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RedditLast week, leaders of the food justice movement -- including Eric Schlosser, Raj Patel, Frances Moore Lappe, and Robert Kenner, producer and director of the new documentary Food, Inc. -- sent a strongly-worded letter to Chipotle demanding that they "work with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers as a true partner in the protection of farmworkers' rights."
The letter comes in the wake of a recent breakthrough for the Campaign for Fair Food -- Whole Foods' announcement that two of Florida's leading organic producers, Alderman Farms and Lady Moon Farms, will implement the company's agreement with the CIW, including the penny-per-pound wage increase and a strict code of conduct.
For decades, Florida's farmworkers have faced terrible abuses and brutal exploitation. Workers earn sub-poverty wages for toiling 60 to 70 hours per week in season, and some have even been chained to poles, locked inside trucks, beaten, and robbed of their pay.
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers has made great organizing strides and has succeeded in convincing numerous commercial giants, including both Burger King and Taco Bell, to increase wages, benefits and observe a strict set of guidelines outlining workplace safety rules.
Chipotle, however, the country's fastest-growing fast food chain, has resisted efforts by farm-workers demanding a lasting commitment to ending the brutal exploitation in Florida's fields. As the letter says, in part:
"We realize that Chipotle has announced that it's paying an extra penny per pound for tomatoes, but we have to ask: What has Chipotle done since that announcement to identify and cultivate growers who are willing to raise their labor standards and pass the penny along to their workers? Your company has shown admirable leadership in working with – and incubating – meat suppliers willing to meet your higher standards. But your failure to do that same hard work in the Florida tomato industry – together with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) – threatens to render your announcement an empty gesture aimed more at public relations damage control than an effort to make real change."
You can support the call for real change on the part of Chipotle by adding your name to the letter to the company's CEO Steve Ells demanding "food with integrity" and an end to the human rights crisis in Florida's tomato fields.
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Peter Rothberg
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Once again Peter,
Why should the end user be responsible for what their suppliers pay?
Posted by antisocialist at 06/29/2009 @ 12:13pm
Posted by antisocialist at 06/29/2009 @ 12:13pm |
Because they're a near monopoly with the clout to achieve change in their suppliers behavior, but you're right that it's up to individuals to deny said multi-national corporations their monopoly which is why I refuse to eat flavorless tomats at these crap chains.
Posted by snowball777 at 06/29/2009 @ 12:24pm
I am glad that Peter Rothberg is sharing this information with us, and I continue to believe that, somehow, a system in which food producers are in more contact with food consumers, is an ideal state of affairs.
Posted by syfriendly at 06/29/2009 @ 12:28pm
Peter, ONLY Big Gubberment can extend its reach throughout the supply chain.
It's time you realized your calling.....you can be a good Marxist, like Andre Taganov in Rand's "We The Living".
Posted by Happy at 06/29/2009 @ 12:42pm
Slow thread....
What about the JUSTICE rendered by the SC today FOR the white and hispanic firefighters of New Haven, CT today?
Crying shame the 4 Lib Justices stamped themselves, Racists....like sotomayor!
Posted by Happy at 06/29/2009 @ 2:08pm
as per usual, conservatives cannot possibly see anything wrong with continued exploitation of farm workers, no matter how egregious the case, so long as "good" (read: profitable for shareholders) decisions are made at the top. and as always, government should simply stay out of the situation.
this story is yet another example of how fast food is bad for every living thing. fast food is poison. it serves no good to anyone, and the evil CEOs of these companies make out like bandits.
Posted by darladoon at 06/29/2009 @ 2:10pm
"this story is yet another example of how fast food is bad for every living thing. fast food is poison. it serves no good to anyone, and the evil CEOs of these companies make out like bandits."
Posted by darladoon at 06/29/2009 @ 2:10pm
Yes Maam.
Although I did like Dave Thomas in those commercials for Wendys.
Posted by Benchrest at 06/29/2009 @ 2:20pm
i'd like to know one good thing to come out of the existence of fast food restaurants.
one thing?
i'll bet you can't do it.
Posted by darladoon at 06/29/2009 @ 2:23pm
Refreshing, though, that our resident neocon gasbags won't be complaining, at least today, about "judicial activism".
LOL
Posted by schnellerheinz at 06/29/2009 @ 2:30pm
Posted by Happy at 06/29/2009 @ 2:08pm |
"What about the JUSTICE rendered by the SC today FOR the white and hispanic firefighters of New Haven, CT today?"
I prefer the 150 years meted out to Senor Mad-off.
"Crying shame the 4 Lib Justices stamped themselves, Racists....like sotomayor!"
You'd be `the one' to know, Hap. LOL
Posted by snowball777 at 06/29/2009 @ 2:37pm
By Paul Mirengoff, at Power Line, citing Justice Kennedy's (he of the majority opinion) response to the `sympathy' SC Justice, Ruth B.:
Justice Alito's concurrence is dedicated to taking on aspects of Justice Ginsburg dissenting opinion. Here's how Alito ends his opinion:
Petitioners were denied promotions for which they qualified because of the race and ethnicity of the firefighters who achieved the highest scores on the City's exam. The District Court threw out their case on summary judgment, even though that court all but conceded that a jury could find that the City's asserted justification was pretextual. The Court of Appeals then summarily affirmed that decision.
The dissent grants that petitioners' situation is "unfortunate" and that they "understandably attract this Court's sympathy." But "sympathy" is not what petitioners have a right to demand. What they have a right to demand is evenhanded enforcement of the law--of Title VII's prohibition against discrimination based on race. And that is what, until today's decision, has been denied them.
===========================
If Sotomayor gets on the SC, could she be given the Muslim Candidate's ?eveil? order to transform the SC to a Sympathy Court? Ya know, another Magical redefinition...snickers.....
Posted by Happy at 06/29/2009 @ 3:08pm
i'd like to know one good thing to come out of the existence of fast food restaurants.
one thing?
i'll bet you can't do it.
Posted by darladoon at 06/29/2009 @ 2:23pm
Here are some good things Darlaloon..
