Urban Legends Redux

Prologue

The state of Urban Legends is in flux right now. The problem is that so many people believe these things completely, that they are taken as fact, and not disputed. The Internet has a lot to do with these things being brought into popular culture.

Urban Legends come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, from the coming United States of Islam (compassing all of Europe and Asia), to the loss of almost all of the Marshmellon crops in Louisiana this year. Also, there is no truth to the idea that Fuddruckers used to be named “Elmers” after Elmer Fudd, their founder. However, the legend of walking Joshua Trees is completely true. And about “An Inconvenient Truth” – the jury is still out.

The Cheese and Orange Juice Legends

It never seems to end, does it? Ever wonder how it is that Florida ships all its orange juice to California and points West, while all the California orange juice ends up back East? Or why California cheese is sold mostly in the East, while us Californians have to eat that Wisconsin stuff?

Enter the world of the American unions. These organizations have a history back to the early 1800’s, but really came into their own after the Civil War with several aborted attempts at organization, ending with the American Federation of Labor (AFL), which mainly represents the craft, or skilled workers.

After WWI, there was a union of unskilled workers that eventually became the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), which has been in and out of favor and fellowship with the AFL over the years.

The main purpose of unions to begin with is to have bargaining power in wages, working conditions and medical benefits. And, too, as you might imagine, Democrats are highly supportive of all unions, but Republicans instead support the businesses that hire them.

Unions today involve every aspect of our way of life, where actors, airline pilots, athletes, electrical workers, firefighters, musicians, policemen, postal workers, teachers, and even writers belong to unions.

A vital and very necessary part of such unions and the American economy is the truckers union. These are the guys who haul everything we use, buy or own, and without whom our American way of life would grind to a complete and catastrophic halt.

(DISCLAIMER – Therefore, more power to them, God bless them, and give them all a raise … and although it is very likely that none of them have anything to do with the cause of this particular legend, they are involved in the hauling of all the goods in question here.)

OK. Enough of the history lesson and boilerplating – What does this have to do with your orange juice and cheese, and probably everything else you have in your house to eat?

There is a definitive article on this subject, found with a Google search, HERE.

The main point of this Legend is the fact that there is almost nothing online about it – absolutely nothing. Yet we all are familiar with the facts that our cheese and orange juice, our fruit and vegetables, our beef, chicken and fish, and all our dairy products are trucked to our stores for us to buy. BUT THEY ARE TRUCKED ACROSS THE COUNTRY when there is little or no need for them to be. (Guess who foots the bill for all the travel?)

Once, in the 1950’s (from a search in a library – remember those? – and not to be found on the Internet), there was a short-lived movement among grocers and consumers to put a stop to all the cross country trucking. The Teamsters Union of the AFL-CIO quickly got congress to allow them to exempt certain foods from this traveling ban, called the No Transfer Provisions.

Here is a partial reference to the contents of that traveling ban:

“The paragraph referenced by the no-transfer provision lists the following as the only exceptions: “ orange juice, dips, sour cream, cottage cheese, yogurt, butter, oleo, eggs, sterile products, nutrish and cultured products, novelties, ice cream mix, Weight Watchers ice cream, and diet ice cream.” Art. II, Sec. 6(a).” From an abstract of a court case involving Taylor Milk against the AFL-CIO ~ PDF LINK

So we can all imagine in our minds how it works, with hundreds of thousands of trucks, busily traveling clear across the country, heavy with their ladings of all our groceries, bringing Maine lobsters to Californians, and California beef to Texas, etc., etc.

BUT THAT IS NOT THE LEGEND

THIS IS – Those trucks carrying orange juice from Florida to California stop off at a secluded truck stop in Georgia, in the middle of the night, switch signs, turn around and take their already labeled (with California labels) Florida orange juice back to the supermarkets in Florida!

Picture the same thing with the trucks coming out of California, turning around and delivering Florida labeled California orange juice to markets in the West.

This means your Wisconsin cheese may really be made in California, your Florida orange juice might be grown in California, your happy California cows may really live in a feed lot in Mojave, your yogurt may not come from Europe, and your Maine lobsters might be harvested in Washington state. (and don’t get me started on MILK!)

Of course this is all good for the economy and the environment, since all those state branded food products don’t have to make the cross-continental trip. Think of how much gasoline the truck companies save, how much less wear and tear on the trucks, and how much less pollution there is, because of their cost-cutting efforts and great sacrifice on our behalf.

Regards,
Roger Born
“Sorry. No Refunds”
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