_Farmers need a realistic guest worker program, he said._ And while you are at it, why not just attach the STRIVE and Dream Act to the AGJOBS bill, but just be carefull this time not to call Comprehensive Immigration Reform. What a wanker!!!!

Not only would supply and demand come into play and regulate the price, but the cost of labor is only a fraction of the price of produce. The cost of labor would probably have to quintuple to double the price of produce. And of course at those kind of wages all sorts of Americans would be willing to do those jobs. Not to mention invent clever things to replace the labor.

I have no problem paying more for food if all illegals were to exit this country. At least the extra money would be going to American workers.

Tanstaafl, There are only a handful of agricultural crops left that can not be picked mechanically. Fifty years ago who would have predicted mechanized dairy farms and tomato harvesters. But just for example purposes lets say it is absolutely impossible regardless of advances in robotics to fully mechanize Iceberg lettuce, peach and strawberry production. Lettuce prices might rise by 20% to cover a two fold increases in wages. No problem there. Major supermarkets will use lettuce as a loss leader just as most of them do with bananas, milk and rotisserie chickens. Pay more for something less perishable and most folks will never know the difference. With peaches and strawberries it might mean a return to local orchards and the U-Pick fields that I grew up with in the midwest. I was one of eight kids, as kids we loved picking strawberries so we could eat them at the drive in that night, tell you how old I am huh, or better yet sell them to our elderly neighbors at a 50% markup, kaching!!! Ever have a locally grown peach or strawberry??? Once you do you would never buy the crap from California again. Maybe that is their real fear??? By the way my mother's father ran a local truck farming and to your door produce business. Raised 9 kids during the Great Depression. Local farms selling local produce to your door. Think that business model is defunct??? Well my Uncle supported his 5 kids and my cousin still runs the business in Cincinnati and has raised his own family with his kid looking to take it over. In other words, somehow Americans will adapt and survive as long as our politicians support and obey our constitution instead of big corporations.

Corporations just love free markets, it is just labor markets they hate.

Corporations love profits. Period.

Two guys at Iowa State studied the issue and found that picking labor constitutes only a very small % of the retail cost of produce. In other words, even if these 'woe is me' growers had to pay pickers, e.g., double or even triple, it would barely affect YOUR final cost--literally pennies. So all this concern about YOU having to pay outrageous sums for produce is total B.S.

Every few years, we have a killing frost or freeze that take a bite out of citrus fruit. So how much does it go up in price, ummmmm? All of this is bogus, bogus, bogus.

Every pro-invasion argument is bogus. They don't come here for the jobs. There are no jobs Americans won't do. They are an enormous drain on our economy. They aren't starving in their homeland. And their family values suck. The fact that the "conventional wisdom" propagated by the media is the exact opposite of reality should give you some idea how powerful their brainwashing is.

Tanstaafl, agree with both posts. Price of veggies isn't the issue, in fact it isn't any issue at all. Should 10-20 million people leave our economy, supply and demand could provide us with even lower prices, not higher ones. And there would be a host of other, even more substantial benefits that we could attribute to their departure.