The Stories Project: Oregon Livelihoods Traded Away

George Rodriguez Residence: Nyssa, OR Age: 48 Occupation: Grower: onions, beans, potatoes, beets, other

Snapshots "Look what CAFTA did to the sugar factory. They shut down the plant to move elsewhere. " "This issue doesn't have anything to do with religion or friendship or politics, this is about taking care of working people and working farmers in America." "Labor is huge part of the problem in terms of competition. I have here an article from the Idaho Statesman talking about the jobs here versus in Latin America. Here in the US one worker gets paid $7.50/hr but in Mexico you get 5.5 workers for that same price, in Honduras you get 9.2 workers, in China you get 16.7 workers for that $7.50. " "It seems that US is not concerned about the chemicals that other countries are using. The government that okays these products looks at the end product on the shelves but they don't look at the farms and the fields, they don't talk to the labor. Talk to these guys with the backpacks full of chemicals. Ramrod, a chemical that is illegal here in the States, is used a lot down there in Mexico. Anything that is illegal here you can buy in the hardware stores down there. Then they put it on the food, ship it up here and we eat it. " "Farmers here abide by the laws; we have people come in and check our farms to make sure we are following the laws. But down there, they do not even monitor the chemical use because there are too many farms and too many chemicals. When I sell my onions to Costco or Cisco, they make me prove through documents that I don't use any illegal chemicals and I do everything by the book. But with farmers down south, that is not the case."

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