The Source
Dec 11th, 2006 at 10:12 am by Susie
How very discreet of the washington Post, to get through an entire article about the problems of e. coli in produce without mentioning one likely source - human shit. Because, of course, they don’t want us to think about SHIT IN OUR FOOD.
You know, as generated by farm workers, who are forced to take a dump in the field and have no place to wash their hands? I don’t know about you, but I’m willing to pay an extra nickel a head for lettuce if it means workers have a place to relieve themselves. But you know how it is - if you don’t stay on top of those lazy workers every second, they’ll take advantage of you by, oh, I don’t know, wiping themselves.
That sort of thing really cuts down on productivity, and God knows, they’re already paid too much.
Felipa fills the opening. She works grapes for Sun Pacific — which she pronounces soon-pacie — but she says she can imagine how her husband’s co-worker Salud died. “To pick the chiles,†she says, “you have to run behind the tractor and then be on your knees all day. You are under those vines, bent over in the heat, and you can’t breathe. Pobre señor,†she says of the deceased, putting her hands over her heart.
“In my work, it is also very hard,†Felipa continues. “The foreman demands that each team of three people produce 72 tubs of grapes per day.†A tub holds 23 pounds of grapes, sorted, cleaned, bunched and packed in plastic ready for supermarket shelves. “Sometimes it goes up to 96 tubs,†Felipa says. “We don’t have time to take our breaks. If you turn in less than they ask for, they run you out after three days.â€
I ask her if she knows that the law requires farm workers be given at least two 10-minute breaks a day, apart from a 30-minute lunch. Unmoving and silent, she merely smiles back at me — as if to say, “What kind of idiot are you?â€
All I can say is “oh shit.”
Whatever Cesar Chavez gained seems to have been lost.
While I’m sure there are lots of exceptions, it’s quite common to see Portapotties in farm fields when people are working there. Some people who operate farms don’t deal with their employees like Simon Legree. But more enforcement would still be a good idea.
At least one of the e. coli episodes was attributed to wild pigs, but that is still something the owner should be dealing with.
Lets not forget factory farm runoff is a major problem as well:
http://www.environmentalintegrity.org/pubs/EPA%20Must%20Limit%20Factory%20Farm%20Animal%20Waste%20Bacteria.pdf