Re: california agriculture

Russ Bulluck (lrbulluc@unity.ncsu.edu)
Mon, 21 Dec 1998 09:41:08 -0500

On Dec 20, 11:29pm, joel b gruver wrote:
> Subject: california agriculture
> Hello to all...
>
> Today, I read that 42% of the agricultural laborers in California between
> 1995 and 1997 were illegal aliens.
>
> I am wondering if anyone can comment on what sort of structural changes
> would be necessary for California to meet its agricultural
> labor needs using legal laborers ? What volume of total laborers does 42%
> add up to ? How much do Californias farmers save in production costs by
> making such extensive use of cheap illegal labor ?

North Carolina and Florida also use migrant workers extensively. I'm not sure
how many of them are legal (or illegal), but I'm sure that percentages would
probably be pretty comparable.

Snip

> BTW, I recently learned that scientists at the USDA-ARS Beltsville
> agricultural research center, are currently investigating the injection of
> bacteria grazing nematodes into irrigation water, to stimulate a timely
> flush of organic matter decomposition...
>
>-- End of excerpt from joel b gruver

I find this very interesting. My research (using organic amendments for soil
fertility, looking at soil biological community dynamics, and comparing the
results to conventional fertilizers) is looking at the nematode communities,
(as well as bacterial, fungal and plant pathogen communities) and we always see
an increase in bacterivorous nematodes with the incorporation of organic
matter, and a _shift_ in trophic group structure from beginning of season to
end of season. I'd be interested in learning more about this research!

Thanks. . .Russ

-- 
Russ Bulluck
Graduate Student
Plant Pathology
NCSU
Box 7616
Raleigh, NC  27695
-------------------------------------------------------------
The soil population is so complex that it manifestly cannot
be dealt with as a whole with any detail by any one person,
and at the same time it plays so important a part in the soil
economy that it must be studied.
--Sir E. John Russell
The Micro-organisms of the Soil, 1923
-------------------------------------------------------------

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