Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Mexican nationals, the state-level Cooperative Extension services would
plan the interstate movement of domestic labor supplies, and county-based
advisors in Cooperative Extension would facilitate the local placement of
all forms of farm labor.
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In Monterey County the UC farm advisors were heavily involved in this
kind of placement work, which included the formation of a Farm Produc-
tion Council. These councils were established in each county and were a
collection of important farm industry players. The councils not only allo-
cated farm labor to specifi c farms but also had the power to set local wage
rates for farm labor (Rasmussen 1951; Liss 1953). Fortunately, I was able
to interview the retired farm advisor who worked most closely with growers
on labor issues during the war and served on the Monterey County Farm
Production Council. During our discussion, he emphasized the close con-
nection between the advisors and the farm industry during this period, as
they worked to place labor across Monterey County:
Retired Advisor:
I think that in Monterey County one of the biggest fi elds
that we got involved in was the better use of manpower. There was a short-
age of labor because a lot of the fellows had gone off to war, so they started
the Mexican National Program. While we were not involved in the actual
working out of the details of the program, members of the Extension
Service did work with growers, trying to help them understand the labor
that they had and to use it more effi ciently. One of the things that was
organized in Monterey County, and I think we were a little different than
most counties, we had what we called a Farm Production [Council].
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As I
remember there were fi fteen members on this board, and the board was
made up with growers from all over Monterey County, but primarily I
would say that they were from the vegetable industry . . . and the sugar
beet industry. They concerned themselves with the Mexican National
Program. . . . In order to get a crew [of Mexican nationals] the [grower] had
to be certifi ed, based upon his needs. And the Farm Production Council
became responsible for approving these requests for Mexican nationals.
And this also helped with . . . the prisoners of war that were being brought
in, and also the Farm Production Council approved requests for the use of
the prisoners of war. The Extension Service was involved in that we had
to go out in some instances and look at the fi eld and talk to the grower
and determine if actually these people were needed. They didn't want to
