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FOOD SAFETY | LOCAL VERSUS LARGE-SCALE
Local food proponents exploit XL recall
BY JOSEPH QUESNEL
It’s no surprise that local food
activists are using the recent XL
Foods beef recall to push their
agenda.
After all, the beef recall involving
the plant in Brooks, Alta., affected
more than 2,000 products and is
being called the largest beef recall in
Canadian history.
Seventeen people have so far been
diagnosed with E. coli in connection
to meat from the plant.
Local food activists, or locavores,
believe food should be grown or produced
in their local community or
region. Local food is fresher, better
tasting and more nutritious, they
maintain. They adhere to the “food
miles” notion that shipping food long
distances increases greenhouse gases.
As a result, they avoid it.
Yet there is no convincing evidence
that local food is better tasting or
more nutritious. We buy exported
food because it is a better bang for
our buck. Local food is often more
costly.
In the age of efficient inter-modal
container shipping, growing things
in better conditions elsewhere and
shipping them over long distances
often emits fewer emissions than
growing food domestically.
Experts say much more energy is
used in food production than transportation.
One such expert is geographer
Pierre Desrochers, an associate professor
at the University of Toronto
and author of The Locavore’s Dilemma:
In Praise of the 10,000-Mile Diet.
Locavores insist local food is safer
because it avoids modern, industrial
HURSH ON AG
KEVIN HURSH
Contrary to what the 2011 Census
of Agriculture indicates,
there’s a youth movement in
agriculture.
Farm meetings that used to be
dominated by grey hair or no hair
now have a healthier proportion of
young men and women.
And if you think young people
aren’t passionate about agriculture,
check out Twitter.
Yes, the census data continues to
show a decline in the number of farm
operators younger than 35. But being
involved in the farm and even being
the heir apparent to the operation
doesn’t mean you’ll show up in the
stats as a farm operator.
Local food supporters must not forget that safe handling rules and
processing methods originated from large-scale food production, says a
policy analyst. | FILE PHOTO
food production. What activists miss
is the history of food production and
how large-scale food production has
made our food supply chain much
safer than in the past.
Desrochers points out that advances
in science and medicine have
eradicated food-borne illnesses that
were once widespread.
Proper canning, pasteurization,
refrigeration, water chlorination,
sanitary packing and food irradiation
have made our food system the safest
in human history.
Local food activists romanticize the
pastoral past, but modern scientific
advances eliminated food problems
that were once endemic.
Most food borne illnesses requiring
Plus, many in the older generation
are hanging onto the farm into their
late 60s and 70s. Farming is fun when
you’re making money and the technology
continually improves. Many
older farmers enjoy working with
their family and don’t have anything
else they’d rather do.
The stats may also be skewed by
people retiring from professional
careers or other business ventures to
come back to the farm. Even though
they’re mid-50ish, they are new
farmers.
Until five or six years ago, the farm
didn’t look like a lucrative option
compared to a job in the resource
sector. Now, there’s some serious
money being generated, particularly
on grain operations.
Profitable years were fleeting in the
past, seemingly just a blip. This time,
there’s a feeling, whether right or
wrong, that the paradigm has shifted.
It’s hoped that improved economics
have become the norm.
Young people who were helping
out on the family farm while working
elsewhere are spending more time
hospitalization or leading to fatalities
don’t come from contaminated food
in large food-producing facilities.
In Canada, it is estimated that there
are 6.8 million cases of food-borne
illnesses annually. A recent Conference
Board of Canada study traces
most of those illnesses to the food
service industry, namely restaurants
and households.
Modern agriculture has brought
modern food safety protocols.
Desrochers recalled a visit he made
to a Maple Leaf plant after the listeria
outbreak and discovered how extensive
the food safety protocols were.
Thick safety protocol binders were
regularly used at every step of the
process.
AGE STATISTICS | YOUTH MOVEMENT
Young people are coming back to the farm
on the farm. Many have quit their offfarm
employment or business to
farm full time, and they’re making
their own farming investments.
There’s a noticeable distinction
between farms that have a family
successor and those who don’t.
Interest by the younger generations
gives a farm purpose and motivation.
It also encourages new technology
and innovation. Without a family
heir, farms are much less likely to be
expansion-minded.
It’s also interesting to see how farms
without family succession are targeted
by other operations wanting to
expand. It can be a little like vultures
circling as they wait for the day when
the land will be rented or sold. Old
Pete and Audrey never had so many
“friends.”
