Flip of the Coyne

Published Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Vol. 61 Issue 5 Page A4

60,000 turkeys from one farm will be killed and disposed of by the time you read this and that number may rise before publication date.  Why are 60,000 turkeys being killed?  There has been another outbreak of Avian Flu (bird flu) at an Abbotsford farm and there are at least 23 other neighbouring farms under quarantine.

It is time that we as a society begin to re-examine our farming practices.  Factory farming has allowed us to mass produce our food, but at the same time, when you have outbreaks of disease you are also losing massive quantities of your food line and the possible spread and mutation of the disease can cause devastating results.  The 2004 outbreak of avian flu saw the destruction of 17 million birds.  17 million!  Of course, not all the birds culled were infected, but officials could not take the chance since bird flu can jump straight from birds to humans with devastating effects.

It seems that these types of outbreaks are becoming more and more common, be it avian flu or another salmonella contamination.  It has become clear that factory farming is failing us.  I will agree that a small local producer will have higher overhead, might not produce as much per acre, but I will argue that local production can meet local demand and can do it in a more ecologically sensitive manner.  This means that in the end the local farmers can feed their community in a way that is sustainable and at the end of the day will help create a stronger and healthier community.

The mass production of food is starting to endanger our food delivery system.  Just think back to last summer when the salmonella outbreak was thought to be from tomatoes.  The tomato supply was completely shut off and the industry was devastated as a result.  In the end it turned out to be something other than tomatoes.  There was also the California spinach incident.  This week it is peanut paste and peanut butter products.  In the end it doesn’t really matter what is infected.  It is that fact that it is happening more and more often and people are dying as a result that is unacceptable.

Our food is no longer local.  It comes from all across the world and we have very little control over quality or growing conditions.  When there is a disruption in the supply line or if there is a health risk our grocery chains’ shelves become bare and we run out of food.  When there are disease outbreaks in livestock we end up losing not only a few head of cattle or a couple flocks of chickens.  We lose a percentage of the entire national production and in many cases it causes shortages and puts the entire food system under stress.  We need to change in order to protect ourselves from disease or other food borne illness but also to protect ourselves from food shortages.  We need to change not only how we produce food but how we think of food.