There is so much we cannot control in these times that our only sensible choice is to continue (or reinstate) the small daily rituals that bring us comfort. One of these for me is drinking coffee. On certain days, I grind whole beans, filtering the grounds, and drinking the coffee black.
As I do so, I remember passing the piles of coffee beans on the side of the road in Central America and Southeast Asia. At the time I traveled there, I was gathering follow-on research from Circle of Poison, the book I wrote with Mark Schapiro.
Part of that research indicated an ugly fact: The pesticides we were researching could work their way systemically inside the coffee plant and end up as deposits in the beans -- the two flat sides of each pair nestled like a peanut inside the purplish-reddish shell.
None of the scientists we interviewed believed the tiny residues that ended up in our cups, after shelling, grinding, filtering and boiling, represented a significant health threat to coffee drinkers.
So, almost counter-intuitively, I found myself arguing in media interviews that there was no danger from drinking coffee. In fact, it had never been my intention to focus on American consumer safety. My motivation was to highlight the dangers to Third World farmworkers who sprayed those pesticides on the coffee plantations.
As a former Peace Corps Volunteer, and a journalistic world traveler, I'd seen many examples of these dangers, including from overhead crop dusters. On several occasions I was coated by clouds of pesticides like paraquat and malathion while doing my research; in fact I was hit by malathion so often I knew its smell.
But the unwanted chemical showers I received was nothing of consequence when stacked against the daily experience of farmworkers and their children. I was a visitor who could choose to be there and get sprayed or not.
They did not have that choice.
Over the years, there has been some progress around the world in curtailing the use of dangerous pesticides, but the syndrome we wrote about remains.
So it goes. Now I am resuming my coffee ritual, As the coffee tastes good but the memories are bittersweet.
(I first published a version of this during the pandemic.)
HEADLINES:
After town hall attack, Ilhan Omar condemns ‘terrorizing’ immigration push and criticism from GOP (CNN)
Two agents who shot Minnesota man on leave as Trump says he will ‘de-escalate’ (Guardian)
Greg Bovino, CPB commander who led immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, is set to leave city. Who is he, and what led to his departure? (Yahoo)
2nd Amendment backlash follows portrayal of Alex Pretti by some Trump administration officials (ABC)
Trump tells Minneapolis mayor he’s ‘playing with fire’ if federal immigration law isn’t enforced (CNN)
Republicans turn on Noem, demand resignation (Axios)
How a low-profile Border Patrol chief became the face of Trump’s immigration policy (WP)
The Cruel Conditions of ICE’s Mojave Desert Detention Center (New Yorker)
US Fed holds interest rates despite White House pressure (BBC)
F.B.I. Search in Georgia Tied to Criminal Investigation Over 2020 Election (NYT)
Repeated government lying, warned Hannah Arendt, makes it impossible for citizens to think and to judge (The Conversation)
What Should Americans Do Now? (Atlantic)
Trump warns Iran ‘time is running out’ for nuclear deal as US military builds up in Gulf (BBC)
Rubio defends Trump on Venezuela while trying to allay fears about Greenland and NATO (AP)
Ease of Destruction (Atlantic)
Amazon says it is laying off 16,000 employees (TechCrunch)
UPS Says It Is Cutting Up to 30,000 Jobs (NYT)
America is leaving the WHO. It’s an act of self-sabotage. (WP)
HHS Wasn’t Worried About South Carolina’s Measles Outbreak. It’s Now Enormous. (Mother Jones)
Parkinson’s disease symptoms can show up decades before a diagnosis. (WP)
The WaPo Extinction Event (Puck)
Astronomers used AI to find 1,400 ‘anomalous objects’ from Hubble archives (Verge)
Replacing Factory Workers With AI Robots May Not be Cost Effective (ET)
The Math on AI Agents Doesn’t Add Up (Wired)
Clawdbot has officially changed its name for very predictable reasons (Mashable)
What Went Wrong With OpenAI’s Year of Agents? (The Information)
ICE Agent Stuffs Sock Under Mask To Give Himself Chin (Onion)
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