07-10-2020, 03:38 PM
(07-10-2020, 02:54 PM)robdrimmie Wrote:(07-10-2020, 02:27 PM)tomh009 Wrote: there was a quote from a local strawberry-picking employee who was shocked because the Ukrainian pickers were able to pick more than twice as many berries in the same amount of time.
Something a lot of people don't seem to consider is how skilled migrant agricultural labour is. Some of these teams have been working together literally for generations. And they don't only work on one farm here then go back to their home countries, necessarily. Some teams follow the same work seasonally, so when our growing season is up they'll go somewhere else. That means they're picking year-round and therefore working on improving their yield year-round. Since they're working together so much of the time, they are able to optimize within the teams as well.
I think a lot of folks think that migrant labour in agriculture is what we see in tv and movies where there's like a bunch of people standing on a street corner and someone in a pickup rolls up and says "okay I need three today!" and they climb in the back. These people and teams are very rarely like that sort of ad hoc workforce. They're extraordinarily good at the work they do and they add tremendous value to our country (and others where they operate).
I want to +1 this...