USA oranges

[ninnymary]

I just had another of my moms oranges. I swear they are the sweetest ones I've ever had. The color is just an amazing rich orange all around. Taste nothing like store bought nor do they look like oranges at the store.

Mary

 

[Zeedman]

Imported produce is most certainly NOT raised under our regulations. They use insecticides that are illegal in USA-don't get me started on their rates. They use child labor that is also illegal in USA. I could go on and on and on, but I'll spare you.

So I take it you don't eat bananas?

It is not my intent to be argumentative... but please, don't spare me. I would welcome examples from reputable sources, and this is the perfect topic for such a discussion. There is far too much anecdotal information & over generalization on the web, being recited as fact. If there has been any documented U.S. case of pesticide poisoning from imported foreign produce, please share.

And as I mentioned above, I have no reason to believe that domestic produce is any safer. Several instances of tainted domestic produce in recent years have been ample evidence of that... and don't even get me started on meat recalls. Our growing organic food system offers the safest produce, but it is not yet competitive enough price wise for it to gain acceptance by those of limited means - who will vote with their wallets for the cheaper alternative.

Don't get me wrong; I am not in favor of importing food products (including produce) from countries which do not adhere to our standards (garlic from China comes to mind). However, I am just as apprehensive about the questionable competence of our own food system, where producers often have a hand in writing the regulations governing their own industries, and chemical companies spend millions lobbying our law makers. IMO, its just comparing the relative safety of one corrupt system over another, with neither having the best interests of the consumer at heart.

As for "child labor"... I worked picking peas & beans on a farm when I was 10, and was happy to have the income, and to experience the first glimmer of self-determination. Labor regulations in other countries (where there are any) may differ from our own, and undoubtedly some abuses do occur. However, it would be an over generalization to state that child labor practices are either widespread, or abusive. Furthermore, as someone who has walked on six continents, I can state that we should not apply our standards to those in cultures different from our own. In countries where education is lacking & unemployment is high, working on a farm can be the difference between a full belly, and going to bed hungry... so putting them out of work, regardless of good intentions, would not be a kindness.

Whatever our individual feelings on the matter may be, foreign produce is here to stay - for as long as the grocers & the average consumer both want it that way. It would take a paradigm shift in our culture for that to change, and IMO, only a disaster of mammoth proportions (or some equally disastrous government regulation) could trigger such a change.

Sorry for the rant. I don't think "the sky is falling", and I hope it never gets that bad... but I do think that the food system in this country has flaws, both foreign and domestic in nature.

 

[Nyboy]

Child labor is not not why people have kids I thought farm familys like the Waltons had many kids to help in the work.

 

[seedcorn]

HUGE difference between family farm where kids are assigned chores VS what is happening in other 3rd world companies. I pray I don't have to explain that difference. Surely you see difference in sweat shops and 4H projects? IF not, I'm talking to wrong people.

Easy-Mexico still uses DDT.

Yes, I have been known to eat a banana. Didn't realize we grew them in USA. What state grows them commercially? I know a few in Hawaii are grown but that ground is too expensive for crops because of tourism.

Most contamination issues in resteraunts are by a chain that only serves "organic" food. In USA, we know of our contamination issues because we have a system that catches them before they become a nation wide epidemic. We have the safest food supply in the history of the USA.

I think I've answered enough opened cans of worms. I try to keep answers brief because most people quit reading (thinking after a few sentences).

 

[seedcorn]

Child labor is not not why people have kids I thought farm familys like the Waltons had many kids to help in the work.

Come on, the Waltons are a Hollywood fictional family. Who had gas to run all over during the depression? That show is more hilarious than "Green Acres". Actually "Green Acres" is very accurate to what happens when city people come out and try to live the country life. They are beyond hilarious.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Different reasons for large families. When you are doing subsistence farming the extra hands help once they get big enough to help. I grew up on one of those farms, at least to start with. After he had a couple of us in school, Dad realized he could not afford to send us to school by subsistence farming alone so he got a job in a shirt factory. And he kept trying to subsistence farm. He put in a lot of long hours every day. By the time I was five I was working on the farm, some of it hard grueling work. I didn't consider it abuse, I considered it just what you do. I didn't start hiring out to neighbors until I was probably 12. That's basically how I got my spending money until I left home after high school, working on neighbor's farms.

