500,000,000 eggs are being recalled due to salmonella from a company that has had numerous fines and warnings, but still continues to operate. It seems that every month there is a new food recall. Whether it is hamburger, peanut butter, or a frozen food product that contains E coli. Today it is deli meat. Our food system is letting us down. There are 300 million americans and 75 million of us will end up in the hospital with a food born illness. Even if you generously attribute half of those to funky aunt Judy’s Potato salad that would still mean that 20% of Americans will become ill from processed food. In 2006 there were over 350 food recalls, in 2009 there were over 700. That is an average of 2 a day. The FDA says they are considering pressing criminal charges against habitual offenders.
We talk a great deal about the cost of health care in America and the rising cost of food, but you have to ask yourself whether paying 15 cents for a conventional egg compared to 40 cents for a organic egg is really worth the savings. Let’s keep working to continue challenging our industrial, factory farm food system by supporting and seeking out healthy family farms and healthy foods.
