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OK, there are a few things going on in Congress right now — and true enough, food safety isn't getting a lot of media attention. Nonetheless, a Senate committee did just unanimously pass a bill that the U.S. House approved this summer. Some Oregonians went to Washington D.C. to testify in favor of that bill, including Peter Hurley of Wilsonville, whose 3-year-old Jacob got sick after eating tainted peanut butter crackers.
Both versions of the bill would give more authority to the Food and Drug Administration. Namely, it would enable it to issue recalls, instead of merely request them from the food producer.
Advocates of the bill say it's all about food safety — something no one can reasonably say they oppose. But some small Oregon farmers fear that they may not have the time or resources to be able to comply with more requirements from the federal government. As one eastern Oregon farmer told me,
It's not that we're against food safety, we just don't want to be put out of business.
Are you a farmer or food processor in Oregon? How would the new food safety law affect your business? What are your concerns as a food consumer? Are you confident in the safety of the food you and your family eat? If not, what would it take ease your mind?
GUESTS:
- Vance Bybee: Administrator of the Food Safety Division at the Oregon Department of Agriculture
- Chris Waldrop: Director of the Food Policy Institute at the Consumer Federation of America
- Mike Iverson: Co-owner and operator of Aurora Farms
- Chrissy Christoferson: Mother of a young child sickened by salmonella
Tagged as: agriculture · food
Photo credit: Darwin Bell / Creative Commons
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The girl referring to her youngster is overly involved. She seems like she's searching for any law go well with. Please. No one with Expedia Coupon typical sense is heading to consider her critically.
She visits the farms her meals originates from? What else does she do in Bend? A lot of people Fabric Coupon do not have this mentality.
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Knowing your grower is the only way. This is the powerful tool of the CSA and this is why I have freezer full of $14 chickens. This is why I have my own chickens and this is why my urban Portland back yard is a garden and not a field of perfect blades of grass. And when I open the next vacuum pack of Salmon I will know the exact day it was caught and the lure used to put it in my boat.
This past summer I noticed a troubling new trend at local farmer's markets. Many vendors were claiming to sell "Organic" produce but when pressed on the issue were not in fact certified by Oregon Tilth or anybody else. They claimed it was an expensive and arduous process to become certified and while that may well be true it is no reason to lie about it.
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Food safety is a very important issue - as the number of recent outbreaks of foodborne illness attest. We all need and deserve a safe food system, and S510 is a well-intentioned attempt at offering a solution to the food system's current shortcomings. But it is overreaching in its attempts to apply a one size fits all process.
There are adequate regulations currently to ensure that food is handled safely. The problem is not knowledge and standards; it's accountability and traceability. All of the foodborne illness outbreaks have stemmed from food originating within the industrial agribusinesses, which source their products from hundreds upon hundreds of producers throughout the country, and even the world, to mix it into a final product put to market. There is a lot that can go wrong in the process, in any link of the long chain, so it is important that there is adequate oversight to ensure that things are running smoothly and safely and that the final product is safe. This is why a food safety bill is good.
This particular food safety bill, as it currently exists, is not good - because it lumps in small producers and processors with the big agricultural corporations and applies the same regulations and fees (which would potentially be crushing to small producers with thin profit margins).
Oregon has a burgeoning small farmer economic sector, as seen most readily at the many farmers' markets and CSAs, where the grower and maker of the product sells directly to the customer. Within this relationship there is pure accountability and traceability, because there is no middleman. The very livelihood of small producers and processors relies upon their providing the highest quality and safest product to their customers - otherwise they go out of business and lose the family farm. Therefore, there is no need to apply these regulations, which are meant for the convoluted supply chains of the big agribusinesses.
Small producers and processors should therefore be exempted from the current bill, S510, in recognition of the inherent accountability and traceability present in the relationship of a farmer selling one of his carrots directly to his customer. The surest route to food safety is knowing your farmer and legislation that recognizes the things that small producers and processors are doing right in already incorporating accountability and traceability into their day-to-day business.
