Farms already seeing 'massive drop off' in workers as mass deportations begin: report

The country’s agricultural sector is in full-blown panic mode as President Donald Trump’s long-promised mass deportations are starting to become a reality in farming communities across the United States. And the ripple effect could soon hit supermarkets, as the chaos surrounding Trump’s strict immigration policies – which already include stepped-up ICE raids – is already threatening to send food prices soaring before long, according to a report in The New Republic. “Bakersfield, California saw a massive drop off in the number of field workers showing up for work Tuesday while ICE agents in unmarked Chevy Suburbans rounded up and detained immigrants in the area, profiling individuals they believed to be field workers,” the outlet reported. Casey Creamer, president of the industry group California Citrus Mutual, told CalMatters that the events “sent shockwaves through the entire community.” “People aren’t going to work and kids aren’t going to school,” Creamer told the publication. “Yesterday about 25% of the workforce, today 75% didn’t show up.” Richard S. Gearhart, an associate professor of economics at California State University, Bakersfield offered concern for the food industry as a whole.