Two things you should know about me

I grew up in New Mexico and I like Honeycrisp apples. Sometimes a Granny Smith or a Golden Delicious, but my go-to is the Honeycrisp.

In case you thought that those amazing colorful apples just appeared at your local market via magic elves, they do not. A human being has to pick them off of trees. As we quickly close in on apple picking season here in the state of Washington, once again, there is a shortage of people available to pick the apples.

Just to give you an idea, the Washington State Tree Fruit Association measures apple output in 40-pound boxes. In 2017, the state produced about 131 million of these boxes. That’s a lot of apples to pick. In a typical year, over 30 percent of those apples will be exported to 60 countries. It’s one of the signature products of the state of Washington beloved worldwide. Possibly more than Starbucks.

My heart goes out to everyone involved in growing apples on the other side of the mountains. For the growers, they are getting hit with tariffs on the one side and a political stranglehold on labor on the other. There is nothing more frustrating than to see valuable fruit rotting on the ground.

For the workers, many of them overcame unimaginable hardships to make it to the United States. They have been contributing members of the community for years. This is what they do, and they do this back breaking manual labor year in and year out with incredible grace.

That’s where the New Mexico part comes in. I grew up around mostly Hispanic people. Most of my classmates and friends were of Mexican heritage. Without exception, I was always welcomed with open arms, I was always encouraged to laugh and sing and eat delicious food. I was shown what it means to respect one’s elders and to lend a hand with the little ones. My childhood was filled with homemade tortillas fresh off a cast iron skillet and grandmas from Mexico snapping me with their kitchen towel as I tried to sneak off with one too many.

I can’t, for the life of me, come up with one good reason to deny people the right to work in the apple orchards of Washington. It is literally a win-win for everyone involved. The growers get to harvest their apples, the workers get to earn a wage, and I get to go into the market and fuss over which Honeycrisp to buy.

You can hear “What are we talking about here?” everyday at 4:45 p.m. on 97.3 FM.

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