Migrant labor dries up, threatening apple harvest

DANA - Between a fungal disease that sounds like a Disney villain and farmers having their labor pool looted, apple growing isn't quite the idyllic pursuit it seems at first blush.

"It's kind of a cutthroat business," said Don Ward, owner of T&D Orchards, bouncing down the mountain to Polk County in a truck full of apples.

Those apples were picked in Dana, a quiet Western North Carolina town, with a small post office, a few larger churches, and a Mexican mercado to supply the day laborers. It's the heart of apple country, filled with picturesque and rolling orchards, Sugarloaf Mountain rising in the distance.

It's a peaceful scene that belies the worry the men who own these fields feel. Growers like Ward have numerous challenges: disease, weather and pests. But no challenge seems more dire than the labor shortage, with not enough workers and a crop that's ripening at least a week or two ahead of schedule this year.

Read more: http://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2016/09/01/local-farms-feel-labor-pinch-fall-harvest-threatened/89209674/