Local food systems promote democracy

By MELIINDA HEMMELGARN

Published Wednesday, September 26, 2007

How many contaminated bags of spinach, lettuce and even dog food will it take before we realize that our industrialized, high-mileage food system is profoundly broken? In the most recent case, the Dole Co. issued an international recall of its bagged salad after a sample taken from a store in Canada tested positive for the potentially deadly E. coli bacteria.

Sound familiar? E. coli 0157:H7 was the culprit in a national outbreak one year ago. Chuck Benbrook, chief scientist at the Organic Center explained to members of the Society for Nutrition Education this summer that the bacteria are present in fecal material. Runoff or dust from large-scale livestock and dairy operations pose “huge food safety risks if fresh cut vegetables are grown nearby.”

This month’s recall of certain packages of Dole’s “Hearts Delight” salad mix included lettuce grown in California, Colorado and Ohio and processed at a Dole plant in Ohio.

Talk about long-distance greens! Even David Acheson, chief medical officer for the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, advised consumers last year not to eat any fresh spinach unless it’s from your own backyard, where you can be aware of its safety.

The Dole incident raises yet another red flag about too-large and concentrated food and agricultural systems, where one small mistake can have far-reaching consequences.

E. coli contamination is just one problem. Benbrook also described the risks of routine “misuse” of antibiotics in livestock production. More than 80 percent of antibiotics are given to livestock, mostly for non-therapeutic purposes, such as accelerating growth, and compensating for overcrowded and unsanitary conditions on large-scale confinement facilities, also called CAFOs or “factory farms.”

Bacteria naturally develop resistance to antibiotics, which means that the drugs we’ve come to rely on to treat infections become less effective. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization have said the antibiotics we depend on for human medicine should no longer be used as growth promoters in agriculture.

For these reasons and more, Kathy Lawrence, former executive director of the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture, said industrial, long-distance agricultural systems are simply not sustainable.

Lawrence spoke at Columbia’s Sustainable Living Fair and at the University of Missouri-Columbia’s “What’s New in Sustainable Food and Farming” seminar series last week. There she defined “sustainable” agriculture as economically viable, environmentally sound and socially just- “the triple bottom line.”

Drawing on the preamble from the Declaration of Independence and quotes from Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis – “We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” – Lawrence connected the dots between food, fuel and democracy. She explained how food and agriculture touches everything in our lives, from personal health to peak oil. She believes sustainability is necessary for the invigoration and survival of our democracy.

Although Lawrence understands that people have become disillusioned with our government, she knows grass-roots community groups have the power to change policy. One of the most important pieces of legislation presently under debate in the Senate is the Farm Bill, more appropriately termed, “the Federal Food Bill.”

“Easy, cheap food choices are unhealthy for us, the environment and the planet,” Lawrence said.

We have an opportunity to influence agricultural policy and improve every bite of food on our plates.

How?

Join an organization already involved in farm and food policy to stay informed; then, take five minutes a month to call your representatives. “Policymakers and constituents are directly linked,” she said. It’s not about “us vs. them;” civilization and democracy depend on thinking more about “we and us.”

Sustainable agriculture allows us to eat with peace of mind. Learn more, get involved and vote with your food dollars. Visit the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture at www.sustainableagriculture.net or Community Food Security Coalition at www.foodsecurity.org.