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2006 # 19 Ed Perkins

October 7

E. coli outbreak reveals underlying problems with factory farm system.

  Americans are used to having anything we desire always at out fingertips.  So we were shocked to find fresh, bagged spinach disappear from supermarket shelves last month. The E. coli outbreak linked to spinach sickened 187 people in 26 states with one confirmed death.  The contaminated spinach was traced to three counties in California , the state where 74% of the nation’s fresh spinach is grown.  The source of the contamination has not yet been identified.  It may never be.

  This was not the first such food-borne disease out break.  There have been 19 others in the last decade linked to fresh bagged spinach or lettuce and 8 cases were linked to California ’s Salinas Valley .  More than 400 became ill and two deaths were reported.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates there are 76 million cases of food-borne illness in the U.S. a year – 350,000 cases are hospitalized and 5000 die.  Most are caused by meat and poultry, especially ground beef.  But the growth in fresh bagged salads has added another likely source of contamination.

  America ’s highly centralized and industrialized food production and distribution system is a marvel at keeping those supermarket shelves full.  But there are underlying problems.  One contaminated spinach field, one sick cow, can quickly spread food-borne disease all over the country sickening many.  The system is very energy intensive.  It takes on average 10 calories of fossil fuel energy to deliver 1 calorie of food to your table.  The average morsel of food travels 1300 miles.  Four large corporations control over 45% of our food supply.

  The alternative is a return to a more local food production system – numerous small farms selling foods at local farmers’ markets and supplying the area’s supermarkets and restaurants.  Local farms are certainly not immune from food-borne diseases.  But any outbreaks would not go far and be easier to track down and correct.  Locally grown foods are much more energy efficient since it is not far to market.  They are fresher.  It is good for the local economy – your food dollar goes furthest when it stays close to home.  It provides more jobs.

  So as an Athens Country farmer I would like to be able to say “come to the Farmers’ Market to get your spinach.”  But if many did, they would be disappointed.  There is not much there.  Local food production is seasonal – everything is not always available.  Spinach grows well in the spring or winter if the farmer has greenhouses.  But it is more difficult to grow in the summer and fall when our humid weather fosters plant disease.   But most people have the supermarket mentality – you must be able to get anything you want all the time.

  To provide even the in-season produce for the Athens area from all local farms would require hundreds of new small farms.  There certainly is enough unused land available and unemployed and underemployed people.  But how are you going to get them down on the farm - especially when farming is such hard work and the pay low?  And if you could get them on the farm, how are you going to get many more people to the Farmers’ Market?  And you have to get the big retailers like Wal-Mart and Kroger’s to take local produce.

  Shifting to a local food system is possible but would require a sea change in people’s ingrained shopping habits and retailers’ business practices.  In the meantime E. coli outbreaks will continue to remind us of our food system’s vulnerabilities.

Ed Perkins farms in Athens Co and writes on environmental issues.