Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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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.