WASHINGTON — The Labor Department on Friday suspended a regulation adopted shortly before President George W. Bush left office that would have made it easier for farmers to bring in foreign workers.
Many immigration and labor advocacy groups had opposed the new rule for lowering wages and eliminating some protections for temporary farm workers. But farm owners supported the Bush administration changes, saying they eliminated red tape that made it harder to bring in foreign workers to help harvest crops.
The rule affects the H-2A guest worker program, which lets employers hire foreign workers if they can’t first find American workers. The new regulation took effect Jan. 17, just days before President Barack Obama was sworn into office.
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis had proposed suspending the regulation in March. The suspension restores the old regulations governing the program while officials craft new rules.
Democrats cheered the move, saying the regulation cut oversight of the H-2A program and made it much easier for employers to hire foreign workers over available American workers.
"I commend Labor Secretary Hilda Solis for suspending this destructive midnight regulation that slashed already low wages for farm workers,” said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee.
As many as 1 million people work in the nation’s farms each year, and the Labor Department estimates that more than half are in the country illegally. Efforts to curb illegal immigration have left many growers concerned about facing fines for hiring undocumented workers.
Farm owners have long criticized the H-2A guest worker program as cumbersome and inefficient. Suspension of the regulation may pose a problem for some growers who expected to have more guest workers to help out at harvest time.
by the associated press
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Showing posts with label Farmers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Farmers. Show all posts
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Milk Buyer's squeezes farmers
BARNHART, Mo. — A collapse in milk prices has wiped away the profits of dairy farmers, driving many out of business while forcing others to slaughter their herds or dump milk on the ground in protest.
But nine months after prices began tumbling on the farm, consumers aren’t seeing the full benefits of the crash at the checkout counter.
The average price for a gallon of milk at grocery stores last month was down just 19 percent from its peak of $3.83 in July.
Farmers, on the other hand, got $1.04 a gallon in April — 35 percent less than they were paid last fall. This winter, wholesale prices were down as much as 45 percent.
Price disparities are a fact of life both for farmers and anyone who shops at a supermarket, but the nature of milk — how it’s stored, priced and sold around the world — makes the gap all the more dramatic.
Today, frustrations are spilling over as the price crash creates widely divergent fortunes within the milk industry, boosting profits for the middlemen like dairy processors while pushing farmers to the edge of bankruptcy.
Darrell Kraus, a dairyman in Barnhart, spends almost as much today on hay and other supplies for his herd of 160 cows as he did a year ago, but he’s getting paid less for a gallon of milk than his father received in the 1970s.
"Somebody’s getting a cut of this, but it’s not the dairy farmer,” he said.
At the heart of the problem is the nature of milk. Unlike grain farmers who can hold out for better prices by storing crops in a silo, dairymen must sell raw milk to processors or else it spoils. And cows keep on producing whether the national economy’s expanding or in recession.
The price paid by processors to farmers is set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture based on commodity markets, which rise and fall with global demand. Some of the raw milk is processed into milk for stores as well as butter, yogurt and other products for U.S. consumption.
U.S. milk exports soared last year. U.S dairy exports jumped to $3.82 billion, or 11 percent all milk production in 2008 according to the U.S. Dairy Export Council.
But once the global recession accelerated last fall, demand, particularly exports, fell off a cliff.
U.S. farmers were suddenly faced with too much milk and too many cows. Wholesale prices crashed. Farmers found themselves spending more to maintain their herds than they were being paid for raw milk.
by the associated press
But nine months after prices began tumbling on the farm, consumers aren’t seeing the full benefits of the crash at the checkout counter.
The average price for a gallon of milk at grocery stores last month was down just 19 percent from its peak of $3.83 in July.
Farmers, on the other hand, got $1.04 a gallon in April — 35 percent less than they were paid last fall. This winter, wholesale prices were down as much as 45 percent.
Price disparities are a fact of life both for farmers and anyone who shops at a supermarket, but the nature of milk — how it’s stored, priced and sold around the world — makes the gap all the more dramatic.
Today, frustrations are spilling over as the price crash creates widely divergent fortunes within the milk industry, boosting profits for the middlemen like dairy processors while pushing farmers to the edge of bankruptcy.
Darrell Kraus, a dairyman in Barnhart, spends almost as much today on hay and other supplies for his herd of 160 cows as he did a year ago, but he’s getting paid less for a gallon of milk than his father received in the 1970s.
"Somebody’s getting a cut of this, but it’s not the dairy farmer,” he said.
