FOOD OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE
Fears about home canning already are great and now with a letter to the Editor on another two infectious agents these fears will be further fanned.
More people will depend on canned goods shipped from low wage factories far away. More anxiety will be unnecessarily created.
Our infection health will be no better.
Our mental health could be worse.
Many high sounding words, " research" and "scientific", and many numbers were used. This letter was full of factual errors, half-truths and equivocations. Please read on.
BOTULISM
Botulism as a disease is most often NOT a food borne illness. Yes, food borne botulism is a serious disease when it happens, but in 31 years, first in Infectious Disease Fellowship training at Washington University and then in practice both in St Louis and Bismarck in the specialty of Infectious disease I have not seen a single food borne case. Deaths, nationally due to food borne disease, number 1- 2 a year and total cases of food borne Botulism have been a median of 24 a year in ALL of USA. 42% of food borne Botulism cases from 1976 to 1984 were restaurant acquired according to the Center for Disease Control website I reviewed for this article.
LISTERIOSIS
As far as Listeriosis the mini treatise was WRONG. Home canning as a cause of listeriosis must be quite rare. I found no mention on it at a CDC website Nor at the Agricultural Research Service, the FDA websites nor in a 15 min Google search. This bacteria is killed at 75 degrees Celsius, well below the boiling point of water, so home canning is not an issue. Listeria multiplies after refrigeration. Cold cuts of meat are a big issue with Listeria. See article from Time magazine excerpted below.
This is what the FDA says( http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~mow/chap6.html) -L. monocytogenes has been associated with such foods as raw milk, supposedly pasteurized fluid milk, cheeses (particularly soft-ripened varieties), ice cream, raw vegetables, fermented raw-meat sausages, raw and cooked poultry, raw meats (all types), and raw and smoked fish. Its ability to grow at temperatures as low as 3°C permits multiplication in refrigerated foods.
FOOD POISONING
Cases of food poisoning have increased in the USA since the 70’s.The numbers of outbreaks though has NOT changed in the private home but has increased 500% in the restaurant setting between 1973 and 1999. ((http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03530.pdf, Fig 4 page 55.)
Why?
From careful reading and experience it is clear it is first because of concentration in ownership of sale and manufacture of food and because of concentration in agriculture processes such as meat and dairy production and the increasing importation of fruits and vegetables from countries with poor hygiene. Inspection by our Government is curtailed due to corporate pressure and political influence buying. See March 3, 2003 Time Magazine Vol. 161 No.9 -- CAN COLD CUTS KILL? THE USDA MAY BE DRAGGING ITS FEET ON INSPECTIONS AND FAVORING THE INDUSTRY Michael Weisskopt
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101030303-426039,00.html
Also numbers of inspectors is reduced as increasing budget deficits from tax cuts strain local budgets, weakening our government’s watchdog role. Concentration has also resulted in a poorer labor force at mega poultry and meat-processing plants, often locked in to get the most out of them. Conditions are deplorable. The answer to this contamination has been more antibiotics for the animals and lately X Ray nuclear irradiation of meats as well as certain imported food and fruits. We suffer not only more food poisoning but in more resistant bacteria around and on us.
A second reason is increased and indiscriminate use, primarily in the last two decades, of medicines that shut off the stomach acid making the stomach much more hospitable to bacteria. As this acid is shut off our God given food sterilizer, our stomachs, no longer do that work. No wonder contamination of food with smaller numbers of food poisoning bacteria causes disease.
A third reason, especially for the dramatic 500% increase in outbreaks at restaurants, is the poorly paid workforce with rapid turnover at franchise restaurants. This results in low morale and inadequate training. In Bismarck I have noticed that many fast food places have a permanent help wanted sign outside. There has always been one at McDonald's on Tyler Parkway near my home with cool messages to attract the minimum wage, no living wage, child laborers our state and nation's laws permit.
The fourth reason is clearly non intuitive. Use of plastic gloves has been pushed at street fairs, restaurants and cafeterias in schools and hospitals, while logical, is a mistake. Our God given hands have oils on them with natural antibacterial activity. Gloves, machine made, have no such activity. Actually the opposite occurs as the increased moisture and warmth under the gloves provide a perfect incubator allowing bacteria to multiply and thrive. People wearing gloves also actually contaminate them more over time - they itch with their gloved hands and scratch without a thought the same places that contaminate our ungloved hands. Don't believe me. Next time stand afar and see for yourself.. Unfortunately a false sense of security exists in the glove wearer. Hand washing becomes a low priority.
The Solution
Solutions to some of societies' problems might in general lie in having a two tier system of regulation in certain biological systems. One for the individual, small scale producer be it agriculture, food, animal breeding and one for the corporate. mega producer of the same. In biological systems, where small mistakes tend to be magnified, large scale production should be actively discouraged.
