LocalHarvest Newsletter, July 24, 2008
Welcome back to the LocalHarvest newsletter. Last time I wrote about the
choices we have as we face a rapidly changing future. It was a broad
topic. No sooner had we finished reading your comments -- and thanks to
all who wrote in! – when the New York Times published an
editorial
exemplifying the very fear we talked about last month. The Times editorial
used the recent salmonella outbreak to call for a national food tracking
system. Proponents of this system say that having the ability to track our food
"from farm to fork" is the way to keep our food system safe.
A safe food system is a most excellent goal. It is fundamental. But the
logic of traceability is fundamentally flawed. It relies on endless
paperwork and pop inspections and numbered tags and microchips. Out of all
this bureaucracy, "farm to fork" tries to build an edifice of safety, a
Great Wall between us and the bad bacteria.
What we want is a guarantee. We want to trust that we won't get sick from
our food. The thing is, "traceability" can't offer that guarantee. Say my
grocery store watermelon comes with a barcode sticker on it. I peel the
sticker off and throw it away. The garbage goes out. Two days later I get
sick. Now what?
A traceability system would not change the things that need changing. Its
purpose and methods concern themselves only with what went where when. It
is about command and control, not quality. What we need to focus on is
stewardship -- of land, crops, and livestock. Traceability is blind to
issues of scale and the logic of the small scale farm. If something goes
terribly wrong on a small farm, at worse a few hundred people are affected.
No national, multi-million dollar sleuthing involved. If something goes
terribly wrong in an industrial size farm, whose products were mixed in,
processed and distributed with the goods from a dozen other mammoth farms,
the numbers affected can reach the thousands, and as we are seeing now, the
sorting out takes months.
One final thought: a farm to fork bureaucracy would place a
disproportionate burden on small scale farmers, who often have no
employees to pass the paperwork on to, and who would really like to spend
their time growing healthy food, thank you. Should the government decide to
implement such a scheme, we would hope that small scale farmers would be
exempted. Requiring them to shoulder the same paperwork as the true
offenders only makes family farming harder. What we ought to be doing
instead is creating programs that encourage people to go into farming, so
we can have as decentralized a food system as possible. That -- and
developing relationships with the farmers who grow your food -- is where
true food security lies.
With that, I'll invite you to browse the rest of this month’s newsletter,
where green beans take the starring role. As always, take good care and eat
well!
Erin
Erin Barnett
Director, LocalHarvest
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A bumper crop of chanterelle mushrooms is
now sprouting in the Southern Indiana forest, and Cathy Crosson, from Red Rosa Farm, is
busy collecting them for you. The Audubon Guide to Wild Mushrooms calls them "the most
prized wild mushroom in the world."
The lavender harvest is in full swing, so it is the perfect time to order this
year’s crop. As an herb, lavender is known for its calming, relaxing, and
antiseptic properties. We love having it around the house just for its heady
fragrance. Get yours today.
Speaking of herbs, LocalHarvest also offers a dazzling array of herbal
products, everything from tinctures and teas to salves and supplements. We are
fortunate to work with several great herbalists who grow and wildcraft their
own herbs, and then make their own formulas. If you haven't browsed through our
herbal department,
you should take a few minutes and see what's there.
'Tis the camping season, and we have discovered a great trail food, dried blueberries.
If you like blueberries, you will want to try these
on your next campout!
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