What a difference a bad economy makes. The collapse of the construction industry and a slump in the restaurant and food service sector have sent thousands of people back to looking for work on California farms, which not so long ago were hurting for workers.
"We have had no trouble getting workers for the winter vegetable harvest," said Jon Vessey, who farms 7,000 acres near El Centro. "There is a bigger supply of labor this year than last year or the year before."
Labor experts, union officials and farmers themselves say they are seeing this happening across the state.
Before the recession, Vessey's operation was a prime example of a growing shortage of agricultural workers in the state's coastal plains and inland valleys, which had seen farmworkers leave by the thousands for better jobs in the city.
Three years ago, things were so bad that Vessey posted openings for 300 temporary workers at the state Employment Development Department in Calexico, near the Mexican border.
One person showed up, and he lasted just half a day working the fields.
At the time, farm interests held up Vessey's experience as evidence of how badly the nation needed both a guest-worker program and a way for illegal immigrants to gain legal status.
Whether there was a true shortage is still a matter of debate. The lack of workers could have been the result of a reluctance by farmers to raise wages enough to persuade people to do farm work, said Phil Martin, a UC Davis farm labor economist.
"You can't talk about need or shortage without talking about wages," Martin said.
Farmers and agribusiness interests generally say they can't afford to pay much more than the minimum wage because of international competition, Martin said.
"So what happens is that people move on to higher-paying jobs," he said. "Farm labor is a job, not a career. When people have other options, they get out of farm work. Construction is a frequent first step up the job ladder."
The lack of workers a few years ago was most acute in border areas such as the Imperial Valley and Yuma, Ariz.
"That had a lot to do with the Border Patrol ramping up sharply. If you were illegal and got across with false documents, you would get away from the border area very quickly," Martin said.
Even so, farming continued in those regions, he said. "I don't think a lack of labor ever prevented people from planting crops if they thought there was a market for what they were producing."
