Farm employment in rural California -- with its reliance on immigrant or migrant workers -- leads to rural poverty, according to the research of two UC Davis professors of agricultural and resource economics. Edward Taylor and Philip Martin analyzed 1990 census data from 65 rural towns in California's San Joaquin Valley, an area with one of the highest rates of poverty among immigrants. Their article, "Immigrant Subsidy in U.S. Agriculture," was recently published in the journal Population and Development Review. The economists describe a vicious cycle: Flat or declining real wages resulting from a highly elastic supply of immigrant labor create an incentive for farmers to expand production of labor-intensive specialty crops. Increased production, in turn, stimulates immigration. The immigrants no longer live on farms; they settle into poverty-ridden farmworker communities, while the farm owners live in prosperous towns. According to Taylor and Martin, the immigrants are the last to benefit from their employment. The money goes, instead, to labor contractors and foremen; to local residents with transportation or with rooms to rent; and to food, check-cashing and other service providers. Martin and Taylor are co-editors of "Poverty Amid Prosperity: Immigration and the Changing Face of Rural California."