my employer has a secret agreement with the republic of chile wherein we buy out-of-season produce from their farms to sell in colorado and unload all our out-of-date chemicals onto them. i'm not sure how this relationship is economically viable. do we really need this produce all year round? peaches, nectarines, grapes, blueberries, blackberries. all expensive, all tasteless, all covered with god knows what chemicals that are still approved in chile but banned in the U.S.- but which are PROVIDED by the U.S. to chilean farms depsite the fact that they have been deemed harmful by the USDA. today we imported some chilean rocks- a.k.a. "tree-ripened" nectarines- to sell to the hopeless souls that think it might be a good idea to bite into a nectarine in january. i was thinking about reporting this chilean agreement to the store's ethics committee- i was given a card with their phone number and encouragement of anonymous reporting on my first day. probably intended for incidents of sexual harassment or something like that, but this goes way beyond the scope of worker relations! this is the company's mission at risk here! out of season ddt-infused nectarine rocks?? wtf?
i have this weird itchy problem on my neck and there are several possible sources: touching hyacinth bulbs that might have been treated with something nasty; touching the sticky, pesticidy, chilean grapes at work; eczema; or something else.
2 comments:
This is indeed a sticky wicket, especially since the store in question has a marketing image of selling products free of such chemicals. That is why the consumer is paying such outrageous prices, no?
I think if the number to report such a problem is truly anonymous it might be a good place to start. It IS an ethical problem at the very least, and possibly an FDA problem.
This is why the old timers canned stuff. This is why God created freezers. We might have mushy peaches or strawberries in mid-winter, but at least we know their providence.
Maybe you've got the scurvy?
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