Expert speakers at the East Texas Commercial Fruit and Vegetable Conference addressed all these problems and others.
The conference was sponsored by the Texas AgriLife Extension Service and held Feb. 19 at the Tyler Rose Garden Center in Tyler.
Producers, of course, didn't need to be told their costs were rising, said Darren Rozell, a Smith County peach and blackberry grower. Rozell, as has many East Texas growers, experienced all three cost inflations in the last year, he said.
Rozell grows 111 acres of peaches and 27 acres of blackberries, both labor intensive crops.
"We rely a lot on unskilled Hispanic labor. Now, with the new laws, we're scared to hire anyone without a Social Security card," Rozell said. "And if they have a Social Security card, they want at least a $10 an hour, or they'll just go work for the construction companies."
Feral hog populations are also increasing in East Texas. Last year, Rozell lost productive peach trees to feral hog damage. The animals broke the lower limbs (called scaffolding limbs) to get at peaches, and 'tusked' the bark off of others. They also rooted around the trees, allowing water to stand at the base of the trees. The damage was so heavy that eventually, Rozell had to bulldoze down 15 acres of trees and replant.
He estimates the cost of feral hog damage at $1,350,000.
"That's 1,500 trees, at a cost of $150 each (times six), when you figure in replanting and production loss, over six years," he said.
Fertilizer costs are inflating production costs for fruit and vegetable growers as they are for other agricultural producers. Growers were told the best thing they could do was soil test; that the biggest potential cost saving is from putting only what soil tests call for, no more, no less.
Galen Logan, Texas AgriLife Extension Service agent for Camp County, reviewed the problems of feral hog control. Information gathered by an AgriLife Extension survey shows that feral hog populations have dramatically increased during the last ten years, Logan said.
The survey of landowners in 40 Texas counties, conducted by Dr. Billy Higginbotham, AgriLife Extension wildlife and fisheries specialist, showed an 73 percent increase in populations.
It also showed that the average cost to landowner from feral hog damage was more than $4,000 annually, and that landowners typically spent more than a $1,000 yearly for control measures.
Ray Prewett, vice president of the Texas Vegetable Association, reviewed the current federal and state laws affecting the acquisition of labor by Texas produce growers, including the No-Match law, the H2A guest worker act, and the proposed AgJobs act.
Though the No-Match law is often cited by employers, it is not yet currently federally enforced, Prewett said.
Under No-Match rules, the Social Security numbers on W-2 forms that employers submit for their workers must match up on actual numbers in the IRS database. In theory, employers can be subject to jail sentences and large fines if they knowing continue to keep workers whose submitted Social Security do not match up to those in the federal database. But as most workers are seasonal and transient, by the time an employer receives notification that he has a No-Match employee, that employee is probably moved on to another job.
"Right now, when people get No-Match letters, they can pretty safely ignore them," Prewett said.
That situation could change if a
"E-Verify"
Thousands of federal contractors are currently required to use E-Verify, a version of which dates back to the mid 1980s when it was called "Basic Pilot." In early 2007, Congress attempted to expand the program to be used by the nations' six million employees. The bills attempting to expand the program failed to pass for various reasons, Prewett said.
Prewett said that is it the Texas Vegetable Growers Association's view that the No-Match rule is unfair as it essentially turns employers into "policemen," a job that should be done by public officials.
And Prewett predicted that because the federal government has been slow to address the problem of illegal workers, that Texas and other states are sure to put in place laws of their own. He warned of a "anti-employer" No-Match law that failed to be passed by the last Texas last legislature but that is almost sure to be revived when the lawmakers meet again this fall.
"The I-9 forms that most of you probably have the workforce commission complete now, would no longer be protection for you," Prewett told the approximately 150 growers attending the conference.
"I-9" refers to the standard forms that employers must fill out or have filled out for each employee.
H2A gives agriculture employers the right to bring foreign workers to the U.S. on a seasonal basis. It addresses security issues and reduces the workers ability to move around freely once inside U.S. borders.
However, employers must jump many, "complex" bureaucratic hurdles in order to qualify, Prewett said. They must document that they cannot obtain legal workers from any other source. They must provide pay for round-trip transportation from their country of origin, house them for free charge and pay them an higher hourly salary. If producer has both domestic and guest workers, they must be both paid at the same rate: $8.56 per hour.
Because of these hurdles, Prewett said, H2A workers currently constitute only 2 percent of the agricultural workforce.
Prewett said his organization favored an alternative measure, the AgJobs Act. Shorthand for "The Agricultural Job Opportunities, Benefits, and Security Act," AgJobs would provide a doable and responsible solution to the problem of providing workers to the U.S. agricultural sector.
The bill, originally sponsored by Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), failed to gain Senate approval in 2007.
In its 2007 form, the bill would grant immigrant farm workers and their families "blue card" status if they could prove they had worked in the U.S. at least 150 days during the preceding two years. If the workers met other provisions over the next few years, they could have qualified for legal residency.
Though AgJobs did not grant citizenship, its opponents called it an "amnesty" program," Prewett said.
Craig is currently facing misconduct charges by a Senate ethics committee, but the AgJobs bill has been taken up by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D- Calif.). The bill's future remains uncertain, however, Prewett said, which is unfortunate, Prewett said.
"You've got to do something about the 12 to 20 million of illegal workers in this country," he said. "You're not just going to be able to round them all up and send them home."
Besides, doing so economically devastate a large portion of the U.S. agricultural economy.
"You're not going to get young domestic workers to work in the fields," he said. "They want to work in places like The Gap."