1. Jobs for otherwise skilles people who would be on some sort of govt program.
@. Jobs for entry level youth and other people trying to improve themselves.
3. Good tasting food for those who CHOOSE to eat it without interference from you.
4. Profits for investors, stockholders and pension plans who want to see the company grow and provide more jobs.
5. Taxes for all the shit you believe in.
Do I really have to go on?
Posted by YourJomamma at 06/29/2009 @ 3:13pm
Posted by YourJomamma at 06/29/2009 @ 3:13pm |
"1. Jobs for otherwise skilles people who would be on some sort of govt program."
Or picking tomatoes. Or bussing tables at a slow-food restaurant.
"2. Jobs for entry level youth and other people trying to improve themselves."
Welcome to Wal-Mart!
"3. Good tasting food for those who CHOOSE to eat it without interference from you."
You assume slow-food tastes bad?
Not so: grass-fed beef tastes noticeably better than corn-fed and organic produce generally has more flavor than the freak-a-zoid agrobiz varieties.
"4. Profits for investors, stockholders and pension plans who want to see the company grow and provide more jobs."
More low-paying jobs likely to be staffed by...how to say this politely...non-english speakers.
Certainly no jobs for waiters, dishwashers, or janitors, if you've ever seen the restrooms in your average Taco Bell.
"5. Taxes for all the shit you believe in."
Not specific to any industry...even pornographers pay taxes.
"Do I really have to go on?"
No, we've got you pegged as a loony-con, thanks.
Posted by snowball777 at 06/29/2009 @ 3:57pm
Posted by snowball777 at 06/29/2009 @ 3:57pm
You're getting to be a bore! Few postings to invoke thoughts or humor! You're my next target for blog assassination! Ily too! That's how I keep what I see, lean and `fun'!
Posted by Happy at 06/29/2009 @ 4:01pm
"1. Jobs for otherwise skilles people who would be on some sort of govt program.
@. Jobs for entry level youth and other people trying to improve themselves.
3. Good tasting food for those who CHOOSE to eat it without interference from you.
4. Profits for investors, stockholders and pension plans who want to see the company grow and provide more jobs.
5. Taxes for all the shit you believe in."
-----------------------------------------
just because an industry creates jobs and money doesn't necessarily mean it's a good thing.
"good tasting food"
it might "taste" like food, but it's not food. it's poison.
Posted by darladoon at 06/29/2009 @ 4:14pm
Posted by Happy at 06/29/2009 @ 4:01pm |
You shake that tiny fist!!
Oh, I'll give you some privacy...
Posted by snowball777 at 06/29/2009 @ 4:30pm
just because an industry creates jobs and money doesn't necessarily mean it's a good thing. "good tasting food" it might "taste" like food, but it's not food. it's poison.
Posted by darladoon at 06/29/2009 @ 4:14pm | ignore this person | warn this person
Certainly the Iraq war, which has not just been an industry itself, but has fed gluttonously entire other industries, is a great example of jobs that should never have been created because the cost is just too terrible.
Posted by syfriendly at 06/29/2009 @ 4:51pm
You shake that tiny fist!!
Oh, I'll give you some privacy...
Posted by snowball777 at 06/29/2009 @ 4:30pm
I like that Happy is so self-aggrandizing as to think that him blocking someone really makes a difference to us. He's turning into the conservative Fankgrits.
Posted by Cccomfo1 at 06/29/2009 @ 4:59pm
i'd like to know one good thing to come out of the existence of fast food restaurants. one thing? i'll bet you can't do it. Posted by darladoon at 06/29/2009 @ 2:23pm
Asia Fresh, Madison, WI on Old Sauk Rd. Yummy.
Posted by A_Pax_On_Your_Houses at 06/29/2009 @ 5:17pm
Posted by Cccomfo1 at 06/29/2009 @ 4:59pm |
Now that our favorite Rand-ite has gone ignorant, I can share something `funny'.
While at Blizzard Entertainment, I worked on a videogame called, "Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos" and added "whoisjohngalt" as the cheat code for infinite resources in the game.
Posted by snowball777 at 06/29/2009 @ 5:24pm
Perhaps I misunderstand, but the egregious wrongs described in the piece are already illegal. One cannot chain people up, well except for the government. The abuse of illegal workers is a byproduct of their immigration status. If one fears going to the police because they might be deported they are accepting the abuse. I have a problem with illegal aliens demanding rights, abusive employers should be fined, imprisoned, and lose the right to a business license. Abusive employers and illegal aliens both contribute to a lack of innovation and invention of better methods of harvesting technology.
Posted by kingcuke at 06/29/2009 @ 5:53pm
Posted by snowball777 at 06/29/2009 @ 3:57pm
I have been eating organic meats and veggies for years..used to live in Nebraska, home of the best beef on the planet..
My entire point, which doesn't exist on the left side, is CHOICE...the illegal and legal tomatoe pickers have a choice if they do not like the wages they are paid...
Supposedly the companies who buy the tomatoes agreed to be blackmailed into paying more, and CHOSE to pay the fees....not baby sit or enforce the deal for the pickers...I thought they had a union?...
If the tomatoe pickers have such a strong moral and economic case..then have them stop picking for 2-3 weeks...if the tomatoe market is that fragile and the evil fast or slow food restaurants are to blame, then a shortage of tomatoes will have them squealing at their suppliers....and that should start to remedy the solution...if it is not just another cycle time for the tomatoe picker sagas.
Of course, there is another solution...grow the tomatoes in Mexico, where most of the food is grown anyway..and let their government protect their own workers from evil restaurants, and it also might cut down on illegal immigrants...but that would not be good for the Nation Magazine over time..
I called my daughter today and she told me she and her friends were sitting at Chipolte for lunch...so in support of businessmen under seige from all the do gooders who know how to do things better but have never run a lemonade stand(including our CIC)...I am eating at Chipolte tonight as I head to the airport..in a V-8 burning premium gas..to fly to LA...and I will still use less energy in a year than ALGORE uses in a day. Does ALGO know about the pickers plight? Maybe he could share some carbon credits so they could exchange for free Chipolte burritos.