At the heart of the problem is the nature of milk. Unlike grain farmers who can hold out for better prices by storing crops in a silo, dairymen must sell raw milk to processors or else it spoils. And cows keep on producing whether the national economy’s expanding or in recession.
The price paid by processors to farmers is set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture based on commodity markets, which rise and fall with global demand. Some of the raw milk is processed into milk for stores as well as butter, yogurt and other products for U.S. consumption.
U.S. milk exports soared last year. U.S dairy exports jumped to $3.82 billion, or 11 percent all milk production in 2008 according to the U.S. Dairy Export Council.
But once the global recession accelerated last fall, demand, particularly exports, fell off a cliff.
U.S. farmers were suddenly faced with too much milk and too many cows. Wholesale prices crashed. Farmers found themselves spending more to maintain their herds than they were being paid for raw milk.
by the associated press
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Agnecy will Look into Civil Rights Complaints
WASHINGTON — The federal Department of Agriculture plans to review more than 14,000 civil rights complaints that have been filed against the agency since 2000
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said only a small number of those complaints were eventually decided against the department and that 3,000 of the complaints have not even been processed.
"This issue has lingered too long,” Vilsack told reporters Tuesday.
Samples to be studied
Vilsack said the Agriculture Department would create a task force to review a sample of the complaints filed in the last nine years, supported by an independent legal counsel.
Charges of discrimination at the department are nothing new. Black farmers, mostly from the South, have long complained that they have been consistently denied loans, grants and other assistance by a "good old boy” network of local USDA field offices. Hispanic and American Indian farmers have also filed lawsuits against the Agriculture Department.
Vilsack said he will temporarily suspend foreclosures under the department’s farm loan program to review loans involving possible discriminatory conduct. The department will also start collecting better data about who is receiving help at local field offices, he said.
In 1999, the government settled a class-action lawsuit from black farmers, agreeing to pay $50,000 plus tax benefits to those who could show they faced discrimination. The government has paid out nearly $1 billion in damages on almost 16,000 claims.
No word on funding
Congress reopened the case for additional settlements in a wide-ranging farm bill enacted last year, though neither Vilsack nor the White House have said whether the administration will be able to fully fund those settlements. The farm bill limited the amount at $100 million, but it could easily cost $2 billion or $3 billion given an estimated 65,000 pending claims.
Vilsack said that paying the $100 million is "not necessarily the only step” in settling the remaining claims.
"There is a willingness on the part of USDA to get this matter resolved,” he said.
John Boyd, head of the National Black Farmers Association, which has organized the lawsuits, said the department’s announcement Tuesday is a step in the right direction, but is not enough.
"Anything less than paying the black farmers what they owe them right now is really unacceptable at this point,” Boyd said.
Anything less than paying the black farmers what they owe them right now is really unacceptable at this point.” John Boyd said
by the associated press
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said only a small number of those complaints were eventually decided against the department and that 3,000 of the complaints have not even been processed.
"This issue has lingered too long,” Vilsack told reporters Tuesday.
Samples to be studied
Vilsack said the Agriculture Department would create a task force to review a sample of the complaints filed in the last nine years, supported by an independent legal counsel.
Charges of discrimination at the department are nothing new. Black farmers, mostly from the South, have long complained that they have been consistently denied loans, grants and other assistance by a "good old boy” network of local USDA field offices. Hispanic and American Indian farmers have also filed lawsuits against the Agriculture Department.
Vilsack said he will temporarily suspend foreclosures under the department’s farm loan program to review loans involving possible discriminatory conduct. The department will also start collecting better data about who is receiving help at local field offices, he said.
In 1999, the government settled a class-action lawsuit from black farmers, agreeing to pay $50,000 plus tax benefits to those who could show they faced discrimination. The government has paid out nearly $1 billion in damages on almost 16,000 claims.
No word on funding
Congress reopened the case for additional settlements in a wide-ranging farm bill enacted last year, though neither Vilsack nor the White House have said whether the administration will be able to fully fund those settlements. The farm bill limited the amount at $100 million, but it could easily cost $2 billion or $3 billion given an estimated 65,000 pending claims.
Vilsack said that paying the $100 million is "not necessarily the only step” in settling the remaining claims.
"There is a willingness on the part of USDA to get this matter resolved,” he said.
John Boyd, head of the National Black Farmers Association, which has organized the lawsuits, said the department’s announcement Tuesday is a step in the right direction, but is not enough.
"Anything less than paying the black farmers what they owe them right now is really unacceptable at this point,” Boyd said.
Anything less than paying the black farmers what they owe them right now is really unacceptable at this point.” John Boyd said
by the associated press
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