Fwd: LocalHarvest News - No Farm to Fork Please

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LocalHarvest Newsletter - No "Farm to Fork" Please

 

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, LocalHarvest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the LocalHarvest Store:

 

 

 

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!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nancy's Nutrition Corner - Green Beans

 

 

 

When I was younger, I didn't give much

thought to my dietary choices. These

days, I like to think about what I am

eating--I like to ponder exactly what I

am getting out of the things I put in my

mouth. This doesn't mean I don't

occasionally enjoy a greasy slice of

pizza-but that when I do eat vitamin rich

foods--it actually excites me to imagine all

those vitamins and phyto-nutrients

going to work for me in my body.

 

Read on...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recipe Corner: Green Beans with Smoked Paprika and Almonds - By Lorna Sass

 

 

 

I don't usually think much about green beans

until the gorgeous yellow wax beans

appear in my local farmers market. Although

the yellow and green specimens are

in separate bins, I love buying some of each

and steaming them together for a

simple vegetable side dish or a refreshingly

crunchy summer salad.

 

Recipes and More...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contact Information

 

 

 

email:

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web:

http://www.localharvest.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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