FLORIDA GROWERS FACE POSTWAR CHALLENGES

From FFVA meeting notes and committee reports, 1947

Sixty years ago, in the fourth year of FFVA's history, the association was still known as the Florida Vegetable Committee (FVC) ...

At the fourth annual FVC membership meeting, major resolutions adopted involved federal issues. One urged Congress to enact a recruiting and routing program for domestic farm labor; a second requested that more and better refrigerator cars be built in the immediate future.

Another insisted that Congress revise the reciprocal trade treaty laws for genuine reciprocity, in such a way that it would not permit the expatriate American who employs peon labor in foreign nations to have an economic advantage over the American producer. They also urged the State Department to equalize the cost between Florida and foreign nations through tariff rates.

Florida Vegetable Committee (FVC) Chairman L.L. Stuckey said that the season of 1946-47 was probably the worst in many years for Florida growers.

Chairman L. L. Stuckey, in his report to the membership, said 1946-47 would be a season long remembered.

"The season of 1946-47 has probably been the worst in many years," he said. "First it was too hot and too wet, then we had a series of freezes with high winds and heavy rains in between. Naturally, this bad weather was favorable to development of diseases and pests and the result has been that we have had a shorter crop than in any of the war years - about 30 percent below 1945-46.

"This has also been FVC's busiest year so far. We moved our offices to provide more room for our expanded activities, and we also added a trained agricultural economist to our office staff. Mr. Joffre C. David, a graduate of the University of Florida, has been doing a fine job," said Stuckey.

Responding to growers' question on "always running to Washington," FVC Secretary LaMonte Graw said, "First, many of our present problems have been brought upon us by the Congress or the agencies of government, and second, the interference of government is going to continue in future years, no matter what political party may be in power."

Labor Committee Chairman Dixon Pearce warned FVC members in 1947 that he saw no immediate relief from a post-war labor shortage.

One of the busiest committees during 1946-47 was Labor. Dixon Pearce, committee chairman, reminded members that 50 to 75 percent of the cost of production is labor.

"Before the war, field workers were paid from $1.75 to $2.00 per day. We had better workers than today, and they worked longer hours," Pearce said. "Today's wage levels run from $4.00 to $6.00 per day, for shorter hours and less work per hour. The increase in piece rates is even greater.

"Before the war, thousands of field and packing house workers migrated to Florida annually … and there was little difficulty in finding experienced field hands, except during the peak of harvest seasons.

"Today the migration pattern has been broken up. Many workers went to the Army or to do war work and have not returned. Our acreage has increased, and along with our need for workers, the same is true of citrus and sugar cane. We have mechanized many of our production operations, but still must have large numbers of workers at harvest time.

"Some farmers seem to believe that we will soon have an abundance of labor at prewar wage rates. The facts do not bear this out," said Pearce.