Cold storage operator fights to survive free-trade fallout

santa cruz sentinel ^ | January 23, 2006 | TOM RAGAN

[hedgetrimmer]

WATSONVILLE — The city's food-processing industry has wilted to a shadow of its former self.

Only a trio of independent food-processing and cold-storage businesses remains. Ray Rodriguez, 59, owner of Farmers Processing & Cold Storage, a Castroville native and son of field workers, is one.

Del Mar Food Products Corp. and BirdsEye are the others.

There was a time when the city was so overrun with the likes of Rodriguez that it was nicknamed the "Frozen Food Capital of the World."

That was the 1930s and '40s, well before the North American Free Trade Agreement appeared in the early 1990s, forcing such companies out of business and persuading the more lucrative ones to move south of the border to improve their bottom lines.

Now, Rodriguez is recruiting the Watsonville City Council for aid to come up with state and federal funds to help him expand and add more frozen vegetables to his repertoire at a cost of $1 million.

Last week, the City Council took his case to U.S. Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel, who said he'd do what he could on Capitol Hill but cautioned that the federal government is beset with figuring out how to rebuild New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and to fund counterterrorism efforts, both of which cost the country billions of dollars.

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Farr complimented the city and Rodriguez for wanting to remain agriculturally viable when most American cities in farming communities are "chasing sales tax dollars" in the form of big-box stores.

"Watsonville can be a model," he said. "You've got the ability to apply for so many grants because you're unique and it just so happens that you fit into so many different categories — whether it's poverty, or affordable housing or sustainable agriculture."

Rodriguez has managed to weather the free-trade storm. But every day, he said, he wonders how he's going to survive going head-to-head with Third World countries like Mexico and Guatemala and Ecuador that have cheap labor and few regulations.

Rodriguez said if he wants to survive, he must expand — create a pair of processing lines and add more frozen vegetables, like snow peas, mushrooms and soybeans.

"I don't want to die out like the rest, and the only way not to is to come up with something new and try to employ more people," said Rodriguez, who worked nearly two decades at Crosetti Frozen Foods in Pajaro where he started as janitor and finished as general manager.

"The thing is, if you head over to Albertsons or Safeway, you'll see that all the frozen vegetables are coming from other countries," a common lament among U.S. growers, shippers and packers.

"I can't compete with the cheap labor," he said. "I can't compete with their standards. Hell, it's more expensive for me to package everything than it is for them to ship from their home countries to Oakland, and that's a long way."

Rodriguez is processing, freezing, packing and shipping zucchini, yellow squash, cauliflower and broccoli, but he said he needs to diversify.

If he doesn't, he fears he may have to shut down, bowing to the cheaper prices brought by NAFTA. The agreement has led to anti-free-trade sentiment that's as palpable as the stink of farm sprays on a rainy day in this small, agriculturally dependent town.

Rodriguez hopes to come up with $700,000 to convert two warehouses into a pair of assembly lines that would employ 40 more people.

It's certainly worth trying and it doesn't hurt to ask the city for help, said J.P. Mecozzi, the owner of Del Mar Food Products Corp., one of the bigger processing plants left standing, with nearly 500 employees during peak season.

"Local government has a duty to help," said the 51-year-old Mecozzi. "Anytime you can enhance a local business and help the local economy, it's going to be good all the way around, even for me.

"Ray is a terrific person. He's a great corporate citizen, if you will, and great personality," he said. "I hope he's able to get what he wants."

So far, Mecozzi has managed to keep NAFTA at bay because his processing lines run year-round. He specializes in frozen fruits and vegetables, but he too feels the threat of imports, he said.

"At the end of the day," he said, "we all have to compete as individuals."

[1rudeboy]

I suspect that even PCR does not make declarative statements only to contradict himself thirty minutes later.

[Toddsterpatriot]

Why is Paul Craig Roberts such an assclown?

[1rudeboy]

Paul Craig Roberts? I'm not sure if Paul Craig Roberts has ever weighed-in on the issue of food safety. In any case, to avoid this thread from becoming about Paul Craig Roberts, perhaps we can carry this discussion farther on a Paul Craig Roberts thread. There's another Paul Craig Roberts thread running around now.

[1rudeboy]

Lychee nuts?

[GadareneDemoniac]

"I don't care who ya are - that's funny!"

I'm going to remember those! Thanks for a good laugh on a Friday.

[1rudeboy]

Jasmine tea?

[Toddsterpatriot]

Fortune cookies?

[1rudeboy]

?

[Toddsterpatriot]

[1rudeboy]

I see you, and I raise.

[freepatriot32]

Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here

[ndt]

"A tenth of the world’s irrigated crops - everything from lettuce and tomatoes to mangoes and coconuts - are watered by sewage."

