Letter: Level playing field needed for farmers
Well, we find out after 10s of millions, perhaps 100s of millions of dollars in damages to the Florida tomato industry that the real culprit in the salmonella outbreak was a Mexican chili. Why is it that the American farmer is held to a higher standard on food safety and regulation than the rest of the world?
As consumers, we should demand that all food sold in the United States be held to the same standards. Other countries should not be able to use pesticides on our food that we do not allow to be used in this country; it puts the American farmer at a disadvantage to have to compete with low wages and no regulation.
A similar disaster is just waiting to happen right here in Madera. We as farmers are checked relentlessly on our chemical applications, safety training, heat stress training, container storage, tractor safety, pruning safety and the list goes on — but the big one is toilet inspection. We get checked weekly, sometimes twice, we have to have cleaning records available on the toilet, and they must be cleaned every 24 hours. If not, we get a citation.
Yet, the same inspectors that check on me drive right by the roadside fruit stands that are camped out on every four-way-stop intersection in the whole county. These people have no toilets, no wash water, and many times no chairs or shade. I have seen them coming out of surrounding fields with a roll of toilet paper in their hand, and I have seen women changing diapers and then go right back packing cherries and strawberries.
When an e coli outbreaks happens, and its only a matter of time, the news will report it as a cherry or strawberry problem, and the California farmers are going to suffer 100s of millions in damages, and these nonpermitted, unregulated, cash-only businesses will keep right on selling.
Why doesn’t our local ag commissioner protect not only the legitimate farmers of this county and the state but the consumers as well who don’t realize what they could be getting in that little cup.
We as farmers want to deliver the best product possible to the American people, we work on a very uneven playing field and still we produce the best food in the world. It’s very frustrating to play by the rules and then have your livelihood devastated by those who would just move on to oranges or corn or whatever they can get, while we the farmers would be left to rebuild trust with the consumer so that they would once again buy our product.
So I ask you to buy American grown, and get it from a legitimate source, don’t reward those who do not play by the rules.
Mike Schafer,
Madera farmer
