Immigration and Agriculture have never been so inexorably tied.

Available here on Amazon.com

You have undoubtedly found this film from a search concerning immigration or agriculture. Please take a moment to visit www.americanharvestmovie.com to learn more about "American Harvest" and the vital role you as American citizens play when you look at all the facts of a particular debate.

Particularly one as vitally important important as immigration as it relates to agriculture.

We are releasing the film in theaters beginning in June and expect to release the DVD sometime this fall. Visit our website for details.

Thank you,

Angelo Mancuso
Director

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DOCUMENTARY, US, 2008, 100 minutes

With the number of undocumented immigrants in the United States estimated at 12 million, anti-immigration sentiment has swept across America and immigration has increasingly become a central topic of debate. To explore the issue of immigration from the standpoint of the American farmer as well as through the eyes of the migrant worker, filmmaker Angelo Mancuso and crew traveled to more than a dozen states, into Mexico and visited remote areas of the U.S./Mexico border conducting interviews while covering more than 15,000 miles. The film points out the inconsistencies of the current policy on immigration, revealing the lives of legal and illegal migrants and farmers working toward a better life, and documents the symbiotic relationship that has emerged between them. Is the immigration system in America flawed? And why are immigrants – quite literally – dying to feed America?

Angelo Mancuso has worked on several feature films and has produced and directed shorts, commercials and PSAs over a 13-year career. He makes his directorial debut with American Harvest.


Please visit www.americanharvestmovie.com for more information about the film.

My recent repartee on the California Progress Report.

Politicians and Americans for that matter should take a look at "American Harvest." Its a non-partisan feature length documentary about immigration as it relates to agriculture. It presents the facts as they are without political bias.

American Harvest Synopsis

Anti-immigration sentiment sweeps across America. A journey from Florida to New York, including a trip to the Mexican border, reveals the lives and issues of legal and illegal migrants and farmers working toward a better life. Is the immigration system in America flawed? Immigrants are dying to feed America.

American farmers and agriculture rely on immigrants to do jobs that Americans won't do or feel that are simply beneath them. Some only see the problems in the news from the perspective of those extreme points of view of the left and the right side of our political system.

Discrimination of immigrants has existed in the United States since the English persecuted the Irish. It was once generally considered that if you were Greek or Southern Italian you were not white.

American Harvest points out the inconsistencies of the current policy on immigration. See the changing face of immigrant America as it relates to Agriculture.

Follow legal and illegal farm workers and the farmers caught in the middle of a flawed immigration policy.

Response to my post:

Jeff November 10, 2007 at 08:00 AM

Angelo,
It is not immigration that Americans are upset with. It is the ILLEGAL immigration and the open border policy. Very simple we need to control our borders then we can offer the illegal's some better options.

My response to Jeff: November 10, 2007 at 03:01 PM

Jeff,

I would completely agree. I have been in the desert on the border with one foot on each side of the border. I have spoken to border patrol agents doing their jobs. Yes our borders need to be secured to stop potential threats.

But here is were the gray area needs to be addressed. Our American farms are in a crisis right now.

In New York alone, according to NY Farm Credit, 900 of the 35,000 farms are in jeopardy of going out of business in the next year. Once these farms go out of business they are likely not to be utilized for farming. The tax base in that community suffers. The businesses and stores in the area no longer have customers. For some small towns, these are the only customers.

8 billion dollars a year goes into the social security fund that is never taken back out from contributions from these "illegal" workers.

We need to create an immigration policy not only stresses tight border security, but also acknowledges that immigrants mainly from Mexico are picking our crops. After traveling 15,000 miles across the U.S. and into Mexico I have seen first hand the complexities of this issue.

And it is far more gray than it is black and white.

Toughen our borders. Give American farmers access to individuals that are willing to work.

These immigrant farm workers are making between $9 and $20 per hour. If they were being exploited they would be looking else were for opportunity.

When my documentary is released I hope many Americans will take a look at it. If you go to our website you will see from the comments and reviews that the movie is nonpartisan.

Maybe then will you have a better appreciation for what less that 2% of the people in America do. And that's farming. Up until 1990 as much as 40% of the U.S. economy was involved in agriculture. Times have changed.

I may not change your mind. Then again I just might.

Instead of looking at this issue in a partisan fashion, what can we all do to fix an immigration system that is broken? Homeland Security Chertoff acknowledges that it's broken.

What can we do so we don't bite the hand that feeds us?

Then men and women that put food on our kitchen table deserve no less.

Angelo Mancuso
Director
American Harvest (the Real Truth About Immigrant America)

http://www.americanharvestmovie.com