Thread: Until Nothing is Left

Until Nothing is Left
As imports of foreign produce increase, California farmers are losing their place at the table

~ By WILLIAM J. KELLY ~


Illustration by Arthur Giron


t’s 9 a.m. and workers are rolling up the giant doors at Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles. Grocers are ready for business, their stalls colorfully stocked with vegetables and fruit – green beans, squash, tomatoes, lettuces, asparagus, oranges, apples, avocados, nectarines.


This open air market, and scores of groceries and supermarkets throughout Los Angeles, once offered nothing but the bounty of California, the largest agricultural state in the nation. Long the salad bowl for the nation, we became the envy of easterners who face limited selections of vegetables and fruits during winter months. It’s still true that every year California farmers produce more than $20 billion worth of crops, most of them high-value vegetables, fruits, nuts, wines, dairy, and meat products.

Increasingly, however, the produce that adorns Grand Central Market and other grocery stores no longer is grown here. Instead, it arrives from Mexico, Chile, Peru, China, and other far-flung nations. California agriculture is under economic assault from cheap imports, produced in many cases under cut-rate conditions that do not meet U.S. sanitary standards. Pesticides often are overused in some nations, according to Beyond Pesticides. Contamination problems have come to light, as illustrated by the recent case of Chinese wheat gluten. The product was widely used in pet food and other unknown foods sold in the U.S. even though it had been contaminated with chemicals used in plastic, including melamine and cyanuric acid.

As the tide of imported crops rises, U.S. food safety officials have not kept up with inspections and monitoring of the food sold in Los Angeles and U.S. markets. A July 17 House Committee on Energy and Commerce investigation, prompted by the Chinese gluten scare which killed or sickened thousands of pets, revealed the lack of safeguards. It found that the Food and Drug Administration inspects less than 1 percent of imported foods. It then chemically tests only a small percentage of the food it inspects.

“The shoddy state of U.S. inspection procedures has not gone unnoticed,â€

NAFTA must be stopped,I had no idea the impact this was having on our farmers nor did I know they do not have to meet our safety standards which makes no sense to me.That punishes our producers who must abide by US safety standards.

I am glad food is going to be labeled as to where it was produced and I will do my best to buy american.

Well, it's not hard to see where all this is going. The same thing happened with the oil. It got cheaper to buy it from foreign countries than it was to drill our own. So in the late 70's, early 80's, company's started shutting down oil rigs in this country. As we gradually got dependent on foreign countries for our oil supply, the cost started going up, until it's where it is today.

The same thing is happening with our food supply. As soon as we get totally dependent on foreign countries for our food, the price will go up. If there is a war or disagreement with these foreign countries and they deny us food, then the American companies can't produce it again fast enough to feed all of America. Then there will be talks in Congress of how to weine ourselves off foreign food, just like they talk about doing with the oil.

This damn NAFTA agreement is going to be the death of America, and this makes me so mad at our government for allowing this to happen. The only bright side is that eventually we won't have any use for a Guest Worker Program.

I remember people freaking out over NAFTA when it passed during the Clinton years. Hillary was involved with NAFTA and still holds that true to her heart now.
With the housing market going, government spending rampant, the Iraq War still floundering, Illegal Immigration, a Republican President who is a left winger and for Globalization we are in for a rough ride. I don't think we will have a choice but to go back to our pre Bush days. It is just a matter of time.
I am sick of third world countries S***ing on our vegetables and making us sick.

IMHO a big part of the problem is that much of our farmland in California was taken up by tract housing. If you remember the Disneyland area was all originally orange groves and is now miles and miles of cities stretching from sea to mountains.

Similar situations have arisen elsewhere and we have lost much of our farm land. The housing boom can be partially blamed on illegals who bought up old homes, and pushed out the original owners, who then moved to suburbs. Like ripples moving outward, we keep losing land. Each school built, each suburb, takes up prior farm land or what could have been used for growing produce.

That's another point. Illegal aliens change our land use.

