Antibiotic Resistance
The Pew Commission's
newly released report Putting
Meat on The Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production in America
describes the serious threats industrial farm animal production poses
to public health, the environment, rural communities and animal welfare.
Chief among the public health threats is the overuse of antimicrobials
in food animal production. The Commission’s final report contains
several recommendations to immediately address the threat, which include
the eventual ban of using antibiotics and other antimicrobials for non-therapeutic
use (i.e. growth promotion) in food animals.
The Demise of Small Slaughterhouses
In less than 20 years, the lack of government
food safety auditing for thousands of small to mid-sized slaughter-houses
has resulted in a sharp reduction in their numbers, leading the way
for the creation of large slaughterhouses supplied by large confined
operations. Mounting scientific evidence shows that the selection and
proliferation of antibiotic resistant E. coli strains and other pathogens
in industrial-size livestock operations are largely responsible for
our country’s food safety crises (Aaerestrup, 1999; DuPont and
Steele, 1987; Mathew, 1998; Shea, 2003). Large meat slaughter and processing
plants are linked to 41% of reported E. coli O157 ground beef outbreaks
between 1982 and 2002. Most ranchers have little choice but to send
their cattle to these large operations since the majority of small units
have shut down. During that same period, lettuce and salad had about
10% of the outbreaks (Benbrook, 2006). It is ironic that a dearth of
food safety audits in animal agriculture has caused the proliferation
of food safety audits in leafy greens agriculture. (excerpted from WFA's
Policy Paper Food
Safety Requires a Healthy Environment)
Re-Thinking Harvest Protocol
for Leafy Greens
Apart from a few select specialty crops
raised in greenhouses, our food is still grown outside in the dirt.
Harvested produce generally requires attention, usually in the form
of washing, in its journey between field and fork. Harvesting bagged
salad greens poses additional complications because of the product's
quick journey from soil to plastic container. Factor in the volume of
product being processed and it is easy to see why ensuring that no foreign
objects or pathogens end up in that sealed plastic bag is no small task.
Innovative changes to the design of harvesting equipment or surveillance
methods while harvesting could minimize impact to wildlife and maximize
benefits to food safety.
Packaging
Is
Bagged Salad a High Risk Product?
According to information provided to the Community Alliance with Family
Farmers by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 80% of E. coli Outbreaks
originating in California have been traced to fresh-cut, processed leafy
greens. View CAFF's summary
of these findings.
Irradiation
The Center for Food Safety
strongly disagrees with the FDA's decision to allow irradiation of leafy
greens. Scientific studies have documented that irradiation can dramatically
lower the nutritional content of foods, particularly vitamin A and folate,
an essential B vitamin. The FDA's proposal concedes that irradiation
will make spinach less nutritious. "Irradiation is not the solution
to food-borne illness," said Bill Freese, Science Policy Analyst
at the Center for Food Safety. "In fact, it serves to distract
attention from the unsanitary conditions of industrial agriculture that
create the problem in the first place...Irradiation kills some bacteria
in our foods, but it is no substitute for measures to clean up the huge
animal operations that pollute our waterways and irrigation water with
the raw manure that often carries pathogenic bacteria," said Freese.
Read their press
release for a thorough discussion of the issue.