Posted by YourJomamma at 06/29/2009 @ 6:38pm
heck, hardcore gay/lesbian/bisexual/transsexual BDSM porn creates lots of jobs and money.
is jomamma all for that?
Posted by darladoon at 06/29/2009 @ 6:52pm
Posted by snowball777 at 06/29/2009 @ 5:24pm
I know people who were addicted to that game.
Posted by Cccomfo1 at 06/29/2009 @ 7:04pm
Posted by YourJomamma at 06/29/2009 @ 6:38pm
The problem with this argument is the pickers are too poor to stop performing their job for long enough to break the companies. If they stop they end up on the streets. That's the problem is that pure capitlism doesn't ALWAYS work the way it is supposed to. Which is why we have controls in place from the government to prevent slave like conditions and protect low-wage workers from monopolistic companies who beat them to stop them from leaving their jobs.
Posted by Cccomfo1 at 06/29/2009 @ 7:08pm
Posted by antisocialist at 06/29/2009 @ 12:13pm
Free market/freedom of choice at work. How can you be against that?
Posted by zmann at 06/29/2009 @ 7:19pm
Posted by YourJomamma at 06/29/2009 @ 6:38pm |
"My entire point, which doesn't exist on the left side, is CHOICE...the illegal and legal tomato pickers have a choice if they do not like the wages they are paid..."
Free to starve...thanks Mr. Friedman, but poor people most often don't have a real 'choice' in this matter...unless you'd starve YOUR kids to prove a point.
"I thought they had a union?"
I don't know if this statement is stupid, cruel, or both.
As a result of exclusion from key New Deal labor reform, farmworkers do not have the right to overtime pay or the right to organize, not that Florida would enforce labor law if it were applicable.
"If the tomato pickers have such a strong moral and economic case..then have them stop picking for 2-3 weeks."
And after the stink from their corpses abated?
"..if the tomatoe market is that fragile and the evil fast or slow food restaurants are to blame, then a shortage of tomatoes will have them squealing at their suppliers"
It would only hurt their profits temporarily as they'd buy from another, possibly non-slave-driven, vendor at a slightly higher price until they caved.
Chipotle are the ones claiming to have "Food with Integrity"; think that lie gets them more biz?
"Of course, there is another solution...grow the tomatoes in Mexico..and it also might cut down on illegal immigrants..."
But it would cost Chipotle more money...for gas and trucks. The easiest way to stop illegal immigration would be to fine the vendors for using them: fat chance.
May the fruits of slavery give you e. coli, YJM.
Posted by snowball777 at 06/29/2009 @ 7:27pm
"so in support of businessmen under seige from all the do gooders who know how to do things better but have never run a lemonade stand(including our CIC)"
so when peter points out that "workers earn sub-poverty wages for toiling 60 to 70 hours per week in season, and some have even been chained to poles, locked inside trucks, beaten, and robbed of their pay," it is irrelevant simply because peter can't run a lemonade stand?
i guess maasch, a businessman, needs to take courses from peter, who can run a successful reading/logic stand.
Posted by darladoon at 06/29/2009 @ 7:30pm
I know people who were addicted to that game. Posted by Cccomfo1 at 06/29/2009 @ 7:04pm |
Yeah, I worked on World of Warcraft too; there's some addiction (a factor in a best friend's divorce...eeek).
Gotta love a virtual world that generates billions of real-world dollars from 'gold farmers' in China.
It's a strange planet we live on.
Maybe that's the solution...we can give some of those OLPC laptops meant for Africa to the tomato pickers so they can gold-farm instead of actually farming.
Posted by snowball777 at 06/29/2009 @ 7:32pm
(a factor in a best friend's divorce...eeek).
Gotta love a virtual world that generates billions of real-world dollars from 'gold farmers' in China.
It's a strange planet we live on.
Maybe that's the solution...we can give some of those OLPC laptops meant for Africa to the tomato pickers so they can gold-farm instead of actually farming.
Posted by snowball777 at 06/29/2009 @ 7:32pm
I played that for a while, my friend was malnourished because of it. Most of the gold farmers are bots though. So they could bot while out farming.
Posted by Cccomfo1 at 06/29/2009 @ 7:36pm
Free market/freedom of choice at work. How can you be against that?
Posted by zmann at 06/29/2009 @ 7:19pm
this situation presents neither.
My question stands though. Why should the end user be coerced into negotiating with those who do not work for them?
I think companies like Chipolte should stand firm against this kind of coercion and intimidation.
It has nothing to do with the working conditions or pay of these workers. that is and should remain separate from the end users like Chipolte.
Posted by antisocialist at 06/29/2009 @ 7:38pm
Posted by antisocialist at 06/29/2009 @ 7:38pm |
As long as they stop claiming to sell, "Food with Integrity".
Posted by snowball777 at 06/29/2009 @ 7:48pm
"My question stands though. Why should the end user be coerced into negotiating with those who do not work for them? "
Because they claim to the be food with "integrity". You don't truly have any integrity if you are willing to use suppliers have nearly slave like practices.
Posted by Cccomfo1 at 06/29/2009 @ 8:01pm
"For decades, Florida's farmworkers have faced terrible abuses and brutal exploitation. Workers earn sub-poverty wages for toiling 60 to 70 hours per week in season, and some have even been chained to poles, locked inside trucks, beaten, and robbed of their pay."
So why are no growers, wholesellers, retails, or fast food businesses convicted? Simple THEY are NOT guilty of the alluded to crimes leftist accuse them falsely and irresponsiably for!
Posted by BigPasture at 06/29/2009 @ 8:07pm
Posted by antisocialist at 06/29/2009 @ 7:38pm
Consumers such as myself can choose to purchase products from companies that engage in better practices with its suppliers, and many of us do choose to do so. The availability of other options is the result of the free market, and the freedom to choose them is freedom of choice. How do they not apply to this situation?
