Word: grapes
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While some find it easy to get wrapped up in the issues of the "Great Grape Referendum," students should also keep in mind the object of the debate, the fruit itself...
...response, The Grape Coalition alleges that conditions are much improved since the 1960s, and that information supplied by the UFW cannot be trusted. The UFW denies the truth to advance its political aims, they say, pointing out that California farmworkers themselves have abandoned the union, with fewer than I percent currently UFW members. And California, the Coalition notes, is the only state in the nation to require that pesticide-related illnesses be reported to state authorities...
Voters hungry for the facts should take The Grape Coalition's pleas with a grain of salt. Ninety percent of the nation's grapes come from California, and, according to the UFW, more pesticides are used on grapes than on all other fruits and vegetables combined. So wouldn't you expect California to be the state to most want to know about pesticide-related illnesses? Moreover, just because California knows about these cancers doesn't mean it's working to prevent them. Even if conditions have improved in the fields, does that mean they have improved enough...
...fact that the UFW has largely abandoned the grape boycott in favor of other crusades--and the fact that many farmworkers have decided they are better off without membership in it--may well be another red herring. What matters here is not labor politics, but the health and safety of the workers and of consumers. If these remain at risk, the boycott remains justified...
...Coalition makes other spurious arguments. Harvard's not buying grapes actually hurts the workers, they say, since there is then lesser demand and thus lower wages for grape pickers. But can the companies that denied their workers clean water and bathrooms just years ago now be assumed to pass on profits to these same workers...