National Food Day is next Monday, October 24. From the website’s “About” page:
Food Day seeks to bring together Americans from all walks of life—parents, teachers, and students; health professionals, community organizers, and local officials; chefs, school lunch providers, and eaters of all stripes—to push for healthy, affordable food produced in a sustainable, humane way. We will work with people around the country to create thousands of events in homes, schools, churches, farmers markets, city halls, and state capitals… the day is sponsored by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the nonprofit watchdog group that has led successful fights for food labeling, better nutrition, and safer food since 1971. Like CSPI, Food Day will be people-powered and does not accept funding from government or corporations—though restaurants, supermarkets, and others are certainly encouraged to observe Food Day in their own ways.
CSPI‘s sometimes-sanctimonious attacks on everything from beer ads at sporting events to the toys in fast-food kiddy meals can inspire an urge to go out and eat multiple bacon cheeseburgers washed down with a sixpack of Four Loko, but this might still be a good time to think about where our food comes from and the price(s) we’re paying for it.
Per the NYTimes, the source of the second-deadliest food-borne illness outbreak since the CDC began tracking in the early 1970s has been identified:
A nationwide listeria outbreak that has killed 25 people who ate tainted cantaloupe was probably caused by unsanitary conditions in the packing shed of the Colorado farm where the melons were grown, federal officials said Wednesday.
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Government investigators said that workers had tramped through pools of water where listeria was likely to grow, tracking the deadly bacteria around the shed, which was operated by Jensen Farms, in Granada, Colo. The pathogen was found on a conveyor belt for carrying cantaloupes, a melon drying area and a floor drain, among other places….
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The outbreak, which began in late July, is the deadliest caused by foodborne disease since 1985. A total of 123 people in 26 states have fallen ill, including those who died, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…
I haven’t seen much tv-news attention paid to this particular outbreak, possibly because listeria has an unusually long incubation period (up to a month or more) and most of the tainted cantalopes were supposed to be past their sell-by dates by the end of September, when it was definitively labelled. Also, per the CDC, “Listeria… only sickens the elderly, pregnant women and others with compromised immune systems… the median age of all the people that had been infected was 78.” The NYTimes did provide some details that are not likely to encourage the nervous eater:
[Emphasis mine.] Which brings us to the Washington Post‘s publication of a News21 study, titled “States vary widely in reporting foodborne illnesses“:The outbreak is likely to focus new attention on the use of auditors in the food industry. Typically farms or processors are required by their customers, like supermarket or restaurant chains, to have an auditor evaluate their food safety procedures.
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Jensen Farms hired an auditor called PrimusLabs, based in California, to inspect its facility. Primus gave the job to a subcontractor, Bio Food Safety, which is based in Texas. Jensen and Primus declined to provide a copy of the audit report.
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Robert Stovicek, the president of PrimusLabs, said his company had reviewed the audit and found no problems in how it was conducted or in the auditor’s conclusions.
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“We thought he did a pretty good job,” Mr. Stovicek said. He said the auditor, James M. DiIorio, has been doing audits for the company since March. He said that Mr. DiIorio had received two one-week training courses as part of his preparation and had also gone on audits with other auditors.
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Asked how Mr. DiIorio could have given high marks to a facility that the F.D.A. described as a breeding ground for listeria, Mr. Stovicek said, “There’s lots of variations as to how people interpret unsanitary conditions.”
Inconsistent reporting of foodborne illnesses such as listeria, salmonella and E. coli leaves large portions of the country vulnerable to the spread of potentially deadly outbreaks before health officials can identify their causes and recall contaminated foods…
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National outbreak surveillance depends on the collaboration of 2,800 state and local health departments subject to at least 50 different reporting requirements.
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Although the CDC coordinates investigations when these multi-state outbreaks occur, it can only “provide guidelines and recommendations” as a non-regulatory agency, said Ian Williams, chief of the CDC’s outbreak response and prevention branch. Without a federal standard, each state has a unique set of disease-reporting requirements and practices.
