–Kristin Vogel, Communications & Education Associate

There have been so many instances of the dangers of our large-scale industrial agricultural system in the news recently that it’s hard to isolate a topic on which to concentrate. Last week, another study examining the links between ADHD and pesticides exposure was released, raising further concerns about our children’s consumption of industrially grown food. And of course we’ve all been inundated with stories about the egg/salmonella recall affecting much of the country.

While scary and unfortunate, I can’t say that I had a reaction of surprise when I began reading about the salmonella outbreak and the history of repeated egregious acts linked to Jack DeCoster’s Wright County Egg Production, the Iowa-based company linked to the recall. And because I am lucky enough to either buy my eggs directly from local farmers, or from grocery stores that carry organic and/or free-range eggs, I feel confident that I am getting a safe product from sources that I trust. Not so for the consumers limited to buying any of the half a billion eggs recalled in the Wright County scare.

As is the case with the majority of American food scares and recalls, one of the biggest underlying issues is the true cost of food. Michael Pollan, of course, has written and spoken often and eloquently on this topic, and has again been called upon during this egg crisis to help us cut through the complexity of why this is happening, and what needs to change to help prevent it in the future:

“We all like cheap food. But when we’re spending billions to deal with a salmonella outbreak, it isn’t really as cheap as it seems.”

Now, it’s very true that not everyone has access to better, safer, humane eggs, or the financial ability to buy organic. Access is one of the biggest issues that the organic movement is realizing that it needs to address (and another blog post entirely!). But what this egg recall is really indicative of is our inability to grasp the big picture of the true cost of producing good food that doesn’t make our population sick.

This New York Times article is an example of many appearing in publications across the country:  basically advocating fixing problems with the same kinds of “solutions” that created them in the first place. Salmonella outbreak? Just vaccinate the millions of confined chickens standing in their own filth—for pennies per bird!

Point?  Spectacularly missed.