Obsessions are illegals, gays and promotion of liberal candidates
The mission of the declining dinosaur known as the Arizona Republic is to use its last gasps of breath to regurgitate the issues that raise its passion levels. Today they are enthusiastically fixated on all three topics. Here is a sample of issue número uno:
In this morning’s lead editorial, Ripe for reform, the focus is on immigrant labor. The paper steadfastly refuses to use the word “illegal,” so we’ll help you out by providing the missing adjective. The thrust is that the labor shortage is so extreme in Arizona that a Willcox, Arizona tomato farming operation, oddly called Eurofresh Farms, transports their product to Mexico for packaging, where it is then transported back to Arizona for shipping.
The conclusion drawn by the daily Fish-wrapper is that this ruse is necessary due to a scarcity of American workers. The truth is that this charade cuts the costs for Eurofresh. Mexicans can be paid less than American workers which is the obvious bottom-line issue.
Offer a competitive wage to American workers and they will be happy to package your tomatoes, Mr. Ferguson. Remember the lines of willing American job seekers stretching around the Swift meat packing plants after raids removed the illegal workers using stolen identities to secure jobs previously held by U.S. citizens?
June 19, 2008 at 11:07 am
Why can’t Eurofresh use automation to put the damn tomatoes in flat wooden boxes which the markets put on the shelves?
June 19, 2008 at 11:21 am
Excellent question, Ann. It would be good to get an answer.
Interesting that the tomato producer uses a European name. Obviously they think that has more caché than Arizonafresh Farms. How many tomatoes do you think they would sell if they called them Unwashed-Mexican-field-hands-picked? Maybe that’s where the outbreak of tomato-based salmonella got started? How many sanitary bathroom facilities are in the fields?
June 19, 2008 at 12:12 pm
The major problem for the Republic is they’re hopelessly out of touch with their readers. They know it, of course, but simply don’t care. As stated in this post, they’ll promote their leftist agenda with their dying gasps. Look what happened to the Dallas Morning News since Keven Willey took over there as editor and VP when she left the AZ Republic.. She brought her stock in trade liberalism and the subscriptions have nose-dived. Does that stop her? Nope. She’s energized! She even named the Illegal Immigrant as last year’s Person of the Year.
June 19, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Eurofresh Farms sounds so-o-o French. Is this supposed to be accuracy in advertising? Most Arizonans would probably be more willing to buy Arizona produce. These folks are obviously in the sham business, with their packaging department in Mexico and the phoney name.
I’ll look for their tomatoes, but not to buy them.
June 19, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Ray: I’d encourage you to do your research on the company.
The company was founded by Dutch farmers, hence, Eurofresh Farms.
The company grows tomatoes in greenhouses, hence, they can’t be called “Unwashed-Mexican-field-hands-picked.”
The company grows only grape tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and tomatoes sold only on the vine. The FDA and CDC said only grape, cherry and tomatoes sold on the vine are safe from the salmonella outbreak, hence, it’s not where the outbreak of salmonella got started.
Eurofresh Farms hires plenty of Arizonans. This was a cheap stab for the Republic to take on a company that gives back hundreds of thousands of dollars to the state through charity and community events.
June 19, 2008 at 11:26 pm
I think you’ll find that Eurofresh is a Dutch agribusiness company with production in other locations as well. I have no quibbles with the name except that it sounds like some kind of urinal sanitation product (”Uro-Fresh?”). As far as I am aware the Eurofresh operation out of Willcox is hydroponic-based and either mostly or entirely takes place in greenhouses.
It is sad to see Eurofresh claim they can’t get the workers for packaging locally. To be perfectly fair, Willcox is a small community, and many people in agribusiness in Willcox are involved in their own production enterprises. However, the unfortunate cross-border packaging arrangement makes me wonder why Eurofresh takes any safeguards with food security and safety in the first place - and also makes me wonder if representations of new employment prospects for locals weren’t overblown when the greenhouses first went in.
June 20, 2008 at 2:08 am
Correction! Eurofresh was founded by a couple of Netherlanders (Dutch) but it transpires it’s headquartered in Willcox. So it’s a US company (well, of sorts) after all…