Colorado growers press Bennet on immigration after peppers rot
US: Growers cut acreage due to lack of workers
As he surveyed a field of three-week-old sweet corn, Colorado farmer Bob Sakata told how a shortage of hands to pack the vegetable forced him to downsize his operations by 40 percent over the past decade.
“We were farming close to 4,000 acres and we cut it back to 2,400,” said Sakata, 87, who has farmed in the state for 67 years. “It has a big economic impact on the community. We used to hire 400 people and last year it was 191.”
Even as unemployment remains above pre-recession levels, at 6.9 percent in April, industries that are pillars of Colorado’s economy, including agriculture, tourism and technology, share a common predicament: They can’t find enough employees, weakening their ability to remain competitive and profitable, their owners and executives say.
Sakata is among business leaders who took their concerns to USSenator Michael Bennet, co-author of the first major overhaul of the nation’s immigration law in almost 30 years. Bennet said he incorporated their concerns in the bill.
“I have a bunch of openings on my website I can’t fill,” said JB Holston, chairman and founding chief executive officer of Denver-based NewsGator Technologies Inc., a social media aggregation company.
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