THE GREEN GIANT DOESN’T LIVE IN CALIFORNIA ANYMORE - Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America - page 55

Another consequence of produce trade is a proliferation of high-profile outbreaks of food-borne ill-
nesses that highlight the potential hazards. Fresh produce presents unique safety considerations for grow-
ers, shippers, and regulators. Polluted irrigation water, contamination from livestock operations, inadequate
sanitation conditions for farmworkers, cross-contamination in packing and processing plants, and break-
downs in cold storage during longdistance shipping can expose fresh produce to pathogens and allow them
to multiply to dangerous levels. And because fresh produce is often eaten raw, the opportunity to kill bac-
teria through cooking is lost.
Fresh produce is a significant source of Salmonella infections, which cause an estimated 36,000 cases
of food-borne illnesses each year. Regulators have had enormous difficulties responding to such outbreaks.
The sources of half of all food-borne illness outbreaks from produce are never traced back to their pack-
inghouse, supermarket, or farm source, because perishable fresh fruits and vegetables are often eaten or
thrown away before they can be tested and positively linked to a source.
Potentially, imported fruits and vegetables have higher risks than domestic produce. Imports from some
developing countries may be grown under less sanitary conditions and face weaker environmental rules
and indifferent regulatory oversight than in the United States. For example, when investigating the con-
ditions at Mexican farms that were the source of several Salmonella outbreaks, the FDA found that the
“Mexican cantaloupe are indeed manufactured, processed, or packed under gross insanitary conditions,”
with inadequate environmental safeguards on the farms or regulatory oversight by the Mexican govern-
ment. Similarly, the USDA found that China's farmland in many rural areas is “dangerously polluted” but
nonetheless operates under weak environmental rules that are barely enforced.
Over the past decade, China has become a significant supplier of imported produce to the United States.
Increasing exports have meant that the value of imported Chinese fruit and nuts quadrupled between 2000
and 2005, and the value of vegetable imports nearly tripled. China is likely to be a major player in global
vegetable markets for years to come: between 2000 and 2004, China added 5.7 million acres of vegetable
production, more than the United States' entire vegetable acreage (4.7 million acres) in 2007.
China's farm and food-processing sectors are plagued with problems that contribute to safety concerns
for consumers. Far fewer pesticides are banned in China than in the United States or Europe, meaning that
pesticides banned in America may be immigrating to the United States on Chinese crops. The USDA re-
ported that produce from China presents significant risks, noting: “Chinese fruits and vegetables often have
high levels of pesticide residues, heavy metals and other contaminants. Water, soil, and air are dangerously
polluted in many rural areas as a result of heavy industrialization and lax environmental regulation.”
Considering the problems with food safety issues, it is especially troubling that increasing amounts of
organic fresh and processed fruits and vegetables are coming from China and other countries in the devel-
oping world. Private companies paid by the grower verify that organic practices are being used in growing
the produce. This third-party certification system is already problematic in the United States, because of
the variability in how organic standards are interpreted and production is verified. Issues around certific-
ation are magnified in countries with weaker regulatory systems. The duplicitous sales of faked organic
produce, grown more cheaply than the genuine item, create more unfair competition for organic growers
in the United States struggling to compete.
The ability of multinationals to procure either organic or conventional produce at a lower price in the
developing world is increasing competitive pressures on produce growers in the United States. This in-
creasing control of production by a few large players hinders the nation's ability to shift to the more region-
al and sustainable food advocated by the local-food movement. Independent grocery stores and smaller
chains that have been more willing to buy and distribute locally grown produce have been driven out of
business, and those that remain are competing with “everyday lower prices.”