Farm Work is a Skilled Profession

Farm Work is a Skilled Profession

At a July 2011 congressional hearing on “The Economic Imperative for Enacting Immigration Reform,” Mayor Paul Bridges of Uvalda, GA, praised his state’s farm workers. “The Georgia peaches, strawberries, blueberries, and many other fruits and vegetables they harvest end up on family dinner tables across the country. These crops are harvested by skilled migrant farm laborers who have harvesting down to a fine art.”

The produce that most Americans find in their supermarkets looks fresh and tasty. Rarely do retailers sell fruit with bruises, even though bruises actually make no difference to the fruit’s nutritional value. One reason much of the food Americans consume consistently looks so good is due to the skill of the farm workers who grade, pick, and package them.

The value-added to produce by farm workers comes in their skills in sowing, cultivating, and harvesting the crops. Techniques such as tree pruning and trimming require knowledge of how and when to use sharp tools like hand pruners to selectively remove parts of a plant or tree; done correctly, the techniques improve the plant’s strength and health.

Different crops require a variety of techniques to be successful. For example, an orange orchard is maintained quite differently than a tomato field. When producing different crops, farm workers must understand how each is affected by soil quality, fertilizers, irrigation, and cultivating techniques.

The increasing use of machinery to improve productivity and efficiency requires additional skills. Farm workers operate machines that require agility, precision, and technical knowledge. During the processing and packing phase, farm workers must rapidly pack the fruits and vegetables to keep up with the conveyor belts and other equipment in the sorting facility.

Farm workers must regularly improve their skill set; agriculture is a competitive industry that requires workers’ constant adaptation. There is no question: farm work is a skilled profession.

Ivone Guillen is the immigration campaigns fellow at Sojourners. She was an immigration policy fellow at Bread for the World Institute from September 2010 to September 2011.