Industry versus ecology

Today's New York Times has an alarming article about possible outcomes from the recent e.coli contamination of bagged spinach. Or perhaps I should say one alarming possible outcome with far reaching implications, and that is increased federal regulation of agriculture. I might, before reading this article, have seen this as desirable; after all we want to know that our food is handled properly and that we are as protected as possible from toxins in our food. But in fact such federal action could result in further hampering the ability of small farms selling locally to make a go of it.

The main point of this piece is that when agriculture became industrialized and industrial solutions to problems began to be implemented the long term effect was to create more problems that then require greater industrial intervention, until we end up with a system far removed from natural ecology. Feedlots for cattle were cited as an example of this, and in fact, some have speculated that the most virulent strain of e. coli we are dealing with now originated in feedlots where cattle are fed an unnatural diet supplemented by large doses of pharmaceuticals. When I lived in Florida I lived near such a feedlot and it was indeed a nasty place. It's not hard to see that the likelihood of contamination is greater in such a place than when animals are in a more natural environment. The increased regulation of meat packing plants that came about from the incidents of e. coli in ground beef a few years back has put many smaller meat packers out of business, meat packers who likely would have handled the locally grown grass fed cattle.

All of this demonstrates that bigger is not better, than an industrialized society while perhaps more efficient takes us farther and farther from what is natural, and that is a loss that seems hard to recoup. Sometime in the last year I vowed to try to eat more locally and more seasonally, but I haven't done very well. Part of it is my dislike of shopping and cooking--I end up with whatever is easiest. And that is the other component: where I live the supply of locally grown food is very very small (unless you count cranberries). There are a few farmer's markets open in the summer but their limited hours meant that I was never able to get to one. And our chain grocers do not carry local produce.

But I need to do better, even if it means that I drive an hour to get to the nearest Whole Foods. I know that they are not without problems, and perhaps I'm fooling myself to think that they are any better...but I don't know a better solution at this point.