Should deaths in the vineyard be on wine drinkers' consciences?

http://www.daytondailynews.com/search/content/oh/story/living/2008/07/17/ddn071808lifewinecolumn.html

By Mark Fisher

Staff Writer

Friday, July 18, 2008

By the time she arrived at the hospital, Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez was in a coma, her body temperature above 108 degrees. The 17-year-old farmworker — who was two months pregnant and had been tying grapevines in a wine vineyard in searing California heat on May 14 — died two days later.

Maria's death has triggered protests, investigations and soul-searching — but it hasn't stopped others from dying. Just last week, California's Occupational Safety and Health agency announced it was investigating the death of a 42-year-old male farm laborer who had spent the morning loading boxes of table grapes onto a truck in another California vineyard in 108-degree heat and who later in the day became ill and died.

The 17-year-old was stricken in a vineyard co-owned by the same family that produces Charles Shaw wines — better known as "Two-Buck Chuck." A spokeswoman for national grocery chain Trader Joe's — which sells Charles Shaw wines exclusively and operates a store in Kettering — has said the vineyard where Maria was working does not supply grapes for Charles Shaw wines. Still, the United Farm Workers union has launched a campaign asking Trader Joe's to toughen its vendor policies.

On Uncorked (at www.daytondailynews.com/wineblog) earlier this week, we posed the question: Are vineyard deaths the price we pay for cheap wine? Presumably, stricter oversight of workplace conditions, along with shorter shifts, more frequent breaks and other steps that would reduce the possibility of vineyard workers suffering heat-related illnesses, would add cost to the production of wine, at a time when the rising price of fuel and other factors are pressuring wine prices. Are wine drinkers willing to pay the price?

Reader Bruce said the incidences of heat exhaustion and heatstroke among farmworkers suggest "that their employers are not providing sufficient preventative measures such as water, break time, shade, etc., to enable the workers to protect themselves. ... The California OSHA should fully investigate and take the necessary action against the employers involved to prevent this in the future. If the price of wine increases, so be it. Vineyard workers deserve better."

FULL story at link.

Yes! Yes! Yes! I say anything that you consume you should know what it takes to get it to you. And to know the people who are doing the services for you are able to do so in a safe environment.