Thomas Wittman refers to the trend towards stricter requirements for handling
of foods such as sprouts and salad mixes. He mentions <code kitchens>. He
recognizes risk of alienating market in the event of food borne illness from
organic produce, but wonders where all this regulation is going?
What are the requirements for a California code kitchen? If they are
anything like standards set for hospitals, perhaps we should worry.
Hospitals have become dangerous sources of infections because, instead of
helping people become immune to disease, they are helping diseases become
immune to controls. (If anyone questions this statement, I can look up some
of many documented facts.)
Buying local makes sense, for economic but also for many other reasons; one
that is rarely mentioned is that we humans do tend to develop natural
immunity to our local disease bacteria.
Yesterday Clinton announced new legislation on imported foods - said 40% of
U.S. food is now imported. New law allows U.S. to ban imports of foods from
countries where food safety standards are lower than those in U.S. Examples
included strawberries from Mexico. I understand their berries require
enormous quantities of pesticides, but apparently that's not the problem
here, what we're talking about here are bacteria that cause human diseases.
(Maybe there's a connection between these two problems.) Personally I'd
feel much safer eating an organic carrot straight out of the manure enriched
ground than a carrot that had been sprayed with pesticides, fertilized with
sewage sludge, irradiated, washed in bleach, wrapped in plastic and shipped
two thousand miles.
QUESTION: Do any of you know who will be making the judgment calls on
relative safety of imported foods?
While we're on the subject:
Our local (Vermont) micro-supermarket recently displayed a packaged salad mix
from California - 10 ounces for $2.59. Not very fresh looking and not
organic either. I did not buy any. Has anybody any idea what the grower
received?
Stay well,
Betty Gras
petersfarm@aol.com
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