Food Safety Laws

I caught up on the last couple weeks of Good Food today, and was touched by the story of Barbara Kowalcyk. Her 2 1/2 year old son, Kevin, died from E Coli contamination, and she's become an activist for food safety. There's even a law named for Kevin (that has failed to pass several times) to improve safety laws (which are really abysmal: see Marion Nestle's blog if you want to be totally depressed - oops, I mean informed - about this issue: http://www.foodpolitics.com/). Her story is chronicled by Food, Inc., which I'm going to see tonight for my big anniversary date (I'm sure I'll post a review).

I couldn't help but wonder, though, about this potential legislation's impact. One of the problems with making laws about farming is that we have two distinct types of farms now in this country: the small family operation that survives by a CSA or Farmer's Market, vs. the giant corporate farm that makes all the money, gets all the subsidies, and almost always is the culprit behind outbreaks of illness. This is on my mind because I hear the small farmer's perspective nearly every week, in my CSA newsletter. Pablito, our farmer, is one outspoken, passionate dude, and he makes an awful lot of sense when he talks.

So I've found myself no longer able to see this issue as black and white: it's more like small and big, really. I highly recommend checking out Pablito's latest rant (and from that site you can sign up for the CSA if you live in the Bay Area - it's a GREAT one - lots of fruit every week, often we get nuts, and very few winter greens, ha ha). Some highlights:

None of the food safety legislation being proposed — and there are numerous bills in progress — would address the profound truth about this issue: while thousands of people get sick from contaminated food each year, millions of people are getting sick from perfectly sanitary food that has little nutritional value but is loaded with sugar, salt, and fat. Why is it that the news media focused so intently on a single child who died from eating contaminated spinach, while during that same week thousands of children developed diabetes that will eventually kill them? How is it that a food processor whose healthy product is contaminated by bacteria is somehow more liable than one creating a product that almost guarantees illness if consumed regularly? Welcome to the world of the FDA.

Even the largest farms are not factories. They are open air environments inhabitated by insects, wildlife, microbes and bacteria. There is no such thing as a sterile farm. Making farmers liable for the presence of invisible microorganisms on their crops prior to processing will create a world where only giant corporations can afford the liability insurance to continue farming.

I just found out I can embed the Good Food podcast right here in the blog, so if you want to see pics & stuff, go to the link above, but if you just want to listen, check this out: