I went to the Snohomish County Focus on Farming conference last Thursday. The keynote speaker was an unusual, but interesting, choice: William Marler Esq., an attorney famous for suing companies for foodborne illness outbreaks. What he has to say is definitely something we all need to hear. But at the same time, having him kick off the conference was a bit depressing, if not a terrifying way to start the day. Part of me wanted to go home after that, and just quit farming, because liability is really scary. But here I am, blogging about it instead.
A Lot at Stake
Marler’s message was firmly this: if someone gets sick and the illness is linked to products on your farm, you are liable; and he, or a firm like his, will nail you and everyone else in the chain of delivery of that product to the consumer. No two ways about it. No but I take good care of my animals. No but I’m just a small family farmer. He made lots of lawyer jokes, but the bottom line is he’s unapologetic for his work, because it involves advocating for people who have died, or nearly died, from negligent practices in the food industry. He showed a heart-wrenching video of two parents describing the last days of their beautiful seven year old daughter dying from food poisoning.
Nobody can deny it: this is sad, very sad. And very real. Marler’s message was loud and clear: the stuff we do every day on our farms influences someone else’s safety to a high degree. It is important. Really, really important. Any jury watching this video would have a hard time excusing even the smallest glitch in food safety practices when so much is at stake. Who wouldn’t?
Small Farm Superman Immunity?
Marler’s point to our audience was to emphasize that just because we’re small family farms doesn’t necessarily mean that our product is safer than something that comes from a CAFO or giant corporation. Foodborne illness can happen anywhere. Bacteria is everywhere. We may wish to think that it only happens at “big” outfits which are mixing millions of pounds of ground beef together, working too hurriedly, employing questionable practices, or using animals with sub-par health. Sure, when food poisoning does happen in the big firms, the impact is wider, because the distribution channels are so large. As a society, we may get concerned when our food sources become too consolidated because of this risk factor.
But foodborne illness has been cropping up in a surprising number of “little” places, like artisan cheese dairies and hand-picked local produce, and sometimes from the most natural of causes. Those instances kill people too, just fewer people. Nature, it seems, is constantly working both for and against us. This was demonstrated recently with the outbreak of e.coli in Strawberries in Oregon: caused by wild deer pooping on the strawberry plants in the night. If only we could sue the deer.
There is some weird temptation in us to romanticize nature and history, to think that old fashioned ways or things that are closer to nature are safer. But c’mon, people in the olden days died at the drop of a hat, and nature is pretty darn cruel and unyielding, really. She will kill us in a heartbeat, the same as a coyote or an alder tree or a moth. I sometimes have people comment on buying eggs from me, how they feel safer about these eggs. As if emotion is a better judge of risk than logic.
These people scare me, because I feel like they will be less careful with my eggs than grocery store eggs; blanketed by their delusional sense that these eggs are risk-free because they are “natural” eggs. I always give them a sharp reminder that salmonella is quite natural, too, frequently infecting wild birds that may flit around my chicken feed hopper. If anything, true pastured chickens may be more at risk of infection than CAFO chickens warehoused in a strictly managed biohazard facility. Salmonella is everywhere, and small farm chickens with names like Henrietta don’t have some magical immunity to disease. Don’t be silly. If you are worried about getting sick, cook your eggs thoroughly, no matter where they come from. That’s why the state requires us to put that message on every single carton, and display it everywhere where eggs are sold or served:
“SAFE HANDLING INSTRUCTIONS: To prevent illness from bacteria: Keep eggs refrigerated, cook eggs until yolks are firm, and cook foods containing eggs thoroughly.”
What to Do?
Marler didn’t have a lot of reassuring words to offer, but I think there are steps we can take to protect ourselves, and the people who eat what we produce. I’ll write more about that next time.
November 6, 2011 at 6:50 pm
This is especially true for many city-bound folks like me and my family. We cannot possibly know all the vendors at our local organic and farmers markets. Quite often we take their word that the chickens are regularly rotated onto clean pastures and the meat was butchered by a reputable packer.
Same goes for veggies. Many farmers at my farmers market are not yet certified. Some say they will never be able to afford certification. I have to trust that they are doing the organic practices they tell me they are doing, often in excess of watered-down federal standards.
I grew up in Rural America, and I know that land = dirt, one way and another. With the super bugs in our soil and water these days, I can imagine how difficult it is for even the most conscientious farmer to assure their food is safe.
