Few safeguards for Mexican produce heading north

September 14, 2008 By MARK WALSH and OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ , Associated Press Writers
Few safeguards for Mexican produce heading north (AP)

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Ruben Cisneros, 36, walks past jalapeno seedlings in a nursery in Hidalgo, Mexico, where the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Mexican authorities have checked for salmonella, Friday, Aug. 8, 2008. The tests from the nursery were clean, according to Mexican officials. The recent outbreak was the United States' largest case of foodborne illness in a decade, infecting at least 1,440 people with a rare form of salmonella. (AP Photo/ Monica Rueda).

(AP) -- At the end of a dirt road in northern Mexico, the conveyer belts processing hundreds of tons of vegetables a year for U.S. and Mexican markets are open to the elements, protected only by a corrugated metal roof.



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Arthur_Dent
Sep 14, 2008

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This is the same idiocy as what happened in England (sheep) a few years ago:
one single contamination, in that case, wiped out an industry, due to spread through a distribution center.

Since it's inevitable that more industries be wiped out due to that sort of thing, and also that many human lives be wiped out because of it,
why aren't food redirection centers made smaller, and more limited (size scope), specifically to minimize the impact of these incidents?

They'd still happen, but wouldn't kill off entire industries, or slaughter so many lives as they easily can, the current way.

So long as one is looking at the long view, even the industries in question must be able to perceive that it's their survival on the line, too.
Truth
Sep 15, 2008

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I heard a man from Mexico say that the produce workers reach down deep in their throats and pull out a hocker to spit on the produce, just for kicks to mess with the stupid "Americanos." He says he personally saw them doing this at least three times in the past year. So you wonder where the toxins come from? wow...
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