Immigration Reform Critical to Local Agricultural Production

William Woody, The Watch

July 25, 2013
Olathe Farmer Cautiously Watching, Hoping Lawmakers Can Work Together

WESTERN SLOPE – As over 100 migrant workers pick and package sweet corn from fields west of Olathe, nearly 2,000 miles away, in Washington D.C., members of Congress continue to pick at each other over immigration reform.

These migrant or guest workers are, in the eyes of Olathe farmer John Harold, the most important component of the process that delivers the Olathe Sweet brand of sweet corn across the U.S.

On Thursday, July 18, at dawn, rummaging through rows of damp corn stalks, members of a mostly local harvesting crew tore the first ears of the Tuxedo Corn Company’s annual Olathe Sweet sweet corn crop from the ground. By 8 a.m., when Harold arrived, the crew had harvested just two truckloads.

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