A labor shortage on local farms - compounded by Washington gridlock over immigration reform - has tempted a couple of state lawmakers to suggest that Colorado might freelance immigration policy.

The shortage is a genuine problem for farmers - and down the road for consumers,too. State Sen. Abel Tapia, D-Pueblo, and Rep. Marsha Looper, R-Calhan, are brainstorming ways the state might get more foreign farm workers in the fields.

Looper says "40 percent of the state's produce is rotting on the vine" because there aren't enough workers to harvest it. Petrocco Farms in Brighton, for example, has cut back its farmed acreage by 25 percent.

Had Congress enacted comprehensive immigration reform, including a viable guest-worker program, this problem wouldn't exist.

But Congress didn't act. And while Tapia and Looper deserve credit for their concern for farmers, any meaningful fix has to be national in scope. If the state can help any industry find legal workers in the normal course of its duties, that's fine with us. But a special office paid for by the state to help facilitate the location and hiring of foreign temporary workers? No way.

Many farms do not take full advantage of the federal H-2A visa system, which allows an unlimited number of agricultural workers to enter the United States each year for seasonal farm employment.

But the visas are burdensome. Farm jobs have to be posted for 60 days with the U.S. Department of Labor. And employers must not only provide wages but also pay housing, travel and workers compensation costs for guest workers. That's hardly chump change.

Little wonder that many farmers have often relied on an "informal" (meaning illegal) network of seasonal workers rather than satisfy immigration mandates.

That network may be drying up, thanks to state legislation passed last year and a workplace crackdown announced by the White House earlier this month. The public wants enforcement to be a priority. But Washington's failure to enable an orderly flow of labor is now causing havoc.

Under one scenario envisioned by the lawmakers, the state would open a recruitment office in Mexico that would somehow expedite visa applications. Tapia has said it might cost the state $1 million for this approach.

Alternatively, the legislature could create a division in the Department of Agriculture to help farmers find migrant workers - but that would involve state revenues, too.

It's difficult to convince U.S. citizens to take seasonal farm work. It's backbreaking labor. Employment lasts only a few months each year. Wages aren't high enough to justify working the fields during the peak of the season and risking months- long stretches of unemployment.

Only a guest-worker system could ease the shortage at an acceptable cost. Guest workers should be able to move back and forth across the border to seek seasonal employment, returning home every year.

If it passed, the fastest Tapia and Looper's proposal could take effect would be the 2009 planting season. Congress has time before then to tackle the farm labor shortage. Lawmakers will return to Washington in a few weeks. Time to get to work.