Small producers sell locally and are vulnerable to damage to their reputations. Their customers know them and often their family. Small producers are thus directly accountable to the people. Government is not needed nor is the courts as the small have a healthy regard for the power of both. Large corporations with their public relation machines and lawyers know they can wriggle out of damage from bad practices or tie up any punitive fines in court. They are increasingly unaccountable to the people, to their government, to their courts. More regulations have been proposed. Regulations have not been the answer. Regulations only work under a system of strong inspections and fines. All that regulations have achieved is to drive the small producer out. The mega corporations thrive. Big gets bigger. With impunity.
Some years ago a corporate food supplier was finally proved as the cause of more than a few hundred thousand cases of salmonella food poisoning. Their ice cream was contaminated. Many died nationally. A small producer would have closed up from loss of business. Or shame.
This corporation, like others with similar stories, is thriving. Corporations not being a person cannot have shame. Big gets bigger. Shamelessly.
Big corporations also shift costs - in manufactured food - at the expense of your health.
Transfats are a story for another day. Big gets bigger because we do not know.
In our rural state we could avoid contaminated meat from mega plants by connecting with local meat and dairy producers and local butchers in the rural areas. Some of this especially dairy is not legal at this time but if enough of us spoke up the law of our state would be changed. Why if they can sell cigarettes and tobacco with a little notation it could kill you can people not sell milk in our state with a much larger notation” Boil before use or you will get food poisoning." Rural prosperity could ensue.
Why not free the small meat producers( maybe 10- 20 cows slaughtered a month and equivalent poultry/pork/lamb/ostrich) and decentralize and truly deregulate meat production for the small seller/producer. This could knock out the strongest cause of food poisoning - centralized production.
Nobel Prize winning author E.F. Schumacher has written a beautiful book “Small is Beautiful, Economics as if People Mattered"
In the case of food, small indeed is beautiful.
Small has less pesticides,
Small has less antibiotics,
Small has less hormones,
Small is actually cheaper
Small uses less energy..
It is local. It is safer.
More people have meaningful work.
Please eat food we know, from people we know.
Because we matter. Our children matter. Our families matter. Our health matters.
Because we are what we eat. And drink.
People matter.
Corporations are not people.
Fears about home canning already are great and now with a letter to the Editor on another two infectious agents these fears will be further fanned.
More people will depend on canned goods shipped from low wage factories far away. More anxiety will be unnecessarily created.
Our infection health will be no better.
Our mental health could be worse.
Many high sounding words, " research" and "scientific", and many numbers were used. This letter was full of factual errors, half-truths and equivocations. Please read on.
BOTULISM
Botulism as a disease is most often NOT a food borne illness. Yes, food borne botulism is a serious disease when it happens, but in 31 years, first in Infectious Disease Fellowship training at Washington University and then in practice both in St Louis and Bismarck in the specialty of Infectious disease I have not seen a single food borne case. Deaths, nationally due to food borne disease, number 1- 2 a year and total cases of food borne Botulism have been a median of 24 a year in ALL of USA. 42% of food borne Botulism cases from 1976 to 1984 were restaurant acquired according to the Center for Disease Control website I reviewed for this article.
LISTERIOSIS
As far as Listeriosis the mini treatise was WRONG. Home canning as a cause of listeriosis must be quite rare. I found no mention on it at a CDC website Nor at the Agricultural Research Service, the FDA websites nor in a 15 min Google search. This bacteria is killed at 75 degrees Celsius, well below the boiling point of water, so home canning is not an issue. Listeria multiplies after refrigeration. Cold cuts of meat are a big issue with Listeria. See article from Time magazine excerpted below.
This is what the FDA says( http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~mow/chap6.html) -L. monocytogenes has been associated with such foods as raw milk, supposedly pasteurized fluid milk, cheeses (particularly soft-ripened varieties), ice cream, raw vegetables, fermented raw-meat sausages, raw and cooked poultry, raw meats (all types), and raw and smoked fish. Its ability to grow at temperatures as low as 3°C permits multiplication in refrigerated foods.
FOOD POISONING
Cases of food poisoning have increased in the USA since the 70’s.The numbers of outbreaks though has NOT changed in the private home but has increased 500% in the restaurant setting between 1973 and 1999. ((http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03530.pdf, Fig 4 page 55.)
Why?