And Chipotle doesn't have to negotiate. It can instead choose to continue losing the business of consumers to whom things like this matter.
Posted by zmann at 06/29/2009 @ 8:09pm
It can instead choose to continue losing the business of consumers to whom things like this matter.
Posted by zmann at 06/29/2009 @ 8:09pm
For the most part, the most successful companies, can easily afford to lose "the business of consumers to whom things like this matter"....in fact, it may even be the secret of their success, by ignoring gadflies or at best, tossing a few crumbs your way: Nike, McDonalds, Wal-Mart, ExxonMobil....ya think?
Posted by Happy at 06/29/2009 @ 8:23pm
Posted by BigPasture at 06/29/2009 @ 8:07pm
Not true. Check this out from the same author of this article:
http://www.thenation.com /blogs/actnow/402332
7 cases of federally prosecuted slavery in Florida in 10 years.
Posted by zmann at 06/29/2009 @ 8:35pm
Posted by Happy at 06/29/2009 @ 8:23pm
::Shrug:: Maybe. Nike became committed to ending sweatshop labor, I'd say that was a successful campaign. McDonald's got its ass kicked publicity-wise in UK courts, you can't tell me that didn't seriously affect its potential profits. I am sure Wal-Mart will someday face its bad karma, and I don't shop there either. As for ExxonMobil, I have never and will never drive a vehicle. Whether or not the gas the bus I ride uses is from ExxonMobil, I cannot say. But how much is a lifetime of gas? tens of thousands of dollars? If a million people who currently buy gas from ExxonMobil choose instead to walk, bike, use mass transit, etc., that would eat into its profits too. If those companies are so successful and can shrug off bad publicity campaigns, why do they spend so much money on advertising? Are they afraid they'll make less money if some people decide to not buy their products? Most likely.
Posted by zmann at 06/29/2009 @ 8:42pm
So why are no growers, wholesellers, retails, or fast food businesses convicted? Simple THEY are NOT guilty of the alluded to crimes leftist accuse them falsely and irresponsiably for! Posted by BigPasture at 06/29/2009 @ 8:07pm |
Because Florida could give two sh-ts about enforcing those laws....perhaps because their palms have been well-lined with silver.
Posted by snowball777 at 06/29/2009 @ 8:47pm
i'd like to know one good thing to come out of the existence of fast food restaurants. one thing? i'll bet you can't do it.
Posted by darladoon at 06/29/2009 @ 2:23pm
Oooh! Oooh! Here's a bunch:
Big Mac.....Ummmm Whopper with cheese (flamebroiled!) Grilled steak soft taco (Taco Hell) The old Combo burrito (Taco Hell) Beef Fajitas (Taco Cabana) Onion rings (Culver's) Fish tacos (Rubios or Baja Fresh)
Choose one per week. That's not poison. Spinach infested with E.coli? THAT's poison.
Posted by twillie at 06/29/2009 @ 9:06pm
Beef Fajitas (Taco Cabana)
Posted by twillie at 06/29/2009 @ 9:06pm
Si, Senior! Por Favor.....$1.99 aqui!
Another recent "fast" drink: Ice Coffee/Latte at McD!
Posted by Happy at 06/29/2009 @ 9:31pm
7 cases of federally prosecuted slavery in Florida in 10 years.
Posted by zmann at 06/29/2009 @ 8:35pm | ignore this person | warn this person
WRONG AGAIN! No growers, wholesellers, retails, or fast food businesses convicted. THEY are NOT guilty of the alluded to crimes leftist accuse them falsely and irresponsiably for! Think independent contractors with criminal history!
Posted by BigPasture at 06/29/2009 @ 10:09pm
From THAT right-wing but actually more Fair and Balanced than all others-FoxNews:
Daniela Sicuranza
June 29, 2009
Don't worry, be happy
The Obama administration doesn't think the Supreme Court's opinion Monday to overturn a ruling by nominee Sonia Sotomayor will be an obstacle in her Senate confirmation hearing.
"I don't foresee that this would represent anything that would prevent her a seat on the Supreme Court," said the president's spokesman, Robert Gibbs on Monday.The case, overturned in a 5-4 opinion, dealt with the issue of reverse discrimination. Firefighter Frank Ricci and his colleagues sued the city of New Haven, Connecticut after city leaders tossed out the results of a promotions exam because no African Americans scored well enough to merit advancement....
Posted by Happy at 06/29/2009 @ 10:18pm
Happy, they don't think it is relevant that NOW 80% rather than 60% of her cases that have made it to the Supreme Court of the U.S.A. have been OVERTURNED! What if a white conservative judge came before congress with that record? Oh YEA, they would jump for instant confirmation without reviewing all his cases like they want with Sotomayor! Bwahahahahahah.....
Posted by BigPasture at 06/29/2009 @ 10:56pm
http://6.media.tumblr.com/1Gw9YjjiAowsfvpqYtjyLspso1_400.jpg
Something for everyone to think about...
Posted by Cccomfo1 at 06/29/2009 @ 11:04pm
"Happy, they don't think it is relevant that NOW 80% rather than 60% of her cases that have made it to the Supreme Court of the U.S.A. have been OVERTURNED!"
it's hard to put into words how mind-numbingly stupid is the above statement.
"overturned" = 11 out of the 21 judges who ruled on the most recent case AGREED with sotomayor. 4 of 9 supreme court justices AGREED with her, too.
and that is how it has gone for sotomayor since she became a federal judge.
it's not like her rulings are on the judicial fringe. they are well within the mainstream, bigpasture.
you pretend like her decisions are laughed at and thrown in the garbage, or something.
Posted by darladoon at 06/30/2009 @ 12:35am
Zman,
thanks for not using gas .. Z... So I can use more. As far as millions not driving costing profits, give Obama and the left time and millions of us will not be driving... The gas and carbon taxes will push gas to ridiculous levels.
And the Chinese and Indians will thank you as they buy the gas from ...Exxon. Who by the way, makes most of it's profits over seas anyway. The biggest killer of profits and growth for any company is taxes and mandates.... Plus the left loonies.
