Post by farmermike on Nov 17, 2016 12:37:14 GMT -5
This is the most recent email from our local CSA farm:
"I spent three days last week at a training as part of our effort to prepare for the new Food Safety regulations that go into affect in January, and it was by turns educational, sobering, and infuriating.
Standing in our strawberry field at Farm Day watching families and children picking berries, it was very easy to imagine how an inspector from the FDA would view the same scene: unacceptable risk everywhere. Children grabbing berries, eating them, and then returning those same fingers to pick another fruit. The children may be eating dirt, mold or pathogens on those berries. Alternately, they may be transferring pathogens from their hands or mouths to plants or berries that other children might touch.
Amazingly, most children survive this experience. In fact, research is increasingly proving that more contact with "contaminants" -- dirt, bacteria, animal hair, etc -- helps kids develop a healthy immune system. This might be one of the reasons why people who eat more vegetables tend to be healthier across the board than people who do not.
But don't try telling that to the FDA, which has now begun testing produce right off the store shelf. If they find pathogens on it, they show up at the farm that produced it with an army of technicians. If they find the same pathogen, they run a DNA test. If it's the same exact one as was on the produce they tested, the farmer is now liable for "contaminating" the produce and it all must be recalled.
If the farmer has not been doing everything possible, as defined by the FDA, to ensure that pathogens don't get on their crops, they are not just liable but subject to criminal charges. In other words, farmers are held to them same standard as company like Kraft or Nestle who are manufacturing food in factories. From a legal perspective, any pathogen found on our products is considered "adulteration" . This is a shocking misinterpretation of that term.
The technology to test for pathogens has outpaced the 20th century legal regulatory framework as well as our ability to eliminate them. Portable testing equipment is about the size of a computer printer, and can produce test results in 15 minutes. In a decade, or perhaps two, FDA inspectors will be able to point a handheld device at a tomato or a cucumber and immediately identify whether it is contaminated by E. Coli, Listeria or Salmonella. If they get a positive test, they will email to the farmer that produced it, informing them that they need to initiate a recall. Even if no one has gotten sick. Within a few years, hundreds of farmers of all sizes will declare bankruptcy as a result. Congress will be forced to re-write the legal foundation for the Food Safety Modernization Act. The question is, will there be anyone left in the U.S. still growing or producing fresh produce by the time they finish. And how many lives will have been saved as a result?
One of Terra Firma's foremost goals is to provide our customers food that makes them healthy, not sick. But fresh produce always will have bacteria on it, and a tiny number of people are going to sick from eating it. One in a million or fewer may not survive the illness. The FDA and every food safety expert admits this freely.
Until someone comes up with a technology for killing pathogens on fresh produce, America's farmers cannot and should not held to the same standards of liability as processed food companies. It's absurd and unfair. The risk of eating fresh produce is tiny compared to the benefits, and the unintended consequence of the new food safety law will be to make it more expensive and less available. -Pablito"
I thought this was a decent assessment of the situation. One thing I haven't heard anyone talk about, is how the deadly outbreaks of E. coli or Listera, on produce, actually originate. I assume that these are not just endemic soil organisms.
"I spent three days last week at a training as part of our effort to prepare for the new Food Safety regulations that go into affect in January, and it was by turns educational, sobering, and infuriating.
Standing in our strawberry field at Farm Day watching families and children picking berries, it was very easy to imagine how an inspector from the FDA would view the same scene: unacceptable risk everywhere. Children grabbing berries, eating them, and then returning those same fingers to pick another fruit. The children may be eating dirt, mold or pathogens on those berries. Alternately, they may be transferring pathogens from their hands or mouths to plants or berries that other children might touch.
Amazingly, most children survive this experience. In fact, research is increasingly proving that more contact with "contaminants" -- dirt, bacteria, animal hair, etc -- helps kids develop a healthy immune system. This might be one of the reasons why people who eat more vegetables tend to be healthier across the board than people who do not.
But don't try telling that to the FDA, which has now begun testing produce right off the store shelf. If they find pathogens on it, they show up at the farm that produced it with an army of technicians. If they find the same pathogen, they run a DNA test. If it's the same exact one as was on the produce they tested, the farmer is now liable for "contaminating" the produce and it all must be recalled.
If the farmer has not been doing everything possible, as defined by the FDA, to ensure that pathogens don't get on their crops, they are not just liable but subject to criminal charges. In other words, farmers are held to them same standard as company like Kraft or Nestle who are manufacturing food in factories. From a legal perspective, any pathogen found on our products is considered "adulteration" . This is a shocking misinterpretation of that term.
The technology to test for pathogens has outpaced the 20th century legal regulatory framework as well as our ability to eliminate them. Portable testing equipment is about the size of a computer printer, and can produce test results in 15 minutes. In a decade, or perhaps two, FDA inspectors will be able to point a handheld device at a tomato or a cucumber and immediately identify whether it is contaminated by E. Coli, Listeria or Salmonella. If they get a positive test, they will email to the farmer that produced it, informing them that they need to initiate a recall. Even if no one has gotten sick. Within a few years, hundreds of farmers of all sizes will declare bankruptcy as a result. Congress will be forced to re-write the legal foundation for the Food Safety Modernization Act. The question is, will there be anyone left in the U.S. still growing or producing fresh produce by the time they finish. And how many lives will have been saved as a result?
One of Terra Firma's foremost goals is to provide our customers food that makes them healthy, not sick. But fresh produce always will have bacteria on it, and a tiny number of people are going to sick from eating it. One in a million or fewer may not survive the illness. The FDA and every food safety expert admits this freely.
Until someone comes up with a technology for killing pathogens on fresh produce, America's farmers cannot and should not held to the same standards of liability as processed food companies. It's absurd and unfair. The risk of eating fresh produce is tiny compared to the benefits, and the unintended consequence of the new food safety law will be to make it more expensive and less available. -Pablito"
I thought this was a decent assessment of the situation. One thing I haven't heard anyone talk about, is how the deadly outbreaks of E. coli or Listera, on produce, actually originate. I assume that these are not just endemic soil organisms.
