• HUMAN SHIT ON THE PRODUCE - Why cilantro from Puebla, Mexico is prohibi

    From More CHANGE!@21:1/5 to All on Thu Sep 10 03:50:54 2015
    XPost: alt.food.safety, az.politics, ca.general
    XPost: ba.politics

    News that some Mexican farm workers have been relieving
    themselves in fields of cilantro bound for American tables may
    worry consumers. But it also raises health issues for the
    farmworkers.

    While presidential candidate Donald Trump, who said "infectious
    disease is pouring across the border," may be tempted to make
    the quality of Mexican cilantro exclusively a foreign policy
    issue, farm worker advocacy groups say this is a problem in
    American fields as well.

    On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a ban
    on fresh cilantro from the Mexican state of Puebla from entering
    the US after a government investigation found human feces and
    toilet paper in fields used to grow the herb, according to an
    alert issued by the FDA.

    The partial ban affects cilantro imported from the state of
    Puebla, which the FDA has linked to 2013 and 2014 outbreaks of
    stomach illness in the United States. The ban will continue from
    April through August in future years unless a company producing
    the crop can prove to health authorities that its product is
    safe.

    “Conditions observed at multiple such firms in the state of
    Puebla included human feces and toilet paper found in growing
    fields and around facilities; inadequately maintained and
    supplied toilet and hand washing facilities (no soap, no toilet
    paper, no running water, no paper towels) or a complete lack of
    toilet and hand washing facilities; food-contact surfaces (such
    as plastic crates used to transport cilantro or tables where
    cilantro was cut and bundled) visibly dirty and not washed; and
    water used for purposes such as washing cilantro vulnerable to
    contamination from sewage/septic systems,” according to the FDA
    alert released Monday.

    According to the FDA alert, US and Mexican health authorities
    investigated 11 farms and packing houses in Puebla and found
    problems in eight of the farms, including some that had "no
    running water or toilet facilities.”

    “We have that kind of a problem right here in America,” says
    Evelyn Freeman in a phone interview. Ms. Freeman adds, “I grew
    up with my parents in the field and when I got out of school I
    went in the field. I picked oranges. I experienced where there
    wasn’t nowhere to go and you had to go in the field. I minister
    to people who are out there and every day I hear from people who
    have nowhere to use but the field.”

    Ms. Freeman now works as an assistant at the Farm Workers
    Association of Florida, a membership organization of 6,500 farm
    worker families. The Association addresses wages, benefits, and
    working conditions, as well as pesticides, field sanitation,
    disaster response, immigration, and other community-based issues.

    “We might be a little better [than Mexico] but not enough to be
    running our mouth. Not like Donald Trump who’s running his
    mouth,” says Freeman. “We got a long way to go.”

    Jeannie Economos, pesticide safety and environmental health
    project coordinator at the Farm Workers Association of Florida,
    says in an interview that while the EPA has worker protection
    standards relating to pesticides and OSHA has standards in place
    related to field sanitation, which require that a restroom be
    within a quarter mile of the fields, that does not mean American
    fields are free of human waste.

    “While we do have many clean, good, law-abiding growers in this
    country and we don’t want to say this is happening at all farms,
    we do hear from many workers, especially pregnant women, that
    they either lack any facilities at all, or that the facilities
    are too dirty to use and they’d rather use the woods or fields,”
    says Ms. Economos.

    She adds that while there has been a great deal of attention on
    the part of consumers in their own health being affected by food
    safety issues like Ecoli and Tuesday’s Kroger recall of
    seasonings because they could be contaminated by salmonella,
    little attention is given to the issues of worker health.

    “Farm workers are exposed to pesticides and have very serious
    health conditions in the field,” she says. “These issues affect
    the food supply, but also affects the health and safety of farm
    workers are risking their health with pesticides every single
    day.”

    Dr. Ed Zuroweste is the chief medical officer for the Migrant
    Clinicians Network, whose goal is to improve health care for
    migrants by providing support and technical assistance to farm
    workers in the field. He says in an interview that the gap
    between laws on the books and effective enforcement in the US is
    a wide one.

    “We [Americans] do not by any stretch of the imagination have a
    perfect agro business situation,” says Dr. Zuroweste.
    “Especially when it comes to the health and safety of the people
    who spend all day, every day, picking our fruits and vegetables.
    We could do much, much better than we are.”

    Zuroweste says that if a farmer is not providing the proper
    sanitation facilities, he can be fined for that. But he adds
    that current OSHA regulations "are not strict enough and we
    don't have the manpower to enforce the ones we do have."

    He says that educating workers is one step toward improving the
    situation: "There are regulations in place but workers need to
    know their rights and they have to speak up when conditions are
    not meeting those standards."

    http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2015/0728/FDA-cilantro- ban-Why-cilantro-from-Puebla-Mexico-is-prohibited-in-the-US

     

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