I am often amazed when I go on Facebook and see the reactions people have to pictures of animals that were hunted and are in the process of being butchered. The same people who call hunting "barbaric", eat meat. They show up at the grocery store, pick up their allegedly sterile shrink wrapped pack of meat with the gray side placed on the white tray with the absorbing pad, and head to the check out counter. They don't make the association between the meat and a living thing. I don't eat very much meat, having given up beef and pork about 12 years ago, and consuming very little fowl or sea food. But I know where meat comes from, and don't begrudge anyone the right to eat it. Animals eat each other, so why shouldn't we eat other animals?
Our current food distribution system has placed the consumer very far from their food sources, and in the process has removed much of the consumers' ability to make healthy and safe choices. The next time you food shop, try to determine where the food came from, and how it got to you.
If you've ever been to a food process facility, you will be amazed at how sterile it appears on the surface, but how easily one could contaminate large quantities of food - knowingly or unknowingly. Tons of raw products are shipped to the food processor, along with tankers full of preservatives and chemicals. These are all mixed in huge vats, and squirted, mashed, pushed, belted, baked, fried, bagged, boxed, palleted, and loaded on a truck. The people working in the food processing facility may not even recognize the raw ingredients, because they are also far from the food source.
Many years ago I worked on the renovation of a mixing facility in Paterson, NJ where dough was produced. The dough was shipped to bakeries with names like "Moms Home Cooked", "Healthy Eats", and other friendly names the marketing gurus came up with. These bakeries would bake the goo we sent them, and you'd be able to buy these delectable items at the cash registers of your local convenience store. I haven't eaten one since seeing how the dough was mixed.
Today the Senate passed a food regulation bill. On the surface, many may see this as a great thing. I don't see it that way. I see a big handed government continuing its pageantry of pretending to help the people, while colluding with big business to suppress competition. The only reason we need to have food regulations is to control the behavior of food producers who have such economies of scale that when they screw up the quality control process, the negative impact is very large.
Who pays for the regulations? Is it the company being regulated, the government, or the consumer? The consumer pays. We pay not only increased costs that are passed on to the consumer, but also from the loss of competition. Regulations drive up the cost of entering a business, to the point where the only companies that can compete with a big company is another big company.
So many see regulations as keeping the big businesses in check, but in reality the regulations aid the companies being regulated, since the regulations increase the costs of entering an industry. Big business is great for big government, the politicians have fewer people to shake down for PAC money.
The automobile manufacturing industry is a great example of how regulations hurt the consumer. Every car manufactured must pass the same highway crash tests in order to be sold. In order for an entrepreneur to enter the automobile industry, she'd have to lawyer up, and have full legal representation to understand and comply with the laws. They'd also need a large accounting department to decipher the tax laws. So before the first laborer is hired, or the first part is installed, they must already have a significant investment into regulatory compliance.
What if NYC had a market for a small 2 seater car that would only be driven during rush hour? Speeds tend to be about 5 miles per hour average, with a top speed of about 20 miles per hour. A vehicle built for inner city driving can be sold for a fraction of what the least expensive car presently sells for. This type of car would have broad appeal, be inexpensive, and allow more people to have better transportations options. Since the vehicles are smaller, they could use less room to travel, as well as to park. They would also require fewer resources to build, and fewer resources to make them move. But regulations require all cars that are used on any road to comply with the federal crash standards.
So regulations cost the consumer, and society at-large. In the case of food, US agri-business used their size and money to lobby the federal government to not require labeling of genetically altered food, even though most countries require this. Our food is genetically altered, and we can't even tell from the label which are, and which aren't.
So how do we get away from the mass food producers, and back to local sourcing? We use Purple Dragon Food Co-Op, an organization which buys local organic produce first, and then organic non-local second. We pay a subscription fee of $49 every two weeks, and pick up an Ikea bag full of healthy and fresh produce. We never lack for good food. In the summer we supplement this with local farmers' markets. It's hard to completely avoid processed foods, but we do what we can.
By supporting local small food producers, we help our neighbors, keep local farms financially healthy, and stick it to "the man". No big conglomerate touches our food if we can help it. In 2011 we intend to start a small garden on our property. Of course we'll need to wrap it in some pretty heavy wire to keep the squirrels and chipmunks out.
Small business and small government, this serves the peoples' interest the best.
