The Food Chain

What Would Popeye Say? Grow Your Own

By Emily Esterson, 9-27-06

That spinach that sickened people in 23 states including New West states New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, might have been more benign had it been grown closer to home. I was alerted via email list to a Worldwatch Institute post that's says if you know the farmer that grew your spinach, you are less likely to get sick from e.Coli.

Indeed, FDA chief medical officer David Acheson told the New York Times today that “Clearly the risk is significantly reduced if you know the farmer and know his farm.” That's giving New Mexico urban and local ag. advocates a cause for discussion today. Unfortunately, the FDA's consumer advice is "don't eat spinach" rather than educating the population about the current sad state of the food system, and why it seems to be making people sick.

The Times story goes on to say that eating locally is especially important if you live on the East Coast, far from the sick-making California spinach farm. One knowledgable local questioned that logic in an email string about the piece. "Local is local, no?" he writes.

Indeed. Acheson et al seem to be missing the point here: The spinach kerfuffle shouldn't force people into buying local, but buying local is important for food security and health. It won't be long (in fact it's already happening) before we see the trickle down of high gas prices at the supermarket—trucking food across the country increases the risk of contamination. Of course, we're used to getting, say, tomatoes in February, and buying local means getting root vegetables and other non-appealing goodies during the less-fertile months of the year.

The e.Coli and other food contaminant problems have a lot more to do with the overall structure of the food system than where food is grown (after all, what streams and rivers and wetlands don't have deer droppings in them these days?). The interconnected, trucked in, warehoused food system is dependent on fossil fuels—and associated pesticides, fertilizers and other not-so-good-for-you things, to make it work. Sustainable communities (and healthy ones) need to rely on their own selves for food. Growing local is a good and important goal.

So what would Popeye do? He'd probably run out and plant a small spinach garden in his backyard or on his terrace—he wouldn't stop eating it altogether. The New York Times piece fails to explain why its better to eat local, nor did it ask Acheson this question. But New Mexico farmers market and ag advocates already know the answer.

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