More on Food Safety

I didn't plan on blogging again quite this soon, but an article in today's New York Times set me off - "Food Companies Are Placing the Onus for Safety on Consumers."
It seems that big agribusiness can't be bothered to guarantee that the ingredients in their products are free of contaminants, bacteria, and other things that could make us sick (or dead). So they have said it's up to the consumer to be sure that they are preparing the foods well enough to kill any bugs. Yet testing, according to the article, found that following the directions for preparing a pot pie left some of the pie below the recommended temperature while much of the crust was burned and inedible. Yummy.
I am fortunate to live in an area that offers an abundance of local foods, from meats to dairy to grains to vegetables. It is sometimes difficult to afford the added cost of buying from the farmers market rather than the supermarket, certainly, but it also certainly feels a lot better.
One positive effect of the bad economy, at least in my eyes, has been to slow the rampant development that was paving over hundreds of acres of farmland every year. A local nonprofit has been doing their best to save agricultural lands, but that is a hard fight, especially against realtor organizations from far outside our local area and with much better funding. They defeated a proposed ballot measure to help raise money to buy development rights, so that farmers could retire with a nest egg but leave their land in agricultural rather than sell it for development. They promised an "alternate solution," but of course that has not been forthcoming.
Other than fresh seafood, you have no way of knowing from whence your foodstuffs are coming. And if the source is China, it's big time buyer beware! So I am fully behind the locavore movement, and hope others out there will push to save their own local agriculture. We are still going to have to feed ourselves in the future, and I don't see how we will do that if we pave over the most productive lands.

Salmonella and Dry Dog Food

There was a news report this morning about an outbreak of salmonella among humans. They blamed it on the handling of dry dog food, and recommended that people wash their hands immediately after handling dog food.
Aren't they missing a rather basic point here? Why is it considered perfectly all right that the dog food is contaminated with salmonella? What about the dogs actually EATING the food?
Food safety in the U.S. is low and deteriorating. The numbers and powers of food inspectors have been seriously eroded over the last decade. We have to eat our hamburgers well done, whether we like them that way or not, or risk an E. coli infection. We can't let chicken touch a kitchen counter without having to disinfect everything in sight. Even washing our spinach and lettuce may not protect us from field contamination with fecal matter. This is all considered perfectly normal.
In my own local area, various political and real estate organizations have declared that there is no need to protect our remaining farmland. Yet these same people profess to be most concerned about terrorism. Well, if terrorists really were to launch a massive attack, wouldn't safe food and water be one of our primary concerns? With transportation likely disrupted, a local food supply would be of prime importance.
But that's my own local hot button issue. On a more national level, why do we put up with such a lack of food safety? There are some pet food manufacturers who have not been involved in the melamine recalls, not suffered a mycotoxin taint in their grain products, been able to supply a safe and healthy product. If you start investigating, you find that nearly all of them use suppliers they know and trust -- not the lowest bidder in China. Many of their products are officially certified organic, which lays a whole new layer of testing and certification on them. Yes, they are more expensive than the supermarket brands. But in my opinion, some peace of mind is worth some expense. I would be willing to pay the same for my own food, and often do, through buying at farmers markets and local grocers rather than international chains.
This is not an issue that gets even a mention during this long long campaign season. Doesn't anyone care if their food is safe?