Last month the nation wide recall of eggs seemed to bring some level of awareness of just how bad our food system has gotten.
Will it change how we buy things? perhaps for some people.
Will it change how we process our food.... unfortunately, I think not. According to the Atlantic article, DeCoster the owner of the chicken farm "has done business in Turner, Maine, his hometown, for over 60 years—and has incurred a decades-long list of violations there. DeCoster's history of legal cases in Maine demonstrates that the more recent labor, environmental, and public health offenses are part of a long pattern that continues today, and in several states."
If you have 60 years worth of violations....how can you possibly still be allowed to process food?
i don't see the violations, fines, or threat thereof as any kind of deterrent. until the fines start costing more than the profits the shortcuts are generating, i don't think we'll see a change of behavior from those shown all too willing to ignore the laws and put their own customers at risk.
ReplyDeletesad that the Obama administration cannot reverse the gutting of the regulatory agencies that W presided over. I had more hope for change, instead of "same old, same old".
ReplyDeleteZim - isn't that the history of the industrial revolution? Until we force change - there is no motivation by those in power to change it. Until Upton Sinclair's book 'The Jungle' in 1906, no one was really willing to deal with the "wage slavery" I'm hoping that "Food, inc", "Fresh" and similar food documentaries will change the food process as well. But, I think that people are a lot more apathetic now than in the past.
ReplyDeleteJoe - Unfortunately the Obama admin appears to be supporting big argi-business. Here is a NPR story of GMO beets