Mexican produce

For some time in the 80's and 90's, Mexican produce had a bad name.  Virtually every month, there would be a scare story about green onions, chili peppers, tomatoes causing food poisoning.  In those days, there was not Country of Origin labeling requirement, so most of these outbreaks were automatically blamed on Mexican veg.  Then came traceback requirements, stepped up inspections at the border, and finally the Country of Origin labeling.  A funny thing happened along the way.  The big spinach contamination of  2006 was an American problem, and so were a host of smaller outbreaks since then.  The few Mexican contamination  cases since then have been traced back to outlaw operations.  Meanwhile, some major American salad manufacturers have contracted with Mexicans to supply their plants on a year round basis.  Now there is a steady stream of Primus audited produce crossing at several points along the US-Mexico border. The veg business probably rivals the illicit drug smuggling industry and is paying taxes on both sides of the border.  With the immigration crazies trying to shut the border to immigrants, labor intensive veg production may actually become more important south of the border and in a perverse way may actually help the Mexican government keep its people employed at home.  The
collateral damage will occur in America as producers here can't get enough cheap labor to make their operations profitable.  Maybe John McCain"s $50./hour lettuce harvesters will become reality!