#2 - Desperate Labor Shortages for Farmers
Underscore Need for Immigration Reform

Idaho had to take drastic measures on the potato farms. Prisoners are having to harvest crops. They couldn’t find workers. Farmers in Colorado are calling this a labor crisis. Some farmers are simply being forced to plant less knowing that they will not have sufficient labor during harvest. According to the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, there is a need for 9000 more workers than available in Colorado. Pennsylvania’s largest grower of fresh-to-market tomatoes, Keith Eckel, announced he will no longer produce the crop due to lack of labor. He said that it costs him from $1.5 to 2 million to plant and harvest a tomato crop and that the risk of not having enough workers to harvest is too big. Congress’ inability to act on immigrations, including the necessary provisions for the H-2A agricultural visas, is paralyzing farmers. Our faulty immigrations policy is now going to cost us even more in the grocery stores or force importation from other countries, ironically, most likely from somewhere in Latin America.. So, these are the jobs that immigrant workers are taking from Americans?

#3 - Latin American Internet User Growth Far
Exceeds Growth in the United States

Forbes.com published a very interesting commentary by Sramana Mitra, a technology entrepreneur and strategy consultant in Silicon Valley. She details how from 2000 to 2007 Internet usage in Latin America increased by 32 percent as opposed to only 12 percent in North America. She says that overall Latin America accounts for 10% of Internet usage globally. My question is, “If this is the case, why do most people continue to treat Latin America as a third-world continent?” While the. U.S. economy staggers, most Latin American countries continue with economic growth. The U.S. Internet penetration is over 70 percent of the population. Latin America, even with this growth rate, has only a 21.5 percent penetration rate. There is room for A LOT more growth! If you are looking to expand your offerings to Latin America via the Internet a few words of caution are in order. 1. Make sure you get the language thing down. 2. Do not put /espanol after your .com or .org or . whatever. Create a distinctive and Latino appealing .com or .org or . whatever name. 3. Patiently develop relationships. It takes time to gain the trust of the Latino consumer; especially via the Internet.


#4 - Univision in Danger of Losing Television
Programming in Dispute with Mexico’s Televisa

For those of you not familiar with Spanish language television stations, Univision is the giant in the United States but Televisa of Mexico is the bigger giant in the Spanish-speaking world. Televisa is attempting to terminate an exclusive programming deal with Univision in a dispute about royalty payments. If they succeed, Univision could lose up to three-quarters of its prime time programming which it receives directly from Televisa. Televisa tried to buy Univision in 2006 but failed in its attempt. To further pressure Univision, Televisa recently signed a deal with NBC owned, Telemundo, to broadcast their content in Mexico. It looks like Televisa and NBC Telemundo are working to form a new partnership. Univision could be seriously hurt if they lose this programming content and would be forced to either create more of their own programming or seek out content in other markets. The big winner here in the Spanish-language television market could be American owned NBC. The morale of the story? Pay your royalties and watch “telenovelas” instead of starring in one of the steamy dramas in real life.