Bloomberg's Bjerga on Immigration Backlash Hurting Crops(Audio)

offsetting slumping healthcare and bank shares. Oil back about fifty dollars of barrel West Texas Intermediate at fifty forty one, advancing today by one and a half percent, Gold down eighty cents, little change their twelve forty six the ounce, the tenure up seven thirty seconds. The yield there one point seven one percent. Mixed picture for equities naz dack down six points down, indust reels of eighteen a gain there of point one percent. SMP five hundred indecks up

two points, a gain of point one percent. I'm Charlie Pellet, and Pat's a Bloomberg Business flash. June. Listening to Taking Stock with bim box in Katlee Hayes on Bloomberg Radio. You're listening to Taking Stock, broadcasting live from Pershing's Inside twenties sixteen conference at the Higher Regency in Orlando of Florida. Well, Florida is no stranger in the world of agriculture, and many crops are rotting, while there has been a backlash

having to do with immigration meaning farm workers. Here to tell us more is Alan bjorga food and agriculture reporter from Bloomberg News, joining us from Washington, d C. Allen is also the co host, along with Amy Morris, of Bloomberg Radio's Politics, Policy and Power, which can be heard each weekend on Bloomberg ninety nine one in Washington, DC

or online at Bloomberg dot com. Alan, always a pleasure tell us about your most recent story having to do with the relationship between crops that are rotting in the

fields and immigration policy in the United States. Well them, it's always a challenge do a story about something that isn't happening, UM, but this is a significant thing that isn't happening, which is the lack of immigration reform which is affecting American agriculture um U s Farm employers chronically complained about worker shortages, UM difficulties recruiting folks to harvest crops UM and it's getting to the point where starting to affect bottom lines. UM. In my story, I interview

one form farmer in California, Carlos Castaneda. UM. He saw some of his cabbage crop go un harvested because he was involved in some bureaucratic paperwork issues that kept him from getting workers when he needed needed it. This is a highly seasonal industry, especially in fresh produce that requires labor um in terms of those crops, a dairy needs

farm labor year round. Of these are largely immigrant workforces, and of course in Washington here you've seen such a chilling in the environment toward immigration reform in the past few years that you have the agricultural lobby, which is one of the more powerful lobbies in wash Ington, actually having to stand on the sidelines and tinker a little bit because they just don't see a hope of change,

which slowly erodes US competitiveness with other countries. Ironically, we end up losing business to Mexico because we actually won't let workers from that country in Well, of course, uh, there's a couple of issues here that have been in place for some time. You could say, well, this is a race to the bottom. We will let in immigrant workers who will work for less and less and less, and that will put maybe pressure on the workers are already here, which is one reason why some people are

are wondering if we're on the right track. And then, of course there's been loss in place for many years old as you know, that have made it illegal for large corporations to hire workers are undocumented, but instead they have there have been precious few uh prosecutions along those lines, and so we've had more and more people come in undocumented. Uh. Do you think that the corporations maybe just to need to step up, maybe a little bit bit more honest

about their labor needs and maybe get things rolling that way. Well, And Kathleen, you bring up a couple of excellent one points. Um. You know a lot of people who have read my story have written back and said, hey, you know, just let the market work. Um, if you offered better wages and work conditions, you could get a better domestic workforce, a larger domestic workforce. Yeah, maybe there'll be a few

more pennies for your fruit in the grocery store. But Americans will do these jobs if you simply offer them the conditions that they want. Um. The other issue in terms of employers is again it's very gray what's required of companies in terms of what they're looking for in their workforce. It's you could almost call it a don't ask, don't tell policy um, where farmers are not on the hook for verifying their employees documents. So if somebody has some papers and they look okay to the farmer, it

all kind of moves along. But this under the radar system that takes place some estimates saying that half of the agricultural workforce in the United States is undocumented ie illegal um. It's not as to stay annable system. And and again the employers, of course they look at the foreign workforce and they see folks who will come in and they'll do the job, and they're willing to do it despite their efforts to recruit American workers. It's backbreaking labor.

The conditions are not great. Even if the pay is improved. There are other jobs of comparable pay that you know, native born workers will gravitate toward. And it puts them in a real conundrum here. They're trying to be competitive, they're trying to get crops harvested. They're seeing problems having this workforce At the same time, these potential workforce solutions that would be sought could actually price themselves out of

their own marketplace. So it's kind of a rock and a hard place, and of course there aren't easy solutions. Otherwise this would be an easy to paint Alan and you talked about the theories about offering these jobs at higher wages to American workers. Is there any evidence to support the notion that that would actually happen. Well. A good example is the current visa program, which is called the H two A visa program is a temporary farm

worker visa program. About a hundred and twenty thousand workers came to the United States under this program last year. In the lack of comprehensive immigration reform, H two A m for the flaw all the flaws that the agriculture industry says it has, is being relied on more and more. Under that visa program. There are requirements in terms of how much advertising you have to do for native born workers.

Um the requirement that native born workers come first. That if somebody shows up and says, hey, I want to do this job, you have to hire them before you hire a foreign born worker. These employers are still not filling these jobs with those requirements, and that becomes part of their argument of look, we're doing everything the government is asking us to do to have a native born workforce.

It just ain't working. We need a workable immigration policy so we can remain competitive both of the domestic and the global marketplace. Alan Berga, thank you so very much for joining us these food and agricultural order for Bloomberg News based in Washington, d C. So we are wrapping up day one of our coverage here at Pershing Insight twenties sixteen at the Highatt Regency in Orlando. We want to thank everybody who's joined us on the show today

and certainly thank Pershing Insight for inviting us another terrific show. Tomorrow. We'll have a discussion with Suresh Kumar. He is one uh the technology innovators bright lights in the whole field of investment advising. He'll be our guest on taking Stock. I'm Kathleen Hayes along with Pim Fox. I think Charlie Bohmer, our technical director, Sam Link, our producer, Reggie Bazell, our technical director on the board. This is Bloomberg Radio coming up.

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