Food and Safety

So, obviously I am big fan of eating local. No surprise to anyone reading this on a regular basis.

With all of the food safety scares in recent years and months, I suspect that more and more people will be seeing the importance of local food, buying direct.

Those big national food conglomerates buy foodstuffs from hundreds of sources. They mix foods of various origin (including international usually without labeling nation of origin). They process, package and distribute throughout the nation. It is efficient from a cheap oil, processed food standpoint. From a resources standpoint, it is extremely wasteful. The materials used in transportation and packaging represent waste. There is spoilage and a decrease in nutritional value of the foods that have to be picked in California and Texas, processed in Mississippi and delivered to Vermont and Montana. When situations like the salmonella poisonings happen, the amount of waste is beyond comprehension. Millions of pounds of food become suspect and tainted by association. Maybe it was a couple of hundred of pounds of pistachios that actually had salmonella. Because they were mixed and blended without regard, we have no way of knowing how many were tainted and where they may be. As a result, over a million pounds of nuts are being recalled. That is waste on a monumental scale.

If I buy spinach from a local source*, I can be reasonably certain that I know how it was grown and harvested. If I grow it myself, I can guarantee it is free from salmonella.

If I buy foods from a source that sticks with a few sources for food, I can be more confident that my food is secure. From a food safety standpoint, it only makes sense to east local, buy direct.

Our food safety increased for decades, but as food supply chains have spiderwebbed our nation, growing longer and longer, this is no longer the case. Our food safety has not increased in the last three years, and in my opinion, an argument could be made for stating that is decreasing. Without saying so directly, the message from the New York Times article is pretty clear. Eat local. Buy directly as possible.

I'm not a hundred mile locavore. I love me some coffee beans and chocolate, not to mention those avocados I treat myself to sometimes. However, I am aware of the source of my foods. I'm not fooling myself into thinking that the strawberries in the grocery store in December were grown in a greenhouse in Wisconsin or were picked two days ago on a small family farm in South America, package carefully and flown directly to my store for the bargain price of $3 per pound. Awareness and eduction about our basic needs is vital.

Nothing is more basic than food.

Eat local. Buy direct.

*And if you are in the Green County area and have any desire to begin a food based microbusiness of any sort, help a new Community Kitchen/Buy Local Initiative get off the ground. Go to Green County Kitchen and fill out the survey. Spread the word!