GRANGER, Wash. — As they return from lunch, laborers dutifully wash their hands in a double sink before resuming harvest in an adjacent orchard full of Pacific Rose apples. A quality control supervisor perched on a tractor watches from about 30 yards away.
Another employee at Jones Farms said the hand-washing requirement surprised some at first.
“‘What, I have to wash my hands?’” manager Hector Dominguez said, quoting workers. “Sure. So, it takes time to make everybody do that. But now it’s pretty simple.”
Orchard workers everywhere better get used to more than hand-washing. Federal administrators are getting ready to implement a wide array of food safety standards that will set new farming guidelines for everything from irrigation water quality to pet control.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Yakima Herald-Republic
