
“Blue Card” for farm workers visa (2017) - jelliclesfarm
https://modernfarmer.com/2017/05/blue-card-legislation-proposes-new-path-citizenship-undocumented-farmworkers/
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jelliclesfarm
This showed up in Modern Farmer feed even though it’s dated 2017.

Some thoughts: [..]The idea is simple: any farmworker who has worked in the
agricultural industry for at least 100 days of each of the past two years
would be eligible for a “Blue Card.” (Green would logically be the best color
to indicate an agriculture-based legal status but unfortunately, it’s already
taken.) Blue Card holders would also be put on the fast track to a more
permanent status in the US (either a green card or residency); depending on
the number of hours worked, they could be eligible in three to five years.[..]

1\. I am interested in automating small farms which use more manual labor than
corporate farms that are essentially run like factories.

2\. I want to do this because farm work is dirty and low paying and not really
good for the human body or the environment or as a way of life to make a
living wage.

3\. What struck me about this article is how ‘blue card’ is proposed for
anyone who has worked 100 hours in two years.

While trying to automate labour, I found myself woefully inadequate and
illiterate. It requires a combination of various skilled people like robotics,
engineers..mechanical/electrical..coders. And now you can’t do anything
without beckoning blockchain. I am not being facetious because Walmart is
making blockchain mandatory for lettuce. Etc.

4\. So we are certainly moving from mechanization to automation. It will be
the demise of small farms unless the costs scale down to create small farm
technology. Regardless, the writing is pretty clear on the wall that we are
going to enter a new era of growing food.

5\. Why are we still using humans for jobs that is back breaking and
dangerous. Our lovely citrus and nuts(generously sprayed) are all mostly
exports. In CA, we even export alfalfa. I am not talking commodities but
speciality crop farming that needs more labour than corn or soy or sugar
beets. These are mechanized and automated to a large degree.

6\. What message does this send to highly educated tech workers in fields like
robotics and programming who can’t enter the country legally and even if they
do, they have to wait for years before they can obtain a green card.

7\. Why shouldn’t these people have better paying and less back breaking jobs?
Why can’t they study and be better skilled in their home countries..and we can
probably aid them in that area.

8\. No undocumented farm worker ever said that they want their children to
pick strawberries. Not one. Ever.

8\. Rather than high minded, this sounds rather manipulative to me. Under the
guise of well meaning intentions, this seems like modern day slavery.

9\. If anyone wants to help those who work hard for food on our table, they
must pay more for food. We want the cheapest organic food picked by those paid
minimum wage. Handing over citizenship to them so they can continue feeding us
is so repulsive to me.

10\. I do NOT understand this and it bothers me. This twisted fake display of
generosity makes me feel I want to distance myself from these farming
‘movements. It doesn’t seem like welfare. It seems like exploitation.

11\. I don’t feel like I want to be part of farming anymore. Unless I can
automate small acreage farms, I will quit by the end of the year. I am super
conflicted by the ethos in the small farming community.

