The salmonella outbreak as a teachable moment

This definitely shows the flaws in processed (4.00 / 1)

foods and also the crazy web of the supply chain (like the fact that Kellogg was actually making the Little Debbie products for McKee... how the hell was any consumer supposed to know that???). I don't know what the solution could be. Since this happened in peanut butter itself a few years back, we know that it's not just those things with peanut butter ingredients that are susceptible. I don't eat most of the processed junk, but I sure do eat peanut butter. What's the solution to that? Local peanut butter isn't an option for a lot of people.

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Thu Jan 22, 2009 at 19:03:59 PM UTC

I think... (4.00 / 1)

Meanwhile, a lot of Americans may assume that someone is systematically testing products that haven't been recalled to make sure they are safe.  They may view an incidence of food poisoning (if that's what happened in this case) primarily as an opportunity to score free products from a large corporation.

I think it's a deeply embedded part of our national psyche that food that comes in a package is automatically assumed to be "safe" and "clean".  That's what's gotta change first.

There was a great book from 2007, Ann Vileisis' Kitchen Literacy, that goes deep into the history of the processed food industry and the food safety scares from the late 1800's that largely led to the later widespread embrace of same.  

Of course the logic doesn't follow that food is made any 'safer' the more steps any given product goes through, and the more hands that handle it along the way.  But that seems to be an unshakable belief that hundreds of millions of people who've been raised almost completely on processed foods, and the generation or two before them, hold.

Solution?  I really have no idea...

It would help if we had the media on our side.  However it's clear that their dependence on corporate sponsors, a large percentage of which are these same processed food conglomerates and retailers, pretty much dictates that they act as cheerleaders for the industry.  Like the person you mention above, it's come to be expected that there should be a list of what products are 'safe to eat', so that they can rush out to buy those products.  Of course, that's only until that company makes an 'oops' of their own, and spreads the next massive nationwide outbreak of disease.

One example I know of:  When I worked in environmental remediation in New Jersey, one of the sites we monitored regularly was the former Unilever / Best Foods plant in Bayonne.  We were testing their wastewater discharge, and every so often we had to go inside to take care of some paperwork.  Their QC lab was probably the size of a closet, and there was absolutely no way they were sufficiently testing every food product that left that plant.  And the supermarkets sure ain't systematically testing products that come in for safety.

And then there are also the attack-dog industry-funded hacks like Richard Berman ready to spread massive disinformation campaigns and sue anybody who speaks against the industry at the drop of a hat...

I think a large part of it is also that our culture sees food as just another 'consumer product', like computers or sneakers.  That's aided by the commercials, of course...companies like Pepsi and Burger King consciously try to paint themselves as just as much a fashion accessory and lifestyle statement as anything else.  

I was flipping through the channels last night and stumbled upon a Pepsi commercial on BET that was so ridiculously, obviously a rip-off of the Obama advertisements.  "Yes, we can!" - drink fucking Pepsi?

We're also used to monopolies in America, so it doesn't bother many of us that only a handful of corporations control the vast majority of our food system.

I've gotta admit that I don't know how to work through it, but I think I do have a pretty good idea of what we have to work against.

"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 @ Thu Jan 22, 2009 at 20:03:24 PM UTC

Whoa, check this out! (4.00 / 2)

Just found this article online at USA Today, I'm assuming it will also be, or has already been, in the print edition.

Is this where media and the food companies are going to go with this?

PCA is a small, family-owned and operated business headquartered in Lynchburg, Va. It has fewer than 50 employees in the Blakely, Ga., plant that tested positive for salmonella.

The fact that more than 125 products have been recalled underscores how problems from a relatively small company can have huge ramifications.

Are they going to try portray this as a problem with small family-owned businesses?!

"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 @ Thu Jan 22, 2009 at 20:54:10 PM UTC