Robert Paterson's Weblog

Food Safety - Getting less safe all the time

Last week's recall of 21.7 million pounds of frozen hamburger because of potential E. coli contamination is bound to fuel concern that E. coli outbreaks may be on the rise in the USA's meat industry for the first time this decade.

The ground beef recall by Topps Meat is second in size only to Hudson Foods' 1997 recall of 25 million pounds of ground beef. And it comes just three months after a recall of 5.7 million pounds of ground beef tied to E. coli. The Topps recall has been linked to 27 reported illnesses, three confirmed, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says. (USA Today)

What's the problem?

The problem is the system. Concentration of animals, concentration of industrial plants, factory death = disease. It has to because such a process violates how nature defines health.

So what can we do on PEI?

Our beef plant is struggling - it's too small. But this may be a virtue if we brand how such a plant can offer a healthier safer product.

What is we had a grass fed line? What about an organic line?

I find it so sad that we cannot see the opportunity to make PEI a safe, trusted and reliable supplier of food

Regulation may be part of the probem - Food Safety

There is a huge fuss in England right now. Finally the regulator has announced, after yet another trial, that some popular additives in soft drinks and food, are a significant cause of hyperactivity in children. The Prime Minister is outraged - the supermarkets will take steps etc.

Research for the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and published in The Lancet has established the “deleterious effects” of taking a mixture of artifical extras that are added to drinks, sweets and processed foods. It has led the FSA to issue the advice to parents who believe their children to be hyperactive that they should cut out foods containing the E numbers analysed in the study.

But the FSA has been accused of missing an opportunity to protect children and all consumers by failing to impose a deadline on manufacturers to remove additives such as Sunshine Yellow and Tartrazine from their products.

But this is not news. Many have known about these effects for 30 years. Why the delay?  Regulators are only human and they operate in a system. They people they meet the most are the "Industry". It's like the Stockholm syndrome:

Stockholm syndrome is a psychological response sometimes seen in an abducted hostage, in which the hostage shows signs of loyalty to the hostage-taker, regardless of the danger (or at least risk) in which the hostage has been placed.

So if you are a food regulator - you mainly hear the ideas of the food industry. They become your colleagues and even friends. In effect the industry regulates itself - BUT WE THINK that regulation is independent and looks after our interests. The bottom line is that we have placed our trust in a system that is run by the industry and for the industry's interests.

That is why for instance, in the meat & poultry industries, the focus is on refrigeration, expensive plant issues and high cooking temperatures at home. All this puts a burden on the small producer that they cannot meet. It hides the key health issue which is that it is how the animal lives and is killed that is where the risk really lies.

All hamburger is suspect and it seems that every week there is a new problem. We are told correctly to cook hamburger well. Why? Because the centralized and  industrial process used to kill and to process meat makes contamination inevitable.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fairbank Farms, a U.S. ground beef producer, said on Wednesday it is voluntarily recalling beef patties sold to Shaw's Supermarkets in New England because of concerns about bacterial contamination.

So small butchers and small milk plants have been put out of business. Animals are killed in massive operations. Small and local is impossible. For instance there is pressure at the Farmer's Market here on PEI to put in refrigeration for eggs. If the Market loses, we on PEI will lose our only access to real free range eggs. There will only be supermarket eggs available and all the small producers will have to give up or go blackmarket.

Did you know that a healthy egg can live for weeks. Once it is refrigerated it dies. What is a healthy egg? It is one produced by a healthy chicken and a healthy chicken is one that has a real chicken life. It is the poor battery hens that by virtue of their living conditions routinely have salmonella in the eggs.

The Local Food movement is being stymied by a regulatory system that makes it impossible to run a small processing operation. Our health is at risk because we unknowingly support regulation that supports a food system that cannot be trusted and that creates risk. We are blind to the reality that our regulatory system has been inadvertently high jacked by the industries they purport to regulate.

So what do we do?

Here is where I think the Food Trust has an answer. It is possible to set up a system today where you can find out who grew your food and how. It is time to give up commodity and to seek reality. The technology now allows this to happen at scale.

We have to demand provenance. We have to know who grew what and how and how the food was processed. So how do we do this? We can't just use contract law. All contract law in any system is there to be gamed. Look at poor Mattel who can't even keep their toy suppliers in line.

We can trust in the age old system of honor and reputation - when both mean something. I can trust a farmer whose name I know and whose name is important to him or her. I cannot trust a system that is gamed.

We buy as much of our food directly on PEI. Here are some places where you can do this. So if I shop at the farmer's market, I can look Raymond Loo or the Ling family in the eye and know that they are doing their best.  If you buy a Food Trust product  you can know that Alan and the gang have done their best to connect me to their small group of named farmers. Here is where FT products can be found.

So what about the larger market then? Are they condemned to be at risk? I don't think so. There is a very modern version of the Farmers Market that could be set up. I can see a kind of eBay system emerging where Trust Ratings are not made by some regulator but by consumers on people that have a name.

Oh it can't be done? Really - who might be the least trusted business people out there? I think that second hand car dealers might be in the ranking. Well having to maintain a trust rating on eBay Motors has transformed the business. Here it is worth the suppliers while to be straight. eBay is a scale business.

