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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Safe Food, From Soil to Plate
  • Date: Wed, 02 Jun 2010 11:05:42 -0600


Safe Food, From Soil to Plate
An endless deluge of foodborne illness outbreaks demands the reevaluation of
our food system.
by Amanda Hitt on Wednesday, June 2, 2010
http://www.otherwords.org/articles/safe_food_from_soil_to_plate


E. coli-laden romaine lettuce recently sickened dozens of Americans in five
states, as a food-related listeria outbreak killed at least two Texans.

These were just the latest in a string of similar incidents. An endless
deluge of foodborne illness outbreaks demands the reevaluation of our food
system.

But Americans need to adopt a broader approach to evaluating the quality of
their food, from soil to plate. We must consider the integrity of the overall
production process in addition to evaluating the immediate safety of the food
that reaches the consumer. While outbreaks and hospitalizations grab
headlines, there are unseen other costs to our current production system.

Food integrity considers all players involved in the lifecycle of food
production: the health and wellness of associated citizens, the environment,
and product itself. Safeguarding the process ultimately yields the safe food
consumers want to eat.

Foodborne illness sickens over 76 million Americans every year, causing
725,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths. One recent Georgetown University
study showed that the related costs of foodborne illness (medical bills, lost
wages, decreased productivity) totals over $152 billion a year. But
environmental byproducts of food production often lead to "foodborne"
illnesses. Waste and contaminants from industrialized factory farms endanger
our fragile ecosystem and place us all at avoidable health risks. Consider
concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, which are largely
responsible for the low cost of meat, dairy, and poultry.

These facilities lower production costs by cramming animals into small spaces
and enhancing animal growth to expedite the time between birth and slaughter.
Chicken CAFOs, for example, can hold over 20,000 animals in an extremely
confined area with little or no room to move, and without access to the
outdoors. Numerous whistleblowers report these animals are subjected to
further inhumane handling, which leads to wholly preventable, but serious,
contamination.

Furthermore, CAFOs assault the rural environments in which they operate.
Animal waste pollutes neighboring streams, poisoning wells and drinking
water--which ends up sickening neighboring residents. This waste is teeming
with the same harmful bacteria--E. coli, cryptosporidium and listeria--that
often contaminate ground beef. Therefore, meat produced by these factory
farms should never truly be considered "safe food."

Workers' rights also directly impact public health. The food industry
routinely exploits laborers. These individuals earn unconscionably low wages
while performing vile, strenuous, and dangerous work. Often migrant workers
find themselves in the untenable position of safeguarding the nation's food
supply, yet have no rights to speak out. If a worker witnesses gross
violations and wishes to come forward, he risks not only his and his family's
welfare, but possible deportation. These workers are often the only ones in a
position to protect all of us from unsafe food. Is it any surprise that the
vast majority of these workers choose to keep quiet?

Meanwhile, industry regulators, silenced by corporate influence on
government, go unheard. Citizen activists, crushed by industry giants, are
powerless to confront agribusiness as it pollutes the water and soil. Our
system is failing.

It's easy to see why this has happened. Shoppers want cheap, convenient food.
The industry is responding to consumer demand, and agribusiness is providing
food at historically low prices. Today's consumer savings will come at far
greater societal and environmental costs tomorrow.

It's been roughly 100 years since Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle, an exposé
about the nation's meatpacking plants that led to many of our modern food
safety reforms. Contrary to popular belief, that groundbreaking work was
written to address the plight of the American food worker--not to make our
food safer.

When asked about the food safety laws created as a result of his book,
Sinclair replied: "I aimed for their hearts. I got their stomachs instead."
Either way, Sinclair advocated food integrity.

It's time for Americans to demand the same.

Amanda Hitt is the Food Integrity Campaign Director of the Government
Accountability Project, a whistleblower protection organization based in
Washington, D.C.





  • [Livingontheland] Safe Food, From Soil to Plate, Tradingpost, 06/02/2010

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