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The speed of response is critical for foodborne illnesses, yet 10 states allow a week to report a case of listeria — the bacteria that caused 15 deaths this year from contaminated cantaloupe — to the health department. Florida is the only state that requires immediate reporting of listeria, while the others fall somewhere in between, with 16 requiring health departments to be notified within one day.
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The breakdown between stringent and lax reporting requirements among states holds true for most illnesses, provided that requirements exist at all. The CDC recommends reporting for 20 foodborne illnesses, but fewer than half of the states require reporting for all of them.
Another NYTimes article, about an unrelated melon-based salmonella outbreak, indicates that major players in the food industry are not exactly cheering for the FDA to tighten safety standards:
… Aside from suing the F.D.A., the company has threatened legal action against a leading state food-borne disease investigator in Oregon, where the Del Monte cantaloupes were identified as the cause of the salmonella outbreak. And it has challenged some of the basic techniques of food safety investigations, like relying on ill people’s memories of what they ate when microbiological testing does not find pathogens on food.
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Asked if having raw sewage in an open ditch near its packing house was consistent with high food safety standards, Mr. Christou said that tests on melons had found no pathogens.
Economists talk about a Golden Triangle, loosely summarized as “Cheap, fast, good — choose any two.” The specific adjectives for our produce supply would probably be “cheap, available year-round, and non-pathogenic”.
Dougerhead
Toxic Canteloupes would also be a god name for a band.
Ken Pidcock
One of the problems here is that CDC does the surveillance, but USDA does the regulation.
cyntax
When you consider that wages have been flat since the late 70’s and almost every home needs two wage earners, then the demand for cheap, quick food makes sense. It’s not simply a matter of educating people about food, but also one of changing the economic dynamics most families are laboring under. But we knew that; food safety is just one more data point in that pile.
tkogrumpy
I’d comment on this post, but I’m not feeling well.
Mart
Read that Europeans pay twice the disposable income on food that we do. Eating there the portions are “small” (just right)and the food is delicious. Even the butter tastes better. And they do not need electric carts to get around the food store as they generally do not have giant ass asses.
Daughter is trying to make a go of it on a drug free/free range/grass fed farm. Boss feels she is overpaid working 70 hours a week for 20K per year with no benefits. Alabama has a new law scaring immigrants away, so 30% of their produce rots on the vine. Methinks we need to rethink how much food is worth to us.
Mino
Bio Food Safety, which is based in Texas…an oxymoron, if I ever saw one.
You can always depend on a Texas corp to know who pays the rent. Hint…it’s not the public.
WereBear (itouch)
Reminds me of what Willie Nelson said during his last pot bust:
scav
What part of the connection between toxic food and job creation doesn’t everyone get? Think of all the downstream employment and the multiplier effect due entirely to getting people into the cogs of the medical/pharmaceutical industry?
ThresherK
Listeria affects the elderly, and the immune-compromised?
If you close your eyes you can almost hear the cheering for it at the next klown kollege
pep rallydebate.ThresherK
Listeria affects the elderly, and the immune-compromised?
If you close your eyes you can almost hear the cheering for it at the next klown kollege
pep rallydebate.I imagine the thought process: Like poverty, or a stroke at 30, certainly if one didn’t deserve to get listeria, one wouldn’t.
Violet
@ThresherK:
And pregnant woman. Pro-life just like the death penalty!
Morzer
I am sure Herman Cain would explain that listeria affects only those who mix apples and oranges.
OT, but it seems that NPR decided to get rid of Lisa Simeone after all….
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/apnewsbreak-npr-dumps-opera-show-after-its-host-organizes-dc-protest/2011/10/21/gIQAbbsX4L_story.html
Martin
Toxic cantaloupes were the GOP jobs/deficit plan. 25 dead, 47% to go!
jwb
Mid-afternoon on a Saturday and no football thread? Not only that, but no one bitching about no football thread. What’s this blog coming to any way?
Corner Stone
I’m rockin’ the joint with some HB&T sandwiches on fresh Schwarzwälder bread, with an organic tomato as the “T”.
If I don’t see you tomorrow always know this – The yellow umbrella opens at midnight.
Corner Stone
@jwb: I gave up. No point to it when Kay and SP&T put up 80% of the recent football OTs.
