Welcome to the politics guys. I'm Michael Baranowski, a political scientist at Northern Kentucky University.

Hey. I'm Michael Baranowski, a political scientist at Northern Kentucky University. Hey, everyone, Mike here. Thanks so much to all of you who gave me feedback on my first

food politics post. That was the one in the politics of avocados. And from what you said, you would, many of you at

least, would like to hear more of these sort of short podcast episodes. And also that you would

like them to stay with the politics guys so you don't have a whole other podcast to add to what

I'm sure is for most of you a long list. So I'm happy to do that.

And so with no further ado, here is my second effort at this, the politics of farm labor.

Now, last time, I looked at how trade policy helped the avocado become really hot fruit in the produce

section.

Now, one problem with the surging demand for avocados in recent years is that they're not

really easy to harvest.

Every single avocado has to be picked off of a tree by hand.

Now, for some other fruits and nuts,

there are these tree-shaking machines,

like for almonds and cherries.

Well, they don't work for avocados

because even on the same tree,

avocados often mature at different rates,

and so you want to get them all when they're at, you know,

the same maturity level

now another reason why picking mechanically isn't an option is just basically with the nature of

avocados you think about an avocado it's a pretty big heavy thing and avocado trees are

...