Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Squash bug control

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Bill Shoemaker <wshoemak AT illinois.edu>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Squash bug control
  • Date: Mon, 2 Nov 2009 08:07:25 -0600 (CST)

I think it's more complicated than that. The Feds are responding to consumer
fears about food safety, whether farms are small or big. One of the recent
food safety scares was over contaminated spnach in a field where no manure
was used. The source has been narrowed down to possible overhead flight of
flocks of birds that had visited beef feedlots nearby. How do farms, small or
big, control that kind of risk? Perhaps if we had more localized farming at a
scale that would allow more people to farm we could get away from the risk to
larger numbers of people from one contamination. But then we'd need to be
able to produce reliably and in sufficient quantities near the eastern
population centers year-round. We're not there yet, particularly when cheap
petroleum keeps transportation costs low.

Bill


>You are absolutely right, if we need to keep a an absolute dead zone around
>every place vegetables are grown just because large corperate farms can't
>keep their act clean, the whole planet is doomed. No small farmer has ever
>caused a recall of fresh vegetables because of E. Coli or any other
>bacterial disease. The government needs the new food safety regulations for
>the factory farms, not for the farmer who is out tending his crops every
>day. Organic gets confused one from the other because of government
>regulation.
William H Shoemaker, UI-Crop Sciences
Sr Research Specialist, Food Crops
St Charles Horticulture Research Center
535 Randall Road St Charles, IL 60174
630-584-7254; FAX-584-4610




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page