And I thank them for that kindness.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@Corner Stone: Happy cuz Clemson is kicking ass huh?
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@jwb: It’s been this way for weeks.
Corner Stone
Maybe there’s a rerun of The Singoff on today, or a marathon of the My Little Pony cartoons we can piggyback off of to do annoying play by play for football games.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
It’s official, the Illini suck.
Corner Stone
@Raven (formerly stuckinred): I haz a sad cuz my Cocks is down today. And Lattimore breaks my freakin heart.
Good news is the U of H Cougars should put a beat down on Marshall later today.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@Corner Stone: the “eers” got their asses kicked last night so we can probably forget about football around here
Villago Delenda Est
If any of this “Food Day” stuff interferes with the profits of ADM or ConAgra in any way, it must be suppressed, at once!
Short term profit is far more important than the long term health of our hosts, erm, uh, the general public.
Corner Stone
It’s about freakin time ARK decided they wanted to play some ball.
Corner Stone
@Raven (formerly stuckinred): Roundly kicked. But that has nothing to do with it here.
This New Era of Civility is hard.
Corner Stone
@The Dougerhead:
Not only would it be a god name for a band, it would perfectly describe a lot of bloggers invited to FP here as well.
Steeplejack
@Corner Stone:
What’s the H in the HBT?
Corner Stone
@Raven (formerly stuckinred): That was a majestic ass kickin’ BTW.
Corner Stone
@Steeplejack: Ham baby.
Boar’s Head Black Forest Ham, center cut bacon and tomato on fresh dark rye.
I may slap a little 4X4 swiss cheese on there if I’m feelin’ a little kinky.
Drowning in Hellmann’s Mayo. That’s right! Hellmann’s bitchez!
soonergrunt
These are the kinds of things I like to point out when people complain about government regulations.
Steeplejack
@Corner Stone:
Hellmann’s is the one true mayonnaise. Ham and bacon seems a bit, uh, exuberant, however.
This is making me consider a late, late, late breakfast of scrambled eggs and Jimmy Dean hot sausage.
Corner Stone
@Steeplejack: I like to indulge and make myself feel special sometimes. Usually it’s at night but sometimes it’s during lunchtime.
batgirl
@Morzer: I wonder if this is enough evidence for @burnspbesq.
My disgust with NPR is complete.
Mino
@Corner Stone: Saturated fat protects us from microbes in our fudz.
Arclite
Here’s the thing that terrifies me. The breadbasket of the USA grows it’s food using water from the Ogallala aquifer in a very unsustainable way. California grows its crops using water from the Sierra Madres snow pack, which is getting less and less each year due to global warming. All I have to say is this: a decade from now we’re all going to be a lot skinnier…
Villago Delenda Est
@Steeplejack:
You people East of the Rockies are missing out on Hellman’s counterpart out here on the Left Coast, Best Foods. It’s said to be slightly tangy-er than Hellman’s, but they use the same ad campaign, and are owned by the same company. Just slightly different recipes for the two brands.
Corner Stone
@Mino: I have always, and will continue to, rely on imbibing liquids of 80 proof and higher for my ongoing healthcare infrastructure needs.
Steeplejack
@Villago Delenda Est:
I’ll have to check it out. Do they reach Las Vegas? I have family there and visit regularly.
Roger Moore
Regulatory capture: it’s not just for government anymore. This is exactly the kind of thing that needs to be shoved down the throat of any glibertarian who claims the magic of the market will solve all our problems if we do away with government regulation. Private regulators are at least as prone to regulatory capture as government ones.
Mino
@Roger Moore: With private regulators it’s a feature, not an aberration. Notice it was the vendor who had to provide the inspector, not the end user.
Villago Delenda Est
@Steeplejack:
Yeah, I think it’s marketed in Vegas. When visiting back east, I’d notice the jingle “Bring out the [mayo name here] and bring out the best!” but it was for Hellman’s, not Best Foods, which is of course the one I’m used to hearing.
soonergrunt
@Roger Moore: Even more prone to it. All of those toxic assets on Wall Street that led the big banks into economic crisis didn’t rate themselves, you know.