Posted by YourJomamma at 06/30/2009 @ 12:39am
"The biggest killer of profits and growth for any company is taxes and mandates"
and the biggest causes of population growth and environmental destruction are the opposite: the free-market economics which you routinely champion.
maasch, you seem to subscribe the insane belief that profits and growth are inherently good things.
maasch, have you ever read karl marx? or he is too liberal for you?
seriously, man. i highly recommend you read at least a couple of his works.
they are not propaganda. they are logic, science and political economics.
Posted by darladoon at 06/30/2009 @ 01:31am
maasch, can you cite a specific example of a "mandate" which curbs profits and growth?
i want specifics, not generalizations.
Posted by darladoon at 06/30/2009 @ 01:34am
Darlaoon,
Most of us started with DAS KAPITAL...and rejected the entire premise...as did most of the world, exscept those enlightened ones who had it forced on them with the barrel of a gun..
Posted by YourJomamma at 06/30/2009 @ 02:04am
I highly recommend the BARBACOA...
a fabulous burrito. Cheap meal as well as filling...rice, beans, hot sauce, sour cream, cheese, TOMATOES(maybe a table spoon)..brisket saturated with cumin...
and a money maker, but not because of a tablespoon(optional) of tomatoes, but because it is a value for the consumer.
Posted by YourJomamma at 06/30/2009 @ 02:07am
Posted by BigPasture at 06/29/2009 @ 10:09pm
At least one family pled guilty in a slavery case. I am not sure about the others, it wasn't covered even by local media down there as far as I can tell. So, you're still wrong...at least some have not been found innocent.
Posted by zmann at 06/30/2009 @ 08:20am
Posted by BigPasture at 06/29/2009 @ 10:09pm
I see now that you clarified your statement by saying it is the contractors who are convicted, not the food companies, and you are correct. Rather like AL Capone not being charged with murder because others carried out the murders, isn't it? However, that still means they obtained their supplies through slavery. Oops.
Just for a round up of slavery convictions concerning the Immokalee workers that Chipotle is being urged to take firmer actions to help...
http://www.ciw-online.org/slavery.html
U.S. vs. Flores -- In 1997, Miguel Flores and Sebastian Gomez were sentenced to 15 years each in federal prison on slavery, extortion, and firearms charges, amongst others.
U.S. vs. Cuello -- In 1999, Abel Cuello was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison on slavery charges.
U.S. vs. Tecum - In 2001, Jose Tecum was sentenced to 9 years in federal prison on slavery and kidnapping charges.
U.S. vs. Lee - In 2001, Michael Lee was sentenced to 4 years in federal prison and 3 years supervised release on a slavery conspiracy charge.
U.S. vs. Ramos - In 2004, Ramiro and Juan Ramos were sentenced to 15 years each in federal prison on slavery and firearms charges,
U.S. vs. Ronald Evans -- In 2007, Florida employer Ron Evans was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison on drug conspiracy, financial re-structuring, and witness tampering charges, among others. Jequita Evans was also sentenced to 20 years, and Ron Evans Jr. to 10 years...In Florida, Ron Evans worked for grower Frank Johns. Johns was 2004 Chairman of the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association, the powerful lobbying arm of the Florida agricultural industry.
Posted by zmann at 06/30/2009 @ 09:19am
maasch, you seem to subscribe the insane belief that profits and growth are inherently good things.
maasch, have you ever read karl marx? or he is too liberal for you?
seriously, man. i highly recommend you read at least a couple of his works.
they are not propaganda. they are logic, science and political economics.
Posted by darladoon at 06/30/2009 @ 01:31am
Darla, you are always such a good source of laughter.
Posted by antisocialist at 06/30/2009 @ 10:28am
what the hell is "chipotle"? a restaurant chain?
Posted by ibbleblibble at 06/30/2009 @ 10:29am
Posted by ibbleblibble at 06/30/2009 @ 10:29am | ignore this person | warn this person
"Chipotle, however, the country's fastest-growing fast food chain,"
oh...duh...
Posted by ibbleblibble at 06/30/2009 @ 10:40am
antisocialist,
read 'the german ideology' and try and find something unscientific about it. it's not a political manifesto. it's political economy.
oh, and maasch REJECTS the premise of das kapital? really? and what premise would that be, maasch?
please, enlighten us, and tell us why you reject it.
Posted by darladoon at 06/30/2009 @ 10:48am
Sorry to point out a spelling error. It's usually not necessary. But...
Wasn't there a time when Dan Quayle made it clear to the entire world that there wasn't an 'e' on the end of the word 'potato'?
Sorry, YourJomamma.
As for the other fast food fans... order a little extra special sauce. The heart attack will come sooner. Maybe while your re-reading 'Atlas Shrugged'. Rand's name is often invoked when trying to rationalize strange labor practices.
Posted by ficheye at 06/30/2009 @ 10:51am
here is just one of theses in the 'german ideology':
"the way in which men produce their means of subsistence depends first of all on the nature of the actual means of subsistence they find in existence and have to reproduce. this mode of production must not be considered simply as being the production of the physical existence of the individuals. rather it is a definite form of activity of these individuals, a definite form of expressing their life, a definite 'mode of life' on their part. as individuals express their life, so they are. what they are, therefore, coincides with their production, both with what they produce and with how they produce. the nature of the individuals thus depends on the material conditions determining their production."
do you have any idea how radical this was back then? prior to marx, nobody had this point of view. it was all the straussian and consciousness-based.
but this stuff is actually ECONOMICS, which someone like maasch should understand.
i beg you to read further and dispute what marx has to say in this book.
Posted by darladoon at 06/30/2009 @ 10:54am
The biggest killer of profits and growth for any company is taxes and mandates.... Plus the left loonies.