What about taking this approach?

 

Food safety - Do you trust where your food comes from?

I am listening to the CBC who are running a major piece on food safety. At the heart of their analysis is that the key issue is traceability. The Issue of Traceability is of course Trust.

Nearly weekly we hear of problems - spinach, hamburger, feed, dog food. I don't know about you - but I have lost all trust in the industrial system. They do what they can get away with. Even those who try hard get lost - look at Mattel and Toys - they just don't know what their suppliers are up to and they do care. But they are toys you say - it's the process that is the issue - a globally aggregated process ensures that safety is prejudiced.

When food and ingredients are aggregated in an industrial process - their source gets lost. How do you think that your hamburger is made today? Do you think that one cow was involved or that the cow was killed near you? When you buy a packaged meal, do you know what is really in it? What are Meat By Products? What are all those chemicals? Where did the ingredients come from?

You can't know or in some cases such as hamburger maybe you don't want to know. But should you care? Should you care what you feed your children every day? Should you care what you eat every day? Would you like to know for sure?

This is a factor that the Food Trust has put at the centre of how it brings food to you. Every farmer that participates in the Food Trust is a known individual.

Here is a quick look at Lori Robinson one of my heroines in farming on PEI. Lori is an owner of Eric Robinson along with a number of other family members. Who are the Robinsons?

They are above all a family that has a proud name that they will do anything to protect. They are a 3 generation family that all work with each other. They are a family that has had their personal losses and pulled together as a family can do at its best.

Robinsons are not "recipe" or commodity farmers - they are constantly on the lookout for a better way - finding varieties and methods that reduce the impact on the land and that have better properties for you. Here is a link to their research page.

When they say  "Better" this is what they mean -

Robinson's is continuously experimenting with new and improved farming methods in an effort to bring the best quality product to the consumer. The focus is to reduce the level of inputs, such as fertilizers and pesticides, while maintaining the same standard of quality the customer has come to expect. Ongoing projects include: Integrated Pest Management Technology, World Wildlife Federation Project, Ecological Potato Project, Reduction of Pesticide Use Project and Quality Control and On-farm Food Safety Issues in its Packing Facility.

This is not corporate bull shit. They live in a place, PEI, where you have to live your name. This is what "better" means in practice -

Approximately 500 acres are under strip cropping and diversion terrace management.
Both measures are soil conservation measures to protect the land.

So dear reader - Do you know who grows your food? Would you think that having a real relationship with the people that grow your food is important?

What might happen to you and your region if you did know who grows your food?

Lots of key data in the follow on

Potatoes - What variety is Best for What

Here is a neat guide to matching the potato variety to what you want - a waxy variety for salad or a fluffy one for mash

Food Trust - Potatoes - A New Look at fast Food part 1

When we think of Fries and fast food - we tend to think of this as the ideal.

They sure are convenient and  I have to admit that there are days that I really crave them - I usually then go off in secret, hoping that none off you who read my blog will see me - and have a feast

If you want to have them at home - then any of the major frozen fry companies can offer you a convenient alternative - just put them on a cookie sheet - into the oven and hey presto McFries at home.

But have you ever had real fries? I mean made from fresh potatoes fried in say olive oil? The world's best are found in a French restaurant in London and are fried in Duck's fat. In Glasgow, they are fried in beef dripping.

By the way - the Belgians are indignant that we call fries "French", Frites are the national dish in Belgium. Whenever I am in Brussels, the first thing I do is to rush off to a roadside stand and have a huge order with Mayo. They would rather die that serve or eat a frozen fry there.

Fresh fries are maybe worth getting heart disease from. There is a huge difference. Frozen fries are to real fries as frozen orange juice is to fresh.

But to make fresh at home is a lot of work and most of us do not have the time or the energy. So the potato that most of us have at home is the frozen fry. We might have other types of potato - but time is the issue.

What is the all but instant potato that we can have at home that - everyone will like - is really easy and quick - is healthy - is also delicious - meets our need for comfort?

Many of us like mash. But then mash is also a lot of work. Peeling, chopping, cooking mashing and then th clean up! Processed mash is often disgusting and is often made from flakes. It is like tinned orange juice compared to fresh.

But now, you can get mashed potatoes that taste and feel just like the best your granny ever made at home with all the convenience of a frozen fry - and you don't even have to clean the cookie sheet. This product has no preservatives and only contains potato, butter, milk, salt and cream.

I have personally tested it - it's delicious. They are as good as I make myself. And I even reheated the leftovers the next day and they kept their quality.

So with this product, you can have the comfort of the potato with the quality of home cooked and the assurance of no "secret ingredients". They are not fried.

You also allow the farmer to grow in a less intensive manner than he has to to serve the fry market and so help the environment and because the Food Trust deal direct with the farmers - allow the farmer to make a better living.

Here is some more background on the product.

