Please use this GoFundMe link to help with relief and reconstruction in Jamaica! Growers and farmers by the hundreds are setting up efforts like this because we all know that we couldn't produce anything worth eating or drinking without seasonal Jamaican workers! Here is ours: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-jamaican-h2a-workers-rebuild-after-hurricane

The high quality and variety of farm products in the eastern U.S. is made possible by a Federal program established back in the WWII era: we know it as "H2A."  It's a visa program, the "Temporary Agricultural Worker Program." It allows seasonal workers from other countries to come here and make our operations possible!  At Poverty Lane Orchards we've worked with the same individuals from the island for years, a few as long as 33 years! The most recent new addition to the crew was at least 6 years ago. 

To repeat: the extraordinary productivity and skill of Jamaican H2A workers is what puts so much wonderful local food on our tables.
Why does this happen?
Why can't Americans handle these jobs?
Because seasonal farm work takes high mental and physical ability, stamina, and alertness.
Most Americans with these qualifications are already employed year-round. But farming is seasonal. And machines can only do so much in some types of farming. For most crops in many places, there's a string of months during which crops are produced and harvested -- and then there's a winter lull. In the U.S. population, it's ridiculously rare to find outstanding employees to work demanding jobs for part of the year! One of our crew is a U.S. citizen who has been able to organize his time so as to work our harvests since 1992. All the others, like thousands more, leave home each year in order to build better futures for their families.