Much of the discussion here in recent weeks, whether about the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) or competitive exclusion, is really about food safety. Many of the comments on those topics are penetrating and insightful.
But while food safety is a hot political issue right now, the comments posted on this blog aren’t what the politicians are hearing.
They’re hearing from highly emotional consumers instead. A good example is embodied in an article I did for BusinessWeek.com a couple weeks ago, suggesting that HR 2749, the main federal food safety legislation making its way through Congress, will unfairly penalize small producers, and give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration too much power.
You’ll see that following the article are extensive comments from Donna Rosenbaum, the head of Safe Tables Our Priority (STOP). She says the article “is misleading, short-sighted and self-serving.” After questioning not only my logic, but my motives, she concludes, “I would like to invite Mr. Gumpert to spend one day at the bedside of a child on life support battling a foodborne disease. I believe that just might change his mind.”
We’ve had that discussion at length on this blog based on the illness of Chris Martin (attributed to contaminated raw milk), and the discussion involving his mom, Mary McGonigle-Martin (look up her name in the search function, and you’ll find much material). But basically, it illustrates the difficulty of separating out highly charged and tragic individual cases from rational public health policy decisions. More significant, it illustrates the challenges associated with trying to get at the real causes of food-borne illness—and relying instead on heavy-handed methods that may make a few victims feel good, at the expense of entire segments of producers who embody a way of life being gradually wiped away in this country.
Unfortunately, the politicians mainly hear from the Donna Rosenbaums of the world (along with Big Ag lobbyists), and those highly articulate enotional-laden individuals are very difficult to ignore if you have hopes of seeking re-election.
our systems are all broken, while it’s nice to think that some action or movement can rerail our country i believe that is wishfull thinking only.
no why are the masses in the cities/burbs going to accept less from "their" gov’t no way, no how. it’s broken. period. it must be allowed to complete it’s fall.
most here will likely survive the sudden stop at the bottom. building a pantry, knowing how to garden. knowing how to milk a cow and raise chickens will go a long way after the end begins in ernest.
for me, i’m done thinking we can fix this mess. the plan needs to focus on staying viable after the music stops. maybe voicing my opinion on certain bills in congress can slow down our volicity a bit but i even doubt that. my congressman thinks the food safty bill "needs to pass"
if you’re listening and learning about what state our systems are in, gov’t, money, debt, education, health, finance, food… heck every single one of them… then you know this. it;’s a matter of time and it looks like we’re falling faster and faster. i used to be able to say maybe not in my lifetime… now i don’t even believe that.
good luck to those of us who plan a little, to the rest it’s likely good by.
I didn’t see whatever it was she was referring to. I suppose it is "ok" not to take into consideration a single person who had an adverse reaction to a vaccine? or medications? What’s the difference of a child dieing form a vaccine or medication? or "just" becoming injured from them?
"no one in America should have to worry if the food they eat and feed their families will make them sick."
I agree with this, just as everyone in America has the right to know everything that is in thier foods and how it was raised/processed, etc.
"What a joke! The US imports millions of tons of food produced where the FDA/USDA has no authority. The big agribusinesses WANT this legislation because it will shut down and discourage small food producers."
I agree with this.
USDA Launches ‘Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food’ Initiative to Connect Consumers with Local Producers to Create New Economic Opportunities for Communities
http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1OB?contentidonly=true&contentid=2009/09/0440.xml
FSIS Proposes Interstate Commerce Shipping Regulations for Small Plant Operations
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/News_&_Events/NR_091509_01/index.asp
maybe a reality check 101 talk that is worth the time.
http://fora.tv/2009/02/13/Dmitry_Orlov_Social_Collapse_Best_Practices
better to be a little prepared then not. at worst you learn a little bit about yourself, about what being alive really means and you gain a little "bottom" on yourself that is a great self confidence builder.
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/News_&_Events/NR_091509_01/index.asp
Most of the federally inspected slaughter houses are huge and couldn’t care less about small farmers who need the services. There are good small slaughter houses state-licensed which, in turn, can’t have their products shipped across state lines under current law. This new program would get those small operations approved, and would be of significant assistance to small farmers near state lines whose markets require them to ship across state lines. If anyone is inclined to comment on such rules, favorable comments would be important.
Hugh betcha, here’s some food safety cynicism (warning: there’s a kinda gross photo):
http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/2009/09/articles/food-safety-communication/no-food-safety-in-know-your-farmer-know-your-food/
A similar problem arises when we allow episodes of illness to spike our emotions, which in turn stimulate rules directed at calming those spikes. It is dreadful of course to see a sick child, but endless numbers of people suffering from degenerative diseases, low-functioning immune systems, behavioral disorders, and so on is far worse. Unfortunately the sick child makes the news while the rest languish quietly under our emotional radar. We react by setting up broad-brush rules attempting (rarely succeeding) to fix the newsy problem, never suspecting that we are creating more pain and suffering in the long run.
In the food-production arena rules have effectively limited access to raw, nutrient-dense, fresh foods (like raw milk), exacerbating many preventable health problems. (And, by the way, by narrowly controlling production process rather than encouraging positive outcomes, we tend to create a poorly understood but potentially enormous negative consequence: a stifling of creativity and learning!)
These are just some of the many, many reasonsconstitutional, public health, financialto keep regulators off the backs of individuals.
I was friend of STOP ten years ago right after the ODWALLA incident. Laurie Girand was a board member and she and I collaberated on a movie documentary and other FDA food safety HACCP stuff.
I called and spoke with Susan at STOP this week and had a very nice 30 minute conversation about strengthening immune systems and going beyond safe foods but also safe bodies.
She freaked out when I told her that Raw Milk in CA had to meet and exceed pastuerized milk standards with out pastuerizing and had to have less than 10 coliforms….she said that was terrible and that any thing more than 0 coliforms was basically toxic.
She did not know or appreciate that there are 230 kinds of coliforms and just a handful of pathogenic forms…..she was really set that coliforms were pathogens.
She is a professional policy representative and highly trained public health representative….
If that is what STOP thinks….I agree about what Hugh said about our country in blissful freefall and intoxicated with germophobic ignorance.
STOP is really Sterile Tables Our Priority and it is tragically sad. Their policy work is tagically bringing on the illness they want to prevent. They appear to have near zero appreciation for the work being done at NIH on the Human Microbiome project and other Human ecosystem research.
The Germ Theory is living and quite well at STOP.
I have sent her a bunch of stuff for her to think about…..good science about biodiversity and good bugs and bad bugs and the fact that 50,000 people each week drink raw milk in CA and people are over joyed and healing themselves.
It was like talking to a a space alien….there was very little connection. She spoke in "gov FDA speak"….it was all about "there is no evidence of raw milk being safe…there is no evidence that bacteria are helpful". She was kind and she did listen….but I think we both left the conversation in shock of the total desparity of our beliefs.
We have a long way to go to change things….or perhaps a little more to go to feel that numbing studden abrupt "STOP" at the end of the germ theory fall.
Raw milk is selling hotter than hot in CA and we are chronically sold out. The Shock Dairy is working hard on their cheese and raw milk plans for the present and the future….
Claravale is expanding and selling out as well. Raw Milk is future food for the conscious.
Mark
I purchase bison. If something is "farm raised" how can it be considered wild game?
"endless numbers of people suffering from degenerative diseases, low-functioning immune systems, behavioral disorders, and so on is far worse."
I see this daily at work.
Years ago in the Dallas area, a demented elderly man had greater than 50 cats living in his trailer, the media and outcry from the community was about the neglected cats. I don’t recall any outcry about that man, he fell through the cracks of society.