tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684843.post7436801978548035275..comments2024-03-26T22:16:26.572-04:00Comments on Terrierman's Daily Dose: Labor Economics 101PBurnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05781540805883519064noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684843.post-1418664364340296932017-02-27T16:42:07.213-05:002017-02-27T16:42:07.213-05:00Harvesting grapes is not very skilled. It's t...Harvesting grapes is not very skilled. It's the kind of skill you learn in a few days, and the kind of work you do for slave wages and crap working conditions (squatter huts and old school buses for sleeping) when you are an unfree foreign laborer. The alternative work pool was homeless alcoholics? Sure. If you don't supply transportation, housing, health care or Social Security, you are going to be feeding off the bottom. That's the point -- unfree foreign labor in Albermarle County, just a few miles from Jefferson's slaves at Monticello.<br /><br />There is no need for wine grapes to be grown in Virginia and Maryland. These are small fields, with small production, and it has no historical roots or sound economic basis (which is why so many run an entertainment business with hot air balloons and bands every weekend). <br /><br />In California, Australia, Italy, and France, where better wine is made, the grape harvest is mechanized and if you can't mechanize it, or pay living wages to American workers, you need to grow something else. <br /><br />For a video of what mechanical grape harvesting for wine looks like, see here >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXBMD1gyDgc<br /><br />See here for a longer post about the economics of fruit and vegetable farms in the U.S> >> http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2009/07/organic-and-local-farming-by-numbers.html <br /><br />PBurnshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05781540805883519064noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684843.post-50887690569579157322017-02-27T14:32:19.372-05:002017-02-27T14:32:19.372-05:00Also worth noting that field labor is NOT unskille...Also worth noting that field labor is NOT unskilled.<br /><br />A few years back I had a vineyard. Most of the people we hired to prune, thin, and pick grapes spoke Spanish as a first language. As for papers, it was don't ask, don't tell. If you tried to weed out undocumented workers you would get no workers at all. <br /><br />There was a shortage of field labor for the harvest in 2012, and we tried hiring some of the gringo crew that hang out at the homeless shelter. Their rate of picking was about 1/3 of that of the Latinos, and they did a worse job of sorting. Plus they were ready to quit after six hours, while the Latinos were happily chatting and singing after 10 hours. <br />The gringo crew were the first to admit that they simply couldn't keep up with the Latinos. All in all, they found the job depressing, and there was no way to get them back to the vineyard for another day.<br />Jenniferhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14389321571689128858noreply@blogger.com