Editorial: What’s on Your Plate?

By Jim Galligan
Editor

When was the last time you had raw milk, the unpasteurized kind straight from the farm?

My better half began drinking raw milk and eating “farm-fresh” eggs recently. She gets them from a co-op that buys them from a farm in Pennsylvania, about two hours away by truck.

Is the food safe? You’ve got me. I presume the eggs and milk were produced and distributed “safely” by federal and state standards. I’m trusting that they have been handled properly, whatever their origin.

It was just coincidence that she began ordering these products about the time several months ago that we decided to look into food distribution for this issue. The changes in our food supply chain — the growth of imported and locally grown food and the rash of high-profile food scares and poisonings — spurred our interest in the distribution side of the food supply chain.

We have seen a significant increase in the amount of food from Mexico, China, Central and South America and other over-seas agricultural areas in which we have little to no control over the processes.

The country imported $14 billion worth of fish and shellfish in 2008, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. We also imported $9.7 billion worth of fruits and juices, $7.8 billion worth of vegetables and $7.4 billion worth of meat and poultry, as well as billions of dollars’ worth of wine, food grains and other food products.

But being a domestic food producer is no guarantee the food is being handled safely.

The peanut butter contamination last year was a domestic problem. In December the U.S. Agriculture Department announced that an Oklahoma meat producer was recalling 248,000 pounds of beef products after reports of illnesses in-volving the E. coli bacteria was reported in six mid-west states.

“Locally-grown” is the other growth area in the nation’s food supply chain. It sounds more wholesome to get produce and foods from nearby farms, and it might be. But you have to trust that the local operation is taking the right steps to grow and process the food safely and distribute it correctly.

Most of the industry executives we interviewed for the features this month were confident that distribution is not the weak link in this country’s food supply chain. The signs seem to support that. The recent food scares and poison-ings generally have been traced to the manufacturing processes. Most food dis-tributors seem to be maintaining their cold chain and traceability responsibilities — knowing where they got their shipment and to whom it was delivered — properly. <

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