From careful reading and experience it is clear it is first because of concentration in ownership of sale and manufacture of food and because of concentration in agriculture processes such as meat and dairy production and the increasing importation of fruits and vegetables from countries with poor hygiene. Inspection by our Government is curtailed due to corporate pressure and political influence buying. See March 3, 2003 Time Magazine Vol. 161 No.9 -- CAN COLD CUTS KILL? THE USDA MAY BE DRAGGING ITS FEET ON INSPECTIONS AND FAVORING THE INDUSTRY Michael Weisskopt
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101030303-426039,00.html
Also numbers of inspectors is reduced as increasing budget deficits from tax cuts strain local budgets, weakening our government’s watchdog role. Concentration has also resulted in a poorer labor force at mega poultry and meat-processing plants, often locked in to get the most out of them. Conditions are deplorable. The answer to this contamination has been more antibiotics for the animals and lately X Ray nuclear irradiation of meats as well as certain imported food and fruits. We suffer not only more food poisoning but in more resistant bacteria around and on us.
A second reason is increased and indiscriminate use, primarily in the last two decades, of medicines that shut off the stomach acid making the stomach much more hospitable to bacteria. As this acid is shut off our God given food sterilizer, our stomachs, no longer do that work. No wonder contamination of food with smaller numbers of food poisoning bacteria causes disease.
A third reason, especially for the dramatic 500% increase in outbreaks at restaurants, is the poorly paid workforce with rapid turnover at franchise restaurants. This results in low morale and inadequate training. In Bismarck I have noticed that many fast food places have a permanent help wanted sign outside. There has always been one at McDonald's on Tyler Parkway near my home with cool messages to attract the minimum wage, no living wage, child laborers our state and nation's laws permit.
The fourth reason is clearly non intuitive. Use of plastic gloves has been pushed at street fairs, restaurants and cafeterias in schools and hospitals, while logical, is a mistake. Our God given hands have oils on them with natural antibacterial activity. Gloves, machine made, have no such activity. Actually the opposite occurs as the increased moisture and warmth under the gloves provide a perfect incubator allowing bacteria to multiply and thrive. People wearing gloves also actually contaminate them more over time - they itch with their gloved hands and scratch without a thought the same places that contaminate our ungloved hands. Don't believe me. Next time stand afar and see for yourself.. Unfortunately a false sense of security exists in the glove wearer. Hand washing becomes a low priority.
The Solution
Solutions to some of societies' problems might in general lie in having a two tier system of regulation in certain biological systems. One for the individual, small scale producer be it agriculture, food, animal breeding and one for the corporate. mega producer of the same. In biological systems, where small mistakes tend to be magnified, large scale production should be actively discouraged.
Small producers sell locally and are vulnerable to damage to their reputations. Their customers know them and often their family. Small producers are thus directly accountable to the people. Government is not needed nor is the courts as the small have a healthy regard for the power of both. Large corporations with their public relation machines and lawyers know they can wriggle out of damage from bad practices or tie up any punitive fines in court. They are increasingly unaccountable to the people, to their government, to their courts. More regulations have been proposed. Regulations have not been the answer. Regulations only work under a system of strong inspections and fines. All that regulations have achieved is to drive the small producer out. The mega corporations thrive. Big gets bigger. With impunity.
Some years ago a corporate food supplier was finally proved as the cause of more than a few hundred thousand cases of salmonella food poisoning. Their ice cream was contaminated. Many died nationally. A small producer would have closed up from loss of business. Or shame.
This corporation, like others with similar stories, is thriving. Corporations not being a person cannot have shame. Big gets bigger. Shamelessly.
Big corporations also shift costs - in manufactured food - at the expense of your health.
Transfats are a story for another day. Big gets bigger because we do not know.
In our rural state we could avoid contaminated meat from mega plants by connecting with local meat and dairy producers and local butchers in the rural areas. Some of this especially dairy is not legal at this time but if enough of us spoke up the law of our state would be changed. Why if they can sell cigarettes and tobacco with a little notation it could kill you can people not sell milk in our state with a much larger notation” Boil before use or you will get food poisoning." Rural prosperity could ensue.
Why not free the small meat producers( maybe 10- 20 cows slaughtered a month and equivalent poultry/pork/lamb/ostrich) and decentralize and truly deregulate meat production for the small seller/producer. This could knock out the strongest cause of food poisoning - centralized production.
Nobel Prize winning author E.F. Schumacher has written a beautiful book “Small is Beautiful, Economics as if People Mattered"
In the case of food, small indeed is beautiful.
Small has less pesticides,
Small has less antibiotics,
Small has less hormones,
Small is actually cheaper
Small uses less energy..
It is local. It is safer.
More people have meaningful work.
Please eat food we know, from people we know.
Because we matter. Our children matter. Our families matter. Our health matters.
Because we are what we eat. And drink.
People matter.
Corporations are not people.
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