IATP | By Mark Ritchie | January 1, 2004
The discovery of mad cow on a Washington farm has touched off a firestorm of debate about U.S. regulations to prevent this deadly disease from entering our food supply. But mad cow represents much deeper perils of a global industrial food system, accelerated by recent trade agreements. It is mad cow making the headlines today, but in the last year it has also been e-coli, salmonella, antibiotic resistance, foot and mouth disease, and obesity. The question is whether we are going to address each crisis as it comes along in a patchwork of regulations, or re-think our food and farming system?
When mad cow disease was discovered in Canada last May, most experts felt it was only a matter of time before a similar discovery was made in the U.S. or Mexico. Since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was passed a decade ago, there has been a rapid integration of food production systems between the U.S., Canada and Mexico. This has particularly been the case with cattle, which can pass back and forth across the U.S.-Canadian border several times during their lifetime. Over the last several years, the U.S. has brought in over one million cattle from Canada annually. Many of the same large beef producing, feed and rendering companies operate on both sides of the border. In our industrial food system, where your hamburger meat was raised, what the cow was fed, and how the meat was processed is not considered important.
Although that hamburger on your plate may look the same as when you were a kid, a lot has changed behind the scenes. Over the last several decades, our largest food companies and agribusiness firms have deliberately broken up local food production systems in favor of a global food system. Proponents of so-called "free trade" argue that food should be grown wherever around the globe it can be produced the cheapest. This mindset believes bigger is better - fewer farms with more efficient production.
This global food system was once seen as a playing field where the US would be the winner. But last year the US moved from a major net exporter of food to nearly a food deficit nation, meaning that we are importing nearly the same value of agricultural products as we export. The agricultural trade surplus has not been this low since 1986. Meanwhile, the siphoning of profits away from family farmers has taken a heavy toll on Rural America, turning many Great Plains communities into ghost towns.
This impact of the global/industrial food system goes much beyond our farmers - it includes seed, input, implement, processing, and distribution companies. When farm-related local businesses are swallowed up by multinational giants, the money produced in the local economy leaves and doesn't return.
Aside from the economic damages, an emerging set of health and environmental issues are connected to this industrial system. Mad cow has likely been caused by the disturbing practice of forcing animals that are ruminants (non-carnivores) to eat parts of other animals. Livestock are now regularly fed a steady stream of antibiotics to help them gain weight faster. This unnecessary overuse of antibiotics is likely contributing to antibiotic resistant bacteria, which is causing problems for doctors treating humans. In addition, rural communities are seeing a host of health effects from the volume of manure emitted from industrial feedlots, which fouls the air and water supplies.
Amid the roar of the industrial food system is a movement driven primarily by consumers to re-connect with our food producers. Farmers markets have grown nearly 80 percent over the last ten years. State-labeled food products, such as Minnesota-Grown, are seen more and more on supermarket shelves. In November, we and the Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (GRACE) launched a simple web site to help consumers find local farmers who produce sustainable meat and poultry. To our surprise, the site (www.eatwellguide.org) got over 8 million hits in the first month.
Hopefully, the discovery of mad cow disease in the U.S. - the product of an industrial, global food system - will spawn a new discussion about what kind of food system is best for farmers, consumers and our rural communities. It's about more than just one cow.
Mark Ritchie is President of the Minneapolis-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.IATP:
