Feds: Tomato Broker Took Payoffs to Buy Tainted Food
At the very least, we should be able to count on the integrity of our food supply. But we can't. Between corrupt practices like this and the gutting of the FDA during the Bush years, every time we put something into our mouths that wasn't grown and bought locally, we're taking a chance:
Robert Watson, a top ingredient buyer for Kraft Foods, needed $20,000 to pay his taxes. So he called a broker for a California tomato processor that for years had been paying him bribes to get its products into Kraft’s plants.
[...] Over the last 14 months, Mr. Watson and three other purchasing managers, at Frito-Lay, Safeway and B&G Foods, have pleaded guilty to taking bribes. Five people connected to one of the nation’s largest tomato processors, SK Foods, have also admitted taking part in the scheme.
Now, federal prosecutors in California have taken aim at the owner of SK Foods, who they say spearheaded the far-reaching plot. The man, Frederick Scott Salyer, was arrested at Kennedy Airport in New York City on Feb. 4 after getting off a flight from Switzerland. He was indicted last week on racketeering, fraud and obstruction of justice charges.
The scheme, as laid out by federal prosecutors, has two parts. Officials say that Mr. Salyer and others at SK Foods greased the palms of a handful of corporate buyers in exchange for lucrative contracts and confidential information on bids submitted by competitors. This most likely drove up ingredient prices for the big food companies.
In addition, prosecutors say that for years, SK Foods shipped its customers millions of pounds of bulk tomato paste and puree that fell short of basic quality standards — with falsified documentation to mask the problems. Often that meant mold counts so high the sale should have been prohibited under federal law; at other times it involved breaching specifications in the sales contracts, such as acidity levels or the age of the product.
"getting off a flight from Switzerland"
Well at least they let him make a deposit with UBS before arresting him.
Great, ain't it?
for everyone who doesn't believe in conspiracies, or conspiracy theories...
this right here was a conspiracy.
It's a corporate conspiracy, isn't it?
That couldn't be possible, could it?
.
The Vicar of Dibley?
me-oww!
So do you, I take it.
:)
me-oww!
episode.
My favorite Dibley was when Gerry had to give up chocolate for lent! The animal service was a good one.
But my favorite Britcom is As Time Goes By.
Until you respect the citizenship of those with which you disagree, you're not a true American.
Did you ever see "The Young Ones?" I was much younger and more stoned when I loved that one.
Found this looking!
On that list, I've seen #s 2,3,5,9,12,14,17,18,20,21,29,and 37.
Until you respect the citizenship of those with which you disagree, you're not a true American.
.
Blackadder I've seen, #2 on the poll.
Until you respect the citizenship of those with which you disagree, you're not a true American.
I love too many British comedies to pick one, One foot in the Grave, Drop the Dead Donkey, Waiting for God, to the Manor Born, Good Neighbours, I'm sure I've left a few out, like Not Necessarily the News, Blackadder, Red Dwarf, Spitting Image, The Young ones, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, Rising Damp, Only Fools and Horses, Rab c Nesbit, Doc Martin...
me-oww!
The Office, Extras, Fawlty Towers, Monty Python, Ab Fab, The Thin Blue Line, Black Books...
me-oww!
"Sweety, darling! Let me in!" Good times, good times.
Mucho burro on those trays
:D
me-oww!
"My wife can drop a man at ten paces with one lash of her tongue."
Not 'on- those- trays'. No sir - 'uno dos tres.'
That's good stuff right there. Off to youtube!!!
He's from Barcelona!
Until you respect the citizenship of those with which you disagree, you're not a true American.
THE WAR!!!
me-oww!
French & Saunders and David Tennant as the Doctor.
Right? Remember "The Young Ones" episode when, Rick, I think, found the "mouse" in Jennifer Sanders purse? Too funny.
French & Saunders Red Nose Day Harry Potter parody...It was beyond hysterical. "You're a woman, Harry!"
Parts 1-4:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9onI92OxBHY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjWGgWnd6Ec
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIapf3G-eSM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xodve30qfA
Tennant hasn't been gone long at all. We haven't had the twelfth Doctor long enough to decide. But I know what you mean. I never stopped thinking of Sean Connery as the real James Bond, then, just as I started getting used to Roger Moore, he was gone.
Until you respect the citizenship of those with which you disagree, you're not a true American.
Matt Smith is the Eleventh Doctor. David Tennant was the Tenth.
I watched the changeover during the holidays, in a marathon. I knew we were seeing the back of Mr. Tennant, unfortunately.
Until you respect the citizenship of those with which you disagree, you're not a true American.
was one of the best Doctors, though. I did love the Red Nose Day parady of Doctor Who back in the 90s, where Joanna Lumley (Patsy) wound up as the Twelfth Doctor.
I am watching year 3. Love the Joy.
"Let's talk dirty to the animals"
I got teary eyed for that one. To the Manor Born, As Time Goes By, Keeping up Appearances, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy....there's just far too much excellent programming from the BBC.
you would think it was impossible to hear some people talk.
"...every time we put something into our mouths that wasn't grown and bought locally, we're taking a chance."
Theoretically at least, the fewer steps between the soil and the mouth should be the safest route. Just make sure to wash that stuff really well, especially if it didn't come from an organic grower.
Tomatoes from pesticide-laden fields just down the street from you may not be any safer, as they may not have been washed as thoroughly as ones that made it through processors.
(I lived near a tomato field in Palm Beach Co and watched them spraying the fields and the drift covered the roadside stand the grower had set-up. I'm sure it wasn't a one-time occurrence.)
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
on a window sill. Grow your own in the summer and then can them. Hurry before Monsanto owns all the tomato seeds, though.
I always supplied the neighbors with the best tomatoes. Will probably miss this season in FL (already getting late) and I don't want to be in CA long enough to plant them. Next year will be better.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
have good loam as my yard once was an orchard. The lime and the loam makes for sweet juicy ones. When does the season start in Florida?
crop that doesn't come from Mexico, I believe. Lost a lot in this year's record freeze. I planted typically in Nov/Dec for Feb=>April fruit. Gets too hot/nights too warm for most varieties after about May.
In SoCal, can't plant much before April 1 as it's too cool.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
until the maples leaf out. It used to be that as soon as the maple leaves were as big as mouse ears, you could put in tomato plants. I think we are in the middle of a zone change, so the weather is iffy. Best to wait a bit longer than to run out every other night to wrap your tomatoes in blankets. Smudge pots are hard to come by up here.
the temp range most varieties set best at. So even though there's little frost risk after mid-Feb, the plants just won't grow or set w/o tenting/covering. They have special local early-set ones for CA.
In SoFla, night temps are routinely and consistently above 75F after May 1 or so, so no fruit sets, just hornworms breed.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
Freeze tomatoes too. Just wash 'em and toss 'em in a plastic bag, and into the freezer. Ezpz. Take out as many as you want to cook, plunge them into a bowl hot water, soak 2 minutes, and the skins will rub off in your hands. Start cooking.
"If the US government enforced its banking laws like it did its park regulations, we wouldn't be
in this damn park in the first place." OCCUPY.!!
To call this a conspiracy suggests it's outside the norm. This is business as usual.
please explain how a conspiracy has to be abnormal.
You're so fun pete
thanks?
Isn't that the invisible hand at it's finest? Capitalism in a nutshell? Isn't this what the majority of Americans as described by Conservatives (18% = "majority") desire?
...sigh...
.
but not surprising in the least.
Kraft Foods = garbage.
.
is the crap served in most of our nation's jails, prisons, and hospitals. I'd have included the military, but they've supplemented heavily with bourgoise McDonalds/Burger King, etc. lately.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
markets. I was in the hospital once, and they gave me "maple syrup" manufactured by a pharmaceutical company that consisted entirely of chemicals. Needless to say, I did not eat there.
you basically have little or ZERO choice in the matter. At least "on the outside", we're free to buy other corporations' equally crappy food product, but with different packaging and combinations of preservatives and dyes more to our individual tastes. :)
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
seeds. Then we can dine on pesticides and herbicides bred right into the plants. Mmmmm, Round-Up. No weeds in my intestines.
will never own all the seeds, as long as individuals continue to open-pollinate heirloom varieties of plants. Of course, it's getting harder and harder for individuals to, well, be individualistic, but I'm not too worried just yet. Besides, tomatoes can be easily cutting-grown (if they don't get Verticillium and/or Fusarium) and overwintered in SoFla.
