Who will pick the berries

I, too, watched this delightful programme and worried about the future of berry farming and it's workers . I suppose it might have to revert back to years ago when workers were bussed in , but the energy , enthusiasm and desire to work hard for their money might be missing on that bus . I remember when the first lot of Polish people came to our area to work the berries , some locals were angry that ' they're taking our jobs' but when asked if they would cycle 4 miles in the rain to pick berries they replied ' no way ' . So I think things look bad .

Yes. Beyond all the flag -waving, 'We want jobs for British workers.' kerfuffle ... the truth is, some Brits on benefits are just not prepared to do this kind of work.

Someone did a programme a while ago about getting youngsters on benefits to harvest asparagus. It didn't go well. Too much bending down to pick the stuff and a lot of spears were missed because they couldn't be bothered to look for them. The Eastern Europeans working alongside them were not impressed.

I spent 2 summers with 2 friends when I was 13 & 14 picking raspberries at a local farm, We walked there (2 miles each way) for 6.30 am because we got a premium rate of 4d a pound before 8.30 so that the prime berries could get to market that day, then a quick breakfast and picking berries for jam at 3p a pound until 12ish. We managed to make a decent amount, cash in hand of course, but had to fight off lots of what would now be called sexual harassment from the farmer's sons who were the supervisors.

Later when I was working in town, I used to see the busses hired by farmers to take people to the berry fields and later in the season to the 'tattie howking'. That came to an abrupt end around 1968 when the busses were stopped by the DHSS + police and many of the berrypickers were fined and or had their benefits stopped for fraudulently working 'cash in hand'. In those days the rate of unemployment benefit rose considerably after 6 months, so to declare short term casual employment meant a huge drop in income for the following 6 months. Although the owners of the berry fields were not charged with breaking employment laws, the loss of this ready supply of casual labour led them to stop growing crops which had to be hand picked. A few tried to continue on a 'pick your own fruit' basis but that soon fizzled out as it was not profitable.

the berries are worth a massive amount of money to the Scottish economy Granny23 If you haven't watched the programme you should get it on catchup,worth seeing .The EU people who came for the season returned year after year and when they stopped they sent family and friends .They were a hardworking,happy bunch of young people.Willing to put in the hours and and to integrate with the community.To be fair the owners seemed really nice people too.It was a lovely snapshot of life on the berry farms .One young man has decided to go home now to Lithuania and grow using the methods he learned and that can only be goof for his family and his own community.Its sad that they may not be allowed back .For all concerned

good ..for his family ...not goof .