u/Aesterix_

Wait for it…

Between 2017 and 2019, five separate E. coli outbreaks linked to romaine lettuce sickened over 500 Americans across 36 states, killed five, and put dozens into kidney failure severe enough to require dialysis. The CDC told the entire country to throw away all romaine regardless of origin. The cause was not a mystery. It was a toilet.

Farmworkers picking lettuce by hand across vast commercial fields in triple-digit Arizona and California heat had inadequate or no access to portable toilets. Piece-rate pay structures meant stopping to relieve yourself cost money workers could not afford to lose. Human waste entered the soil. It entered the irrigation water. It entered the food supply. The FDA's own environmental assessments acknowledged inadequate field sanitation as a contributing risk factor. California labor inspectors had cited large lettuce operations for insufficient portable toilet access in the exact years the outbreaks occurred. Regulators knew. The industry knew.

The pattern predates the romaine crisis by decades. The 2006 spinach outbreak killed three people and sickened 200 across 26 states under identical conditions in Monterey County, California. The 1996 Cyclospora outbreak in Guatemalan strawberries and raspberries was linked directly to fields with no bathroom facilities whatsoever. Every outbreak triggered the same industry response: more water testing, better labeling, voluntary pledges. Never toilets. Never breaks. Never accountability for the decision to treat human biological necessity as a productivity problem to be managed around rather than a right to be protected.

Sources: FDA, CDC, California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, Food and Environment Reporting Network, Consumer Reports, 1996-2026

Marx predicted this shit, artificial scarcity is by design of capitalism economics especially neoliberalism mode that is driven by profit motive. It's not evil or bad it's just capitalism exploitation of the land, labor and resources. We see the same thing with the diamond, gold and oil industry as prices are artificially manipulated by imperial core to produce their so-called economic demand so they can exacerbate excuses to squeeze the costs.

One of my first organizing industries is working at food terminal which service the grocery industry and all grocery stores regardless of luxury or crass get the same bulk products from food terminals for the same prices, so basically when you get from the posh store you're actually being scammed by them because you can get the exact same products at the crass store with nearly the same quality.

We set up a system in groceries, someone with a sedan coming in usually outreach or food bank worker, other time FNB or community fridge volunteer and we fill up their sedan with sandwiches, prepared food, bread and they would have undescripted bags ready to fill the produces, in and out in ten min.

Educational and organizing resources below

https://start.me/p/y94Q72/marxist-leninist-study-resources

Fuck Dana White. If you watch the UFC you're a traitor to your country

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A young man goes to the ER for high blood pressure in the MountainView Hospital and Medical Center Las Vegas, Nevada.
He’s there less than TWO hours. No surgery. No scans. The bill comes back at $41,297 even AFTER he’s paid his FULL out-of-pocket max.

A 15-year resident of District 4 named Brett has recently made headlines in Corona for his stance on privacy. With a long career as an IT network architect, he launched an initiative called Deflock Corona to push the City Council to end its contract with Flock Safety, a company that provides license plate reading cameras. He’s been vocal at recent council meetings, sharing his personal concern that cameras placed between his house and his daughter’s school are tracking his family's daily routines and storing that data in a corporate database. Since District 4 is up for election this year, his efforts have sparked a lot of conversation among neighbors about how much surveillance the city actually needs.