Food Safety
I can guess what you think that means, but are pathogens the only consideration?
Several weeks back I exchanged emails with a friend of long ago, and I asked a question regarding government, “what have they done right, in your opinion?” He responded with a list, and on that list were “food safety” and “agriculture stability;” the latter might be a post for another day, but let’s have a deeper look at food safety.
Early Food Regulation
I suppose the first “safeguard” that comes to mind is the USDA, or the “US Duh” as Joel Salatin refers to it. But, in my research I found that food regulations, most at the state level or lower, predate the USDA by decades.
Food and drug regulation as we know it today in the United States had its roots in the late nineteenth century when state and local governments began to enact food and drug regulations in earnest.
Most of those early regulations had to do with food “purity,” which is to say the absence of adulteration of a particular product (e.g. “pure” maple syrup as opposed to the adulterated look-like kindasorta taste-like products that dominate store shelves today).
Perhaps the most enduring problem in the food and drug industry has been the issue of “adulteration” – the cheapening of products through the addition of impure or inferior ingredients. Since ancient times, producers of food and drug products have attempted to alter their wares in an effort to obtain dear prices for cheaper goods.
Regardless, it was only after generations of European settlement in North America that such laws came to be, even if only at the state and local levels; why is that? At the time of the founding of the United States, so we are talking just a century before the first food laws, approximately 80% of people farmed, in other words the consumer was the exception, not the rule. And as late as 1880, half of the population were still engaged in farming.
1880 U.S. population reaches 50,155,783, with farm population estimated at 22,981,000. Forty-nine percent of all employed persons are farmers…
In other words, every other employed person was a farmer. Who needs regulation when you are buying from a friend and neighbor? Basically two factors gave rise to the regulation; the ongoing industrialization of farming (decline in the number of farmers as a percentage of the population (now less that 2%)), and attendant urbanization. Nowadays of course, most folks don’t know their farmer, most probably don’t even know ā farmer; they don’t know where their food comes from, and frankly, most probably don’t care to know. As I’ve often said,
If you are getting your eggs for a buck a dozen, or a rotisserie chicken for five bucks, you don’t even want to know where they come from!
John
The Pork War
Regulation at the federal level got a real kick in the ass with the Pork War.
The Pork war was a ban by Germany and nine other European nations (Italy, Portugal, Greece, Spain, France, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, Romania, and Denmark) on U.S. pork imports in the 1880s. Due to repeated years of low crop yield, American pork and wheat became increasingly prevalent in these countries. This angered local farmers, who soon called for boycotts. They also cited vague reports of trichinosis that supposedly originated from American pork.
This was a trade war, make no mistake, and food quality was an excuse. The German allegations in particular may or may not have been true; it didn’t matter. But it’s probably no coincidence that the world’s number two pork producer, Germany at the time, piled on, and specifically called out inspection as a problem.
In 1882, the chancellor <Bismark> passed an edict prohibiting the importation of all American pork-related products, characterizing U.S. meat inspection as "unsatisfactory."
Naturally, something had to be done, and was.
Two related developments brought about the ending of the Pork War. The first one was a bill introduced to congress in 1886 designed to please the Germans by requiring an inspection of all meats before exportation. However, no action was taken for four years until 1890, when the bill was approved, and in March 1891 congress passed an act making microscopic inspection of meat compulsory. The second development, of considerably larger importance, was the possibility of American retaliation.
The feds didn’t want to expand the trade war if it could be helped, hence inspection of meat for export became law. And of course, incrementalism being what it is, that was just the beginning. Notably, inspection was only required for exports.
Regulatory Capture
From the outset, capture of the regulating agency by corporate, industrial actors, was a known threat, and this has been confirmed as fact by economists.
