The Problem With Industrial Produce

In “The Illusions of control: industrialized agriculture, nature, and food safety”, Diana Stuart explores some of the health concerns that have arisen in our modern produce industry. Stuart looks specifically at the 2006 outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 in bagged spinach. Most believe that the spinach was contaminated while still in the fields by wild pigs that transported the E. coli from a neighboring beef farm, where the high concentration of cattle produced the disease. As a result, in an effort to keep their farms safe and prevent future contamination, some farmers began clearing out surrounding forests where wild animals might live and shooting any wild animals that came on their farm. This also led farmers and packagers to increase the amount of chemical sprays and washes that the spinach received to prevent disease. Both of these practices cause obvious environmental problems with the destruction of animals and their habits and the pollution of runoff that occurs because of chemicals. The clearing of surrounding habits is particularly concerning because many of the plants that are being cleared are there because the help to filter the fertilizer and pesticide filled runoff that comes from the farm. Stuart also explains that this has this outbreak has contributed to the development of new technologies, such as optical bacteria testing devices, that only give the illusion of safety. Stuart argues that all of these “solutions” are just temporary and ineffective solutions to a larger problem.

The real problem is that the extreme large-scale of the produce growing and packaging industry not only causes contamination problems but also proliferates them. Large-scale industrial production allows us to provide produce at low prices. But are we actually paying more because of the medical costs of the health problems the produce causes? This would be a very interesting question to study.

Should we abandon the idea of large-scale agriculture just because of the health problems? In my opinion, no, because the frequency and severity of food borne illness outbreaks does not seem to be high enough to warrant such a reaction. This does, however, provide us with yet another reason to buy local agricultural products, which tend to be safer smaller-scale operations, whenever possible.