re: reporting on agricultural trends

[Guest guest]

Tina and friends,

Tina, I welcome your suggestion on reporting agricultural trends at relevant

migrant related forums. To the extent there is relevant information, I am sure

that we will be reporting. Others should do the same. One thing that could help

is to identify the types of information that we should be looking at and sources

for the same.

Your observations and the article served to highlight, once more, the close

inter-relationship between the agricultural industry and policy making in

Washington DC. More importantly, however, I think is the need for all of us,

and I am sure many already do, to incorporate other macro elements (whether they

are related to the agricultural industry, technological innovations, or

globalization issues) into our assessments when we look at our programs,

especially as we look to the future. The key point being, as we look to the

future. What are the likely issues and how will they impact on our programs and

these populations that migrant centers serve?

Recent discussions have prompted me to ask:

1) If mechanization is reducing the demand for farm labor and as more produce is

being imported, will the demand and consequently the number of farmworkers be

reduced?

2) What States are likely to be implicated by greater mechanization of crops and

or reduction in farmland and will this create a reduction in demand for farm

labor?

3) Given the President's proposal for a broader guestworker program, how will it

impact on migrant programs? Will bringing in more guestworkers reduce farm labor

wages? increase the number of farmworkers? Family members traveling? What

services will they need?

And I am sure there are many more. Bottom line is, if we want to play a part in

the structuring of our programs then we need to be at the table with our own

ideas of what the field is going to look like. And this should happen for all of

the migrant related federal as well as state programs. It calls for a focus not

just on the now but also where do we want to be 10-15-20 years from now.

Thanks Tina.

Ruiz

Assistant Director Systems Development and Policy Administration

Migrant Health Coordinator

National Association of Community Health Centers, Inc.

7200 Wisconsin Avenue Suite 210

Bethesda, MD 20814

(301) 347-0442

(301) 347-0459 FAX

(202) 365-0154 Cell Phone

jruiz@...

www.nachc.com

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