Once again our food supply is in jeopardy. If you haven’t heard, raw tomatoes are being recalled nationwide after hundreds of people have come down with salmonella. “Officials” have linked it back to tomatoes but they don’t know where and they don’t know how. This does not give me a warm, fuzzy, secure feeling. The FDA says it is safe to eat cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes and tomatoes sold with the vine still attached. I’m no expert, but if the FDA doesn’t know where the outbreaks originated, whether the fields or the processors, then how can they be so sure these tomatoes are safe? Hmmm. Also, do not think that washing the tomatoes will solve the problem. As with the tainted spinach of two years ago, the bacteria may have grown up into the plant and being infecting the tomato from inside out. Yuck.

What I am seeing more and more is that our food chain is not safe. Of course, there was the E. coli outbreak in the spinach. Before that, the hamburgers at Jack In The Box restaurants. What is happening when we can’t trust the food on our grocery store shelves? As industrialized agriculture increases, quality decreases and safety standards (and humane standards) start to slip which allows animals to contaminate our fruits and vegetables.

I’m all about less government regulation. I think that more bureaucrats lead to higher cost, less efficiency and lower standards. But, there does come a point when consumers are going to have to take charge, stand up and say “We will not buy this substandard food!” I am reading all about sustainable agriculture right now and I like what I read! We have to take our food back. We have to know where our fruits and vegetables are grown and who grows them. We need to see the animals we are going to eat and know that they are healthy and well cared for without being pumped full of hormones and antibiotics to increase profit margins. These things are important… and getting more important every day.

In the meantime, Florida tomato farmers (among others) are being devastated by the salmonella outbreak and I can’t have a tomato sandwich.

At least not until these get a little more ripe!

Growing my own food is becoming the better option every day!

For a huge amount of agrarian and sustainable agriculture resources, please visit Cumberland Books. It’s one of my favorite sites! Here are some other related sites: