DATELINE – Oakland, Calif.

A campaign to clean up the organic farm.

Larry Comras knows his fruits. He also knows his vegetables, meats, and even condiments. All of which, he insists, must be organic or else they “don’t go in my kitchen.”

Comras, the single father of two young girls, is a regular shopper at the Wild Oats Co-Op in Oakland, Calif. Once a week, the 43-year-old contractor takes his two kids on a shopping adventure to the local natural foods store.

Over the years, the Comras family has used these outings as occasions to learn about the natural world and to understand how food gets from the fields to the table. But these days, Comras is teaching 8 year-old Cassandra and 5 year-old Calliope to thumb their noses at the colorful cornucopia of fresh produce inside Green Hills.

“Dad says the farmers are mean to workers, and we have to make them stop,” says Cassandra, a third grader at Emma Willard Elementary School. Her father simultaneously blushes and smiles. “Not every farmer is mean,” Comras gently corrects his daughter, “but some don’t treat the people who work for them very well.”

Labor isn’t a typical topic of conversation for the Comras family. Between soccer practice and piano lessons, there’s seldom mention of anything more serious than a name calling incident at school or whether Calliope is getting a Furby for her birthday. In fact, Comras considers himself a “middle-of-the-road conservative,” but allows that he has a “soft spot” for organic goods.

It was his interest in health food that first drew Comras to the debate surrounding government-imposed standards for the labeling of organic foods. Last year the National Organic Standards Board, a federally appointed agency, announced guidelines that would allow gene-modified, irradiated or sludge-fertilized crops to be marketed as “USDA Organic.” Comras was one of the millions of organic enthusiasts who circulated petitions and wrote letters protesting the new policy. “I’m not a proactive kind of guy,” admits Comras, “but I’m very involved with what my family eats.”

In the end, the proposed guidelines were amended, but there remained a number of controversial elements – the failure to address the use of antibiotics, nonorganic feed, and long-term confinement of animals in the production of organic meat. Ironically, it was the omission of standards ensuring the quality of life of chickens and cows which extended the debate to a discussion of farm labor conditions.

“Organic foods are the growth industry for the next century,” predicts Scott Figgins, coordinator of Healthy Food Workers, the organization spearheading the latest campaign to modify the National Organic Standards Board labeling policies. “It’s a $4 billion a year industry,” adds Figgins, “but it’s fueled by hundreds of thousands of people working in unsanitary and unsafe conditions.”

Those “unsanitary and unsafe conditions” are the focus of Healthy Food Workers’ efforts to clean up working conditions in the organic food industry. Figgins launched his crusade in 1996, when a young girl died after ingesting an unpasteurized Odwalla juice drink tainted with the deadly E.coli bacteria. The Odwalla scare, which resulted in several hospitalizations and a massive product recall, was ultimately linked to traces of fecal matter on the apples used to make the contaminated organic juice drink.

Epidemiologists eventually faulted unsanitary agriculture industry practices, namely the routine denial of bathroom breaks and facilities to farm laborers. In the Odwalla incident, it was most likely workers unable to wash their hands who introduced the E.coli bacteria to the affected apple harvest.

While advocates and industry leaders were debating whether or not genetically-engineered foods should receive the “organic” seal of approval, Figgins was already working on incorporating the labor component of the harvest process into the certification guidelines.

“As consumers of organic foods we pay a premium for the quality and purity of what we eat,” Figgins explains. “If we’re talking about organic meats, we worry about the confinement of animals and their treatment. When we worry about produce, we have to think about the confinement of workers and their treatment.”

Figgins has taken that formulation on the road. Every weekend and some weekday afternoons, Healthy Food Workers volunteers distribute leaflets to shoppers at farmers markets and natural foods stores throughout Northern California. The flyers, which contain such friendly catch phrases as “organic begins with the hand that picks the fruit that feeds you,” appear to be changing the way consumers shop.

As the Comras family steers their cart through the produce aisles of the Wild Oats Co-Op, Cassandra and Calliope ask their dad which farm stickers are “green” and which are “mean.” By the end of their circuit, they survey the contents of their cart. “A little lighter than usual,” Comras remarks, “but I don’t think the girls will miss the spicy salad mix.”

DATELINE–San Francisco, CA

Raves in San Francisco’s subway tunnels go unnoticed by Bay Area officials.

“DOS” is twenty-three going on seven. Prescription drugs, that is. Percocet, Zoloft, Xanax, Demerol, Prozac, Valium, Ritalin. Both he and his boyfriend have developed an intricate routine that allows them to mix and match pharmaceuticals without too many side-effects. Tonight, DOS is “tripping on phase 3.” In other words, he can’t remember whether he just swallowed a downer (Valium) or an upper (Ritalin).

With a babyish grin, DOS, who does not wish to divulge his real name, shrugs his shoulders and zips up his neon orange satchel. “I don’t know if I’m going to Heaven or Hell but I know I’m going down!” His circle of friends bursts into laughter. Among them are a college student, a commercial banker, two club promoter types, and a 17 year-old girl they just met.

What DOS and his friends call “down” is not a drug-induced state but rather the labyrinthine tunnels of San Francisco’s subway system. The Bay Area Rapid Transit system, known locally as BART, consists of an 81-mile long network of underground and elevated tracks. It serves the three million residents of San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland and surrounding communities at government subsidized rates.

But these days, or rather, nights, young people like DOS and his well-to-do friends are taking to the BART system in search of an alternative, heart-stopping ride. They are risking life and limb to walk along active and electrified tracks in order to reach little-known service stops located between subway stations. The vacant stops, intended to serve as temporary repair bays for disabled trains, are seldom used and come equipped with working electrical outlets, ventilation ducts and even bathrooms. Dank and dangerous, they are nonetheless the hottest party spots in San Francisco.

Dressed in a retro Gianni Versace leisure suit and shiny Gucci loafers, Alamo99 is not your typical railroad engineer. Yet, he claims to have organized over a dozen all-night (and day) reveries in San Francisco’s subway catacombs. Over a scotch on the rocks at the Sheraton Palace, the thirtysomething Alamo99 boasts about his collection of videos documenting the illegal gatherings. He has even created a fly-by-night Web site (www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Gala/8699/) to promote upcoming blowouts. This week he’s calling his company of two part-time party planners the “San Francisco Underground Urban Dance Party Circuit.”

“You know, what we’re doing, it’s not being done,” confides the goateed professional host, “In New York, they’ve let the tunnels go to the homeless. Here, we’re giving them over to the post-preppie diaspora.” Taking in a mouthful of Laphroig, he winks and points at the Maxfield Parrish canvas above the bar. “Parties are real-time, three-dimensional paintings. Some people paint with numbers, we paint with people. That guy was on San Francisco, sure, and we’re under it.”

It is unclear whether or not Alamo99’s “party circuit” is known to local authorities. Neither the San Francisco Police Department nor officials from BART have made public any record of the large-scale underground gatherings supposedly being thrown by Alamo99 and his staff. The emcee attributes his spectacular yet low-profile success to “the intelligence of my people.”

On the night that DOS and his friends went underground, they waited almost twenty minutes before stepping down on the tracks. They then used tiny MAG lights and a faxed map to find their destination. Because BART stations are heavily monitored by surveillance cameras and security patrols, partygoers are told in advance how to access the chosen site. Organizers say they can create a 12 hour-long window of opportunity by disabling select security systems and planning around scheduled inspections.

Once inside the repair bay, invited guests are greeted by a state-of-the-art light show featuring video projections and subliminal laser displays. After paying an undisclosed fee, guests can enter the dance area. There are non-alcoholic drinks for sale as well as sleek Walkman-type radios. There is no audible music. Instead, the soundtrack is transmitted to the revelers via a low-wattage FM transmitter. It is a haunting scene to witness – hundreds of blue-lit bodies wearing headphones dancing in silent harmony.

According to DOS, who like many of Alamo99’s devotees was reared on the East Coast, there is no better club in the entire world. “The best, the absolute best,” DOS shrieks, “was when we were dancing until 8am on a Monday morning and then the lights went out and a train filled with commuters, you know, lit from the inside, slowly rolled past us. Everyone on the dance floor was screaming.”

DATELINE–International

Y2K LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA
British Telecom and Compagnie Generale des Eaux are undertaking an ambitious $18 million expedition to repair a cluster of microcomputers on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. The electronic switching stations are responsible for handling one third of the data traffic between North America and Europe. The telecommunication routers which were installed in the early 1960s are not Y2K compliant and do not allow remote access. Divers will spend nearly two months retrieving and replacing the affected computer hardware.

SLOW COMPANY
Publishing conglomerate Hachette Filipacchi announced plans to launch a new magazine catering to the information needs of the working poor. The company which publishes the political review George as well as Eating Well magazine cites a National Priorities Project study which reports that 74% of jobs with the most growth pay less than a livable wage, and 46 percent pay less than half a livable wage. Advertisers who have already committed to year-long “buys” include Chevron, Sears, and the Dairy Council.

YOU’VE GOT VOICEMAIL
Message Company, a Los Angeles-based marketing firm, offers a service that will allow consumers to subscribe to audio soap operas broadcast via voicemail. In partnership with Pacific Bell and Bell Atlantic, Message Company is testing its new entertainment product in the New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco media markets. The voicemail soaps feature advertising in the form of product placement and provide listeners with such programming options as “Ralph! You’re Never Home;” “Marry Me, Inc.;” and “The Sound of One Hand Typing.”

IRAQ POLL
A nationwide telephone poll conducted by the Times Mirror company reveals that 64% of Americans would “call for an end to military strikes against Iraq” if it could be confirmed that the Arab nation is indeed the historical site of the Garden of Eden. The modern nation of Iraq is situated in the region once known as the Fertile Crescent, a Mesopotamian plain located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Nine out of ten adults in the U.S. associate themselves with either the Christian or Jewish faiths.

HOMELESS OUT, DOGS IN
San Francisco government officials may regret a recent decision to turn over a downtown plaza near City Hall to the Parks and Recreation Department in an effort to rid the area of its homeless population. Now that the two-square block site is officially designated as a public park, nearby residents who previously did not have access to green space are flocking to it with their pets in tow. Parks and Rec. crews are now billing the City overtime to clean up an “inordinate amount” of dog feces. The National Coalition for the Homeless estimates that nearly 15,000 people live on San Francisco streets.