Posted by YourJomamma at 06/30/2009 @ 12:39am
Is this why JOMAMMA was able to overlook George W Loser's feeble and failed decades-long attempts at being a "business" "man" so that JOMAMMA was without conscience able to vote TWICE for a RepubliBozo who could not operate a lemonade stand or a one pump gas station? In JOMMAMA's depraved skull, W Loser's shitbum failures at Arbusto & Spectrum7 were due to ... "taxes", "mandates", and "loonies" who did it to 'em since, as a matter of definition, when conservaClowns fail (as they unfailingly do) it must always be SOMEONE else's fault.
What pompous, pitifully out-of-touch, beer-fart driven clowns like JOMAMMA do not realize is that they have become no more than the zombies in a horror movie. You know the kind. Their flesh is rotting off them, they can no longer articulate human language just angry animal grunts and farts, while they blunder and lurch around creating destruction. When you watch one of these movies, you hope the zombies would just see themselves for what they are -- useless to the human society that they haunt and that they clumsily try to destroy. However, the zombies lack the self-consciousness to abort their own misery and jump in a lake.
That is what JOMAMMA has devolved into: A mindless zombie, lumbering around ideologically, resentfully looking for a brain to eat to compensate for the one that he lacks, while spewing forth lethal firey flatus. Perhaps it is the most pathetic aspect of the scenario that a zombie like JOMAMMA has only the dimmest and most primitive concept of how ideologically maggot-ridden he has become, a hulking husk of hideous rot that makes normal people scream...
Posted by PhilMcCrevice at 06/30/2009 @ 11:05am
Posted by PhilMcCrevice at 06/30/2009 @ 11:05am | ignore this person | warn this person
personally i like jomamma and his crowd, but THANK GAWD HIS BOYS ARE NO LONGER CALLING THE SHOTS AND ARE INCREASINGLY MARGINAL AND DISCREDITED WITH THE MASS OF APOLITICAL MARCHING MORONS!!
the irony is that as these guys interminably decry all they oppose as "marxism" or "socialism" or whatever...
a. i DO wonder how much they really understand about these ideologies beyond "tey wanna take my stuff!!!"
and
b. they themselves are true believing lockstep followers of social/political/economic ideology EVERY BIT AS DETERMINISTIC AND INFLEXIBLE AND BASED UPON SKETCHY IDEOLOGICAL PSEUDOSCIENCE AS COMMERNISM EVER WAS!!!
well, the term, "anti-communism" HAS ever been code talk for right wing "fascism"...
Posted by ibbleblibble at 06/30/2009 @ 11:17am
Posted by PhilMcCrevice at 06/30/2009 @ 11:05am
Just remember though, when they decry the likes of the center-right democrats for being marxists, it's patriotism.
When the entire world was screaming about George Bush being a royal piece of shit, it was just plain old mean.
The disingenuous fools who apparently have nothing better to do with their time than call a very obvious centrist like BO a communist, or a marxist, are so out of touch with the reality they've created it's absolutely amazing to me. I used to attempt to understand clowns like YJM, but my more open-minded years have long since waved bye-bye. Now I just consider them wastes of natural resources.
Oh, and JOMAMMA, please please PLEASE go gorge yourself on disgusting chemical-ridden processed foods. You and the rest of the lazy sheep just like you are doing exactly what nature and the environment needs: Population reduction.
Soon enough, all of you and your "indvidualist" friends will have clogged arteries from eating burgers and drinking carbonated corn syrup, or cancer from sucking down hydrogenated oils and all those lovely chemicals that make your food so "tasty".
Enjoy your burrito.
Posted by TexasFlood at 06/30/2009 @ 11:41am
texasflood, actually maasch prefers organic, free range nebraska meats and veggies. so give him credit for that.
although he erroneously claims nebraska meat is the best in the world (it's probably not, he should go to rural argentina)....at least he's supporting his local farms and farmers.
Posted by darladoon at 06/30/2009 @ 11:45am
Posted by darladoon at 06/30/2009 @ 11:45am
....by eating fast food? Not just eating it, lauding it.
I don't see how that works.
Posted by TexasFlood at 06/30/2009 @ 11:48am
Darla,
Poor Karl was a) someone who didn't live what he preached, and b) wrote badly in describing his view of capitalism. A view that was distorted then and is not applicable to the changes brought about by technology and a global economy.
A review of Das Kapital by economic Journalist Dan Blatt
<Volume 1 of Das Kapital is 383 small print - densely paragraphed pages in the Britannica Great Books translation. It is composed of tediously interminable, repetitively and minutely detailed rationalizations, that are nevertheless obviously incomplete and irrational. The primary affect of this design is to smother the many omissions and flaws of logic - and thus to shed much heat while providing little light.
The rationalizations begin with a tautology - contain blatant contradictions - are permeated with distinctions that don't reflect any differences - and are based on definitions and redefinitions of economic terms that are indeterminate, completely without function in the real economy, and applied in slipshod and clearly inappropriate fashion.>
http://tinyurl.com/n3wf7
Posted by antisocialist at 06/30/2009 @ 11:51am
A little more for you Darla
And this book review of Marx himself by leftist journalist Francis Wheen
Karl Marx: A Life
by Francis Wheen
From Publishers Weekly
"It is time to strip away the mythology," writes Wheen, "and try to rediscover Karl Marx the man." In the first major biography of Marx since the end of the Cold War, Wheen does just that as he looks for the man lurking behind the myths of both enemies and disciples, the misinterpretations and the academic jargon. What he finds is somebody who will suit nobody's purposes--Marx, Wheen argues, lived his life messily. He was neither a clearheaded revolutionary nor an unrepentant hypocrite, but he wasn't the anti-Christ either. More or less incapable of holding down a steady, salaried job, he mooched off of his selfless wife, Jenny (an aristocrat fallen on hard times), and his well-to-do ideological partner, Friedrich Engels, and spent his time obsessively writing unreadable, unmarketable economics tracts. He also spent a good deal of time preaching the imminent revolution of the masses (with whom he appears to have had little affinity). Following Marx from his childhood in Trier, Germany, through his exile in London, Wheen, a columnist for the British Guardian, takes readers from hovel to grand house, from the International Working Man's Association to Capital, from obscurity to notoriety and back again. (Only 11 mourners attended Marx's funeral.) The narrative veers unsteadily from scorn to admiration for the bearded philosopher. Wheen begins by jeering at Marx's cantakerousness and ends by lauding him as a prophet and a brave survivor of poverty and exile. In the end, Wheen's breezy, colorful portrayal is as eccentric as its subject.
http://tinyurl.com/lcspz6
Posted by antisocialist at 06/30/2009 @ 11:52am
I have to agree here about Mr. Marx.