Economists have long recognized that regulation is not always enacted to improve efficiency and advance the public interest. Indeed, since Stigler (1971) and Peltzman (1976), it has often been argued that regulation is sought by specific industry groups in order to tilt the competitive playing field to their advantage. For instance, by functioning as an entry barrier, regulation may raise the profits of incumbent firms by precluding the entry of new firms and new products. In these instances of “regulatory capture,” regulation harms efficiency by limiting the extent of competition and innovation in the market.
Perhaps the best example I can give of regulatory capture is the “USDA Organic” label. We would have to pay a significant sum, more than our annual revenue (not profit) from Pure Maple Syrup, to effectively rent that label from the US Duh; We wouldn’t have to do anything differently, except a boatload of paperwork. And of course, prompt payment. And it would take three years. Meanwhile, the industrial food producers, to maintain their monocultures, are killing everything in sight with herbicides and pesticides, and don’t have label their products “USDA Un-Organic.” What gives? What gives is that Big-Ag owns the US Duh.
State Level Regulation
Worse yet, maybe, is MDARD; a more inappropriately named agency you will never find. The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development; you have got to be kidding me. It should be called the Michigan Department of Psuedo-Food Industries and Rural Depopulation and Redevelopment. MDPFIRDR doesn’t have much of a ring to it though. MDARD is at war with agrarian culture, and there hasn’t been any rural development of note since electrification. (hint: agriculture in-stability at play)
It’s not about food purity, or food safety; it is about preventing competition with Big Ag. If you want to know more check out:
The case of Mark Baker in Michigan
The case of Nourish Cooperative in Michigan
The case of Amos Miller in Pennsylvania
Or how about the case of Cliven Bundy in Montana
All of the foregoing by the way, takes place literally at the business end of a gun.
Also check out the Processing Revival and Intrastate Meat Exemption (PRIME) Act at the federal level; this has been going on since 2019, and might never cross the finish line, because too many of our Reps and Senators are also bought and paid for by industrial ag actors.
The links I provide are just starting points; do your own research.
What Is Food Safety?
Forget about pathogens; absent those critters, cheap food is literally killing us. Our rates of obesity are but one example, and perhaps the most clear.
In the early 1960s, roughly 13% of people were considered obese by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines. Recent figures suggest that a current national obesity rate closer to 43%.
In addition, nearly 10% of all Americans were morbidly obese during the 2017–2018 survey, compared to less than 1% in 1960–1962. Childhood obesity rates tripled from 5% in the early 1970s to more than 19% by March 2020.
And now, life expectancy in the U.S. has tipped over:
Health risks associated with obesity you ask? From the NIH:
Type 2 diabetes
High blood pressure
Heart disease
Stroke
Metabolic syndrome
Fatty liver diseases
Some cancers
Breathing problems
Osteoarthritis
Gout
Diseases of the gallbladder and pancreas
Kidney disease
Pregnancy problems
Fertility problems
Sexual function problems
Mental health problems
Yes, it’s a killer. Obesity kills slowly, and expensively.
Between 1960 and 2000, the average share of Americans’ disposable personal income (DPI) spent on food fell from 17.0 percent to 9.9 percent. (-7.1%)
Since 2000, the share of DPI as food flattened at about 10%, but increased to 11.3% recently, so the reduction in food costs has been pared back to just 4.3%
Meanwhile, healthcare spending goes from 5% to 13.3%. (+8.3%), and has increased an additional 4% since 2000, for a total 12.3% increase.
So, I’d argue, it’s pay me a little more now (for good food), or pay me a lot more later (for healthcare). “Cheap food” is oxymoronic. Our food supply is anything but “safe.”
So What, and Now What?
Food safety has only become a problem with the industrialization of the food supply, that much is clear from the history. Food purity, the earliest incarnation of food regulation, relates more to “informed consent” to partake of an adulterated product, or not.
If you want healthy, nutritious food, don’t just know your farmer(s), know and patronize your farmer(s).
For more information related to this subject, check out Joel Salatin’s book, Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal: War Stories from the Local Food Front. Or here on Substack, check out John Klar’s Small Farm Republic. And, check out my earlier post:
