Why greenhouse workers don't eat their tomatoes

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Revelations of a worker of one of the vegetable farms. We met Lilia, a former refugee from Grozny, on a suburban bus. The common theme was found easily. The woman complained that finding a good job, even though she had a higher education, oh, how difficult it is.

- I noticed that people of blue-collar professions are in demand now. For example, they are often invited to work in greenhouses, - I hastened to share important information. - Moreover, people are recruited not only in our area, but they are also invited to different regions, also to the Stavropol Territory, where they promise to provide comfortable housing.

Imagine my bewilderment when, after these words, my intelligent and benevolent companion changed dramatically in her face and even covered with red spots. I already thought that the lady was offended that she, a former museum worker with a university diploma, was offered to go to the greenhouse. But the reason was different.

- Don't even tell me about it! - exclaimed my interlocutor. - I have plowed in the greenhouse for several years and I cannot remember this without a shudder.

- You, who have never held anything heavier than a book all your life, must have been so frightened by hard physical labor? - I ask Lilia skeptically.

- I'm not afraid of work. When we fled from Grozny, it was with great difficulty that we were able to buy an unfinished house in one of the villages. We literally did not have a roof over our heads. And we had to lie down, as they say, with bones, but provide ourselves and the children with this roof, bring the unfinished one into a divine form. And then I went to work in a greenhouse. At six in the morning, the workers assembled an old PAZik and took us to work. We came and the masculine foreman called us for breakfast.

- That is, the native enterprise provided workers with free meals as in the good Soviet times? - I was really glad for the organization of labor in my native Kuban.

- No, we brought food with us and put it on the table. And the foreman took out vodka and poured each half a glass. We drank "for health", had a snack and went to work.

- And you drank vodka in the morning? I do not believe!

- Everyone drank. It was unrealistic to refuse, those who twisted their noses quickly flew out of work, and I could not afford such a luxury. And after breakfast we went to work in the greenhouses.

- Have you worked on the ground before?

- What land are you talking about? Tomatoes - Cucumbers are grown hydroponically. This is a growing method where no soil is used at all. In this method, plants are grown in water and a special material. The fact is that plants grown in this way produce more fruits than plants grown in the usual way. Think for yourself, the amount of the crop grown by this method is as much as 10 times the amount of the crop grown on the ground.

- That is, judging by the name of the method, plants feed on water.

- You can't make such crops on water alone … To give good performance, the water is generously flavored with chemicals. Over the years of working in greenhouses, I did not come across a single living creature other than my partner.

- Why? - I'm surprised. - Secret production?

- The temperature in the greenhouses is 60 degrees. Can you imagine what it would be like to work at this temperature all day? But God bless her, with a temperature. Just think about how you can stuff the solution so that the process from planting seedlings to harvesting tomatoes takes a little more than a month? And traditionally, early-ripening tomatoes need 90 days from germination, late varieties need 140 days. So, when the cucumber tomatoes acquire the desired size, a barrel of solution is rolled into the greenhouse. Nobody knew what this solution was, but you can work with it only in a respirator. I sprayed the fruits with this solution. At 60 degrees, even in a respirator. Once, I felt that everything, I could not, I was suffocating, purple circles began to appear in front of my eyes, and I took off my respirator. I got such a burn on my face that I thought I would go "scalded" all my life. Nothing, I regained consciousness. By the way, other workers also fainted and ended up in hospitals with poisoning. So, after such spraying, green tomatoes turn red in just a few days. And in such a hell we worked all day. Only once did they go out to dinner, where they again drank half a glass of vodka and had a snack. Then the cost of vodka was deducted from our salary.

- By the way, how much did you get for your work, if not a secret?

- About 45 thousand.

- Probably it would be stupid to ask if you had vodka with products from greenhouses?

- Of course not! None of the workers have ever eaten these vegetables. There was enough chemistry during work. Moreover, from time to time it was possible to take the cucumber tomatoes home. I never did it, I always refused. Others took vegetables and … sold "gifts from their land" to people on the street, having a good broth. It took me two years to finish building the house, and I immediately quit this job after spending several weeks in the hospital. If it were not for the need to provide children with a roof over their heads, I would never have made such sacrifices. I am recovering from shaky health to this day.

- It is clear that not a single merchant will tell you where, by what method and how the vegetables were grown. But can you recognize these "chemical" cucumber tomatoes?

- Yes, there is no need to be seven spans in the forehead. You must admit that it is difficult to forget the smell of fresh tomatoes, it is a very bright, nightshade or incredibly fresh scent of cucumbers. And these vegetables don't smell at all! This is because of the chemistry in the nutrient solution that kills all the odor. It is not for nothing that they are called "plastic". Vegetables grown in this way have a beautiful shape, tomatoes can be large, cucumbers, on the contrary, are graceful, with appetizing pimples. But their color is faded, all because of the same chemistry. And they are stored for a very long time, preserving the appearance of a fresh vegetable, only plucked from the garden bed and … not a single fly will fly up to them for a cannon shot. Thank God, I now have a piece of land on which I grow my vegetables. I eat them myself and feed my family with pleasure.

And at this time

The quality of vegetable-growing products, according to experts, was strongly influenced by the fact that in 2002 GOSTs were canceled in Russia. But they kept technical specifications - technical conditions that are set by the manufacturers themselves. So, it is quite understandable that the quality of the products has dropped noticeably. Rospotrebnadzor specialists last year checked more than 56 thousand enterprises that produce and sell various food products, including vegetables. It turned out that 66 percent of manufacturers violated the sanitary conditions for the production and storage of products. 73 thousand batches of food products were withdrawn from the sale, which is more than three thousand tons. The scope is impressive. With regard to vegetables specifically, many producers really sin by artificially improving their presentation and accelerating the process of ripening. To achieve this effect, growers add growth accelerators to hydroponics. Moreover, the amount of fertilizer can be simply devastating.

And all this really does great harm to our health. After all, nitrates and other chemical compounds unnatural for vegetables (heavy metals, for example) can accumulate in the human body for years. Unlike other trace elements, they are not absorbed by the body and are not removed from it, but accumulating over the years, lead to various diseases.

However, the hydroponics itself, which the woman spoke of, is in no way to blame. The immense amount of fertilizer is to blame. The saddest thing is that each grower decides on his own how to feed the plants and in what quantities. And, of course, most of them are interested in a fast and big harvest. Few people think about our health. All hope is for Rospotrebnadzor, which should stop this chaos. Well, we ourselves, when buying vegetables, should look at the appearance of what we buy. If the cucumbers and tomatoes look completely "plastic" it is better not to purchase them.