An absolutely terrible read if there ever was one.
Posted by TexasFlood at 06/30/2009 @ 11:54am
Posted by TexasFlood at 06/30/2009 @ 11:48am
DARLA may be confusing JOMAMMA with ANTISOCIAL. The latter has recently been making attempts (as exagerated as they are unconvincing) to recast himself from full-throated McCarthyist "Kill 'Em all!!!" deacon of the Church of Rightwing Anger to a quasi-hippie (he's even used the word!) who tirelessly rubs healing organic herbs on himself...
Posted by PhilMcCrevice at 06/30/2009 @ 11:55am
Posted by PhilMcCrevice at 06/30/2009 @ 11:55am
LOL
Such rugged individualists! I wonder if he bought the "rugged individualist starter kit" from LL Bean?
Posted by TexasFlood at 06/30/2009 @ 11:59am
"Poor Karl was a) someone who didn't live what he preached, and b) wrote badly in describing his view of capitalism. A view that was distorted then and is not applicable to the changes brought about by technology and a global economy."
marx not applicable? good grief.
Posted by darladoon at 06/30/2009 @ 12:01pm
Posted by TexasFlood at 06/30/2009 @ 11:59am
I can't see what ANTISOCIAL calls his "garden" in SoCo from here. But I do have a feeling that ANTISOCIAL's "idiosyncaracies" may have even reached the "clad-in-fig-leaf" (or perhaps loin cloth) stage with crushed berry-juice homa-made "war-paint" to accent the threat from his sagging flesh. He may even be working on making a bow-and-arrow with (mostly) stone tools to complete rightist "back-to-nature" look. Y'know, the kind of thing that makes the neighbhors nervous about their property values (although the nieghbors' protests are undoubtably limited to vigorous eye-rolling so as to avoid having to converse about anything with the contentious reverand...)...
Posted by PhilMcCrevice at 06/30/2009 @ 12:09pm
Posted by PhilMcCrevice at 06/30/2009 @ 12:09pm
What can you say? He and the rest of the repub real-american-heroes are trying to get back in touch with the young folks!
I'm sure he's busy right now trying to figure out a way to get around using the socialism-subsidized roadways, and all those other things funded by the evil gubment he doesn't believe in.
Posted by TexasFlood at 06/30/2009 @ 12:17pm
Posted by TexasFlood at 06/30/2009 @ 11:41am
I rarely eat any food that requires a steering wheel or an ordering window. ...and I would never mandate that other refrain from doing so...nor would I demand that you be required to pay for a heart lung transplant for smokers...
I do like Chipolte and I eat it 1 a month at best...I avoid all other fast food chains. I have gardened for years and eat organic if at all possible.
I admit my bias for Nebraska beef, range fed, hormone free, anti biotic free, Black Angus...but not prime grade..too fatty...
also, Nebraska has the only FDA grade Buffalo ranch where one can buy a Buf, complete with skin for a rug and a head to be mounted if one is bent that way(I am not)but it will look good next to Obamas after the libs are thrown out for destroying more than Bush dreamed possible.
Buf meat is the best on all measures.
Posted by YourJomamma at 06/30/2009 @ 12:21pm
Nebraska has the only FDA grade Buffalo ranch where one can buy a Buf
Posted by YourJomamma at 06/30/2009 @ 12:21pm
Good grief!
A rugged individualist like yourself invoking the name of a communist-led government organization like the FDA as a positive?!
Oh my god....your friends here will be so upset : (
Apparently I really was all wrong about you.
Posted by TexasFlood at 06/30/2009 @ 12:25pm
I'm sure he's busy right now trying to figure out a way to get around using the socialism-subsidized roadways, and all those other things funded by the evil gubment he doesn't believe in.
Posted by TexasFlood at 06/30/2009 @ 12:17pm
1. I've never said that I don't believe in govt. this is the usual straw man attack.
As I noted in another post, I want govt to follow the divisions of authority laid out in the constitution. Fed takes care of Fed issues and the rest are left according to the 10th amendment to the states and the people.
So thus even your misstatement about roadways. Article 1, section 8 clearly provides authority for federal hwys, rail, and bridges. the rest of the hwys are the responsibility of the states (just as we current have it).
Posted by antisocialist at 06/30/2009 @ 12:26pm
"Is this why JOMAMMA was able to overlook George W Loser's feeble and failed decades-long attempts at being a "business" "man" so that JOMAMMA was without conscience able to vote TWICE for a RepubliBozo who could not operate a lemonade stand or a one pump gas station? In JOMMAMA's depraved skull, W Loser's shitbum failures at Arbusto & Spectrum7 were due to ... "taxes", "mandates", and "loonies" who did it to 'em since, as a matter of definition, when conservaClowns fail (as they unfailingly do) it must always be SOMEONE else's fault."
Phil,
If you really understood those libertarians like me, you would have figured out that we are against everything Bush has done...both of them...we understood why he did them, and did vote for them(I never voted for Bush 41)...we voted against the other ass hats running ...and if you truly understood us, which you obviously have not a single clue..you would know why we believe Bush was no conservative and why we believe there are no conservatives in govt today, nor have there been for over 10 years.
and you would also understand why we write you off as having a front row seat in the kook section of the far left, complete with a beanie on your pointed head with a propellar spinning wildly...a red one.
I do read your rants and smile..you are creative with words and most likely unemployable to those who are driven to grow a succesfull business., and if you are gainfully employed, your employers have not been treated to your real self...I would guess you are an English grad who still believes his Profs are genuius level dudes.