Another reason for a high birth rate was infant mortality. Both my father and my mother lost three siblings before those siblings were 2 years old. Dad's parents had 9 kids, six lived. Mom's parents had 8 kids, five lived. You just didn't have the health care back then.

People trying to just get by can't spare a lot of money to provide light after it gets dark. There is a reason some people go to bed with the chickens, they can't afford kerosene or electricity to light up the night. Even if they get up with the chickens, some of those nights are going to be pretty long. What are you going to do to break the boredom when you are lying awake in bed withy your spouse?

I've only set foot on five continents, haven't made it to Australia and have no desire to got o Antarctica. I lived for over a year on four of those, some of that in pretty primitive areas. There are plenty of places in this world today where a lot of people are still trying to get by with subsistence farming or hunting or fishing. Cash money can be really hard to come by. I have no doubt there are plenty of places where child labor is grossly abused, it's not an easy answer. If the kids don't work, some families starve.

To put another perspective on this, I've worked in places where a good salary for an educated person was low y our standards. In Kazakhstan the equivalent of the state governor said he considered $250 a month to be a good salary. His daughter was a trained nurse and she made the equivalent of $250 a month. She was doing well.

Where I was in Nigeria the pay scale was similar. You could hire an unskilled day laborer, hard labor like keeping grass mowed in an oil/gas plant with a machete because you did not want machinery that could cause a spark, for the equivalent of $50 a month. Skilled labor was closer to $250. Plenty of people wanted those jobs. It wasn't just that they actually got cash but while they were working they often got free housing and food. In a place where people are often hungry that free food meant a lot, especially if they could take some home to their families when their shift was up. They normally worked one week on, one week off. And what cash they got went a long way as long as they were living on the local economy. if they tried to live by "western standards" well, it wasn't much.

Another aspect of that. The local governments wanted us to honor local wage scales. If we start paying above local wage scales, local indigenous businesses could not survive. They could not afford to raise their wages and stay in business.

Another reason that our jobs were sought after was that we paid. Not that we paid well, but that we paid. It was pretty standard practice for local businesses to hire someone and not pay them for months at a time. The employees would eventually go on strike until back pay was caught up. Some of those strikes got pretty nasty. Often we'd give our local employees checks but when they went to the bank, the bank would say we did not have any money in our account to pay them. Of course we did. In some places it became standard practice for us to pay companies in cash. We'd take a helicopter to their factory or fabrication yard with armed guards and cash, give them the cash, then stand by while they paid their workers. Or we'd arrange transportation on payday for our workers to go cash their checks and go with them to make sure those checks were honored.

To further something Seed mentioned. Some third world countries have not banned certain pesticides. They have to make a choice between banning certain pesticide or their crops producing enough to feed their people.

I'm trying to not make political statements or even offer solutions. I don't have any. I'm trying to point out that these problems are real problems and they don't have simplistic solutions. Actions have consequences. If you try to fix a complicated problem with a simplistic solution hat has not considered the consequences you can really mess some people up.

 

[Nyboy]

Can you really wash pesticides off your produce ?

 

[seedcorn]

@Ridgerunner Totally understand what you typed. Huge difference between 3rd world nation domestic uses VS what they send to us. I would never try to tell anyone how to live (even when I fervently hate what they are doing-killing elephants in Africa. When they send their cheap goods using child labor, illegal chemicals, etc that puts our American industries out of business, I SCREAM, NO!!!!! Want to compete in our industry, use our standards! Especially in AG.

 

[seedcorn]

Can you really wash pesticides off your produce ?

No. Which is why we are told to keep banana peels away from edible things. Loaded with pesticides.

 

[seedcorn]

I just had another of my moms oranges. I swear they are the sweetest ones I've ever had. The color is just an amazing rich orange all around. Taste nothing like store bought nor do they look like oranges at the store.

Mary

Are you bragging? Are your adopted southern roots coming out. I am beyond jealous. I bet they are GOOD!