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Harvesting 125,000 to 150,000 acres of raisin grapes around Fresno, California has traditionally been considered the most labor-intensive activity in North American agriculture, since 40,000 to 50,000 harvesters are needed for less than two months to cut bunches of grapes and lay them on paper trays to dry into raisins. A few farmers have been harvesting their raisin grapes mechanically for over a decade, and the switch to mechanization has speeded up in the past few years as a result of biological innovations and competition from lower-cost raisins produced in Turkey and elsewhere.

The traditional way to harvest raisin grapes is to have farmers measure the sugar content of grapes and, when they reach 22-23 percent sugar, the farmer calls a labor contractor and asks him to bring a crew of harvest workers. The harvesters receive about one cent a pound for cutting the bunches and laying them on paper trays, which are rolled and then picked up by hand as well. However, there is considerable unemployment as workers wait for sugar levels to rise and, even working long hours seven days a week, harvesters earn less than $3,000 during the raisin harvest.

The major alternative to traditional raisin harvesting is the Dried on the Vine (DOV) process, under which bunches of grapes are cut so that they can begin to dry into raisins while they still on the vine, and then a wine grape harvester uses rotating brushes to harvest the raisins. DOV requires an up-front investment to plant earlier-ripening grapes and pruning to accommodate the machine, but can raise yields from the traditional two to five tons an acre, and can reduce harvest labor needs by 90 percent.

The economic outlook for raisin growers improved markedly in 2004, with production down 20 percent and a price of $1,210 a ton and no set aside, meaning that raisin growers get paid in full for their crop right away. Thompson seedless grapes that were crushed for wine brought $200 a ton, up from $65 a ton in 2002.

However, the exodus of older growers is expected to continue. Over 60 percent of raisin growers are over 60, and they farm an average 70 acres; a third have a second nonfarm job. Only five percent of raisin growers are under 40.

Parlier. As DOV harvesting spreads (a third of the raisin crop used some form of DOV in 2004), there are consequences in farm worker cities such as Parlier, which has 11,000 mostly farm worker residents. Newcomers are still arriving from Mexico, but many are finding it harder to get jobs, and those with jobs complain that they are getting fewer hours of work. With more workers competing for a shrinking amount of work, there is downward pressure on earnings and incomes.

According to the Census, Parlier's per capita income was $7,100 in 1999, less than half the average for the county and a third of the US and state average, but more than the per capita gross national income of Mexico, which was $4,400. Thus, California farm jobs remain attractive to Mexicans, but the continued arrival of Mexicans may make it very hard for migrants and their children to achieve "normal" US incomes unless they move out of seasonal farm work.

Almost 90 percent of Parlier's residents have Mexican origins, but they draw sharp distinctions between legal and illegal, with far more opportunities open to legal residents. Many of those who once worked harvesting raisins were legalized in 1987-88, and have since moved on to nonfarm jobs that pay higher wages and/or offer more hours of work, fringe benefits and upward mobility. Some of those who were legalized opened car repair operations, Latin food markets, or clothing stores, but they note that, with joblessness topping 30 percent, theft is common, which helps to explain why homes and businesses often have iron bars over their windows.

Parlier approved a $4 million bond measure to create an agricultural biotech industrial park that would create jobs, but past efforts to jump-start job creation largely failed.

Diane Lindquist, "The new grapes of wrath" and "Parlier: A town of immigrants, divided by their legal status," San Diego Union-Tribune, January 23, 2005.