Just give me an acre in Palm Beach Co southward, with a few coconut palms, tomatoes, and ammo for my .38. I'll be just fine. :)
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
seeds. They are suing small farmers when Monsanto's plants cross-pollinate with the plants of those small farmers. It's bizarre, but it is actually happening. They drive the small farmers out of business with what is essentially "slap suits." Google Monsanto. A real eye-opener. My best advice? Get a few more guns. And a greenhouse that you can seal. It's not known as Frankenfood for nothing. It's like reading science fiction. It's banned in many European countries. But of course, not here.
It's food that's over processed and they were owned by Big Tobacco. Altria spun them offin 2003, but that doesn't mean there still isn't the same old shit happening, and the same people aren't making money from the brand.
Under their umbrella of 'food' products is Oreo, Nabisco, Lu, Cadbury, Oscar Meyer, and Maxwell House, to name a few purveyors of fat making empty calorie foods, meat byproduct food and really crap coffee. Kraft also bought Boca a few years back. I wouldn't eat a Boca Burger for money now.
Just avoid buying the shite on this list. If you concentrate on buying local, it shouldn't be too hard.
me-oww!
At least the best I can afford these days.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
and you have my condolences...
me-oww!
I actually cleaned my friend's house sober yesterday, and only had one cigarette during the three-hour tour.
Learning to do with less is the new 'Merkin way.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
Are they new crooked Eric Holder appointees, or old John Ashcroft crooked appointees?
Until you respect the citizenship of those with which you disagree, you're not a true American.
First they poison us then they charge us a fortune to get medial care , capitalism at it's finest .
Government bad, companies killing people good.
Republicans are liars and simply cannot be trusted.
I wonder if Moanica asked Clenis how organic he was?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Haven't y'all heard all regulation bad...taxes bad...go back to laws and free markets only good...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
It fits the republican pattern. Lie, cheat, steal, even if it gets people killed. As long as they can make money on it let them die!
That is why they don't want the people to have health care. They make more money off dying people then healthy people. It is always the same thing with republicans first there is greed, then there is stupidity.
republicanism/conservatism is a mental illness, it has almost totally destroied our economy, our morals, and the sprituality of America!
I do not buy food products from any of the companies that are owned by Phillip Morris (or whatever they call themselves now...Atria). There is no way that I could ever trust the safety of any product that is made a company that is owned by another company that kills and maims for profit. Companies owned by PM include(d): Kraft Spun off in 2007), General Foods, Nabisco, ~25% state in Miller Brewing, Oscar Meyer, Claussen, Jell-o, Knox, Starbucks, Yuban, Maxwell House, Maxim, Tombstone Pizza, Oreo's,Planter's Nuts, Altoids, Tobler, Life Savers, Teny's, Tolli, Farley's, Sahler, Velveeta, Cheeze Whiz, Breakstone, Light 'N Lively, Knudsen, Taco Bell, Stove Top Stuffing, Good Seasonings, Seven Seas, Shake 'n Bake, Grey Poupon, Sauceworks, Louis Rich, Crystal Light (purveyors of toxic and highly addictive aspartame-based drink concoctions)Bocca Burger, California Pizza Kitchen, DiGiorno, Jacks, Saint Michael Wines, Jacobs Souchard....the list goes on.
I can't trust any of these brands or products. In any event, one's best bet is to avoid all processed foods and cook from scratch, using organic foods wherever possible.
To call the capitalists PIGS gives the poor pigs a bad name.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
You really cant pin it all on Bush.
The FDA has been morally bankrupt for decades under all admins. Government workers turn their heads to all kinds of corporate stupidity often in the hopes they can leave the FDA for more lucrative careers in the industries they turned their heads the other way for when regulating or making decisions.
Pharma has a revolving door so why shouldn't the food industry, which has allowed to have all kinds of additives in foods which have been banned in other countries, do as pharma.
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