This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Re "Despite economy, Americans don't want farm work" (Tribune, Sept. 27):
It's not that American citizens won't do farm work. They want a decent wage for it. The reason that farmers along our southern border don't bring in legal green card workers is obvious: They would have to pay the wages that the government requires.
These farmers want to charge top dollar for their produce while paying less than livable wages. In areas where a small home can run hundreds of thousands of dollars, $10.25 an hour is not a livable wage. Have you checked the price of strawberries in the store?
Most of our farms are corporate-owned, so their profits are usually huge. Even private farmers wouldn't farm if it weren't profitable. And our government turns its head and allows most of them to break the law by hiring low-wage illegal workers. In contrast, when most other people break the law, they get fined or go to jail.
Leslie Manchester
Taylorsville