As a point of clarification, the late blight in the Northeast is, unfortunately, a result of people trying to do the right thing. Most home gardeners (especially in the North) buy starter plants. Those plants are grown in massive greenhouse operations where disease and pests can spread rapidly if not kept in check (as is the case in any greenhouse). A big nursery will distribute through say Lowe’s garden center; people take home a tomato infected with late blight and the disease is off and running.

Issues like that can be fixed by either, starting your own seeds (either under lights or putting up a small greenhouse) or buying starter plants from local nursery operations.

E. coli on California produce farms is tougher to nail down, but it almost certainly springs from produce operations and livestock operations butting together. And that is a symptom of the business model that holds preeminence in agriculture. That model is, as Chris Hedges points out, unsustainable in the long run, the medium and possibly the short.

Margins in the food supply chain are so slim that everyone lives on the razor’s edge (except the input companies, the commodity traders and the retail outlets). And the system is so international that any local shock could destabilize the entire chain.

Many in America do not have the space to produce any significant percentage of their own food. Still, having any food plants growing makes a difference in aggregate. More importantly, it offers a connection to the process and reacquiring a taste for actual food.

The easiest and most significant thing the average American can do is to find a CSA (community supported agriculture). It amounts to consumers capitalizing farmers: you pay an up front investment and get the return in weekly harvest shares throughout the growing season.

Prices vary, but my household has a full share (food for 4) that breaks down to $23/week. We’re taking our chances with weather and availability, just like the farmer.

What desperately needs to be addressed is urban agriculture. It’s there but needs to be a strong focus of any attempt to reform the food system. Done right it is amazingly efficient and nearly closed loop. For an example, take a look at the link below:

http://www.growingpower.org

elisalouisa,

Yes, there is a “lost art” in home cooking. But there’s another lost art. It’s called “canning”.

ardee,

More regulation is not necessarily a good thing. Do you remember the leafy greens e coli outbreak? Yes, it was California again. In an attempt to restore confidence in Cali leafy greens, Cali’s DOA and corporate co-op instituted very strict regulations on growing, handling, packaging and shipping. This was partly in response to the large corporate buyers. But now, these Cali growers are realizing it’s too expensive to adhere to these regulations, and can not remain competitive. So, what are they doing? Henry Waxman has introduced a Bill in Congress that will impose these regulations on all farmers growing leafy greens across the country. The problem is not with the small farmer, it’s with the big corporate farms. So, we have a case of financially protecting farms that are too big to be safe, by imposing needless restrictions on small, competitive farms.

ChaoticGood, September 7 at 5:27 am #

A friend of mine is an epileptic now because of aspartame. It was widely reported about 20 years ago,
but ignored and quickly made to go away (the
reports). Canola oil is another “new” food that, even
though naturally occurring; has never been consumed
by humans before its commercialization by corporate
food interests. I will not eat it and avoid any place
that uses it in preparing food. Unfortunately this is
another product where information about it has been suppressed.

it is impossible to mechanize production without mechanizing consumption,
impossible to make machines of soil, plants, and animals without making
machines also of people.”
************************************************
This column especially brings out a touch of the divine that Chris Hedges
possesses. Mine is a heritage where macho men savored good food and women
not only put nutritious ingredients in food but also love and there was joy in
cooking. As posts full of intellectual phrases are bantered around as to why our
sick society is what it is, the answer may be something basic our ancient
cultures knew, something as simple as food intake.  As we have turned to
corporation frozen food we have become frozen for what we take in is what we
are. This may be the kernel of what has gone wrong in our society. As time
goes on food will be used to control society even more. Food additives will be
the key and there is no way to stop it. On the plus side chemists may discover
ways to make food additives more beneficial instead of just upping the
corporation profits.

But New Jersey farms have largely given way to soulless housing developments.

There’s even more to it than that. Not only are these large corporate builders like US Homes, Ryan Homes and K Hovnanian Homes (which is a NJ company) buying up all the farmlands, but many of the local farmers have switched from growing produce, to nurseries for ornamental trees and shrubbery and sod. Where is all of this going? To the new housing developments, where else?

The trending away from a primary obligation of our government, regulation, is the culprit here. When the fox guards the hen house, not to be trite,one might expect such a downward spiral of consumer protections.

The slow but steady disappearance of the family farm, replaced by agribusinesses, shows itself to be a bad thing as well, not just in its interdependence upon chemical means of production but in price fixing as well.

As a sidebar I would note that, many years ago when I was a child in NY, I remember my Uncle Miltie expounding at a family gathering, as was his wont. He noted that , and this was in the fifties, the only consumer good that had remained as the same expense ,percentage wise, since WW1 was foodstuffs. He predicted that this would change, and dramatically. He and his wife, Rose, had moved to Chicago and were only rarely present at those gatherings thereafter. I really missed the excitment of the battles between my liberal family and my not so liberal uncle Miltie.

There are a few points I’d like to address here. I live in a farming community in Southern NJ. My Grandfather was a small farmer. His Father was an Italian immigrant that made a pretty god living at farming, and survived the Depression by farming and hunting.

The late blight in the Northeast, which is the fungus responsible for the Potato Famine, occurs almost every year. Usually, its late in the season, hence the term “late” blight. The problem this year, is that it appeared very early in the season. The New Hampshire Department of Agriculture was able to determine the reason for this. (I had all of this on my blog, but I removed it recently due to the fact it didn’t have much effect here in SNJ).
Here’s an interesting   take on the blight: http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/view/columns/6774828.html
Eco-terrorism? Not really. Bonnie Plants is just a “big-box” grower being pushed to the limit by the demands of the large corporate retailers. Yes, one corporate grower was responsible for all of the early late blight. They shipped thousands of infected plants across the entire country to stores like Wal-Mart, Home Depot and Lowes. Fortunately, many hobbyist growers in my area buy their plants from local growers.

Last years e coli outbreak was much more financially damaging to local tomato growers. And where did the e coli outbreak originate? You guessed it, California. But by the time the FDA figured out where it came from, it was too late. Yes, an outbreak on the left coast affected the right coast, even though the infection was not present here. Thank you, Cali corporate growers. What’s that? You need water for crops now? There’s a drought? Sorry, the smelts need the water. Why did you start farming in area that is drought prone and has very little ground water? Oh, you were escaping The Dustbowl. Well, welcome to Dustbowl II.

Most of us are unknowingly eating all sorts of “chemistry experiments” all the time.  I can only tell you of what happened to me.
Several years ago, I had unexplained high fever (105) and convulsions and was hospitalized.  The doctors ran many tests to try to understand what was happening to me.
The fever and convulsions slowly dissapated and after all the testing, nothing was found to account for this anomaly.

I was unsatisfied with getting no answers, so I started searching for answers.  I found the answer myself.  It seems that I was drinking too much diet cola and the Aspartame sweetner caused the problem.  It is not widely known but Aspartame can cause fever and convulsions if too much is taken.  I was drinking 3-4 cans of soda per day.

I quit drinking or eating all foods containing aspartame and have gone 4 years without any recurrance.  When I reported this to my family doctor, she was totally surprised at the reports about Aspertame and believed that if the FDA has approved it, then it is ok. 

I know this is totally unscientific, but I am a believer now that we are being systematically poisoned by our food corporations.  The FDA is just a rubber stamp.