The never-ending search for the most antiseptic-free food might just be leaving destroyed, biologically-diverse farms in its wake.In the farmland surrounding Monterey Bay, CA food safety techniques are being employed that very well may become the model for the nation and threaten the future of biologically-diverse farms. Some techniques would require bare buffers around grow areas to prevent pathogens spreading onto crops and livestock from other plants and animals. However, as the San Francisco Chronicle’s Carolyn Lochhead reported on Monday, July 13, 2009, this could be bad news for farmers like Dick Piexoto. To read the San Francisco Chronicle story click here.
Piexoto made the mistake of planting fennel and flowering cilantro in order to “harbor beneficial insects” to protect his organic vegetable fields from pests. Unfortunately for Piexoto, his pesticide-free organic vegetables were deemed not safe enough for the market and have been destroyed. Who decided Piexoto’s greens weren’t safe enough? According to the San Francisco Chronicle article, the crucial decider on the safety of leafy greens may be large producers and their “’leafy greens marketing agreement’”, or it may be large produce buyers and their ‘”super metrics’”. The challenge for Piexoto and others like him is maintaining organic growing methods while also meeting food safety standards. Food safety standards that may be about to change on the national scale.
Piexoto’s fate may have been pre-determined thanks to previous food pathogen. Both constituencies (producers and buyers) are attempting to prevent another break-out of the E.coli pathogen like the one that occurred in bagged spinach in 2006. For more on the 2006 outbreak click here. Regardless, Washington is acting and according to who is asked the victim may be the small organic producer, the livestock producer, the grain producer, or all three.
President Obama created the Food Safety Working Group to create safety standards for poultry, eggs, beef, and vegetables. As was reported on July 7, 2009 by Forbes.com, one of the group’s ideas is to allow the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to work with industry to create voluntary guidelines for a track back system to help determine the origin of an outbreak. They are also looking at methods of prevention. To read the Forbes article click here.
According to the Wall Street Journal’s Jane Zhang’s July 8, 2009 article, federal legislation (the Food Safety Enhancement Act-H.R. 2747) passed out of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce pairs well with the Group’s suggestions in that it gives more control over growing standards, as well as funding, to the FDA. To read the Wall Street Journal story click here. In a story published today, July 16, 2009, Zhang writes for the Wall Street Journal that most of the opposition thus far has come from grain farmers and livestock producers who don’t want the FDA inspecting their farms, while some vegetable and fruit producers welcome the opportunities posed by the legislation. To read the story click here.
In what may eventually be dubbed the Summer of Healthcare, food safety measures and legislation move along at a steady pace.
Posted: 07/16/09