It's really about the money - Food Trust and Valuable Potatoes

How much do you pay for a coffee? Before Starbucks, as little as you could. After all Coffee was a commodity. The big Coffee guys like Folgers and Maxwell House all worked as hard as they could to offer a less and less quality product at an ever lower price. As a man who had grown up in Europe, I could not find a good cup of coffee in North America,

Now people think nothing of paying $3-6 for a cup. It is hard to get a bad cup of coffee. We are also investigating many new sources, blends and beans. We are beginning to become discriminating about coffee. We are even starting to get interested in who grows it and who they are paid - the rise of Fair Trade.

Well now how do you see the potato?

For most of us, it is like the pre-Starbucks days for coffee. Potatoes are a commodity. We wouldn't know quality even if it was offered to us. We simply load up. Red ones, white ones or bakers. Hey sometimes we pay extra for an Idaho not knowing that all an Idaho is is a common Russet Burbank that are a dime a dozen.

One of the things that the Food Trust is doing is to teach us the difference between quality and not and to help us find the type that will suit the meal that we have planned. For - like coffee or wine - There is a quality gradient and differences in type have huge differences in what lands on our plate.

No hiding in a bag here. The Food Trust standards are so high that we display the spuds loose. We also tell you what the varieties are and what they are best used for. The leaflets at the front of the display will tell you what to look for.

Some of FT's best sellers are very small potatoes. These are called "Creamers". Partly this may be because they simply look nice on a plate. In the commodity world, you tend to get all sorts of sizes all mixed up. FT grade not just by variety but by size.

The demand for small potatoes is growing and this will have a big impact on the land.

In industrial potatoes that are used in the fry plants, quality is partly defined as size. This means that farmers who supply the fry industry have to use late varieties such as the Russet Burbank that have to be harvested in October too late for a cover crop. So the fields are bare over the winter. If there is not enough snow, we have what happened last winter - masses of topsoil blows off the field. The Russet Burbank has to have a large amount of fertilizer to reach the size needed for ideal fry production. Because it is in the field for such a long time it needs a lot of protection. Because it has to be harvested in a  two week window with a hard end of frost, it has driven a huge scale up in equipment - if you don't get them out of the ground in time- you lose the year.

Small potatoes are from varieties that mature early and get harvested early so that we can put a cover crop on in time to protect our soil and our rivers. There is lots of time to harvest them and hence less demand to have big equipment and hence big fields with less hedgerows. Early varieties also need much less fertilizer and fewer insecticides and herbicides - all in all if we could shift our crop from Russets to early varieties we would make a huge impact on our environment.

My hope is that we are on the road to creating an informed customer. With you as such a customer, we can start to make the changes that will help us make a living and to be better stewards of our land.

It's really about the money - Food Trust & Ag on PEI

It's been a tough year for farmers on PEI. Last winter we had very light snow. Many fields were exposed and high winds turned many communities red with the topsoil blowing off the fields. Recent reports tell us that our water supply may be at risk. This summer we have had more fish kills and evidence that some farmers are not meeting the regulations for buffer zones.

Many rush to blame and many cannot understand. Farmers are feeling increasingly isolated.

So what is really going on? Why can't we just regulate and have a better place? Why can't farmers get it?

The answer is partly in this picture

It is doctrine that farmers' economic future depends on the export of commodities. But this disconnect is what is beggaring the farmer and which is causing us to lose trust in our food system. It is this disconnect that is at the heart of the resulting environmental problem.

We as consumers walk through the supermarket and know nothing of who grew the food or how or why. We have relied on regulators to keep us safe - for we know nothing about who grew the food or how it was processed. We think only of the price because after all it's only a commodity.

We are happy to pay more for a better car, better clothing, better housing, a better school, better wine. But Food? We only see it as something that should be cheap.

No wonder the farmers can't make any money. How would we know if farmer Jones was a better farmer than farmer Smith? How would we know quality?

The issue is not about a choice between organic or not - it's is there a trusted relationship between the grower and you. A lot of so called Organic Food, Free Range Chickens etc is highly suspect. Most of the food that reaches the store has no provenance.

What if we knew where it came from and how it was made? If we knew this, then we might start to care. Then we might start to know the difference between crap and quality. If we knew who and what could be trusted - we might even pay for quality. If we did, then farming would improve and so would the ecosystems that are farmed in.

So sitting in judgment is a mug's game. It does not help anyone or our predicament. What if we could create a channel of Trust between the farm and you? What if we could change the relationship betwen you and the farmer so that he could change his relationship to the system?

This is a project on PEI that I have a particular love for. I act today as a free volunteer but I was involved in its genesis. They are called the Food Trust and here is their web page and here is their Blog.

What the FT is working to do is to set up a channel where a known group of farmers - you can see who they are and where they work - produce the ultimate quality of product with the maximum amount of information that can assure you that you can trust the product. Farmers who supply the Food Trust have to meet exceptional quality standards.

We offer mainly potatoes now both in raw and in semi processed form. We have just introduced wild Blueberries.

Over the next few months I will tell you their story. You will meet the farmers involved, we will meet the team who are building the Trust Channel, we will try some of the products and we will talk to the distributors. I hope that our story may help all who seek a better way and I look forward to finding others who are on the same path.

Trusted Space and Food - what a concept!