Category — Trade

We can keep out the tomatoes, why not the illegals

Salmonella fear traps tomatoes in Mexico

MEXICO CITY - Export-quality tomatoes labeled “Ready to Eat” in English flooded Mexico City markets on Thursday after a salmonella scare in the U.S. trapped them south of the border.
[snip]
Instead, he now sends his top quality tomatoes to markets around Mexico where they sell for a third the U.S. price. He leaves lesser-quality produce, normally sold in Mexico, to rot.

At the capital’s bustling central food market, truckloads of tomatoes are now arriving in boxes originally meant for the U.S. “Sweet treat. Premium quality,” says lettering in English _ wording lost on most Mexican Spanish speakers.

The top quality tomatoes now sell for 35 cents a pound (8 pesos per kilogram) in the capital _ a third below normal prices.

Most customers don’t know about the U.S. salmonella scare, and those who do, don’t seem alarmed. Some shoppers said they’ve always been more careful than Americans in preparing produce _ they have to be, because vegetables sold in Mexico are not held to the same standards as those certified for export.

“What ends up here is second-rate,” said Sergio Martinez, a 40-year-old bricklayer who bought 4 1/2 pounds of tomatoes at the central market Thursday.

“Almost all vegetables are contaminated with something because they water them with sewer water and put on a lot of chemicals,” he said, noting that he washes all his produce with bleach and water.

About 120,000 people were sickened by salmonella in Mexico last year, according to Mexican health authorities _ three times the average 40,000 cases reported in the U.S., according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. [snip]

We let the salmonella laden illegals come up here to pick our food, circumventing the prophylactic measures the FDA and USDA has in place.
Hey McCain, let as many illegals in as we currently let in tomatoes. Spray them with bleach and water too!