Curious developments on the tainted food front.
1. Just a day after my article about the shutdown of a California raw milk dairy appeared on BusinessWeek.com, California’s Department of Food and Agriculture lifted its quarantine of Organic Pastures Dairy Co. I’d like to think my article played a role in the sudden turn-around by the state regulators. Only yesterday, the department’s head of public affairs was telling me that it was in the midst of tests of Organic Pastures’ raw milk that could take five to ten days. He kept using the term "until further notice" when I asked how long the farm would be shut down–a bureaucratic euphemism for a long time.
I suspect also that the decision by Mark McAfee, the farm’s owner, to go public with his frustration over the state’s shutdown of his dairy had something to do with the quick change of heart. There’s nothing bureaucrats hate more than the bright light of public scrutiny. It tends to expose their tendency toward being arbitrary, especially with smaller businesses.
2. While a small raw milk dairy was shut down for a week by California authorities when four children who had drunk its milk became ill, none of the nine corporate spinach farms suspected of producing E.coli-tainted spinach that has poisoned nearly 200 people around the country has been shut down, or is even threatened with being shut down. When I inquired today with California public health officials as to the status of the nine California farms, Iwas referred to a phone press conference sponsored by the California Department of Health Services.
The public health official answering the questions kept referring to "systemic problems" at California vegetable farms that lead to periodic E.coli outbreaks. One California newspaper reporter asked the obvious question of public health officials: "Why not prevent (the nine farms suspected of triggering the current mess) from shipping till they get rid of the problems."
The California Department of Health Services official answering the questions basically refused to answer this question. "At the Department of Health Services, we are reviewing all of our options," he stated. "Good agriculturual processes must be in place." End of discussion.
Yes, it certainly seems a lot easier to pick on a small dairy farmer than on large corporate spinach growers.
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