TO EAT OR NOT TO EAT

That may be the question in the not to distant future.

It was reported to day on the National News that 80 (eighty ) million people a year get food poisoning , from fruits and vegetables. Why from fruits and vegetables? because they are imported , and they are imported from countries like Mexico, where they are not held to the health standards that the AMERICAN FARMER IS HELD TO. And yet we import this substandard food, and it is sold to us the AMERICAN PUBLIC. Time and time again this food has been found to contain the E=coli bacteria. and yet it is aloud to enter OUR COUNTRY. The people who work the farm in Mexico are not the most hygienic you will meet. and when they work the feilds and they have to releave them selves guess where it goes , thats right , on that cabbage plant or that lettuce plant , or tomato plant or what ever . Then they are harvested , put on a truck and sent to AMERICA, in a Mexican truck that doesn't have to stand up to the inspections that AMERICAN TRUCK DRIVERS have to. The refrigeration on the truck is a summertime deal , summertime it work and summertime it don't , sie,sie. Then it's unloaded at a whare house , and distributed to the public through various means. It is not washed off like it should have been or treated in any way to kill any germs or bug that may be in or on it. Then we get it , raw,like it came out of the field, with the pickers toilet on it. Now I know a lot of us are at fault also , in that we don't wash the fruits and vege's off as good as we should . and we use the same choping board that we just cut meat on and didn't wash the board off. but all we did there is ,spread the germ around a little more . A year ago , half of a school in Calf. got sick with E-coli. investigaton showed that it was from the blue berries that were IMPORTED FROM MEXICO .

How can we protec t our selves , I don't know . Maybe make sure that all the fruit an veg are washed off real good and refrigerated , and may be try to buy only what is grown in this country , or maybe put food inspectors on the boarder, AMERICAN ONE's , who know what to do, and maybe shut down the free trade agreement that we have with countries that don't have the high standards that we have. That was enacted in the mid nineties , and ever since the AMERICAN PUBLIC has been getting sick. Wake up .

PETER B. FREE