Preferably not poison, thanks. The United States is in the midst of the biggest recall of eggs in its history: the latest count is 550,000 eggs recalled due to contamination with Salmonella. If you needed another reason to stop buying eggs at the supermarket (other than supporting local farmers, eating healthier, and being more eco-friendly), this would be it.
Despite the constantfloodof contaminated food stories in the news, it seems the media is largely sticking to the FDA’s talking points: an isolated incident, measures taken, yadda yadda. At some point we’ll have to come to the conclusion that this is a systemic problem with our methods of industrial food production.
If you were trying to breed new infectious pathogens, you could hardly do better than packing tens of thousands of weakened, nearly genetically identical animals into an enclosed, poorly ventilated space to wade in their own excrement. So it should hardly be surprising that such infections continue to arise.
I can’t shake the impression that if it was something other than food (say, cell phones that had a 1 in 100 chance of electrocuting you), we wouldn’t put up with it. The good news is that most of us have access to meat, dairy, and produce that’s produced by smaller growers in a healthier and safer way, via farmers markets or CSA. For eggs, it’s even easier, as anyone who lives in the country (or a growing number of cities and suburbs) can keep a few chickens in their backyard and have all the eggs they can eat.
How do you like your eggs?
Preferably not poison, thanks. The United States is in the midst of the biggest recall of eggs in its history: the latest count is 550,000 eggs recalled due to contamination with Salmonella. If you needed another reason to stop buying eggs at the supermarket (other than supporting local farmers, eating healthier, and being more eco-friendly), this would be it.
Despite the constant flood of contaminated food stories in the news, it seems the media is largely sticking to the FDA’s talking points: an isolated incident, measures taken, yadda yadda. At some point we’ll have to come to the conclusion that this is a systemic problem with our methods of industrial food production.
If you were trying to breed new infectious pathogens, you could hardly do better than packing tens of thousands of weakened, nearly genetically identical animals into an enclosed, poorly ventilated space to wade in their own excrement. So it should hardly be surprising that such infections continue to arise.
I can’t shake the impression that if it was something other than food (say, cell phones that had a 1 in 100 chance of electrocuting you), we wouldn’t put up with it. The good news is that most of us have access to meat, dairy, and produce that’s produced by smaller growers in a healthier and safer way, via farmers markets or CSA. For eggs, it’s even easier, as anyone who lives in the country (or a growing number of cities and suburbs) can keep a few chickens in their backyard and have all the eggs they can eat.
Image by Flickr user nickwheelerozz. Used under CC by-sa.