Agricultural News
Seasonal Labor Needed By Oklahoma Farmers and Ranchers- a Problem Spotlighted by National Day of Action
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 16:36:21 CDT
Today, leaders representing different Oklahoma industries came together as a part of the National Day of Action to showcase new research on immigration contributions in Oklahoma and to highlight the critical need for immigration reform. The event marked the launch of the Reason for Reform campaign, an effort taking place in all 50 states today and featuring the release of 51 new reports (one for every state + Washington DC) sponsored by the Partnership for a New American Economy (NAE).
The Reason for Reform campaign brings together government, business, agricultural, civic, and faith leaders to urge Congress to take action on immigration reform. The data released at today's Day of Action event includes new research on the foreign-born population in Oklahoma, their tax contributions, their spending power, and their role in Oklahoma's key industries as leaders and job creators. Today, NAE is also launching a new mobile tool that lets users make a video telling their Reason for Reform. Videos will be sent directly to Congress.
"Finding qualified labor has never been more difficult for Oklahoma's farmers, ranchers, and other ag producers," said Terry Detrick, President of American Farmers and Ranchers. "The problem has reached crisis-level shortages on Oklahoma farms and our agriculture imports have skyrocketed. A comprehensive overhaul of our country's guest worker program will bring more opportunity for our state's farmers and the workers they are desperate to employ." Detrick's full remarks can be found at the bottom of this story- and you can click on the LISTEN BAR at the bottom of the story for some of his audio comments on the need for a quality farm labor force.
The contributions of new Americans in Oklahoma shows that immigrants make up 5.7 percent of the state's population and contributed $1.1 billion in taxes, or 4.4 percent of the total share in 2014. That same year, immigrants earned $4.2 billion, or over 4 percent of all earnings in the state. Local business owner, Jake Fisher of Bridges Strategies, stated, "Immigration reform is critical to growing our economy. The U.S. has long been the destination for the world's brightest and hardest working entrepreneurs. Foreign-born scientists, inventors, and others have helped establish the U.S. as a global leader in technology, business, research, higher education and medicine."
Immigrants in Oklahoma contribute to key industries, such as agriculture, tourism, manufacturing, and construction. They make up 5.7 percent of all entrepreneurs in the state, and play a large role in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields, a major component of U.S. economic growth. These and other key statistics on immigrants in Oklahoma can be found in the NAE report by clicking here.
"It is important that we no longer ignore this problem in our county," said Rev. Lori Walke, Associate Pastor of the Mayflower Congregational United Church of Christ and representing Voices Engaged in Civic Engagement (VOICE). "While immigration is no doubt an economic issue, it's also a humanitarian issue. We must all work together to find a solution to reform our current system that we can all agree on." The Reason for Reform campaign is launching in all 50 states today to urge Congress to take action on immigration reform. More information can be found by clicking here.
The following comments were presented by Terry Detrick, President of the American Farmers and Ranchers:
"When immigration conversations occur, the subject often carries an unfavorable Stigma-Unfavorable partially because of the current political climate, but more so because our current system IS NOT WORKING. It is currently easier to come into this country illegally than legally. If properly designed, a guest worker program would encourage law abiding, taxpaying, industrious seasonal workers to work through harvest and go back home to family. Some entrepreneurial minded immigrants may see opportunity and decide to pursue citizenship and a career.
"American Farmers and Ranchers currently serves over 130,000 Oklahoma members with grassroots chapters in 162 communities across the state. AFR's membership driven immigration policy reads as follows: "We support a documented guest worker program for immigrant laborers that results in these individuals paying taxes, obeying local, state and federal laws and have the option of returning to their home country. We support immigration laws that provide a system of identification, classification and taxation. We support the development of new authorization documents that cannot be manipulated or duplicated."
"Each year, thousands of acres of America's farmland goes unplanted and hundreds of millions of dollars of produce rots in the fields. Our Oklahoma farmers are being robbed of opportunities to diversify and produce niche market, labor intensive crops. Consequently, our economy, both rural and urban, suffers employment and revenue loss. Because U.S. fresh fruit and vegetable growers have not been able just to maintain the domestic market share they held from 1998-2000, imports of those food products have increased 80%. Many of those products also are not produced under the same labor and production regulations that guarantee food safety equal to U.S. products. Consequently, this country and individual communities in particular have suffered a loss of jobs in packaging, transportation, food processing, retail and other sectors.
"On this National Day of Action supporting immigration reform, we urge Congress to begin immediately to address this growing need. Thank You! "
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