by Stephanie Keno
Daily Lobo columnist
Popeye may have saved the spinach industry from collapse in the 1930s, but a savior for the 21st century has yet to come forward.
As our country's agricultural sector becomes dominated by corporate producers, more consumers are becoming increasingly susceptible to noxious diseases such as E. coli. While the inspection of one 30,000-acre farm may be more easily performed than inspections of 10 3,000-acre farms, what is convenient for the federal government is not necessarily good for you, me or our families.
We were warned several weeks ago by the Food and Drug Administration to throw out any fresh spinach that we might have stashed in our crispers, which also included certified organic spinach. Shortly thereafter, there was another FDA recall, this time on lettuce. It has been determined that the E. coli-infected spinach and the suspect lettuce were products of a major food company, Natural Selection Foods, which was irrigating its crops with E. coli-infected water.
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So, who should be held accountable for the mass distribution of a deadly disease to our dinner tables?
Sadly, a problem with the nature of unfettered capitalism is that businesses that are able to obtain a competitive advantage often do so at the expense of health, sanitation and the environment and are rewarded with profit. Therefore, businesses - especially large businesses that do not interact with their buyers directly - need to be regulated by an authority that acts in the buyers' best interests. However, it would seem the regulatory commission that oversees our nation's food production and distribution is falling short of protecting our best interests.
Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, revealed during a phone interview on National Public Radio on Sept. 24 that the inspection of produce production is much less intensive than the inspection of meat processing and packaging. The U.S. Department of Agriculture inspects meat plants and slaughterhouses on a daily basis, but produce, which falls under the FDA, is only inspected if contamination is suspected in a particular crop.
Not only are inspections by the FDA less frequent, but the inspecting force is much smaller as well. In 1990, the FDA issued guidelines for growing healthy produce - these are merely suggested, though, and not enforced.
I am outraged that I am eating fruits and vegetables that have never been inspected and that may have been fertilized with raw manure or irrigated by water that could carry diseases from contact with biological waste. The FDA is not doing a sufficient job of protecting us from contaminated produce. Our government needs to step up and provide more funding and stricter procedures to ensure that the food farmers grow makes it safely to our tables. Although bad things inevitably happen from time to time, threats need to be detected before they escalate to national warnings about deadly spinach.
One solution to this problem would be to eat more locally grown food. For example, imagine if a privately owned, 1,000-acre farm in the state of California irrigated its crop with E. coli-contaminated water, then distributed its produce to only the local market. Consumers of spinach would not be threatened on a massive, nationwide level, as would be the case in today's system of commercial food
distribution.
Many believe that, as consumers, they have no responsibility in the production of food. The commercialized food industry has obscured the importance of the relationship between consumers and farmers. We should encourage small farms and the consumption of local products. If food were more locally produced and distributed, then we might get a sense of the relationship between the food we eat and the land where the food is grown, resulting in healthier eating and more environmentally sustainable agriculture.
Eating organically is a step. However, we should not stop with organic foods - which can be infected with E. coli, too - but progress to holistically grown food. Holistic farming is about maintaining a consciousness of the connection between the land, the farmer and the consumer.
I am not discouraging organic products, but eating organic is not the only means to solving our nation's food problems. If we think holistically and shop more locally, then we can discourage the mass distribution of unhealthy food and promote sustainable living in the process.
After all, food is supposed to nourish, not kill.
Stephanie Keno
is a senior economics major and a student in the
University Honors Program.
