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December 2012/January 2013

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OUr INBOx October/November 2012 | FREE THE FOOD ISSUE Why OrgAnIc Matters Healthy living with cAncEr Dinner On DEMAnD fabulous meatless-meal delivery How Your VOTE Affects Your HEAlTH SIzE cOUnTS but mostly to men cOUrAgE & cOnVIcTIOn on the path to success We love your letters! Please share your opinion and help shape future issues. Write to editor@wholelifemagazine.com. (Letters may be edited for space and clarity.) �������������������� �������������������® �������������� Devouring WLT Oh, can I just say I absolutely love this month's issue...sure, who doesn't love to read about organic foods, GMOs (yuck), and steal new recipes? But still, I just devoured WLT whole this morning. —Cayce Hill, Claremont I ind it very hard to believe that the average american eats 5.5 lbs of food each and every day. I believe this information is inaccurate and does not help the cause for the GMO ballot vote. —Dave Vanderwier, via email Tim Posada replies: In 2001, a UsDa study reported 4.7 pounds of food consumed per person per day in the year 2000. That's including meat, eggs, wheat, oil, butter, fruit and vegetables—no beverages, though dairy was included in multiple forms, including milk. Twelve years after this study, the number 5.5 was cited by various sources, and I stand by it, considering the percentage increase pattern tracked by UsDa in the earlier study. Hidden Cost of Food regarding "Platefuls of Politics" (Oct/Nov 2012), if wages and beneits were higher in agriculture, it's likely more american citizens would be willing to work. The use of a cheap, illegal workforce has suppressed wages and disincentivized american workers, and discouraged more automation by growers. agriculture is highly subsidized by taxpayers. Taxpayers are further subsidizing the industry through agribusinesses' practice of using a largely illegal workforce. Illegal immigration to California costs taxpayers an estimated $22 billion annually. This is in the form of multiple government services that illegal immigrants receive. a large portion of the costs go to educating the children of illegal immigrants. There also are costs associated with public school meals, food stamps, incarceration and nonreimbursed hospital expense…the latter alone totals approximately $1.3 billion in the state. That legalizing illegal farm workers will somehow stabilize the labor needs of the farm industry is a myth. It's unlikely that second and third generation offspring of illegal farm workers will have any interest in following in their parents' footsteps, so illegal workers will continue to be drawn in; this is exactly what happened after the 1986 amnesty under Pres. reagan. according to a study done by FaIr (a self-proclaimed nonpartisan group seeking to reduce immigration), between 1998 and 2008, the american ag industry was the most profitable sector in the economy, with farm workers earning about half of what similarly skilled workers in other areas of the labor market earned. The FaIr study concluded that agriculture could raise wages significantly, thereby wooing a legal workforce, and still earn healthy profits without passing costs on to consumers. � � � � �� � � � � � �� � � � � � � � � �� � � � � � � �� � �� � � � � � � �� � � �� � � � � � � � � � �� � � � �� � � � � �� � � � � � �� � � � � � � �� � � � � � � � �� � � �� � � � � � � � � � � � � �� � � � �� � � � �� � � � �� � � � � � � � � � � � � �� � � � � �� � � � �� � � � �� � � � �� � � � � � � �� � � �� � � � � � �� � � � � � �� � � � � �� � � � � �� � �� � � � � � � � � �� � � � � � �� � �� � � � � � � � � � �� � � �� � � �� � � � � � � � �� ���������������� ��������������������������� ����� ������������� ����� ������ ����� ������ ���������������� ���������� ���������������� ������� ������������ ��������� ��������� �� ��� ��� ��� �������������������������� �������������������������� ���� � �� � �� � � � � � � ��� ��� ����� �� ��� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �� �������������������������������������������������� While stories of rotting produce make for good headlines, they didn't tell the entire story. The H-2a visa allows U.s. employers to bring in foreign nationals to ill temporary ag jobs. There's paperwork, a iling fee, and the employer must comply with U.s. wage standards and workers' comp. The foreign national must have a passport. employers using H-2a also must provide housing to workers and pay to bring the worker in. H-2a also allows for dependents to stay with the visa holder. But why go through all that when you can hire someone illegally, particularly when it's cheaper to hire an illegal alien? —Jo Wideman, executive Director, Californians for Population stabilization ed reply: suggesting that all illegal immigrant costs are attributable to farm labor is specious; an equal number of illegals are employed in the restaurant industry, lawn care, factories and multiple other endeavors. The Los angeles Times estimated total annual cost to California taxpayers of less than $5 billion in 2009, far less than you cite, and somewhat (although not entirely) offset by illegal resident payment of sales and property taxes. and the social security administration estimates that in 2007, illegal residents nationwide contributed a net of $12 billion to the system. On the speciic issue WLT addressed, it is clear that migrant labor has beneits for both laborers and farmers, and as suggested, there is no reason farmers can't increase wages for anyone willing to do the labor. In which case, why target the workers? We stand by our belief that few americans will labor on farms at any price, and we continue to support immigration reform. Masthead+_01.indd 11 � � � � � �� � � � � � � � ®� ������� December2012/January201311 11/27/12 2:45 PM

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