Food Safety Comes Home For Harry Reid

Resource for talking points (4.00 / 2)

The Carolina Farm Stewardship Association has a good set of talking points on the Food Safety Bill. We're concerned here in the Carolinas is that the one-size-fits-all approach of the bill is inappropriate for small, sustainable farms and that the tracking requirements will only be affordable for very large operations.

... Linda
Cook for Good: home of the 97-cent delicious, real-food meal

Cook for Good

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by: CookforGood @ Sun Sep 20, 2009 at 14:45:43 PM UTC

As with all Federal regulations. . . (4.00 / 2)

. . . when lobbyists get their hands into the mix, small business suffers.

Big business generally doesn't want regulation, but when they have to have it, they want it to confer a competitive advantage to themselves.

If legislation is to be fair, it should recognize the outsize impact these huge companies can have. To be crass about it, a small operation that has a safety lapse may sicken a few dozen - when Nestlé does it, hundreds of thousands are at risk. Also, Americans are far too trusting when it comes to processed food - they'll wash something from the farmer's market twice, since it still has soil on it, but they'll eat lettuce straight out of a pre-printed plastic bag, since they assume that it was packed in sterile conditions in a gleaming factory somewhere. . .

::sigh::

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by: robespierrette @ Sun Sep 20, 2009 at 17:19:48 PM UTC

That's an interesting psychological aspect... (0.00 / 0)

Also, Americans are far too trusting when it comes to processed food - they'll wash something from the farmer's market twice, since it still has soil on it, but they'll eat lettuce straight out of a pre-printed plastic bag, since they assume that it was packed in sterile conditions in a gleaming factory somewhere. . .

I'm exactly the opposite, and I'm sure I'm not alone here.  When I buy, say, peaches from the coop or from New Seasons, I'll wash and scrub the things for a minute before I eat them.

But from the farmers' market?  I'm just as likely as not to maybe eat one of the peaches right there after leaving the market while waiting for the bus.  I'll look it over, maybe give it a rub with a finger or something.  But I'll eat it right then and there.  I do that with berries from the farmers' market all summer, and as a matter of fact I just did that with some grapes on the way home today...

"The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks." - Christopher Hitchens

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by: JayinPortland @ Sun Sep 20, 2009 at 19:56:40 PM UTC

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I'm the same way (4.00 / 1)

and I eat directly from the bins at the CSA distribution, lol!~ Just wipe off any mud/dirt on my shirt and munch on {grin}

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by: nycstray @ Sun Sep 20, 2009 at 20:46:09 PM UTC

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I "picked" potatoes (4.00 / 1)

when I was in high school. The farmer tilled the rows, and after school I and my friends went down the rows, hunched over bags trailing between our legs, tossing the taters into the bags.

I ate those potatoes right from the dirt. This practice made me the healthy fellow I am today, I'm sure of it.

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by: count @ Sun Sep 20, 2009 at 21:10:14 PM UTC

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