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December 7, 2006
View Comments | Post CommentFood and Produce Today: Utterly Hitchcockian
In today’s Salon News, Michael Pollan—a journo who most recently authored The Omnivore’s Dilemma (check out his site to read his many interesting articles)—discusses the profundity of grisly “superbugs” in our food as evidenced by a new contentious Consumer Reports study.
The study reveals that 83 percent of 525 chickens tested possessed either campylobacter or salmonella bacteria or both. Gasp. We’re talking about your common chicken purchase here folks, the kind that you probably undertake while sleepwalking through the frozen meat display at your regular supermarket or natural foods store.
The USDA summarily dismissed the study’s results. I find this predictable reaction supremely interesting in light of the USDA’s attempts to clamp down on time-tested (often lavishly attentive) meat curing techniques while supporting a mechanical monoculture of meats pumped with antibiotics and god-knows-what-else.
Our food production, while becoming increasingly industrialized and efficient, is also spawning new germ fears. As consumers, we need to make more informed choices but there is an even greater need for administrative cohesiveness between the FDA and USDA. Pollan’s right in that you can’t separate the farm from the animals.
I want food with soul. Not antibiotic resistant salmonella.
Posted by Natasha D'Souza at December 7, 2006 9:13 AM | Comments (2) | EatFoo 1.0 Posts
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Hmm this is an interesting news story. I wouldn't say it was about "superbugs," since these bacteria have been around in poultry for a long time. I'd be more likely to characterize the mad cow/deer/sheep diseases as superbugs, but I'll end this digression here.
I do think that the government could step up its testing, but I'm not sure how they can actually slow down the spread of these diseases. A lot of it is just how large the US population is, and how high the demand for meat is. The meat industry commits innumerable injustices to get the protein on the dinner table, and high levels of bacterial contamination are just one problem.
American consumers can be part of the solution by eating less meat and ensuring that it is properly cooked. Then again, the government is highly involved with the meat industry's campaigns to increase meat consumption, so... until the goverment's incentives match the consumers', we're not going to get what we want.
Posted by: jennylain at December 7, 2006 2:23 PM
Chicken is not something that one eats rare.
Posted by: Barzelay at December 8, 2006 4:05 AM
