Jun 1, 2011
Particularly toxic strains of E coli have once again struck the globalized food system. People in Europe are getting sick and dying in record numbers. Lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers are suspected.
Historically, when we lived in a society where farming practice was based in common sense, having E. coli outbreaks associated with vegetables would not have happened. E. coli is associated with feces (animal poop) getting into or onto food. In the case of the current outbreak, even washing the vegetables is not sufficient because E. coli has become part of the structure of the food.
Our food is not safe because it is grown in a globalized, specialized, single crop industrialized agri-business model. That means vegetables are grown as single crops on massive plantations rather than on a traditional family farms practicing mixed farming. Multiple generations of farmers developed expertise in keeping food safe and preventing disease. It was a hands-on, intelligent process based in knowledge of the local conditions.
The current system is dependent on continuous volume from big industrial producers. These large scale operations have meant the demise of the multi-generational farm family with its reasonable sized farm.
The industrial system is driven by high volume and low prices which means that soon the latest crisis must end for profit to be maintained. Watch for announcements that all is well. Already the large industrial growers of cucumbers in Spain and the Netherlands are losing money. That won’t be tolerated for long.
It is a crazy system that is inherently unsustainable. It will be propped up for as long as possible by governments and agri-business but at some point it must and should come tumbling down.
Here are just some reasons why its days are numbered:
- It is based on readily available, cheap fossil fuels – for transport and pesticides.
- It requires large tracts of land – something that puts it in competition with development and other industrial uses.
- It requires profit – something that is often a result of government subsidies and tariffs in the industrialized nations that are increasingly challenged by those in the global south.
There is a huge and growing movement toward local, organic, small scale intensive farming. More and more, people want to know where their food comes from to feel confident that it is safe. People want the food to be local and healthy. They want to be able to shake the hands of the farmers who produced the food.
All over Canada, we see this movement and supply cannot keep up with the local demand. And it will keep getting worse because we keep erecting barriers to farming that seem insurmountable. Even in BC, where the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) was designed to prevent the loss of farmland, it has not actually kept farmland in farming.
On Vancouver Island, since the ALR was created, we have gone from growing over 80% of our food to supplying less than 10%. The average age of farmers is getting higher and it is no longer the norm that sons and daughters will take over the family farm. Extraordinarily high land values price young people who want to be farmers out of farm ownership and they can’t rent land with long-term tenures. Instead of growing food, land is used for hay. Agricultural tax rates are manipulated to the benefit of landowners. Government regulations penalize small growers and favour the large industrial players.
Much of the unrest in the world is a consequence of food scarcity – deliberately created and a logical consequence of our globalized industrialized commodity driven food model. When people get hungry, however, they take to the streets. To date, that has been limited to the poverty infused countries of the developing world.
But it can’t not happen here. We live on borrowed time.
A headline in the Globe and Mail – “Canadian vaccine offers hope for global scourge of E. coli.” We can either try to inoculate cows in a futile attempt to “eliminate the often deadly bacteria from the food system” or we can change the system.
My recommendation is to buy local and get to know the farmers who grow good healthy food in your area. Experiment with growing some of your own food.
But ultimately, we must change the system. That means you need to elect Greens. Only Greens have comprehensive policy and a commitment to change what needs to be changed. When public policy subverts common sense, we need to elect people who will implement government policy that puts us on a path to sustainability.
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