Two Separate Food Systems

The past week has brought news of several issues - raw almond "pasteurization" (a.k.a. treatment with toxic gas), the National Animal ID System, and food safety bills in Congress. In each of these cases, we are making one-size-fits-all rules for two very different systems of agriculture.

One system of agriculture NEEDS more regulation - or at least, more enforcement of the rules that exist. Clearly, when people can die from tainted peanut butter, there's a problem. The mainstream food system - foods bought at Costco or Kroger or chain restaurants - suffers from a consolidated supply chain that leads to food safety problems that affect the entire nation. The tainted peanut butter sickened people in nearly every state in the U.S. When one producer or supplier's irresponsibility can lead to sick people across the nation and thousands of products recalled, more regulation is justified.

But there's another food system that lawmakers can overlook. The local, sustainable food system. That's my food system. I buy my oranges from my friend Annie and I get beautiful heirloom tomatoes and wonderful eggs from Phil. I have three flavors of Jackie's Jams in my fridge that I bought from Jackie herself. My first guarantee of food safety is that Annie and Phil and Jackie all eat the food they produce. I know darn well that they do everything they can to make sure their food is safe - and if it ever wasn't, they'd be the first people to get sick. And, god forbid, if the food they sold ever was tainted, it wouldn't be hard to trace where the food came from. What's the need for registering Phil's hens in a national animal ID database so the USDA could figure out where my eggs came from? I know I bought the eggs from Phil and I've met his hens.

I'm not arguing that local farms and food is inherently safe. But the risks of food safety issues from small farms is much more limited in scope than the risks from the likes of Peanut Corporation of America (PCA), the company whose food safety nightmare led to the huge recalls of the past few months. One-size-fits-all legislation written for companies like PCA often needlessly harms small farmers like Annie and Phil or Mom 'n Pop businesses like Jackie's Jams. I just wish our legislators would learn to distinguish between these two very different food systems and then target their laws towards industrial, mainstream food ONLY.

(Photo from Jaroslaw Pocztarski on Flickr)