A recent article by Ellen Silbergeld, a professor of environmental health sciences at the Johns Hopkins University, says the rickety outbreak-reaction system used after food outbreaks needs to be replaced with a much more rigorous effort to actually create healthy food from healthy animals in ecologically sound production systems.
"The answer is twofold: to change the way our foods are produced and the way we think about food production."
As food safety becomes more of an issue, the obvious work needs to be done by ensuring that food is raised and handled properly, not just putting a band-aid over the problem giving the public a false sense of security thinking that the FDA can guarantee safe food as long as you over cook it. The problem lays in our production methods. The standard industrial production of pork, beef and poultry carry pathogenic bacteria, often resistant to the antibiotics added to feeds. This challenges the safety of our food and our health more every year.
Ultimately, it is up to us, the responsible food buyer, to seek out trustworthy local food sources by getting to know the producers who grow our food. Encouraging proper stewardship with our dollar, and making a conscience choice to not support industrial food factories that merely hide behind an idyllic farm marketing scheme. In the future, as the cost of fuel rises, we may depend more upon a healthy local food economy then we do today. It's time to start supporting the farms and families that will supply our communities with righteous food in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment