Parma farmer offers free 'come and pick' asparagus event following federal delayed workers

BOISE, Idaho (CBS2) — If you're on TikToc you've probably seen this video

This is Shay Myer's he's a third generation farmer at Owyhee Produce in Parma.

"Owyhee Produce is a sister company to Froerer Farms and Froerer Farms was started by my grandfather in the 1950s and it's a family operation with 9 families," Shay explains.

Standing in one of his family's 35 acre fields, he is frustrated.

Because the over 350,000 pounds of asparagus you see, is going to waste.

"I'm frustrated because there is a chronic shortage of labor in the valley," Myers explains. "And if we don't pick this field, we lose this field. "

The issue, finding workers.

"I don't the perception that so often people think ag workers are making minimum wage and they are not," Myers says. "And we really value those workers and we rely on them and us as employers and that means us as Americans rely on that work force to keep food on our table."

And putting food on tables, isn't cheap.

Myers tells me that for every dollar you spend on one of his products, he gets exactly 7 cents.

"We are talking single digit margins, but the resistance from retail and consumers and any price increases just pinches us tighter and tighter," Myers explains.

"So all of those layers between us and they consumer takes 93 cents."

Asparagus is a perennial crop and this field was planted over 8 years ago, and takes around 5 years to yielding produce.

"This requires a lot of workers we need about one person per acre and it's difficult work," Myers confides. "This field would normally be picked every single day for twelve weeks in a row, that's how asparagus harvest works. For years and years that's been a struggle, but we've always had the right amount of people to get the job done."

Right now, two thirds of Myers crop is being harvested by local workers.

But finding workers he tells me, is nearly impossible.

"We can't get the people and that's why we've adopted the H2A program the agricultural visa to bring people from Mexico that are wanting this opportunity," Myers says. "They can go from making eight dollars a day to sixteen dollars and hour on the farm and that is with housing and transportation."

But this year, those workers are delayed by this program - more than a month.

Leading to over 350,000 pounds in food waste, and over $150,000 in losses.

"There is no reason for decisions to be made and for a program to be in place and it end up like this," Myers says.

I reached out to the Idaho Department of Labor Farmworker Services who tell me finding workers this year has been exceptionally difficult.

Mostly because of higher paying opportunities in construction, manufacturing and food processing, that are also year round.

According to the Idaho Department of Labor's Farmworker Services of Canyon County and Western Owyhee County,

In 2012 there were 10 employers with h2a work visas, and 35 employees,

Now in 2021, there are now 50 employers with H2As and around 1,200 employees.

But because of delays, farmers in the valley are seeing worker shortages they didn't anticipate.

But thanks to the power of TicTok, Shay is speaking out.

And tomorrow, he's offering the community a chance to help this asparagus not go to waste.

"If there's people that are available and willing to come and they'd like to have some asparagus to take home with them, we just thought it was a better way to give back to community so we don't just waste food," Myers says.

If you're interested, This Saturday (4/23) from 8 am to 4pm you can come to Myers field and pick up to 100lbs of asparagus per family.

You do have to register for a time to come pick to schedule a time click HERE

The address for the field is 3306 Kimberly Road Nyssa, OR, 97913.

If you do want to pick, Shay has instructional videos HERE.

He also asks that you only pick during the event tomorrow, as outside the times of the event are NOT allowed.