Just a note, pathogenic bacteria do not travel up the plants vascular system to the edible portions. The odds of contamination of mangoes and coconuts from contaminated irrigation water is nearly non-existent, assuming the contaminated water were not directly applied to the fruit, and even then, given the nature of a coconut highly doubtfully.

Lettuce is another matter, it is routinely "sprinkled" with ditch water on the way to market to keep it from wilting.

[hedgetrimmer]

Strawberries can be contaminated too.

[hedgetrimmer]

it is routinely "sprinkled" with ditch water on the way to market to keep it from wilting.

It also depends on where they get the water to make the ice they use to cool it with.

[ndt]

"Strawberries can be contaminated too. It also depends on where they get the water to make the ice they use to cool it with."

True on both accounts.

As far as fresh produce goes, it is "field crops" that you have to worry about, those that lie low to the ground and are likely to be in direct contact with contaminated water. Strawberries are a perfect example.

One big point to remember though is that even with contaminated crops, cooking will render them safe. Of course, who wants to eat cooked lettuce?

Now, to go totally anecdotal for a second. I eat a ton of vegetables (wife is a vegetarian) and all of them come from Central and South America because that is where I live. I have never had a problem with the veggies.

I did get dysentery once (sickest I have ever felt, I thought I was going to die) but it was not from vegetables, it was from a meat empanada (salteña actually) that I bought from a street vendor in Peru (bad call on my part). I still eat from street vendors, but only the ones I can see cooking the food.

[hedgetrimmer]

USDA proposes poultry imports from China
Picayune Item
January 28, 2006
Mississippi, US

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Agriculture Department is seeking to allow shipments of poultry processed in China, where thousands of birds and several people have died from bird flu.

The United States does not accept live poultry imports from countries where the virulent bird flu strain is present, and it still would not under the proposed policy.

Instead, the department would allow China to process poultry slaughtered in the U.S. or other countries from which the U.S. accepts poultry.

Critics are urging the department to drop the proposal, fearing how it might affect consumers' perception of how safe it is to eat chicken.

Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa said Friday the U.S. can't afford to take chances. He acknowledged there are safeguards in the plan but said the department has a poor record on inspections.

“We know that USDA's foreign food inspections have had problems in the past, and with so many unanswered questions, it is not wise to allow processed poultry imports from China at this time,” said Harkin, the senior Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee.

“I am concerned the administration is neglecting the substantial public health and economic risks to the United States, which USDA itself acknowledges but fails to address,” he said.

The industry did not ask for the proposal, National Chicken Council spokesman Richard Lobb said. Chicken companies recently launched tests of every flock in the nation to reassure people that chicken is safe to eat.

“The timing is a mystery to us. We did not seek this rule. We're not objecting to it, but we didn't support it, either,” Lobb said.

Under the government proposal, the poultry would have to be fully cooked in China and packaged or canned for shipment to the United States.

The Agriculture Department proposed the rule, with no announcement, on Nov. 23. The period during which it accepted comments on the proposal ended Monday. The rule still must be finalized before it takes effect.

The department acted on a request from China, spokesman Steven Cohen said. The department “takes the issue of food safety extremely seriously,” he said. “We would not have proposed this rule without having the scientific basis to be able to guarantee the safety of the product.”

Officials are reviewing the comments and have no timeline for finalizing the rule, he said.

On the Net:

U.S. Department of Agriculture: http://www.usda.gov

[ndt]

"Instead, the department would allow China to process poultry slaughtered in the U.S. or other countries from which the U.S. accepts poultry."

This really is a separate issue from contamination from water irrigation which was what I was addressing.

The problem with this would be if Asian birds were passed off as birds that were only processed in Asia. Even then, there would only be a problem in regards to raw meat.

If the chickens were in fact raised and slaughtered in the U.S. and only processed in China, the risk of bird flu is 0%. Dead birds, like dead people, don't get the flu.

As for processed meats (i.e. cooked, canned etc) again, the risk of bird flu is 0%, even if those birds we in fact infected. The flu is not like mad cow disease, it would not survive canning process.

[BlackbirdSST]

This really is a separate issue from contamination from water irrigation which was what I was addressing. The problem with this would be if Asian birds were passed off as birds that were only processed in Asia. Even then, there would only be a problem in regards to raw meat. If the chickens were in fact raised and slaughtered in the U.S. and only processed in China, the risk of bird flu is 0%. Dead birds, like dead people, don't get the flu. As for processed meats (i.e. cooked, canned etc) again, the risk of bird flu is 0%, even if those birds we in fact infected. The flu is not like mad cow disease, it would not survive canning process.

Uhhhhuh, you can have my share! Blackbird.