LAKE COUNTY – Like the ripening process of its Bartlett pears, optimism is budding in Lake County that Congress will pass long-awaited AgJobs immigration legislation by late this year.

Creating a pilot program to legalize farmworkers who have labored in the U.S. for a minimum two years and implementing a more user-friendly guest program, the new legislation should forestall future recurrences of the nightmare of a year ago when labor shortages caused 10,000 tons of the county's pears to go unharvested.

But the recent issue of the Lake County Farm Bureau newsletter reports that there is also general agreement among those who know best that it is already too late for the new legislation to bear fruit this year.

"If they pass legislation tomorrow, it won't get implemented in time for this year," Toni Scully, a county pear grower and operator of one of the county's last functioning pear packing sheds, is quoted in the Farm Bureau newslettter.

"This year it's not going to happen,” agreed Jack King, manager of National Affairs & Research for the California Farm Bureau, "but I think you're going to be much better prepared come July."

David Weiss, who manages more pear-orchard acreage than anyone in Lake County with his Bella Vista Farming Co. spoke of "a lot of hope coming from Washington" that the AgJobs bill may be finally passed after languishing for what Scully says has been 10 years now – others say five – now that Democrats control both houses of Congress.

Says Weiss, who last year personally saw 1,200 tons of pears go to waste in the orchards he oversees, "We certainly need it this year."

And Congressman Mike Thompson, co-author of the House AgJobs bill, says he is "cautiously optimistic" that they'll get it. Hopefully, by September.

But he adds, "It won't be with just Democratic votes."

"We need to have a number of Republicans vote for it and we need get them by June or July if we expect to get it to the Senate in time for passage in September," Thompson said.

He believes there's a good chance of picking up the necessary Republican votes "because they have some making up to do" for not passing a farmworker immigration bill before.

Scully says the county needs 900 workers for the pear harvest. The brighter side locally is that even if the legislation does not kick in until 2008, she believes the county won't see anything like last year when it was a virtual disaster zone, drawing nationwide media attention.

"You know why?" she said. "Because of the moisture, the crop was very late last year and we had a very big crop. Both of those things bode better for us this year. Nevertheless, we have to keep the pressure on (Congress)," said Scully, who has been the point person between Lake County's pear industry and the Capitol.

"When the time comes, they'll pass the AgJobs bill," she predicts.

The difference between now and failed past efforts to get the bill adopted, Scully added, is her belief of widespread support for it from both sides of the aisle in Congress.

"Republicans, Democrats, liberals, conservatives, the United Farm Workers and the growers are all supportive of this bill," she said, "and the president wants comprehensive reform. It has a lot of sponsors."

Looking back, King said that Lake County suffered a $2.5 million dollar hit and saw 25 percent of its pear crop rot on the ground last year largely because of circumstances.

"Not being in the corridor (for guest farm workers from Mexico) is a problem for Lake County," he said. "The (Sacramento) Delta pear crop was late, so workers were retained there. They were so late, in fact, that instead of going up (Lake County) way they went straight into winegrapes. I don't see that happening again."

In the interim before the AgJobs bill, if passed, kicks in, the short-term solution may be to get legal status for the workers who are here right now, King said.

Absent a short-term solution, Weiss said that growers of other commodities could yet be impacted by the farmworker shortage.

"I think it could be more significant statewide this year," he asserted. "The impact would be much more devastating because it's likely that the crops in California will be of greater magnitude than last year. Last year, most crops were below normal while Lake County had a big crop of pears.

"But if the cherry crop is normal or above normal we'll see shortages in May or June. Then it will matriculate through other crops. My point is that if there's not a labor program in place this year the impacts will be felt more broadly and more severely than last year."

Although there are hangups about giving people in the U.S. illegally citizenship status, as the AgJobs bill would do, Scully believes that greater issues regarding U.S. food production will rule the day.

"As consumers, we want to ensure that our production capabilities stay within this country," she said. "But we know that farmers need immigration reform or else we lose our food production capabilities."

And where does that legislation stand?

"I'll put it like this," says a hopeful Weiss. "It's more promising today than it was a year ago today."

E-mail John Lindblom at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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