Senator Feinstein (D-California) has proposed S.2819 which proposed to make food “pathogen free” but sounds more like she’s trying to outlaw all food. What exactly does she expect us to eat?
“Food producers must be obligated to produce food that is free of pathogens.” Senator Feinstein said.
So Feinstein is planning to outlaw food. And we shall eat… irradiated cake?
I’m all for safe food, HACCP/PR, SSOPs and all that but it is impossible to have raw foods that are completely free of ‘pathogens’. Processing includes harvesting, washing, cleaning off outer leaves, shucking corn, slaughter, butchering, canning and all sorts of levels of production from the farm onward. Feinstein’s ill thoughtout proposal will ban food as we know it, increase the consumption of highly processed foods (bad for your health), lead to higher food prices for consumers (bad for your wallet) and destroy the small farmers and processors who can’t afford to do all the fancy testing she’s proposing (bad for national food security). In the end the only real winner are testing labs and mega-processors who can afford this and already focus on fake food.
I am reminded of this old poem from my childhood that came from my grandmother’s era when microbes were first becoming widely known:
The Antiseptic Baby and the Prophylactic Pup
Were playing in the garden when the Bunny gamboled up;
They looked upon the Creature with a loathing undisguised;
It wasn’t Disinfected and it wasn’t Sterilized.
They said it was a Microbe and a Hotbed of Disease;
They steamed it in a vapor of a thousand-odd degrees;
They froze it in a freezer that was cold as Banished Hope
And washed it in permanganate with carbolated soap.
In sulphurated hydrogen they steeped its wiggly ears;
They trimmed its frisky whiskers with a pair of hard-boiled shears;
They donned their rubber mittens and they took it by the hand
And elected it a member of the Fumigated Band.
There’s not a Micrococcus in the garden where they play;
They bathe in pure iodoform a dozen times a day;
And each imbibes his rations from a Hygienic Cup—
The Bunny and the Baby and the Prophylactic Pup.
-Arthur Guiterman. 1871
One can only hope that wiser heads prevail and that Feinstein, and her silly bill, are defeated. Otherwise this is the end of small family farms, home kitchens and small processors since all handling of the foods is processing and would be covered by her absurdities. If her bill does go through it will increase the price of food due to all the unnecessary testing and bureaucratic paperwork.
On the upside: This should help somewhat with unemployment at government offices and testing labs until the producers go out of business.
A significant and growing body of scientific research is showing that eating some dirt and exercising your immune system is good for you as well as the fact that country kids are healthier than their urban cousins and the healthiest of all are those on the farm. Yes, E. coli O157:H7 is nasty but lets not throw out the baby with the bath water.