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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThis Congressman Has A Plan To Save Sriracha
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/17/tony-cardenas-sriracha_n_5168671.htmlHuy Fong Foods, the maker of the popular hot sauce, was hit with a lawsuit last fall after residents near the Irwindale, Calif. factory complained of eye and throat irritation and headaches from the facility's chili pepper odor. In November, a Los Angeles judge ordered a "partial shutdown" of the factory on the grounds that the odor is "extremely annoying, irritating and offensive to the senses warranting consideration as a public nuisance." And in December, Huy Fong was ordered to hold its sauces for 30 days before shipping....
Rep. Tony Cardenas (D-Calif.), who represents part of Southern California's San Fernando Valley, wrote to Huy Fong President William Tran on Wednesday to propose a way out of the company's legal troubles.
“By now, you may have been directly contacted by individual states to move your business there,” he wrote in the open letter. “But why move thousands of miles, when you can keep jobs in California, the state you founded your successful company in?”
Why indeed?
Slight quibble: Sriracha is the name of the sauce itself. Huy Fong is merely a brand of sriracha. In fact, I had some sriracha on Wednesday that was imported from Hong Kong.
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Dr Hobbitstein
(6,568 posts)They're recipe is a bit different from most others. Also, it's made in the USA.
A couple of assholes complaining about fumes once a year does not a problem make. Especially when it's quite politicized like this whole thing has been.
bobalew
(321 posts)next time you get your BBQ grill going, Get some fresh Ripe RED serranos Chilies & Grill them with the lid on..,Then once they are going really good, Snatch the Lid off the old Weber & take Big Strong Whiff. When you've experienced that, THEN complain about the neighbors of this plant. This MIGHT give you a bit of perspective, and HOPEFULLY an outlook more considerate of the situation... There ARE environmental & filter solutions that could be applied in situ, if the Owner was willing to spend the money to do it.
Dr Hobbitstein
(6,568 posts)exhaust system installed, as was originally required by the city council at the plant. Which IS the filtration system.
30 complaints. Most all can be traced back to a single city councilman (friends and family members) who is pissed over Huy Fong paying off their loan early (less money in the city coffers).
The owner SPENT the money, and agreed to spend MORE money to further filtrate. They won't even let them box up the already processed sauce (keeping in mind they only process the chilis once a year, and the complaints started during the OFF time).
Fuck the city of Irwindale for what they're doing to what is a small, privately owned business. Read up on the owner. His IS a story of the American Dream in action.
FarCenter
(19,429 posts)To see just how absurd this fight is, consider the location of the plant. Irwindale is not a suburban community. It is a city of quarries, gravel pits, recycling centers, rock-crushing operations and bottling plants like the massive Miller Brewing Co. Huy Fong's plant is across the street from a giant gravel pit. The entire area has been used so heavily by industry for decades that it is a Superfund cleanup site.
The city barely has a human presence. Fewer than 1,500 people live within its borders, and those who do are in hardscrabble neighborhoods clinging to the edges of pits and plants. Huy Fong is not an incursion into a bedroom community. It is exactly the right place to put a company that bottles hot sauce.
dhill926
(16,339 posts)yep. pretty much what I've read as well….
pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)dilby
(2,273 posts)There are cheaper states that they can operate out of with less dense populations where they wont have to fear of Urban growth growing into their facilities. The issue could be logistics though, they need a lot of Jalapeno peppers and I think most of them are probably grown in California so it may make sense to stay there.
Igel
(35,317 posts)Probably more than in CA. Probably fewer to be grown this year in CA because of water allocation cut-backs, as wel.
FarCenter
(19,429 posts)http://time.com/12539/sriracha-factory-california-pictures/
Their peppers come from Ventura County. They should probably move there. Otherwise they should head for one of the other pepper cultivating states.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)between there and where Huy Fong is now.
