Vote Like You Mean It!

In regards to Issue 2 on the upcoming November 3rd Ohio Ballot

Here is an exceprt from the website in support of Issue 2: http://www.safelocalohiofood.org
But consumers also want to know more about how their food is produced on Ohio's farms. That means knowing that animals are healthy and well cared for, that the food they buy is safe and of the highest quality, and that farmers are running their farms responsibly and following all regulations. Consumers also want choice at the grocery store, both in the foods they buy and in how those foods are produced.

And here is my two cent rebuttal Illuminating the truth:
If consumers want to know more about their food and know the animals are healthy and well cared for, if they want to know that farmers are running their farms responsibly then don’t rely on or trust in the government to give you that information, GO SEE FOR YOURSELF! The government tells you that beef from hundreds of miles away is safe for consumption and treated humanely, if you were to go and see for yourself you’d realize this was not true at all. As for regulations, they only look at the logistics, does the barn look like it should, is the killing floor non porous are the slaughter house walls stainless steel and are they cleaned regularly. How about sampling the goods?! Measure the bacteria and contaminants, set some acceptable standards for the stuff that actually makes people sick, are the employees healthy, do they even know how to safely handle potentially hazardous food products? Does the facility operate at a pace conducive to maintaining safety for the staff as well as the food products?
The answer is not to help the government create thirteen more pointless taxpayer draining jobs just so we can “feel” safe when we bite into our mass produced burger, the answer is to demand more transparency of our food system. Demand to see where your food comes from, demand to see how the animals are treated, especially demand to see where and how they are slaughtered. You will never be permitted to see a killing floor, no intelligent mass producer will let anyone in that area, they don’t think you need to know what goes on in there. You do need to know but you don’t want to know, if you did you would probably quit eating meat, at least their meat, and they can’t allow that.
Food bourne illness was not a real problem until we began to centralize our entire food system and require that everyone raise their food in the same way, meeting the same requirements.
A vote for Issue 2 will not reduce the incident of food bourne illness, it will not make local foods any more affordable, it will not create more jobs or boost the economy, what it will do is lead to the closing of more small scale farms that can’t afford to meet the same requirements as the mega farms for whom these requirements were designed. If you want to vote for local foods, for safe foods, then do it with your wallet, buy from farmers who are really responsible, buy food that is produced locally and really does boost the local economy. This is the only vote that will really count.
For information about local farmers or local food systems and the issues surrounding them check out some of these sources:
Websites
http://oeffa.org
http://local-matters.org
http://www.localharvest.org


Books
Everything I Want to do is Illegal Joel Salatin
In Defense of Food Michael Pollan
The Omnivores Dilemma Michael Pollan
Animal Vegetable Miracle Barbara Kingsolver with Steven L. Hopp
The Revolution Will Not be Micro waved Sandor Ellix Katz