower in Plant City, began planting Monday. He needed 50 workers, and on Monday just enough of them lined up outside his farm. But during the peak of the season, he needs as many as 400 workers.
"If the workers don't show up, the crops won't get picked, period," Grooms said.
Florida produces about one-sixth of the nation's strawberries, most of which are grown in the Tampa Bay area. Strawberries sales topped $232-million in 2005 - 32 percent of Hillsborough County's total agriculture volume, county figures show.
Florida has a unique niche when it's too cold to grow strawberries elsewhere. In the winter, Florida farmers can get as much as $18 for a flat of strawberries. But by spring, California berries fill grocery shelves, ousting local berries and reducing the farmers' payment to as little as $3 a flat.
Eighty acres of the land that Grooms tends were owned by Fred Futch. Futch grew sick of the industry and sold his farm in September 2005. He traded life on the farm for a 34-foot recreational vehicle and traveled more than 13,000 miles this summer with his wife, Linda.
A lack of workers was one reason Futch left farming.
"Any of them that are good people that came over to work, they'll go to town and get a job, and you can't blame them," Futch said.
Dave Moore, executive director at Beth-El Farm Worker Ministry Inc. in Wimauma, says that many of the workers he sees are switching to other industries.
"With decreasing amount of acreage available for fields, many are transitioning into construction, service industries and hospitality," Moore said.
The school system is seeing the normal number of migrant children right now, said Juan Seda, a district resource teacher with the county's Migrant Education Program.
Simmons said the real effect, if any, of the labor shortage on the county's farmers will be seen during the peak of the picking season this winter.
To offset the potential labor deficit, Wishnatzki is looking into machinery to reduce his need for workers. The machine would act like a conveyer belt, moving picked strawberries across the field.
Helen Anne Travis can be reached at 661-2439 or htravis@sptimes.com.