Some major food stores have joined the rush to Eden. It’s a move that’s proving unfair and burdensome for farmers.
Confronting the growers is what is being called the “third party audit,” a review of on-farm production practices which requires performance levels above and beyond existing federal, state or local food safety standards and criteria.
The audit, which the producer is asked to self-perform, consists of 186 questions in the categories of farm history, adjacent land use, fertilizer usage, water usage, pest control, employee safety and hygiene and harvest practices.
Some major chains are seeking these third party audits from farmers who sell them produce.
The process is eminently unfair and smacks again of corporate domination. It is, patently, an effort by the food chains to protect themselves against any and all liability in a litigious culture. And it represents the capitulation of the corporate food giants to the food and environmental whackos who preach zero-tolerance and who would require all food quality to be ranked against the apple which hung in the Garden.
Listen to grower Carl Tarabbio: “They are asking us to pay as much as $600 a day for private labs to come and inspect our farms. They want the packing house to be enclosed so birds can’t fly in and possibly contaminate the containers. They want our crates and boxes stored in a concrete padded room. They want us to disinfect each basket after picking. They want us to disinfect the truck after each delivery. There is no way we can comply with 100-plus demands and remain in business.”
Listen to grower Larry D’Ottavio: “Even if we could afford to implement all the crazy requests, what good would it do? There are a lot of hands that come in contact with these packages ... the hauler, the people at the distribution centers, the people at the stores ...If one bird flies by, if one glove is missing, if one employee sneezes, then it is all for nothing.”
The third party audit is certainly unrealistic. But that’s a kind assessment. It is irrational, grossly unreasonable, an insult to producers who diligently, year after year, fill the marketplace with safe fruits and vegetables.
The answer, of course, to the Edenists, as we shall call them, is simply to stop growing the food which feeds them with such variety and goodness and so inexpensively.
It’s as if the producers have a committed a crime by feeding us too well, by satiating us. The penalty is the third party audit.
Social tempests, such as the audit, emerge, like a burp, from a full stomach. Could we, simply, let the populace go hungry? Probably not. But a craving for food surely changes one’s aspect of it. In this blessed country, we may never have to learn that, unless, of course, we chose to drive our farmers out of business.
Be careful, America. You might just do that if you’re not careful.