Systemic Disfunction — Exploring Barriers to Healthy Food Production and Distribution
Originally published in 2012 in Edible Toronto Magazine http://bit.ly/edibletoronto
Systemic Dysfunction
I am very fortunate. I live on a small farm where we raise organic grass fed beef and a few other pastured animals and organic products — Vibrant Farms — it’s what I eat, sleep and breathe. In some ways it’s the way farming used to be and in some ways it’s a reaction to the ways things are. Let me explain.
For most of us, when we think of food and farming, we see green rolling hills and a farmer in a straw hat, overalls and a pitchfork, alongside his cows and his chickens, working hard to ensure the health of the land and the happiness of the creatures that produce our food. It’s no accident we tend to think this way — we see it all over the grocery store. Every carton of milk, yogurt container and cheese wrapper has an image of a nice farm scene. Michael Pollan describes this beautifully in “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”. He calls it ‘supermarket pastoral’ — the images of farming that consumers are bombarded with, when in fact a lot of what’s available for us to eat comes from places that look very different. There was a time when small farming was all there was. But of course as populations grew, the demand for food increased and small farms were abandoned for larger ones in the name of efficiency. Over the years, farms have gotten bigger and bigger. In some ways you might say they’ve become more efficient, but the ‘efficiency’ has come at a cost. You might say there’s some dysfunction in the system.
I’m hoping to generate some conversation on a few topics to do with big farming that I believe have a negative effect on population health. I don’t believe that these systems are without merit and I know they were created with the best of intentions, but nonetheless, I feel like there are some issues that ought to be discussed. I believe there are issues with the egg grading system, the chicken quota system, the inspected kitchen system and systems to do with access to chickens and cattle raised for their meat.
Eggs! How awesome is a beautiful farm fresh egg? How great is it to have bright yellow yolks, sometimes even a double yolk, an egg where the texture is viscous and thick and the taste… out of this world! In days gone by our grandmas and grandpas collected eggs every morning or had them in the frying pan not long after someone else did. Today most of us scavenge the supermarket instead of a nice straw nest.
In order for the modern egg to be legal for sale in the supermarket, it is required to undergo a pass through a grading system. This checks for minor deficiencies or impurities in the egg. This cost of eggs going through the grading system is a huge portion of their price at the supermarket. Unfortunately, it’s very difficult for a small farm to get their eggs graded and produce the quality of egg that they strive to do. As a result, the supermarket is dominated by eggs that come from hens that consume feed with suspect ingredients (antibiotics, to name just one) and spend their whole lives in cramped, squalid conditions. You can’t fault the spirit with which the grading system was introduced, but when its ends are what they are, you have to wonder why things are allowed to continue as they do.
Secondly, still on eggs — small farms are only permitted to raise 100 laying hens without buying quota. The quota is priced high enough that it’s affordable if you’re producing a significant amount, but producing a high volume of eggs usually takes you down the road of cramped quarters, sick animals, antibiotics and the cheapest feed you can find. Buying quota is unaffordable if you’re the type that values pasturing animals and drug-free farming. Keeping predators away from a significant number of birds in pasture is virtually impossible. Keeping animals alive and well when they’re crammed together is impossible without adding antibiotics to their feed. So what does this system cost us? We now rely almost exclusively on large farms that can buy quota and produce ‘efficiently’ in large barns, often moving thousands of eggs per day. These large farms are feeding for mass production rather than health. They favour quantity over quality, to the detriment of the health of the population consuming them and certainly to the quality of life of the animals involved.
Inspected kitchens really get me going. I am certainly in favour of food safety, but in the name of food safety, this system squashes food diversity. Who doesn’t love a good homemade jam from grandma? It’s the best; it’s raved about to friends and family and everyone’s grandma makes the best homemade jam. It’s the diversity, the slight differences, the secret family recipes, the berries picked at the perfect time and the process that make it all so perfect. Granny couldn’t sell her jam at a retail store though because she did not prepare it in a certified kitchen. Every processed product sold needs to be prepared in an inspected, certified facility. This is a good thing — it is a measure to keep our food safe, but maybe we ought to have the choice to eat food produced outside the system? The ownership of our health and the duty of keeping us safe is for the most part out of our hands. Is that what we want? It seems to limit the diversity of food available to us.
Finally, there are a few systems that inhibit the access to nutrient-dense, high quality chicken and beef.
There is a quota system for chickens raised for meat, very similar to the egg quota. Farmers are permitted to raise only 300 chickens without quota. And again, very similarly to egg quota, staying profitable when buying quota means significantly increasing the volume produced. At higher volumes, it’s so hard to stay true to the things that yield the best quality meat — summer raised and pastured birds, no GMO feeds, no corn and no drugs. Because small farmers are limited by how much they can sell, there will only ever be a small quantity of quality chicken on the market. A system that pushes our production this way has issues, no matter how well intentioned it might be.
When it comes to beef… my there’s lots to say. Red meat has developed a bad reputation, for the most part deservedly so. The big beef industry has found ways to deliver what consumers want — red meat fresh and highly marbled all the time. Industrial beef production will sicken anyone who takes a close look. A few very large companies mass produce meat. They build huge slaughterhouses, pen cattle by the thousand outside and allow them to stand in their own waste all day while they feed them a diet of GMO corn, antibiotics and a mixture of other ingredients that can include pieces of other animals. The result? Cheap steaks that are readily available. The method? Dubious at best.
These operations have to be intensely monitored for health and safety due to the volume of animals and the methods used. (Cows evolved to eat grasses, not corn. Corn makes them sick). Now the regulations for these huge operations are being forced on the small abattoirs that process grass fed, organic, no GMO, antibiotic-free beef. The differences in method between these large and small operations are night and day, but regulators feel the rules ought to be the same. The notion is not without some merit (there are procedures that need to be followed in either case), but forcing smaller facilities to fit under a blanket policy makes responsibly raised beef more expensive. Furthermore, these smaller facilities may not have the resources to keep up with the some of the regulations that are essential for large feeding operations. So we have to ask, where is the system pushing the industry? What is the effect on the health of the consumer? Is there dysfunction here?
We want to be safe. We want to have safe food. The systems described, to one degree or another, are in place for this reason, but they need to balance short-term food safety with long-term health. A policy that prevents E. coli contamination (yep, that was directed at you XL Foods) but promotes food contributing to chronic illnesses is broken. A policy that prevents minor blemishes in eggs, but promotes a system of production that severely diminishes their nutritional value is broken. A system that promotes the ill treatment of animals is broken. It’s time to see the dysfunction and start asking some questions.
Melissa Baer- Founder Vibrant Farms
