Food Inc.
Have you seen this movie/documentary? You will think twice about eating beef again and you may never eat chicken again. This is now available on DVD. My wife rented it from Netflix last week. It is a must see for anyone who cares about what they eat. Just another reason to choose Brady’s Idaho Beef.
What does organic beef really mean?
I read an article today regarding a violation of law by a large organic company which was trying to pass off its product as organic. You can link to what I read at
http://wincustomersusa.com/stockman/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=0&Itemid=9
Here at Brady’s Beef we have never represented ourselves to be certified organic even though most of our practices would certainly qualify. There are a number of reasons we have not and will not certify our farm in the current political climate. The first reason that I mention most often is that we are short on phosphorus content in our soils and we have not found an economicly sound way to rebuild this component without some commercial phos fertilizer.
A second reason is that we are skeptical of government programs and national organic standards backed by the full faith and credit of the US Department of Agriculture. If you reference the above article you will learn two things that should be glaring inconsistencies. First, the agency doing the certifying is paid by the farm being certified. Where’s the logic in this? If my certifier threatens to decertify me, who is going to pay him his fee? The second glaring inconsistency is that if the USDA is the party with the teeth and has the final say on enforcing the National organic standards, why don’t they do it to the maximum allowed by the law? Who is buying off whom?
Once again we see the logic in getting to really know your farmer. Talk to him, go see his farm, tour his processing facilities, and take a little responsibility for knowing where your food comes from.
Chicken bacteria?
Did you see the news article Nov. 30 about the percentage of chickens contaminated with salmonella and camphylobacter? The jist of the report is that 60% of all chicken in the store is contaminated with it, which is a lower percentage than a few years ago. I don’t think this is really news or newsworthy. Salmonella and chicken have been synonomous for most of my lifetime and that is why we have been instructed by those who know that we should cook chicken products thorougly. Proper cooking will kill all the bad bacteria if it’s done right. We need to use some common sense in these matters. The government solution is to increase the inspection bureacracy. If chicken farmers are required to pay for all of that inspection overhead, it will drive more of the local producers out of business, especially the small ones. The net effect will be that more chicken will come from overseas (see my Chinese food blog) where we have no control over inspection or food quality. Let’s be smart, take control over our own food, and avoid the clammer for government solutions.