Michael Pollan Supports Food Safety Bill with Tester Amendment

Tweet

Interview: Michael Pollan on the food safety bill (From Ezra Klein’s Blog)

EXCERPT – Michael Pollan: It’s very interesting that the consumer groups and the people representing smaller producers and farmers have come together. It didn’t look like that was going to happen a few weeks ago. The bill as originally written basically treated all farms and food producers the same. It was one-size-fits-all regulation. This was a problem for smaller farmers and processors because the regulatory burden was going to make life difficult for them. They felt they weren’t the problem, and to suffer as part of the solution to the problem was an undue burden… There are quantum differences when you’re producing for a small firm and a major producer. When you mix spinach or lettuce from 50 different farms and one is contaminated, you’re contaminating all of it. There’s more traceability and accountability when there’s what Tester calls “eyeball-to-eyeball” contact between producers and customers. The industrial systems are brittle systems. They lose a certain resilience. And that leads to risks of another kind.