I-TEAM UPDATE: The cost of the American dream at the price of a peach

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Grocery prices went up yet again in February. The cost of feeding our families has skyrocketed more than 30% over the last six years.

Diesel prices, caps on truck drivers, disease, weather and corporate profits each play a role in the sticker shock at the grocery store

But here at home, federal policies are factors driving up the costs of locally grown produce in Georgia and South Carolina.

Senior Investigative Reporter Liz Owens is digging deeper into the facts on both sides of the American dream.

Deep in the heart of South Carolina, dreams blossom along a road less traveled. In Ridge Spring, he path to success is made up of dirt.

Chalmers Carr: “So in South Carolina, the peach industry is a $300 million industry in this state. Agriculture is the largest industry, but people don’t think about it like oh, that’s just a farm over there in the corner of Edgefield County.

Carr’s dream became a reality when he opened Titan Farms 25 years ago. His peaches are in every major grocery store and his fruit cups are in public schools.

Titan Farms is the largest producer of peaches on the East Coast.

Carr: “I’ve gone from 1500 acres of peaches to over 7000 acres of crops, and it’s been because my workers have been with me year in and year out.”

Noel Serrano has been working on the peach farm for more than 20 years.

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Serrano: “We do the hard part the work not too many people was to do because it is hard.

Titan is the fourth largest employer of H2A Visa or seasonal agriculture workers in the state. Hundreds of legal temporary non-workers come to work at Titan Farms every February.

Liz: “What’s the process like getting them here? "

Carr: “It’s a very difficult process, and that’s one of the reforms that’s needed.”

The federal government’s laundry list of steps begins with recruitment.

Carr: “We have to for American workers. You cannot bring a guest worker in unless you can prove that there are no U.S. workers willing and able to do the job. Last year I brought in over 900 and had two U.S. workers apply for the job.”

Only then can he begin the process which requires going through four federal agencies and the state workforce agency,.and the window to it is no more than 75 days and no less than 60 days from harvest.

Carr: “Some of them still actually use what we call slow mail, snail mail. And we’re talking about perishable crops, you’re asking us to predict harvest too.”

The H2A program is only available for farmers of seasonal perishable crops like South Carolina’s peaches and blueberries, not of year-long crops like milk and eggs.

Serrano: “We do the hard part of the work that not too many people want to do because it is hard.”

But the hard work here outweighs the hard life over there.

Serrano: “So they don’t have many opportunities to have a good life, to put good food on the table, it’s very hard. People want to come to this country because it’s very hard. People work in Mexico for maybe $20 for the day .”

Titan Farms is the largest private employer in Edgefield County with a $24 million payroll. Locals work in management and istration. H2A employees work in the fields.

Liz: “What’s wrong with paying the $16 an hour? "

Carr: “There’s nothing wrong with it. As long as people understand that we’ve got food prices are going to go up. The federal minimum wage in South Carolina is $7.25 but I personally agree that you cannot live off $7.25. But, I think anything should be a market-based wage.

Congress or state lawmakers determine the minimum wage for American workers.

The Department of Labor determines the minimum wage for seasonal agricultural workers every year after reviewing the current cost of living, inflation and job market within a region. And every year for the past five years minimum wage for H2A workers has gone up across the country.

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By the way, Carr chooses to pay his American workers the same as his H2A workers when they come to work in the field.

Carr: “You take a crop like strawberries or blueberries where labor is 75% of the cost of the crop, 75% of it is labor. And you’re going to put a 30% increase on that, thats significantly going to cause food to go up.

The survival of his American dream is dependent on laborers. Labor he can only find through the H2A program.

Carr: “I have been somebody that’s been very concerned about an open border policy. I’d rather know who’s coming into the country. What I did want is a guest worker program where we wanted to bring workers and let them stay here and work if work was needed and then let them go back home. We’ve always been a melting pot. This company, this country, was built off of immigrants. We just seem to have forgotten history. "

Lofts at Kings Mill operates on hydropower today because of a diverse labor force that built the Augusta Canal more a century ago.

Slaves dug it, Irish and Chinese expanded it and Italian immigrants did mason work. The canal brought transportation and industry to Augusta at a time when other cities vanished.

The rich and diverse heritage we enjoy in Augusta today began when the immigrant workers brought their families here.

Four years ago, Noel’s wife and twin daughters began coming with him to Ridge Springs under the H4 Visa program. The program allows dependents of H2A workers to come with their loved ones to the U.S. while they work. Children can even attend school here.

Moela: “Oh yes I love it we are learning more here than in Mexico.”

Nine months out of the year, Noel’s daughters go to school in Ridge Spring..

Moelea: “In Mexico, the teachers help so much to understand but here they help to do the work.”

Noel’s employer provides him with a home, transportation and a livable wage. His sixth graders are receiving a better education here than at home in Mexico.

Noel: The American dream is really this place for Mexicans for the last 20 years.

He found his version of the American dream by keeping another man’s American dream alive.

The crackdown at the border is also costing our local farmers.

They pay the travel expenses for their legal seasonal workers here and pay more when their workers are delayed at the border.

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