I would also like to point out that this transition to more sustainable, safe food, while it is happening, it's very, very slow. Organic agriculture only accounts for 1.5% of the market, and these products are not available to everyone. A huge reason for this is that the farmers doing this kind of production are small scale- in terms of the food market this means that they are just unable to compete in order to get their products on the shelves, they cannot afford the hundreds of thousands of dollars involved with setting up a contract with food retailers.
so they are selling in, farmers markets and food co-ops. But again, these options aren't available to everyone, especially in inner cities, especally in regions that are econimically depressed.
It would be great to have leaders that really cared about our food, but once again, it comes down to money...
Example- i'd rather pick on the beef industry than GMO's: it's not in the government's best interests to find fault with the beef industry. Between the early 90's and 2003, the meat industry donated around $28 million dollars to congressional and presidential candidates, and during the 2002 election cycle, the National Cattleman's Beef Association donated a cool half million to congressional candidates, most of them republican (surprised? I thought not). So beef producers are basically buying protection.
The top four beef producing states account for about 70% of the cattle slaughtered each year in the US. You'd think that is where the bulk of BSE testing would be done. Not so.There's about 700 slaughter houses in the country, in 2003 tests were conducted at only about 100 of them. The states that produced the most beef were tested the least, accounting for only about 11% of the testing, and not only that, small plants seem to have been tested most frequently. Makes sense, right? If the govenment finds problems, it's better for them to have problems in small scale operations, that way they can say that the problem is isolated and implications are minor. And at the end of the day, those big time producers can still be sliding the bucks into the government's fat wallet.
It goes further.
Industrialization of the meat supply has seemingly opened up the door for food-borne illness to become an epidemic. Pathogens and virulent bacterial strains like Salmonella, E. Coli, and Campylobacter are big problems, with nearly 75 million americans becoming sick from the food they eat each year, hundreds of thousands requiring medical attention, and thousands dying.
Take E. Coli for example. It was pretty much unheard-of before the early 80's. Now it's one of six major bacterial pathogens that causes millions of cases of sickness each year.
In mild cases, E. coli infection can cause diarrhea and minor cramps and usually resolves itself in 5-10 days. Often, it causes severe bloody diarrhea and abdominal cramps. In severe cases, the infection can cause hemolytic uremic syndrome, in which the red blood cells are destroyed and the kidneys fail. About 2%-7% of infections lead to this complication. In the States, hemolytic uremic syndrome is the principal cause of acute kidney failure in children, and most cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome are caused by E. coli. Totally reassuring stats, right??
In July 2002, ConAgra had to recall 19 millions pounds of beef that was tainted by E. Coli. That's enough beef to feed more than a quarter of the US population a tainted burger! USDA inspectors didn't bother to tell ConAgra about the bacterial contamination for two weeks, so during this time the meat was sold at restaurants and supermarkets and was eaten... yummy, let's all go to Jack in the Box right now!!
"If 19 million pounds of meat meat distributed to half of (America) had been contaminated with a deadly strain of E.Coli bacteria by terrorists, we'd go nuts. But when it's done by a Fortune500 corporation, we continue to buy it and feed it to our kids."
Scary!