In its ongoing efforts to protects us from relatively harmless foods at the same time as it turns a blind eye to potentially dangerous stuff, the USDA has mandated that almonds grown in this country be either fumigated with chemicals or exposed to high-temperature sterilization against the remote possibility of salmonella contamination. While corporate almond producers seem quite pleased by this turn of events, small farmers and organic growers are up in arms. Not only is the "pasteurization" equipment prohibitively expensive, the fumigant of choice is banned as a carcinogen in Europe, Mexico, and Canada, which are destinations for much of the U.S. crop. Will Fantle of the Cornucopia Institute, an advocacy group, fears that almonds will be one more step down the slippery slope of mandatory heat treatment, sterilization, and irradiation of all fresh fruits and vegetables.
Some Safety Net
Remember when the FDA assured us that all farmed seafood imported from China would be subjected to mandatory inspection for contaminants and illegal chemicals? The Associated Press recently conducted a quick survey to see how well the watchdogs were doing. The result is not very appetizing. One in four Chinese shipments got past the feds without even having been looked at.
Salmon Plague
Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) is the hoof and mouth disease of aquaculture (read a .pdf about it here). Once an outbreak occurs, entire farms—often involving millions of fish—must be destroyed, the corpses disposed of in landfills. The disease first appeared in Norwegian fish farms in the 1980s. It jumped to the United Kingdom, and then to Canada and the United States, but Chile, which accounts for nearly half of the farmed salmon eaten in the United States, was largely spared. It looks like that's no longer true. The country's National Fisheries Service has just reported a potentially major outbreak of the disease. It might mean higher prices for consumers of farmed salmon, which should provide yet another reason to avoid it all together.
Another Inconvenient Truth
It seems obvious. Making meals from scratch takes longer than reaching for a package of prepared convenience food. Right? Not true. University of California Los Angeles researchers recently videotaped the cooking habits of families, and found that it takes about the same time—an average of about a half-hour—to get dinner on the table, regardless of whether you reach for a box or start by chopping something fresh and unprocessed.
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