AGRICULTURE: Local farms, wineries feel effects of a labor shortage

Local News

May 31, 2008

By Joe Olenick<br><a href="mailto:olenickj@gnnewspaper.com">E-mail Joe</a> The Lockport Union-Sun %26 Journal Sat May 31, 2008, 11:58 PM EDT

LOCKPORT — BY JOE OLENICK

olenickj@gnnewspaper.com

Some local farms and wineries are having a problem with finding labor — the result of immigration issues and a shrinking pool of migrant workers.

Jim Bittner of Singer Farms in Appleton said his farm is doing OK for now, but is making changes to compensate for the cost of the missing labor. He had to cut back on growing cherries and peaches because there isn’t enough help to pick them. Labor comprises about 50 percent of the costs of growing cherries and peaches.

“We’re nervous as heck. We barely made it last year with enough help,” Bittner said. “It’s more a fear of the unknown. We’re hoping Washington, D.C., gets serious about it.”

Bittner said his biggest labor need is when the apples are in season, which is about the first two weeks of September. The problem with growing fresh produce is the fruit has to be picked at a certain time. And there just aren’t enough hands to pick.

“We made a decision in January not to plant as much,” Bittner said. “A lot of fresh market produce has to be picked in a timely fashion. Otherwise it turns too ripe or not ripe enough.”

He added Singer will be growing blueberries, as well as tart cherries, that can be picked by machines, not workers.

Some farms are doing fine, despite the labor shortage. One of these is Becker Farms and Vizcarra Vineyards in Gasport. Owner Oscar Vizcarra said because the farm and vineyard don’t do a lot of wholesale business, the labor need isn’t as great.

“We’re very fortunate,” he said. “The in-house labor is minimal. But it is always a concern, a seasonal dilemma, even in our way of business. Someone still has to harvest the crops.”

Vizcarra said he doesn’t see as many migrant workers in the area as there have been in the past. He added that there is a small group of Mexicans laborers who come to work on the farm. They usually return because they like it at Becker Farms and Vizcarra Vineyards, Vizcarra said.

“We treat them with respect and humility,” he said. “We appreciate them. It is hard work.”

The lack of farm labor is drawing the government’s interest, but nothing has been done yet. According to a New York Farm Bureau news release, Congress shot down a bill proposed by Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Larry Craig, R-Idaho, on May 20. The bill would have provided emergency relief to the nation’s current agriculture labor shortage. The bureau said it was “extremely disappointed in the failure of Congress, once again, to come up with an immigration reform measure that addresses the pressing labor needs of agriculture in New York and across the nation.”

The Emergency Agriculture Relief Act would have granted temporary, limited immigration status for experienced farm workers who would then be required to continue to work in American agriculture for the next five years. The bill also aimed to fix the H-2A program, which many farmers in New York rely on to legally bring temporary foreign workers in. The bill would have streamlined the process for an employer to more quickly obtain government approval.

“Without immigration reform, New York farmers will stop producing fruits, vegetables, and dairy, all of which require and need an adequate labor force, turning instead to the typical row crops that can be grown with mechanical planting and harvesting equipment, like corn and soybeans,” the Bureau said in the news release. “New York will lose the significant diversity of our agricultural production, and the proud heritage of our state’s farm families in producing locally grown, fresh fruits and vegetables and dairy for our state and nation.”

Contact reporter Joe Olenick

at 439-9222, ext. 6241.

Text Only

Local News

Shovel-ready park has perks
At first glance, the big, orange road sign announcing vacant property on Lockport Road as a “shovel ready certified” building site seems a bit gratuitous.
To companies looking for new places to launch a business, it’s not. The sign in their eyes is a welcome mat, for in three words a community pronounced itself ready, willing and able to make a deal quickly.

February 3, 2012 1 Photo
Roy-Hart to play the big stage
A group of local students will be performing this month at Kleinhans Music Hall just before a BPO concert.
The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra will welcome the Royalton-Hartland High School Mixed Chorus as part of the BPO’s Community Spotlight program on Feb. 19 at Kleinhans in Buffalo. The chorus will perform under the direction of Carolyn Unitas Roos and accompanied by Janice McKinney.

February 3, 2012
Former NFTA cop sentenced
A former Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority police officer will spend six years on probation for sending a sexually explicit photo to a teenage girl, a girl he later had a sexual encounter with.
In addition, John W. Ingham will spend 25 weekends in the service of the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office Work Program. Ingham was sentenced Thursday by State Supreme Court Justice Richard C. Kloch, Sr. Ingham will also register as a sex offender.

February 3, 2012
Speakers address SPCA contract
Animal rescue volunteers want the City of Lockport to hit the SPCA of Niagara where it hurts — in the pocketbook — and help force reform of the troubled animal welfare organization.
Volunteers from multiple small, private rescue groups, and the SPCA itself, descended on the Common Council Wednesday to talk about the city’s ongoing involvement with SPCA.

February 2, 2012 4 Photos
Liberty Tire cited for 'multiple' violations
The City of Lockport will require Liberty Tire Recycling to obtain an operating permit in order to avoid being declared a hazard.

February 2, 2012
Instant millionaire
Paul Schneider had just gotten off the phone with his girlfriend when he called her back with some breaking news.
“She was teasing me and said, ‘so you hung up the phone with me to scratch your scratch offs?’” Schneider said. “And I said, ‘It’s a good thing I did because I won a million dollars.’”

February 1, 2012 1 Photo
Fire code crackdown vowed
City code enforcement officers are planning an inspection blitz at the multi-building Liberty Tire Recycling complex, in the hope of helping the company avoid another huge fire, officials said Monday.
Liberty Tire, 470 Ohio St., likely will be cited for one or more fire code violations after fire struck the facility this past Friday. A large pile of tires, stored behind one of the buildings, caught fire when a live industrial power line fell on the pile. The power line had partly melted due to a short circuit inside a building.

January 31, 2012 2 Photos
NFTA cuts will make transportation difficult
NFTA cuts will make it difficult, if not impossible for Buffalo-area commuters to get to work in Lockport and Lockport residents to get to Buffalo.
Millie Spencer, who lives near the Walden Galleria, takes four buses and an NFTA train to get to Lockport for her job as a graphic artist four days a week.
“This will threaten my job,” said Spencer who is married and has four children. “We’re down to one car and my husband’s job takes him all over the place. What would I do? I don’t know.”

January 31, 2012 1 Link
Prepared patriots
At mobilization ceremonies across the state this weekend, hundreds of servicemen from the Army National Guard were cheered on their way to training for a possible overseas deployment.
More than 1,800 soldiers assigned to the 27th Brigade Combat Team mobilized before heading to Camp Shelby in Mississippi to train for an expected deployment to Kuwait this spring. In Lockport, nearly 75 men from Company A of the Brigade Special Troops Battalion were thanked for their previous — and coming — service to the nation at a ceremony Sunday. Likewise, 90 were sent off in Geneseo Saturday, and more in Buffalo and Rochester.

January 30, 2012 1 Photo
Town recycling numbers are up
The Town of Lockport seems to have taken a bigger interest in recycling.
At a Town Board meeting Wednesday, Councilman Paul W. Siejak said for all of 2011, the town recycled 27.55 more tons than it did a year ago. Electronics recycling, which the town started in July, totaled 4,914 pounds.
For the electronics recycling, the town receives 5 cents per pound, which means Lockport was paid $245.70.

January 30, 2012
More Local News Headlines

Local News

Search Results

AGRICULTURE: Local farms, wineries feel effects of a labor shortage

Site Map

Contact Us