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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] The Perils Of Industrial Agriculture

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Desert Eagle" <jimi@hdc-nm.com>
  • To: "Healthy soil and sustainable growing" <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] The Perils Of Industrial Agriculture
  • Date: Sun, 6 Jul 2008 22:39:24 -0600

Paul, and all,
I have yet to post to the group, not because I have had nothing to say,
just I have been real busy. With working on 2 full raised bed Bio-Intensive
gardens totally covering almost a half acre, and 13 miles apart, I have been
busier than a 1 armed paper hanger with a long tailed cat in a rocking chair
factory. So far the group is lively, active and full of ideas and opinions.
Things that made America Great. (Yes, I am a vet, nuff said, Paul knows the
story).
Now, my educated 2 cents worth on this. As some may know, and probably
most don't, my Bride and I operate a food vending both as well as farm fresh
produce from our gardens at out local Carlsbad Farmers Market each Saturday.
Having to deal with the NMED, (New Mexico Environmental Dept.) for our food
venders permit, we are up close and personal with our inspector. We will
simply refer to him as "F", for his own anonymity. We work had to meet all
the requirements to be able to serve on site food, prepared off site, as
well as on site grilling of hot dogs, burgers and grilled veggies.
About 3 weeks ago F visited us for a cursory inspection. He ask point
blank, "Did we have tomatoes for our burgers and such. When we told him yes,
he wanted to know "from where". For us, it was easy, Becky, one of the
venders had the best tomatoes around. He visited with her, verified our
purchase of them and was satisfied. Becky even gave him her address and
invited him to inspect her garden if he so desired. Being the Gentleman he
was, he declined, but thanked her.
I ask F point blank, was this salmonella problem local, he said no. "Was
it a US Growers problem", he said No. I ask him if it was from another
country, maybe south of us, he simply smiled and said nothing. He did say
that the investigations covered particular lots, from particular area's, not
US. I ask him if it could have something to do with the recent "Political
Efforts" to build relations with foreign countries, and he simply looked at
me with a smirk of approval.
So, my educated guess is this, our government is afraid to say "Where"
the produce came from, and how it got so widely spread, because it could
cause problems being an election year.
You draw your own conclusions.
Jimi
NM Certified Master Gardener
Desert Eagle Farm
A Privately operated
Agricultural Research Facility
Lakewood, NM 88254



The Perils Of Industrial Agriculture
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/green/detail?&entry_id=27828
Beef. Spinach. Pet food. Now tomatoes.

What is up with our food being contaminated? There was an E. coli recall
issued yesterday. If you've read The Omnivore's Dilemma, you know that
grass-fed cattle produce healthier meat and do not get E. coli. But grass
doesn't fatten cattle as quickly, so industrial agriculture prefers to feed
them corn, soy, even other cows, causing the cows to get fat-and sick,
requiring huge quantities of antibiotics and producing more climate-changing
methane than they would if they ate a more natural diet (seriously, cow
burps are a significant source of GHGs).

Why does the government-particularly the FDA, which is in charge of
produce-have such a hard time finding the problem when there is one? It's
been almost a month since tomatoes were linked to salmonella poisoning (that
must have originated in meat), and the FDA still hasn't found the source of
the problem. That's because the FDA doesn't track produce. The
administration wrote a report outlining the need to track tomatoes in
particular, but never asked for funding to implement the plan.

The FDA does fewer inspections now than it did in the early 70s. The
government doesn't want to know about or document food contamination,
because doing so would pull the blindfold off consumers' eyes about where
our food comes, and how it's produced. The truth is not pretty-tomatoes and
slaughtered animals being tossed around together-and if Americans get queasy
about the industrial food system, it will be hard to bring them back to the
table.

Organic agriculture already has chain of custody systems that document where
food comes from. Of course, it's much easier to do that when your market is
smaller and you can charge more for what you grow.

How can we make healthy food accessible for everyone?


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