2wheelwoman, butterflywing: Yup, exactly, agreed. Labor costs less in third-world countries, even with the extra shipping costs. I'm not against offering imported produce out of season. IMO, that's a valid reason to import. I almost never buy it out of season because it used to be expensive and not very good, but both of those things are improving. And when imports are better, such as Belgian chocolate and Indian cotton shirts (well,
I like their cotton), that's another valid reason to import.
Yes, B'wing, I know cross-country shipping isn't good for the environment, but it's better than overseas shipping. Wegman's btw, imports some of their produce. I've seen Mexican lettuce and grapes there, though it was Giant I was complaining about for advertising Cali grapes and offering Mexican ones.
Moonpi & reneebobby, I'm shaking my head in disgust at these new facts you've posted.
BellaBoo, I was horrified to read that Snopes.com had been outed, so I went off to see for myself. Apparently an email full of misinformation and false accusations was sent about Snopes.com. When factcheck.org, part of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, which in turn is part of the Universoty of Pennsylvania, looked into it, they found the email to be wrong, and they verified Snopes.com's work. For anyone interested:
http://www.factcheck.org/2009/04/snopescom/