OSHA was big on the farms around here during the Jimma Caharter days. Some dumbass rule or reg that you had to have "facilities" within 5 minutes walking distance from where you were working, meaning we would have to have about 20 outhouses to be compliant. Nevermind it was usually me and/or my dad doing the work, and if we had to "go", we "went". (If a bear can do it in the woods, so can I.)
Finally, enough of the farmers got fed up with their snooping, and started "greeting" the feds with shotguns.
Rarely ever see one here anymore.
NUTS, company's got a 8 hour heads up from inspection from OSHA or Food safety. in 22 years only once did inspections of any kind come in with a 2 hour notice.
Panic by the office and bosses. I was working on what was called the Wet End of the plant and told to ignore these guys and go about my work. I was sorting a product on the line, looked up and there were 3 men staring at me, one who resembled a serial killer, blank staring eyes and no expression on his face. They stood there for a good 3 minutes then the Creepy one said something to the man next to him and he came over to request I put on work gloves. I did so immediately as requested knowing gloves were not required for my job.
Weird, I was not in any trouble as the specs for the job did not require gloves but this inspector and my boss got into a long talk in the office.
Food safety in the field is a problem for farmers, they may comply with the outhouses but there is never hot water or soap to wash hands after using the facilities. Source of E-coli right there.
Way back in 1988 I worked in a cosmetic factory making Avon Products, before I was allowed to exit the bathroom I had to be screened for bacteria on my hands. Then don new gloves.
We have know about these diseases for years, no problem in the past using horse or cow manure on the fields, their Honey seldom had Ecoli, why is it that most prevalent today ????-----------=Hell in the past people planted their gardens over their leach fields or septic tanks, some dug out their outhouses and used it for fertilizer or even pumped out their septics to spread on the fields. Today Pot growers use Pig shit high in nitrogen to grow their crop.
Cantaloupe, one grower is bankrupt when Ecoli was found in their product and actually killed a few score of folks. Where did this come from, how did it get there, ground water, fertilizer, sure did not come from a few deer that trespassed into the field.
A heart breaker for the family not to mention the family's of those that died eating their product. Times like these OSHA and any government agency is welcome to try to figure out what went wrong, lives and futures are at stake in these cases.
Bears do indeed shit in the woods, where else can they crap. But bears do not use toilet paper and man must. Forget that cutesy add on TV, bears do not use toilet paper.
Easy solution for every 20 outhouses have a 50 gallon drum of boiling water and cold water on site to mix and make sure the workers wash their hands leaving the port a john.
I myself do not want to eat a tomato that some picker had just put their hands on their penis to piss or worse to poop. Yes I do wash off my produce, but at times the germs just take a good drink unless they are boiled.
