Asparagus growers in eastern Washington State are scrambling to find enough workers to cash in on their crop's rising popularity without much success. "We have a labor shortage, pure and simple," says Dan Fazio of the Washington Farm Labor Association.

Farmers are being forced to leave 10 percent of this year's crop uncut, which is costing them, according to the state's asparagus commissioner, a combined $200,000 a day. But one place growers are not looking for labor is the unemployment office -- even though the jobless rate in Franklin County, where most of the asparagus is grown, is 10.7 percent. 

"I'm pretty confident that if the average unemployed citizen in Franklin County came out and cut asparagus, it would be an unmitigated disaster," says Alan Schreiber. "It's hard work and you've got to be productive."

Growers say the answer is immigration reform that would allow people who are in the country illegally to stay and work toward legal status.