Staff Reports
In a case that’s sure to give everyone a chuckle, a woke farmer is making headlines for a predicament that seems all too familiar. Bethany Gots, the owner of Quay’s Farm in Mountain Home, is finding herself up to her elbows in manual labor because, lo and behold, she can’t find enough workers to help her out. Imagine that! In a world where “ghosting” isn’t just for Halloween anymore, Gots has been ghosted by potential employees faster than you can say “whack-a-mole.” Seven people responded to her job posts on Facebook, but once she shared the job description, they vanished into thin air.
Gots has taken to the airwaves to express her frustration about finding eligible, willing Americans to pick up a shovel or steer a tractor. She laments that legal citizens just don’t work as hard as immigrants, a statement that might have caused a few coffee spits over breakfast. The situation is so dire, she’s turned to hiring high schoolers, which is great if your crop is ready by 3:00 p.m. and doesn’t mind the occasional calculus problem in between tasks.
But the plot thickens! Rather than opening her wallet to sweeten the deal for workers, she’s decided to splash out a whopping $200,000 on housing for employees under the federal H2A visa program. That’s right, instead of simply paying a living wage to attract local workers, she’s building dormitories on her farm. It’s a solution that might leave one scratching their head faster than a chicken with a tick.
Now, here’s the kicker. While investing in housing solutions might sound like a long-term strategy, the reality is that some clever sleuths looked into what she was offering. It turns out she was only planning to pay minimum wage. Minimum wage! One could be forgiven for thinking that perhaps, just maybe, offering folks a tad more cash up front might have been a simpler, less brick-and-mortar-intensive solution to her worker woes.
Nevertheless, Gots holds out hope of long-term solutions that will support both her farm and the workers she says are like family to her. It’s a sentiment that’s as wholesome as apple pie, albeit with a crust of irony. Meanwhile, the saga of Gots’ staffing snafu serves up a classic case of why sometimes it’s best to think inside the checkbook, rather than outside the barn.