Posted by YourJomamma at 06/30/2009 @ 12:33pm
Posted by TexasFlood at 06/30/2009 @ 12:25pm
I too believe in govt, but I shudder at all the areas govt is taking over...so should you...there are many things govt should and must do...and there are infinatly more things govt should stay away from on any and every level...
this is most likely where we would disagree..and you might be surprised at where we would agree...but have never taken the time to learn this area...
too many Phils out there who do not have the ability to listen and think without emotional involvement regarding issues better left alone...or to the individual to sort out on his/her own.
Posted by YourJomamma at 06/30/2009 @ 12:39pm
lol
Talk is cheap fella.
Your sincerity is as laughable as your "libertarian" nonsense.
Once again with the picking and choosing what you do and don't like about government and all of it.
Just like I'm sure good ole' Larry does with his bible.
Here's an idea:
Get a job. Stop spending so much time on the internet.
Posted by TexasFlood at 06/30/2009 @ 1:01pm
Get a job. Stop spending so much time on the internet.
Posted by TexasFlood at 06/30/2009 @ 1:01pm
I have a fine job, am well paid, and have created 6 other well paying jobs for others....
and yes, I do pick and choose what I believe govt should do..it is prudent and I believe that is what the FF did...
You should could your posts and compare them to the number I post...on all threads...
and I think you might want to redact your statement..
Posted by YourJomamma at 06/30/2009 @ 1:10pm
I don't suppose it ever occurred to you that maybe you're the one in agreement with me?
It would seem I know quite a bit about you, as you spend most of your time espousing your shallow belief structure here, day in and day out, as if struggling to convince yourself of your own ideas.
You seem to desire some sort of compassion and understanding all while being as narcissistic as possible. It's all about how all the looney libs just don't "get" you. Everything you say completely reeks of "Us v. Them" no matter what sort of cheap sincerity you attempt to utilize in your grand plan to change people's minds. All while claiming you're not here to force anything on people.
Granted I don't spend much time rambling on and on about what I think is right, or how my level of morality is better, usually because I can't get past the ridiculous hypocrisy of you and yours.
I'll try to get going on that though so that way you have something to pick on.
Posted by TexasFlood at 06/30/2009 @ 1:10pm
Sorry fella,
Should read.."you should count your..."
Posted by YourJomamma at 06/30/2009 @ 1:11pm
Posted by YourJomamma at 06/30/2009 @ 1:10pm
You're surely joking...
I go for weeks and sometimes months at a time without coming here at all, while you, antisocialist, and bigpasture (and let's not forget our more liberal friends who don't ever seem to leave) seem to have plenty of time to mosey in and out of the blogs whenever you feel that some justice has been wrought against the conservo-nuts.
Posted by TexasFlood at 06/30/2009 @ 1:13pm
*kiss*
Still love you though.
I'm more rugged and more individualistic than you are.
Posted by TexasFlood at 06/30/2009 @ 1:17pm
Unfortunately I do have to leave to go be a productive member of society.
Even when I'm on vacation I end up working.
Posted by TexasFlood at 06/30/2009 @ 1:19pm
Posted by TexasFlood at 06/30/2009 @ 1:19pm
I travel almost every week and hit the site even from iphone and from China at times..
I have been absent for months except the last few days...
One can leave for many months , come back and it is the same old thing so I lose interest quickly...
I do pop back and forth even to just read sometimes..the arguments are almost cloned no matter what the subject..gets boring.
I work during all vacations and I vacation through work..so..the line is blurred..
What does Texas Flood mean?
My father in law lives in Arlington and I do quite a bit of business in Austin and Dallas..Houston..
Posted by YourJomamma at 06/30/2009 @ 1:28pm
Flood,
"I don't suppose it ever occurred to you that maybe you're the one in agreement with me? "
Sure..why not?
I dont care tho, if anyone here would ever agree with me..this is not the place to change peoples minds here...pointless...this place is the far left reaches of the human mind....
and I never visit the opposite site of the right...I already know what they think...and I disagree with them almost as much as those here..
this is a place for entertinment for me when I have the time, and my schedule does permit me what appears to be an abundance of free time...but even that bis an illusion..travel has alot of waiting time.
Nothong here is very serious in the relms of reality or life as far as I am concerned, but I do like many of the people here..on both sides...
Posted by YourJomamma at 06/30/2009 @ 1:34pm
"I have a fine job, am well paid, and have created 6 other well paying jobs for others...."
Posted by YourJomamma at 06/30/2009 @ 1:10pm
Has JOMAMMA "created" as many "jobs" as...Sen David "John" Shitter? Through the same "free-market" methods?
Posted by PhilMcCrevice at 06/30/2009 @ 4:40pm
i'd like to know one good thing to come out of the existence of fast food restaurants.
one thing?
i'll bet you can't do it.
Posted by darladoon at 06/29/2009 @ 2:23pm
i earned enough money to buy some guitars.....
Posted by frosty zoom at 06/30/2009 @ 4:59pm
you are creative with words and most likely unemployable to those who are driven to grow a succesfull business., and if you are gainfully employed, your employers have not been treated to your real self...I would guess you are an English grad who still believes his Profs are genuius level dudes.
Posted by YourJomamma at 06/30/2009 @ 12:33pm
so many ironies....
Posted by frosty zoom at 06/30/2009 @ 5:03pm
i beg you to read further and dispute what marx has to say in this book.
Posted by darladoon at 06/30/2009 @ 10:54am | ignore this person | warn this person
Ludwig Von Mises shreds all Marxist ideas. Most his literature can be found free online at mises.org.
Posted by liberty4all at 06/30/2009 @ 6:37pm
libertarianism would be great!
if only we could remove the dumb from freedumb.
Posted by frosty zoom at 06/30/2009 @ 9:27pm
Nothong here is very serious in the relms of reality
what? no thong?
Posted by emile duBois at 07/01/2009 @ 09:33am
DOES BILL KNOW?
Posted by emile duBois at 07/01/2009 @ 12:56pm