Food Safety: what every masticator should consider

Foodborne illness reports seem rampant in the news as of late. And it seems the burden of food safety is repeatedly passed onto the federal government to monitor and impose rules and regulations to keep us safe rather than working to empower individuals to make more local, healthier food choices. 

Listeria on cantaloupes is the recent publicized outbreak that has killed more than a dozen and sickened many more. Always our most vulnerable population carry the brunt of foodborne illness morbidity and mortality, as their natural immune system is not able to attack the ingested pathogens. 

So what is the problem? And more importantly, what is the answer?

If you side with the federal and local governments, the problem is not enough regulations and oversight and the answer is business as usual and increase regulations on farms large and small for decreasing risk of food borne illness via sanitation and oversight measures. 

If you side with food and small farm advocates, the problem is that our food is coming from a ever-shrinking pool of corporations that own a ever-expanding percent of the food market and the answer is to buy local and support small farms.

(Another thought is that we, as a population, are becoming more susceptible to foodborne illness due to the increase in diabetes and other diet related illnesses that suppress the immune system.)

Like all problems, there is no one answer. The answer likely lies somewhere in between. It may be unrealistic to expect the dismantling of large agri-businesses and to change the culture to value food produced locally from small farms in the near future. 

However, it will be detrimental to our future if we do not work our rear ends off to try to make a shift to making our food system a more local model for the safety and health of our nation long-term. In the mean time, increasing regulations for the large corporate food producers will likely be important, but all new laws and regulations must take into consideration the differences between small scale farms and large corporations and adjust the regulations accordingly so small farms are not further disadvantaged. 

I would like to propose the following ideas for consideration:

1. Any item we put into our mouth has the potential to make us ill 

  ** Therefore, any food we consume has the potential to make us ill

2. Small farms produce small quantities of food and ship to a smaller radius of consumers whereas large corporations produce large quantities of food and ship to a larger radius of consumers

  ** Therefore, less people are sickened by a outbreak caused on a small farm than a large corporate producer and most likely the outbreak source will be identified much sooner with a small farm than a large corporate production

3. Small farms are often run by the owner and his/her family who do the majority of the labor whereas a large corporate producer is more likely to pay low wage laborers to do the work of harvesting and producing

  ** Therefore, small farm labor tends to have much more stake and pride in the safe and clean production of their food 

4. Germs are not bad; in fact, each of us carry around 3-5 pounds of bacteria in our body at any time - I would be accurate in saying that we rely on bacteria for life

  ** Therefore, destroying all bacteria is not the answer; rather building up our gut flora and immunity is key to preventing food borne-illness; this is best done by eating whole foods and regular physical activity for all around preventative health benefits

Every day we make the choices of what we put into our bodies. Buying at the grocery market vs. buying food at a local farmers market not only affects your risk for foodborne illness and all around health, it also impacts the future that we wish to create for generations to come. 

Imposing more and more food safety regulations may make you feel safer, but it is not a long term solution. The fact is, any food may make us ill. And regulating choice away from us, like what is being attempting with further regulations disconnecting consumers to raw milk, is not a sustainable choice. 

** People with certain diseases, are of older age, or have conditions associated decreased immunity DO need to take extra precautions against food-borne illness