At this week’s Becker-Rose Cafe, we got the opportunity to talk with Justine Vanden Heuvel & Mary Jo Dudley, two women dedicated to the betterment of agriculture. In particular, we spoke a great deal about the social and economic effects of undocumented immigrants in the workforce.

One statistic stands in my mind: at this current point in time, it is conservatively estimated that 50% of our nation’s farm workers are undocumented. Fifty. With that in mind, it’s not difficult to see how a mass deportation would devastate our economy and agriculture as we know it. It’s true that, in an ideal world, these jobs would be filled by American citizens, but the reality of the situation is that there is a nearly insurmountable stigma surrounding the farming. It’s often thought that agriculture is a waste of intellect, and that jobs in that field should be reserved for those individuals that lack the technical skill to do anything else. Of course this is nowhere near a fair assumption, but we must acknowledge that it remains the prevailing idea. We also need to realize that this isn’t going to change over night. Shifting this stereotype will take years and years of work, and as we stand right now, we would be hard-pressed to find replacements for the laborers that would be lost in a mass deportation.

Now I’m not saying that I condone illegal immigration. I don’t. But I also don’t condemn people for wanting a better life. Would I rather them take the necessary steps to citizenship? Of course. Do I understand the burden they place on the tax-paying citizens of America? Most definitely. But this talk made it very clear to me that, regardless of your political agenda, deporting every illegal immigrant is simply not economically feasible. They comprise the backbone of our society, and if we get rid of the immigrants, we ultimately get rid of our food.

And I like food..