From: technobarbarian@gmail.com   
      
   "As its workers stream to the U.S., Mexico runs short of farmhands"   
      
   "ETZATLÁN, Mexico ? For decades, Mexicans crossed the border to pick   
   Americans? lettuce, grapes and strawberries. Mexico had a seemingly   
   inexhaustible supply of farmhands ? tough, hard-working men who did the   
   jobs most Americans didn?t want.   
      
   But the country is running short of farmworkers.   
      
   The workforce is graying; nearly three-quarters of Mexican campesinos   
   are over 45. Young people are turning up their noses at farm jobs. And   
   those willing to do migrant work have other options. Nearly 300,000 a   
   year travel to the United States on seasonal agricultural visas, a   
   fourfold increase in a decade.   
      
   ?They?re taking a significant percentage of the available workers,?   
   fretted Aldo Mares, a farm executive here in Jalisco state. He?s had to   
   scramble this season to find workers to pick his juicy strawberries,   
   blackberries and raspberries.   
      
   The worker shortage reflects a paradox often overlooked in the   
   supercharged U.S. immigration debate. Even as American politicians outdo   
   each other in proposals to fortify the border with Mexico, economic   
   forces are pulling the two sides closer. The U.S. appetite for made-in-   
   Mexico goods, from avocados to automobiles to airplane parts, is growing   
   so fast that it?s straining the workforce that produces them."   
      
   "In a once-unthinkable move, Mexican farmers are now calling for a major   
   guest-worker program of their own."   
      
   "Even today, two-thirds of employees on American farms are Mexican-   
   born."   
      
   https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/03/23/mexico-farmworkers-us-   
   economy/   
      
   TB   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)