Gawd, close our borders, PLEASE, drop NAFTA. I'll take recession, I'll take unemployment .. .I'll take anything over this. I know the 80s' weren't the best, but they were better than THIS lousy scenario.

Originally Posted by InsaneAsylum

IMHO a big part of the problem is that much of our farmland in California was taken up by tract housing. If you remember the Disneyland area was all originally orange groves and is now miles and miles of cities stretching from sea to mountains.

Similar situations have arisen elsewhere and we have lost much of our farm land. The housing boom can be partially blamed on illegals who bought up old homes, and pushed out the original owners, who then moved to suburbs. Like ripples moving outward, we keep losing land. Each school built, each suburb, takes up prior farm land or what could have been used for growing produce.

That's another point. Illegal aliens change our land use.

Same goes for Long Island! We had thousands of acres of open land and woods!!! They shredded and leveled 'em and built McMansions and Box stores!!!! While 1/2 mile down the road is an abandoned strip mall that is falling apart!!! We have a huge overcrowding problem here on the Island and it gets worse every week!!! Traffic, people, pollution!!! It doesn't stop!! We to had thousands of farms too and they are selling there lands for millions to developers to build carpet bomb housing that the working class can't afford!!! I am sick...........Get me a bucket!!!! With the developers come illegal workers, thats how there tied to this story!!!

-BorderLegionnaire

Originally Posted by InsaneAsylum

IMHO a big part of the problem is that much of our farmland in California was taken up by tract housing. If you remember the Disneyland area was all originally orange groves and is now miles and miles of cities stretching from sea to mountains.

Similar situations have arisen elsewhere and we have lost much of our farm land. The housing boom can be partially blamed on illegals who bought up old homes, and pushed out the original owners, who then moved to suburbs. Like ripples moving outward, we keep losing land. Each school built, each suburb, takes up prior farm land or what could have been used for growing produce.

That's another point. Illegal aliens change our land use.

Very true, I'm old enough to remember when Ca. was nothing but farm land. I never could figure why a country would pave over it's own food supply?

My husband and I were talking about the very same thing. We would take a recession, not being able to drive everywhere we wanted, scrimp, be prepared to take in some family members just so we could have our country back. I think that is how most Americans feel at this point. Our standing in the world right now is so poor and it is getting worse because of the mistakes not only by the Bush Administration but the Clinton Administration as well. To think of Hillary and Obama in 2008 is just terrifying. I worry about the future of my children and my grandchildren we we don't stop this downward spiral we are in.

While we need to continue to fight - we also need to think about getting prepared for some hard times.

Years ago, I saw a story about the destruction of the citrus groves in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas in order to build houses.

I witnessed this first hand in AZ. I saw them literally drag a huge chain across a small grove and just destroy it. Within a month was another apartment complex.

We saw a couple of beautiful big groves with signs announcing some new commercial complex was being built on the site.

My son was just out there and told us one of the larger groves where we bought citrus has a sign this will be their last year.

In Texas, they are digging up thousands and thousands of acres of land for coal. They are planting pine trees on the land as it doesn't seem to be capable of sustaining anything else. There is some land they dug about 35 years ago, saying it could be reclaimed. It is beautiful. They contoured it, planted some now mature trees, ponds, grasses, etc., but nothing seems to survive on it. No cows, no nothing. I did hear they imported some deer because they thought it would stop people's questions if some pretty little deer were cavorting around - the deer left!!

This is prime food growing land. It is by and large sandy ground that can either grow crops, hay or sustain animals. The rainfall is usually sufficient - this year more than sufficient. But this land is lost for generations for the production of food.

Then take all the land, lots of it farmland that will be used for the superhighway. I am not sure how safe food, for man or beast, would be grown close to that highway. Imagine thousands and thousands of those 18 wheelers passing on a daily basis - the pollution is going to be astounding. So how much land, in total, will be lost to that monstrosity?

Yes, it's time to rev up the fight - but begin preparing -------