Fewer peaches, fewer workers in Georgia

“Food Depot is slower this summer. A hot, frazzled mother lingers in front of a tower of banana moon pies; a man in overalls pecks change for a 77-cent bag of ice. Cashiers gossip, then sigh. They miss the Latinos who loaded their checkout belts with flour tortillas, thick golden cornhusks and tamarind sodas as sweet as iced tea.

Nearly 80% of Georgias peach crop was destroyed when a severe frost spread across the Southeast in early April. Without peaches, the orchards clustered around this sleepy railroad town 80 miles south of Atlanta have little work for Latinos.

In April, nearly 1,500 Mexican laborers who were supposed to come to the United States legally on the federal H-2 “guest worker” program were told there were no jobs for them at peach farms across Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama.”

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