The latest issue on food safety to hit the airwaves, was ironically NOT about food for humans but food for pets. Many of you have been following or at least are aware of the deaths, recalls, lawsuits et al, that have been the inevitable results. Finding the contaminant took weeks, recalls impacted at least two major companies, who sourced their 'wheat gluten' form the same importer/distributor.
The issue of the melamine contaminant is not so important in the short term as the country the product originated from. As consumers of food, this should give us pause. The product could have just as easily been sourced for human consumption. On this occasion at least, family pets have become societies' 'canaries in the mines'.
Proponents of the 'least cost' theory of economics failed to take issues like food safety equivalence into account. This doesn't surprise me at all. Most economists live in a theoretical world, where a number of 'assumptions are just part of the 'equation'. Governments tell us they have examined food safety standards of other countries and found a way to determine comparable standards, in order to let trade proceed and traders to profit. This is supposed to comfort us all because then Canada profits and in the trickle down theory of economics...we all will eventually profit....somehow. "Trust us!", is the implied message.
I imagine this week's feature article in MacLeans will give people food for thought. It might even give those of you in agriculture pause. I knew many manufacturers of no name brand products often were the same ones who supplied the high end stuff in the stores. But I was blown away by the thought that even a companies' whole line wold be outsourced to the big boys as is done by Iaams. Menu Foods was producing their entire line until the recent debacle hit the airwaves.
The MacLeans article goes in depth and into the history of Menu as it pursued the lowest cost supplier of a component of its products. It outlines its products and the companies it supplied. The impact was huge.
This IS just the tip of the iceberg in our modern food distribution system. Like an iceberg 3/4 of it lies hidden and secret, waiting to do irreparable harm. The miserable labels on our products fail us daily as we try to figure out just what IS in our foods.
I am certain the pace of damage, as well as the scale, will simply get larger. No one is suggesting fundamental changes to our food systems and that is exactly what we really need. Consumers may have something to say about that.-CG
The issue of the melamine contaminant is not so important in the short term as the country the product originated from. As consumers of food, this should give us pause. The product could have just as easily been sourced for human consumption. On this occasion at least, family pets have become societies' 'canaries in the mines'.
Proponents of the 'least cost' theory of economics failed to take issues like food safety equivalence into account. This doesn't surprise me at all. Most economists live in a theoretical world, where a number of 'assumptions are just part of the 'equation'. Governments tell us they have examined food safety standards of other countries and found a way to determine comparable standards, in order to let trade proceed and traders to profit. This is supposed to comfort us all because then Canada profits and in the trickle down theory of economics...we all will eventually profit....somehow. "Trust us!", is the implied message.
I imagine this week's feature article in MacLeans will give people food for thought. It might even give those of you in agriculture pause. I knew many manufacturers of no name brand products often were the same ones who supplied the high end stuff in the stores. But I was blown away by the thought that even a companies' whole line wold be outsourced to the big boys as is done by Iaams. Menu Foods was producing their entire line until the recent debacle hit the airwaves.
The MacLeans article goes in depth and into the history of Menu as it pursued the lowest cost supplier of a component of its products. It outlines its products and the companies it supplied. The impact was huge.
This IS just the tip of the iceberg in our modern food distribution system. Like an iceberg 3/4 of it lies hidden and secret, waiting to do irreparable harm. The miserable labels on our products fail us daily as we try to figure out just what IS in our foods.
I am certain the pace of damage, as well as the scale, will simply get larger. No one is suggesting fundamental changes to our food systems and that is exactly what we really need. Consumers may have something to say about that.-CG
1 comment:
Good words.
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