XPost: alt.california.illegals, alt.politics, alt.california   
   XPost: rec.arts.tv   
   From: more.change@gmail.com   
      
   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   
      
           
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)