Some Stanislaus County farmers are having a tough time harvesting their crops because of a shortage of workers．For years Vito Chiesa, who farms near Hughson, has grown peaches, but these days he s replacing them with almonds (杏仁)．' This is where I started losing peaches,' he pointed out to NewslO reporter Tim Daly．'Just like that, we got the bulldozers(推土机)and pushed．You re going to see almonds out there next year.' Farmers can t find enough workers to handle crops like peaches that require careful hand picking because machines would damage the ripe peaches and then the farmer could not sell them．Some farmers will soon switch to growing almonds．Almonds are harvested differently．They require fewer workers because trees are mechanically shaken．The almonds fall on the ground and then are gathered up．The farmer does not have to hire many workers to pick the almonds off the trees．Some farmers think there are a couple of reasons for the labor shortage, which is even worse in the southern Central Valley．One is that workers make higher wages doing construction work and there is plenty of that in the Central Valley．Another is that since the September 11, 2001 attacks, there is more enforcement at the state s border with Mexico, resulting in fewer workers coming into California．One solution might be to allow Mexican workers to work here as guests, so people who want to work and contribute to the economy of the U.S．can have the opportunity to provide for themselves and family．That would also help the farm labor situation without the country less secure．Farmers say that unless things change, more produce will come from South America and China where labor is cheap and there is more competition.
The farmers are reported to have difficulty in______.