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Showing posts with label The Colbert Report. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Colbert Report. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Secretary of Agriculture Talks to Stephen Colbert
Monday, September 27, 2010
Unemployed Americans Not Interested in Farm Work
Last week, I was speaking to an unemployed friend about a now-unconventional work option: farming. Friend elect wasn't super interested in the idea. We spoke specifically about WWOOFing, World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, but it seems that the whole nation is talking about the topic - the lack of interest or willingness Americans have in farm work.
The AP reports:
As the economy tanked during the past two years, a debate has raged over whether immigrants are taking jobs that Americans want. Here, amid the sweltering vineyards of the largest farm state, the answer is no.
And the few unemployed Americans who apply through official channels usually don't stay on in the fields, a point comedian Stephen Colbert — dressed as a field hand — has alluded to in recent broadcasts on Comedy Central.
"It's just not something that most Americans are going to pack up their bags and move here to do," said farmer Steve Fortin, who pays $10.25 an hour to foreign workers to trim strawberry plants for six weeks each summer at his nursery near the Nevada border. He has spent $3,000 this year ensuring domestic workers have first dibs on his jobs in the sparsely populated stretch of the state, advertising in newspapers and on an electronic job registry.
But he hasn't had any takers, and only one farmer in the state hired anyone using a little-known, little-used program to hire foreign farmworkers the legal way — by applying for guest worker visas.
Since January, California farmers have posted ads for 1,160 farmworker positions open to U.S. citizens and legal residents seeking work.
Only 233 people applied after being linked with the jobs through unemployment offices in California, Texas, Nevada and Arizona. One grower brought on 36 U.S citizens or legal permanent residents. No one else hired any.
Hmph. Here's Colbert's address to Congress:
Most Americans simply don't apply for jobs harvesting fruits and vegetables in California, where one of every eight people is out of work, according to government data for a federal seasonal farmworker program analyzed by The Associated Press.
The AP reports:
As the economy tanked during the past two years, a debate has raged over whether immigrants are taking jobs that Americans want. Here, amid the sweltering vineyards of the largest farm state, the answer is no.
And the few unemployed Americans who apply through official channels usually don't stay on in the fields, a point comedian Stephen Colbert — dressed as a field hand — has alluded to in recent broadcasts on Comedy Central.
"It's just not something that most Americans are going to pack up their bags and move here to do," said farmer Steve Fortin, who pays $10.25 an hour to foreign workers to trim strawberry plants for six weeks each summer at his nursery near the Nevada border. He has spent $3,000 this year ensuring domestic workers have first dibs on his jobs in the sparsely populated stretch of the state, advertising in newspapers and on an electronic job registry.
But he hasn't had any takers, and only one farmer in the state hired anyone using a little-known, little-used program to hire foreign farmworkers the legal way — by applying for guest worker visas.
Since January, California farmers have posted ads for 1,160 farmworker positions open to U.S. citizens and legal residents seeking work.
Only 233 people applied after being linked with the jobs through unemployment offices in California, Texas, Nevada and Arizona. One grower brought on 36 U.S citizens or legal permanent residents. No one else hired any.
Hmph. Here's Colbert's address to Congress:
Most Americans simply don't apply for jobs harvesting fruits and vegetables in California, where one of every eight people is out of work, according to government data for a federal seasonal farmworker program analyzed by The Associated Press.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
"Walk me through it. Bum me out."
Steven Colbert talks to Jononthan Safran Foer about his latest book Eating Animals. Succinct lesson. Typical Colbert. Watch it here thanks to hulu (who, by the way, is a big supporter of charity: water).
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Eat low on the food chain
Sylvia Earle's new book, The World is Blue: How Our Fate and the Ocean's Are One, recieved the "Colbert Bump" Tuesday night and this interview alone has caused me to re-examine the fish that remain in my own diet. Of course, many of you have seen me whip out my trusty EPA Pocket Seafood Selector at meals and likely chosen the fish or shellfish with the smallest finprint on our oceans and collective environment right alongside me - but perhaps that isn't enough. Check out the stats Sylvia drops on Stephen:
So whattaya say, folks? Can we all commit to choosing fish that are low on the food chain? Vote with our forks?
So whattaya say, folks? Can we all commit to choosing fish that are low on the food chain? Vote with our forks?
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