FOOD THAT CAN KILL

When you go to the grocery store did you ever stop and think that what you might buy could make you sick or even kill you? I am sure many have but if you think about it the food we buy today is far more dangerous now then it was some twenty-five years ago. The danger to American consumers can come from pesticides, unsafe packaging, and from the people that handle our food. To some extent it could make anyone want to become a hermit and grow their own food and really today that may be the safest bet you could have.

Within the past few weeks I heard on the news that meat is being packaged and sold to us that uses carbon monoxide so the meat can retain its pink coloring. Now this can present a lot of problems to consumers because by doing this practice meatpacking companies can hide a multitude of things from us such as how old the meat is to hiding the growth of pathogens such as Clostridium botulinum, Salmonella and E. coli. In the news story it also said they found meat being sold that was two years old! This is scary to think that you may have something like that in your refrigerator. The only advice the story could give the consumer was to check the sell by date on the package but can you really trust the sell by date?

I also wonder with fresh produce if the E. coli scare we had back in the summer of 2006 is really behind us. What guarantee do we have as consumers that head of lettuce we are buying is safe? How do we know it is not carrying the deadly E. coli O157:H7 that causes kidney damage and death and how do we know it wasn’t sprayed with deadly pesticide? I would, as a consumer would like guarantees to know what I am buying is safe. It would be nice if the government would make a law that enforces companies/growers to disclose what has been sprayed on their produce and as well what was done to test the produce to see if it has any type of bacteria to ensure consumers are buying a safe food product.

Yesterday I sent an email to Tyson Foods in regards to their hiring illegal immigrants, Tysons happens to be one of the largest offenders of this hiring practice. To me this should be a real concern to consumers, by hiring illegals they are subjecting us to a variety of diseases due to the fact illegals come into our country without having a health screening. You now stand a chance of contracting TB, Chagas, leprosy, hepatitis, typhoid and a host of other communicable diseases. I for one am now boycotting Tysons. Tysons did have the gall to send me their standard response and if you email them you will get the same as I did, which is:

Thank you for your message. Contrary to what you may have heard or
Read on the internet, we have zero tolerance for employing people who are not authorized to work in the U.S. We use the government's Basic Pilot program, now known as E-Verify, to help verify the documents of the people we hire. In addition, we train our hiring managers on employment documentation procedures and work to increase their awareness of identification fraud. We regularly audit our hiring process including work authorization documents and also use an independent, outside company, which conducts its own audit of our hiring practices.

If we learn one of our workers may not have authorization to work in this country, we take immediate measures. If they are unable to correct any discrepancies in their documentation, then they are released from employment.

Now if you do research on the net you will find this about Tyson Food and this is how I responded to them:


So sorry Gary but I wasn't born yesterday and this crap you sent me is unbelievable. I see this is a standard email you send out to all in regards to hiring of illegals. The group in which I spoke about yesterday posted this garbage you sent me, I guess you are too busy defending your company's hiring practices of illegals to have time to write a personal email. So as far as your ZERO TOLERANCE on hiring illegals then why would a Federal judge give permission for employees to bring suit against the company for hiring illegals? Oh please explain the following:


Tyson Foods Can Be Sued For Hiring Illegal Immigrants
Workers have been told that they can file a class action lawsuit against Tyson Foods for depressing wages through the hiring of illegal immigrants. A federal judge has given workers the go ahead to file the class action suit against the food company, which means that thousands of workers from eight plants will be able to get involved with the litigation.
A number of similar cases have been filed against other companies in relation to the hiring of illegal immigrants, where worker have lost out on wages due to the illegal hiring process. It is estimated that up to 20 million illegal immigrants are living in the United States, many of whom are taking up work with companies that hire illegal aliens to keep costs down.
One lawyer working on behalf of plaintiffs in these cases stated: "You can't bring these cases unless they get certified as class actions. An individual person can't bring one -- it's not economically viable to do it. So it's important that it gets certified as a class action."
The Homeland Security Secretary has already made an announcement earlier this year in relation to a crackdown on employers that knowingly hire illegal immigrants to save money, as well as a crackdown on those helping the illegal immigrants to find work.

Topic Added October 24th, 2006

http://www.lawcore.com/legal-information/10-24-06.html


More proof Tysons supports illegals:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1611661/posts

The word is spreading and I am still boycotting your company as well as many others. You see Gary, we Americans have ZERO TOLERANCE for companies that hire illegals and support amnesty in other words the proverbial buck stops here!

Now I wonder just what type of response I will get back from Tysons today?

In the end it is the consumer that must be weary of what they buy because as it stands today our government is not concerned with the safety of its people. Extra thought must go into what is being put into your grocery cart. Extra thought needs to go into what companies you support by buying their product because in the end the only way to make change is by sending the message you will not buy if a company does not hold the consumers safety as their number one priority.