Trying to use legal foreign labor and still turn a profit has become the top challenge for tobacco growers in Person County and elsewhere across the nation. Immigration reform could make that challenge even more difficult in coming years.

This year, approximately 45 Person County farmers, like their counterparts across the United States, will have to pay a higher price for legal foreign labor.

Tammy Blalock, of Vernon Blalock and Sons Farm in Bushy Fork, addressed the annual tobacco growers meeting Wednesday night and told the large gathering that she had drawn a petition she hopes to send to state and federal representatives in an effort to hold the line on labor costs. >>

During the 2007 growing season, Blalock said, tobacco farmers will have to pay $1,000 per person to bring in H2A, or guest workers, from Mexico. Last year, the cost was about $800 per person. The wage paid these workers will also rise, Blalock said, from $8.96 per hour to $9.02 per hour.

The H2A wage and acquisition fees are determined by a formula the federal government uses, and the formula is difficult to decipher, according to Derek Day, Person County Cooperative Extension Service director.

The guest worker program began, Day said, as a way to address the labor shortage in certain U.S. job markets. It is an agreement, Day explained, which allows Mexican citizens to come to the U.S. on a temporary basis and work for a contracted length of time. At the end of the contract, the guest workers are supposed to return to Mexico.

?his is not an amnesty or a Visa program,?Day emphasized.

He said that farmers who use H2A labor must pay the workers for 40 hours a week for the length of the contract, which typically covers the entire growing season of 16 weeks. If there is a disaster, such as hail or wind damage, said Day, and the workers can? work in the tobacco fields, their pay must continue.

One farmer at Wednesday night? meeting said he did not like the thought of paying this high-priced labor ?o weed-eat.?o:p>

In addition to the acquisition fee and hourly wages, farmers must also provide adequate housing (which is inspected by the N.C. Department of Labor and must meet OSHA standards) and transportation for the H2A workers, as well as carry Workmen? Compensation insurance.

When all of the figures are added together, the guest workers are averaging around $12 an hour in wages.

Blalock and other growers at this week? meeting said that, while they are happy to get the workers from Mexico because they can? find U.S. workers willing to do the jobs, they are extremely unhappy about the cost of this labor.

The growers added that they preferred to use laborers from the guest worker program rather than illegal immigrants. The growers also noted that the minimum wage for Americans is $6.25, thus, all totaled, they are forced to pay nearly double what many U.S. citizens make in order to grow their crops.

According to the Department of Labor, the wage or rate of pay must be the same for U.S. workers and H-2A workers. The hourly rate must also be at least as high as the applicable Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR), federal or state minimum wage, or the applicable prevailing hourly wage rate, whichever is higher. The AEWR is established every year by the Department of Labor for every state except Alaska.

Gary Bullen, economist with N.C. State University, told growers Wednesday that managing their labor costs has been and remains ?he number one challenge?facing farmers.

?ou have to manage your labor if you?e going to make money,?he said, noting that he had never met a farmer, or anyone else, who enjoyed working for nothing.

Bullen cautioned growers that immigration reform could affect them for years to come.

?his is going to drive what happens in tobacco for the next few years,?he said Wednesday night. The labor issue, and the cost of doing business in tobacco growing, he said, ?s totally tied to Washington [D.C.].?o:p>

Blalock and other tobacco growers are concerned that the push for immigration reform will continue driving up the cost of their legal guest worker labor force.

Day said that, even though mechanization is making most farming easier and less labor-intensive, growers ?till must have labor?to get the tobacco planted, primed and cured.

When asked what this year? increase and projected future increases could ultimately mean for agriculture in Person County, Day said, ?here could come a point when farmers say it costs too much [to produce a crop] and nothing? left over.?o:p>

Tobacco, said Day, brought $10 million into the county? economy last year, ?ust from farm gate value. That translates to other businesses here because most agricultural money is spent locally. It stays here. It stays in the community.?o:p>

Tammy Blalock said the petitions asking state and federal government representatives to review the cost of using legal guest workers would be in several locations throughout the county until Feb. 12.

There are copies at the Farm Service Agency, at Camp Chemical, Farm Credit, Robert? Service Mart and the store in Allensville, she said. Anyone interested in signing the petition or in getting a copy to distribute may reach Blalock at 597-2028.

She said the petition is not just for growers, but that anyone interested in the future of agriculture in Person County could show their support by signing.

She plans to send the petition to U. S. Sens. Richard Burr and Elizabeth Dole; U.S. Rep. Brad Miller, state Sen. Ellie Kinnaird and state Rep. Winkie Wilkins.