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Food safety is a larger concern than ever. I remember hearing about organic spinach tainted with ecoli. More afraid of eating out as I learn where and how food is produced. I call it the Michael Palin weightloss plan. Having experienced more gastro intestinal distress from eating out in recent years, I'm more careful where and what I eat. While I appreciate that the government wants to protect us, legislation that makes food production too onerous will drive smaller producers out of business while larger producers will increase prices to consumers because there will be fewer alternatives. Also, I have little faith in the ability of government to effectively monitor the marketplace which is relatively huge. Too often we hear that the FDA doesn't have enough personnel or resources to adequately monitor food safety.
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Why not exempt the small farmer and the small direct processor?
When HAACP rules got applied to meat processing. . the smaller rancher and farmer lost the ability to process meat locally. This seems that it could happen to the small farmer that makes jam and sells direct to the consumer (me)or the smaller produce farmer. I'm concerned that the local food movement could potentially be affected in the same way the local meat industry was affected.
Tracing foods from a farmers market is not the problem ..as a consumer I want to have the choice to buy local and direct . .this seems jeapordized by federal regulation.
Janet Rose Marie
La Grande, Oregon
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It is important to recognize where these deadly organism originate: the intestinal tracts of animals. Peanuts and vegetables do NOT produce these toxins. Until the feedlots are moved away from crops, or better regulated, or CLOSED, this problem will continue. There aren't enough officials to run around the country checking all the produce. Stop it at the source.
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I'm worried that this will hurt small farmers. I think the FDA do a very poor job. Most problems occur with food items from large companies, and not from small farmers and ranchers. As a boy in England I ate raw pork left over when my grandfather, a butcher, made sausages. I was never sick. It is the large companies, e.g. Tyson, whose products, not that I eat them, worry me. Raw milk cheeses from France have to be aged for a certain amount of time before they may be imported. Let people decide for themselves. I used to drink raw milk, but now it's only sold with a label indicating that it's for animal feed only. FDA get out of my food! I don't want people, most of whom probably think the McDonald's is the height of fine dining, to tell me what I may and may not eat. If they cared about food, there'd be no more Tyson, Foster Farms, Monsanto, etc.
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Food Safety needs to begin at the root of the cause. The bottom line is that Ecoli and Salmonella originates from very sick animals. An egg with Salmonella only comes from a chicken with Salmonella. Ecoli gets into our food system when the waste of sick cows ends up in ground beef - thats right, excrement in your burger- or goes downstream into our spinach fields.
These animals need to be raised in less deplorable ways and fed a natural diet so they don't develop illness and pass the risk to us humans. Its also time people become more in touch with where their food comes from so they can make healthy choices.
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Agencies, state or federal, are always limited by resources.
No mention was made of what resources are most critically lacking in Oregon. Could we get a sense of where we could best add resources.
Also, I get the feeling that this lack of local resources is the main reason to look to FDA or USDA to increase enforcement. Is this true.
Agri-business will continue to be the source of the preponderance of food for this nation -- so to that extent, it is the most important place to look to ensure food safety. Local growers regularly state that they "know" they are producing safe food. This means that they are limited by their personal "knowledge." Unfortunately, small operations cannot assemble enough knowledge base to deal even with the existing threats. They can't be a chemist and a micro-biologist and a mycologist and a ..... all at the same time.
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The woman talking about her child is overly concerned. She sounds like she's looking for a law suit. Please. No one with common sense is going to take her seriously.
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Buying local is potentially more risky since their are passed through less screening. I support local farming, but maybe being scared of every potential source for a pathogen is not relistic or healthy! Lets be thankful for the food health security that we DO have in this privileged country.
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She visits the farms her food comes from? What else does she do in Bend? Most people don't have this mentality.
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One more and I'll shut up. The majority of people I know can't afford to eat "organic" food.
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Conservative republicans have always fought against food safety regulations and inspections, they just don't care who is injured by the way they make their money, they value human life lower than money and always have.
Therefore, they are accountable for all of the food related sicknesses and deaths.
The same for other safety regulations.
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Hey! Does anyone else know or care that the entire European Union does not accept USA beef products? The EU CONSIDERS AMERICAN BEEF TOO TOXIC TO SELL! Of course, there are political factors weighing in to this policy, but consider the fact that ANY burger in EU is probably safer to east than the prime rib on your plate.
Why isn't there any legislation about this? Is it because the big beef producers have no need for the EU market? Or is it something else?