The new problem for the younger
generation is how to expand the farm
when land prices and cash rents are
skyrocketing. Everyone’s wish for
profitability in the grain sector has
been granted. The natural consequence
is a lot of people wanting to
farm more ground.
THE WESTERN PRODUCER | WWW.PRODUCER.COM | DECEMBER 13, 2012
Most of these elaborate procedures
are far beyond the means of the average
local farmer producing for the
local farmers market.
There are economies of scale in
food safety, too.
Desrochers said large, centralized
operations allow companies to hire
staff that study and enact food safety
protocols for a living, which would be
impossible for smaller farming
operations. So food safety is more
likely compromised in smaller operations
because they cannot costeffectively
assemble the food safety
equipment and know-how that larger
operations can.
The other advantage to large scale
production is that large food firms
are juicy targets if something goes
wrong. Large firms such as Maple
Leaf and JBS USA want to avoid foodborne
illness outbreaks because they
inevitably lead to litigation and
reduced sales.
Desrochers points out the obvious
example of places such as India and
sub-Saharan Africa where food poisoning
is much more common.
Open-air local markets are everywhere
and eating food, especially
meat, is risky.
Obviously, the XL Foods recall
means we need to be more vigilant.
However, the answer is not to blow an
incident out of proportion or ignore
advances in food safety brought about
by large-scale food production. Let’s
maintain some perspective.
Joseph Quesnel is a policy analyst
with the Frontier Centre for Public
Policy. This column was provided by
Troy Media and has been edited for
length.
The common refrain six years ago
was, “young people are never coming
back to the farm when they can’t
make a decent living.” Now the mantra
is, “how can young people afford
to get a start in farming at these land
prices?”
But many are trying and it’s leading
to difficult family situations. What if
there’s more than one son or daughter
who wants to farm, but the operation
just isn’t large enough to support
that many people?
And how do you treat non-farming
children equitably? If Johnny is getting
the farmland, equipment and
the grain storage, it’s usually difficult
to provide Susie and Jimmy with anything
close to comparable value. This
has always been a problem, but it
becomes more difficult as land values
rise.
While there are new challenges, it’s
great to see the youth movement in
agriculture, even if it isn’t being captured
in the official stats.
Kevin Hursh is an agricultural journalist,
consultant and farmer. He can be reached by
e-mail at kevin@hursh.ca.
DEMOCRACY | FREEDOMS
Canadians
losing faith
in democracy
11
EDITORIAL NOTEBOOK
JOANNE PAULSON, EDITOR
Is government bruising
our faith in democracy?
I
was recently in Toronto to celebrate
the induction of Barry Wilson,
our Ottawa correspondent,
into the Canadian Agricultural Hall
of Fame.
Before the big night, however, I
spent two days in Ottawa and was
delighted to get Wilson’s Tour of Parliament
Hill.
Impressed as I was by all the statues,
it was John Diefenbaker’s I stood
before with awe. I recalled that he
was instrumental in attacking apartheid,
advocating for throwing South
Africa out of the Commonwealth.
I remembered that we owe our Bill
of Rights to his dedication to civil
liberties.
To this day, his words of July 1, 1960,
comprise my favourite quote of all
time, and I still cannot read them
without getting a lump in my throat.
“I am a Canadian, a free Canadian,
free to speak without fear, free to worship
God in my own way, free to
stand for what I think right, free to
oppose what I believe wrong, or free
to choose those who shall govern my
country. This heritage of freedom I
pledge to uphold for myself and all
mankind.”
I was not yet born when he said
those words. I have lived in this country
all my life as a beneficiary of that
heritage. I became a journalist, as
many do, because I believe in these
freedoms, particularly to speak without
fear.
This is the basis of true democracy.
This is why I was saddened to read a
recent Globe and Mail story headlined,
“Canadians quickly losing
faith in their democracy.”
Just 55 percent of Canadians say
they are satisfied with democracy in
this country, down 20 points from
2004, according to research by the
non-profit political participation
group Samara.
Twenty points in eight years is a
lot. That should be a wake-up call to
every politician in this nation. But it’s
also up to us to tell them what we
think, and we have the Supreme
Court of Canada behind us on that.
“Democracy cannot be maintained
without its foundation: free
public opinion and free discussion
throughout the nation of all matters
affecting the state within the limits
set by the criminal code and the
common law.”
Believe it. And remember, you are
free to choose those who shall govern
your country. Diefenbaker said so.