Not Tax - CAL OSHA at work

[BulldogTom]

I heard this on the radio this morning. A major tomato farming operation of several thousand acres was shut down in Solono County in California Tuesday. The CAL OSHA inspector said there was not enough shade for the workers. So he shut down the harvest.

If you are not familiar with tomato farms, they don't let trees grow in them because they tend to get in the way of the tractors and the sunlight the tomatoes need to grow. And the harvest needs to happen before the tomatoes get too ripe or they will not last in shipping. So this farmer, who has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in his crop cannot pick it until he puts up shades all over his fields at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars.

This is what happens when government decides to run businesses.

Tom

Lodi, CA

[JRS]

First, no one wants to work in the fields. Second, they can't get any water. AND now, they they want shade in the fields. Why don't they put air conditioning on their harvesters, build showers and flush toilets and have catering trucks show up for the breaks and lunches. (Maybe breakfast and dinners?) They might as well make all the farms hot houses, the tomatoes won't taste any different, I haven't had a descent tasting store bought tomato in years. The high light of the year, is the first home grown tomato we harvest from our own yard or buy from the farmers' market.

Californians wonder why businesses and people are moving out and why we are so much in debt. Irrational bond issues and stupid laws.

[JohnH]

I'd say the farmer should take OSHA to court, but the average judge would probably side with the state on this one.

Wonder how much sales tax revenue the state is missing out on because of all those tomatoes rotting in the field.

Aw, California probably doesn't need the money anyhow.

[BulldogTom]

First, no one wants to work in the fields. Second, they can't get any water. AND now, they they want shade in the fields. Why don't they put air conditioning on their harvesters, build showers and flush toilets and have catering trucks show up for the breaks and lunches. (Maybe breakfast and dinners?) They might as well make all the farms hot houses, the tomatoes won't taste any different, I haven't had a descent tasting store bought tomato in years. The high light of the year, is the first home grown tomato we harvest from our own yard or buy from the farmers' market.

Californians wonder why businesses and people are moving out and why we are so much in debt. Irrational bond issues and stupid laws.

Sorry JRS - you got most of it wrong -

<<First, no one wants to work in the fields.>> Wrong - there are thousands of workers lining up at the border to take these jobs. You should have said " No one who can get government social services money will take those jobs".

<<Second, they can't get any water. >> The Farmer must have water in the fields at all times. We got fined by OSHA one time for running out of paper cups. The water was there, but the cups were backordered from our supplier. They came in the next day. Too bad - $1000 fine.

<<Why don't they put air conditioning on their harvesters>> The tractor driver does have AC.

<<flush toilets>> Close but not quite. They are porta-pots, but they have mens and womens and are required to have a hand wash station and must be cleaned 2X per day.

<<catering trucks show up for the breaks and lunches>> They show up like clock work. Breakfast and lunch and dinner.

I believe this was done by OSHA in response to the 16 year old illegal immigrant who died in the cherry orchard last year. She falsified her documents to get a job, was working right next to her boyfriend and family, and no one noticed she was suffering from heat exhaustion. They never took her to the hospital and she died that night. The family blamed the farmer for not having enough shade in the orchard - It was a cherry orchard with fully grown cherry trees!!! There was shade everywhere!!!!

Tom

Lodi, CA

[GeneInAlabama]

I wonder how much tax California is really missing considering not just the direct sales tax on the tomatoes and the income tax for the farmer and his workers, and the gasoline tax for hauling the tomatoes, but also the indirect tax that won't be received from income tax lost from the people in the stores who won't make quite as much money and the sales tax they won't be paying because they will buy less and on down the line. I wonder if anyone has ever made a study of how much total tax is paid all the way down the line on each dollar spent. I bet the amount would be astonishing. There also would be less repairs on the trucks and tractors that are used for harvesting and trucking the tomatoes and the trickle down effect.

[kcjenkins]

Well, with CA shutting down the irrigation to protect a 2 inch fish that is basically nothing but a bait fish, there won't be any tomatoes to harvest soon anyway. Nor peaches, nor cucumbers, nor........ oh well, we can just buy them from Mexico, where there are virtually no workers protections.

[JohnH]

If CAL OSHA assesses any fines, can he just pay them with an IOU?

[JRS]

"I wonder how much tax California is really missing considering not just the direct sales tax on the tomatoes."

Ca doesn't tax food yet!!! Please don't give them any more ideas!

[joanmcq]

First of all, the girl who died was not working in a cherry orchard, it was a vinyard. No shade. And after she collapsed, the foreman refused to take her to the hospital, insisted she would be ok for over two hours after she collapsed. I don't see many of you working in the sun in 100 degree weather; actually its been over 100 the last week in Sac. There are advisories all over to stay indoors, etc, because the heat mixed with the bad air is causing a lot of breathing problems. the OSHA requirement is to have shade. An ez-up costs $100 bucks at Wal-Mart. And guess, what? They're portable, so you get a few and move them to where people are working for the day. Not really hard. And as to water with no cups? Kinda hard to drink from that cooler faucet, but who cares? They're lucky to have that job dammit!

As for KC, the delta smelt is an indicator species, and a low spot on the food chain. When you don't have food, there are no salmon, or bass or other things that people like to eat. Oh yeah, who cares that the salmon boats have been beached for 3 years now for the Sacramento salmon runs due to lack of fish? need to send all that water down south to grow COTTON (water wasting high pesticide using crop being grown in an arid area), and ALFALFA(very low value crop) grown by farmers that spray irrigate rather than using drip systems that do not allow for as much evaporation. So the fishermen lose their LIVELIHOODS, the southern central valley farmers take the water from the north and complain when we don't want our water systems drained dry.

[Tax Prep by Deb]

Current estimates = 40,000 unemployed in valley because of no water, more than just a few boats docked, and although cotton is grown, so is alot of other crops that people like to eat, that without the water, will be eating imports from other countries.

Sorry, I just had to chime in. I live in the thick of this water shortage and what it has done to human lives is unbelievable!

Deb!

[joanmcq]

The thing is, water has been overallocated for years, and its been known for years. I read an article where a farmer was quoted as 'cutting back' the acres he was planting in cotton, and the hardship it was causing. The question I thought was why was he growing a water intensive crop there in the first place at all??? The amount of land that was devoted to orchards and vinyards that cannot be let fallow in drought years has increased sharply over the last 20 years, increasing the strains on the water system. Large areas of the valley (Westside) should have never been irrigated in the first place and are slowly becoming poisoned by selenium buildup. The water use policies in this state and around the west are asinine to say the least.