Commissioner: Lack of labor hurt Georgia farms

By Christopher Quinn

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A shortage of workers in the field caused $10 million in crop losses for 500 Georgia farmers who responded to a study called for by Georgia's new immigration law.

The tough laws Georgia passed last year as House Bill 87 likely scared some workers away,  the study concluded.

Figures released earlier this year said the total losses on more than 40,000 Georgia farms was $74.9 million 0n seven major crops, and that 11,080 jobs in the fields went begging.

State Agriculture Commissioner Gary W. Black said one in five farmers surveyed reported they had trouble finding enough workers in 2011, 40  percent said that the federal guest-worker program was so cumbersome, complex and slow that it was not usable, and farmers can expect more worker shortages this year.

Black asked state Attorney General Sam Olens to consider whether Georgia could  implement a state  guest-worker program, and Owens told him it could not.

"It shows that we have a problem," Black said today as the state Legislature was preparing to come back into session next week.

Proposals to tweak but not ease the laws have already been proposed, among them the idea of creating a state guest worker program, but Black's said that simply cannot happen.

He said the only way out is for Congress to act and it needs to act soon.

"The Congress must fix this program, and I suggest they need to fix it in 2012," Black said.

--Christopher Quinn