Dianne Feinstein: “Agriculture is in crisis. We have a $34 billion industry. Labor is down by as much as 30 percent. What is happening is…”

“Agriculture is in crisis. We have a $34 billion industry. Labor is down by as much as 30 percent. What is happening is farmers are renting land in Mexico. They don't want us to know that. It is difficult to get these figures, but we got them, and this is what is happening. Now, what will happen to the land in California, Idaho, Washington, and in other places? It will lie fallow. Farmers will soon decide they would rather farm in Mexico, with fewer restrictions on pesticides and lower phytosanitary standards. Their land will be sold for development and we will lose our farmland in this Nation. The catastrophe, the crisis, is now. The harvest system is coming up now. What Senator Boxer, Senator Craig, and many others ask is please pass this 5-year pilot program and enable people who have worked in agriculture, who will continue to work in agriculture, to be able to do so legally. Reform the H2-A program so it functions for the rest of us. The fact of the matter is, 90 percent of agriculture is undocumented labor. Why doesn't the Senate recognize that? Why doesn't the Senate recognize you cannot get Americans to do this work? Why do we want to drown American agriculture? Why do we want to send it over the border?”