California Farmers Leaving Crops Unpicked Amid Labor Shortage

California Farmers Leaving Crops Unpicked Amid Labor Shortage
Dark clouds from a passing thunder storm hang over a dry cornfield in Blair, Neb., Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2012. The area received some rain from the storm. Farmers in the nation's Corn Belt are confronting a drought that stretches from Ohio west to California and from Texas north to the Dakotas. Only in the 1930s and the 1950s has a drought covered more of the U.S., according to the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
Dark clouds from a passing thunder storm hang over a dry cornfield in Blair, Neb., Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2012. The area received some rain from the storm. Farmers in the nation's Corn Belt are confronting a drought that stretches from Ohio west to California and from Texas north to the Dakotas. Only in the 1930s and the 1950s has a drought covered more of the U.S., according to the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

There's a different sort of drought plaguing California, the nation's largest farm state. It's $38 billion agricultural sector is facing a scarcity of labor.

Migrant workers weed lettuce seed plants at an organic produce farm near Fresno, California.
"This year is the worst it's been, ever," said Craig Underwood, who farms everything from strawberries to lemons to peppers, carrots, and turnips in Ventura County.

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