In Mexico's onion fields, the work goes on

MEXICALI VALLEY, Mexico -- Jorge Vidales and his wife, Estela, work side by side in the fields here from September through May. The couple, both 30, have been harvesting green onions for a living since they were 15.

Most days they get up around 6, get breakfast for their seven children, then get on a truck that takes them to the fields. Their 14-year-old daughter, Alma Rosa, takes care of Gustavo, 3, and Alex, 18 months. The other children -- Hector, 8, Antonio, 10, Jorge Luis, 12, and Arturo, 13 -- attend a nearby school. Estela Valladores de Vidales is seven months pregnant with their eighth.

This "reporter's" piece reads like a paid PR plant. I noticed there was nothing about irrigation with untreated wastewater, feces and all.

I first became aware of the problem from a 1998 NYT article about Mexican field workers in ankle deep human-feces contaminated raw sewage from nearby communities. So this "reporter" tells us not to worry the porta-potty is sterilized daily top to bottom, inside and out -- no mention of where hands are washed, but who cares? The fields are flooded with human feces?

But not to worry. They're studying the problem. Meanwhile there are economic benefits. The International Water Management Institute a non-profit scientific research organization specializing in water use in agriculture reports,

"IWMI’s research in Mexico examines the advantages and disadvantages of using urban wastewater for crop production in Mexico's water-scarce Guanajuato river basin. Here, wastewater irrigation is a critical component of intensive water recycling practices. This study shows that the 140-hectare site downstream of Guanajuato -- that is irrigated with raw sewage -- serves as a defacto water treatment facility with significant retention of contaminants. 'We found that the economic value of wastewater used for irrigation represents a significant monetary benefit to both society and these water users,' says Dr. Chris Scott, the IWMI researcher leading this project.

"Scott says that the findings of this study suggest that the continued application of wastewater to the land in this area would be a more economical form of wastewater treatment than building a wastewater treatment plant. The building of a treatment facility is currently being studied by local authorities. 'If the treatment plant planned for the Guanajuato basin were built, local farmers' net incomes would be reduced, as they would have to buy crop nutrients to replace those previously provided by wastewater,' he explains. 'Our research has reached this conclusion with the caveat that the potential for serious negative impacts on health and the environment must be researched. Both the positive and negative costs must be carefully evaluated,' he cautions.

"It is true, this research concludes, that the short-term benefits of wastewater irrigation could be offset by the considerably high health and environmental costs of this activity. But then again, many regions will simply not be able to afford the high cost of proper waste treatment facilities. 'This is why IWMI 's research initiative on wastewater irrigation has been expanded,' says Wim van der Hoek. 'We are interested in identifying the precise conditions under which the benefits of wastewater irrigation can be realized, while minimizing the risk and associated costs for public health and environmental quality.'"

Meanwhile keep getting sick and dying, fellow Americans. We don't want to offend our neighbors and free traitors. I hope to live long enough to see those who brought us this deadly NAFTA mess hanged by angry, surviving Americans. The NAFTA pukes have inalienable rights to do it to us, we have inalienable rights to stop them. A clash of inalienable rights!

So if the green onions are not irrigated with untreated waste water it seems to me worth mentioning. The waste water problem is well known -- not just in Mexico, BTW.

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