Some Ala. Farmers Plant Fewer Crops, Say Immigration Crackdown Drove Away Workers To Pick Them [View all]

[Purveyor]

By Associated Press,

ONEONTA, Ala. — Some Alabama farmers say they are planting less produce rather than risk having tomatoes and other crops rot in the fields a second straight year because of labor shortages linked to the state’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

Keith Dickie said he and other growers in the heart of Alabama’s tomato country didn’t have any choice but to reduce acreage amid fears there won’t be enough workers to pick the delicate fruit.

Some farmers lacked enough hands to harvest crops because immigrants fled the state after Gov. Robert Bentley signed the immigration law last fall, and some told The Associated Press they fear the same thing could happen this year.

“There’s too much uncertainty,” said Dickie, who farms with his brother on a ridge called Straight Mountain, about 40 miles northeast of Birmingham.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/some-ala-farmers-plant-fewer-crops-say-immigration-crackdown-drove-away-workers-to-pick-them/2012/05/13/gIQAbLiSMU_story.html?tid=pm_national_pop