Mino
@Corner Stone: Yur twice as safe then.
Roger Moore
@Mino:
Sure, but there are practical reasons that’s likely to be the case most of the time. Most producers sell to more than one buyer, so it makes more sense to have a single inspector paid for by the producer than to have every buyer have to pay for their own inspector. Even if you let buyers hire their own inspectors, there needs to be a system where a really bad inspection gets broadcast to the other buyers, so the seller can’t just sell the whole batch to a buyer whose inspector missed the problems.
The problem is the inspector shouldn’t be dependent on the producer for business or regulatory capture is all but guaranteed. Instead, you need to have a system where producers pay into a central fund that hires the inspectors without the producers having any further say in the matter. Oh yeah, it might also be helpful if the producers were required to participate so they couldn’t set up their own captive regulator. Hmm, I wonder how we could get that to work…
Mino
@Roger Moore: Heh.
Maude
Remember when Greenspan said that the banks would police themselves? That attitude was a Bush Administration special. These businesses will regulate themselves. Money in pockets, blind eye to laws.
El Cid
This clearly proves that fried foods are better for you.
Libby's person
@Arclite:
You are right to worry. Our national/global food system is extremely vulnerable right now. We are much too dependent on artificially cheap food grown in places that really aren’t suited for farming. Lack of sufficient water in California is already starting to have an impact on prices and availability. We are likely to see the start of a serious food crisis in the US over the next 5-10 years.
This is an excellent reason to budget a little more of the money you spend on food for locally grown food. Locally grown food usually costs a little more, but maintaining the capacity to grow food across the country is necessary insurance against a very hungry future (in addition to tasting better). Most of the country is losing farms rapidly because farmers can’t compete against corporate mega-farms. Once a farm becomes a subdivision, the soil is destroyed and the land can’t be turned back into a farm.
Mino
@Libby’s person: Once a farm becomes a subdivision, the soil is destroyed and the land can’t be turned back into a farm.
Check out Detroit. http://www.alternet.org/environment/150308/vision%3A_urban_gardening_and_green_economy_flourish_in_detroit/
Libby's person
@Roger Moore:
Food safety regulation and certification is a good idea in theory which has resulted in a lot of serious unanticipated negative consequences.
The food safety certification process in this country is highly problematic. It is a voluntary program, not a government-mandated one, with the requirements and procedures developed by large-scale corporate food producers. All farms and processing centers should take steps to protect food from contamination, of course, but the current system is as much about legalistic butt-covering than about food safety. Some of the requirements sound good, but don’t actually increase food safety significantly and add a lot to the cost of certification. Most of the major outbreaks, like this listeria outbreak, are traced back not to a farm, but to very large processing/packaging facilities where the produce from a lot of very large farms are mixed together, and where systematic corner cutting (or one person’s carelessness) can contaminate food that will be sold to many thousands of customers. Such outbreaks usually result in increased demands (and increased costs) imposed on farmers.
No farm or processing center is required to get certified; the farmers and processors choose to do it if their customers require it. Since it’s market-driven, it’s easy to shift the cost and the risk to the farmers. Corporate farms can afford it; smaller, family-owned farms commonly cannot, and a lot of these are going out of business. Because so many customers do demand it, the USDA has developed a slightly lower cost version and has trained auditors working with state Departments of Agriculture – better, but still not good.
I feel safer eating small-farm locally grown rather than anonymous mega-farm products, even if the small farm local hasn’t gotten certified. I will also choose conventionally grown local produce from an 800 acre family farm rather than California organic – it’s better for me and the environment. (California mega-farm organic is slightly better than California mega-farm conventional, but not by much.)
This is a very complicated issue. Regulation is important, but it has to be scientifically based, impartially developed, and take into account the very real differences in practices and risk between farms of different sizes. Putting family-owned farms out of business is not a desirable outcome.
Scott Alloway
@ Steeplejack. I gravitated toward Horseradish sauce a few years ago and am stuck there for ham, turkey or roast beef. Great stuff. I grew up with New England dietary customs – various fish, boiled dinner, pot roast, lasagna and lots of turkey.