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I'm quite certain that politics play a major role in each and every policy of the EU, so I wouldn't really be worried too much about that...
kidco configure gate
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The current state of US food safety is a direct outcome of federal deregulation policies in the late 1980s-early 1990s, when direct inspection of most food processors was abandoned or sharply reduced in favor of the HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) system, which relies on the processors themselves to institute procedures to identify, analyze and control sources of food contanimation and other hazards. Their written plans undergo government review, but in the absence of government inspectors, their actual practices do not, until there's a problem such as an outbreak of food-borne illness.
In theory, a rigorous HACCP program is a good way to reduce food-borne risks. In practice, even the best risk-reduction plan is worthless unless it's actually implemented every single day. And without inspections, it can be difficult to know which processors are doing the job.
Given the competing demands for federal dollars, the general state of the economy, the pressures from anti-tax activisits and the lobbying power of big agribusiness, I don't see much hope for a return to an inspection-based food safety program in the US.
So what's a consumer to do? Like others posting here, I try to buy as much of my food from local producers as I can, but I also recognize that I'm both economically and geographically privileged. Many - perhaps most - Americans simply do not have those options.
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I've become so tired of our food fetish I wish I could stop eating it. The endless discourse on the banality of the feed that keeps us animals alive. Sometimes I wonder if food is actually this divisive or if we are just itching for it to be, another way to define ourselves. I'm smug, they're smug, everybody is smug about the grub. The litany on slow food, fast food, fat food---your food and my food. Local farmers are our Jesus, until they become successful. Keep it small kid. I wish I grew up in the days when we still talked about nuclear power.
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The challenge of limited resources to apply to this issue is true for both the small farmer and our ODA. And there are mechanisms in place that allow for the management of food safety in the farm-direct arena that do not require huge investment, fees, fines and regulations for the small farm/"farm-direct" segment of ag producers. Oregon and Washington have in place comprehensive farm-direct marketing guidelines for just this segment of agriculture.
Those who farm fewer than 200 acres (the majority of Oregon growers) who grow and direct-market their products through farm stands, farmers markets, institutional contracts are a traditional source of fresh food in this nation and state. They represent a prime economic and community development opportunity for small rural communities and entrepreneurs around the state. They should be encouraged and supported to continue to do so as they, with proper handling and awareness, provide the most secure and safe products in the food system. This is an opportunity and necessity that we can't and shouldn't ignore.
Evidence points to specific areas of the agri-business where food safety oversight and regulation should be prioritized, and this is the arena of large, multi-sourced food production and processing. And those entities DO have money to ensure proper regulations and inspections, and SHOULD be "encouraged" to step up to protect their customers - through FDA or USDA.
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When I go to the store I want to know where my food was grown. Nothing from China ever comes home here because they have totally lost their credibility at my house.
If it is seafood I want to know the country of origin and the harvest technique. Farmed salmon is in the same boat as any food from China; as its production is creating numerous problems; from seal lice infestation of native stocks of fish as they swim by the pens; to the destruction of real wild food fish that are being captured and ground into pelletized food for the farmed salmon at a great loss of valuable protein in the big picture.
Shrimp from Indonesia and other locations in Asia are often farmed using biologically unsustainable techniques in water that is polluted and unfit for my canoe let alone for the production of foodstuffs.
I like organic food because I believe its production is the only way out of our current mindless degredation of farm land and because I do not believe the synergistic effects of all of the chemicals used in the current commercial model have been adequately studied; either in and on the food, or on the valuable and limited source of fresh water around the planet; as concentrated effluent from production facilities make their way to streams, rivers, and eventually the ocean. Additionally many of the drugs that are used to treat chickens and other livestock are finding their way directly into our children and acting as powerful endocrine disruptors as indicated by widespread evidence in the literature for at least the past ten years. Antibiotics are losing their effectiveness.
Greed is a powerful tool to help the affluent sleep at night. Imagine how many of the 168 people arrested at the Delmonte Fresh plant in North Portland two years ago would have been able to understand english enough to take guidance from an english speaking supervisor on keeping the public safe as they handled our food, or would have been willing to raise the alarm if something dangerous was being done at that one plant while their very livelyhood was at stake; and you can begin to come to grips with why low paid workers all across the nation, often here illegally, willingly turn a blind eye to bad practices.