Buying locally, organic and/or pasture- and humanely-raised does not mean I don’t take the same care I always did with my food. Sadly, I know many people who do not and have never taken the recommended precautions and claim they never get sick. Some of them get “stomach flu” more frequently than colds.
November 6, 2011 at 7:07 pm
Please excuse my ignorance, but what is “CAFO”?
If attorneys ran our country, we would really be in trouble.
Come to think of it, attorneys do run our country.
I enjoy your blog.
November 6, 2011 at 7:20 pm
Kathryn Grace, good points, and I saw a news report recently about the Health Department issuing a LOT of violations at local farmers markets in our area, and they were really concerned about this trend. It’s not clear what the root cause is, I can see a lot of possibilities in that realm. A lot of times it’s not the farmer running the booth, but a low-wage employee. People hired to run the booths may not be adequately educated, either language limiting their understanding, or youth who don’t grasp the seriousness of the rules. Farmers markets make it harder to refrigerate, wash, etc because they are usually held in a venue that has limited electricity and plumbing, and they are often outdoors where it’s hard to control the wind, sunlight, rain etc from possibly affecting displayed product.
At least in our state, I will say that I think our Dept of Ag and Health Departments are working really hard to help small farmers do the right things, without being overly restrictive such that it makes it impossible to farm. When they see trends due to lack of awareness or education on something, they are quick to make flyers explaining the topic, and translate them into other languages, to try to spread information. So hopefully as the small farming movement grows, these agencies will be there with us to monitor where things are going wrong and help us get them corrected. Because you’re right, the consumer is stuck trusting our word quite a bit, so we do need policy in place to try to protect them.
November 6, 2011 at 7:41 pm
You are correct that quite often it is not the farm owners running the booths, and who can blame them? They can’t be everywhere at once. I tend to buy from the booths run by the farmer or family members who speak with authority about their practices. Quite often these are younger family members, and they take great pride in their booths, their products and how they are grown and handled.
If English is not the farmer’s first language, sometimes getting clear information is a challenge, but if the produce is washed, not muddy, and displayed with care, again I have a tendency to trust their farm and storage practices.
It sounds as if your state has found a good balance between over-regulation that puts small farmers out of business and just enough to help consumers make informed choices.
November 6, 2011 at 8:18 pm
LOL, Chuck, I suspect you may be right, though I think they compete with the media for control.
But as annoying as they can be, I suppose they do both act as a regulatory arm that keeps us in check, even if it’s as imperfect as the rest of our government systems.
CAFOs are Confinement Animal Feeding Operations, a name given to any large-scale feedlot or barn operation which departs from more traditional farming practices by industrializing animal rearing to make it more efficient and profitable. They are often demonized, but they are what has brought us inexpensive food and improved agricultural productivity, whether we like it or not… Nowadays, I think we are trying to find middle ground, wanting to capture their technological advances which stabilize food supply and price so we can feed the most people, while balancing other ethical issues: animal welfare, farm worker welfare, quality of product, and environmental impact.
November 6, 2011 at 8:40 pm
I remember when organic first started to become a “buzzword.” People with extra money were buying the organic label simply because it must be better. Frequently, fruit and veggies were smaller, blemished and just as flavorless as their mass produced counterparts. I read a research article describing the trend as a good marketing tool for a small farm competing in a big area. The article stated that the benefit was the higher price and willing market. The problem was ensuring cleanliness and productivity. A grower using chemical fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides would have a far easier time producing a healthy, pest and disease free product. There was also a potential pathogen issue because a chemical fertilizer is inherently sterile. To ensure the same results with organic material, the farmer would have to do things like monitor temperature readings of compost piles which adds to the labor. It seems like this has somehow become a non-issue, but I know I am always concerned when I buy melons grown with “organic” practices.
November 6, 2011 at 8:41 pm
Michelle, do you have ideas for what that middle ground would be? Or know of someone who does?
November 6, 2011 at 9:00 pm
I hate that there is even a bubble that can compare a small family farm to the horrible conditions I have seen (on TV) of big commercial farms – Wilcox to be specific.
People did die by the droves in the old days, and although some things are better now – - at least we smell better now – - our lack of exposure to commonly defeated bacterium has resulted in a whole world full of people who are weakened in my opinion. I think this is also the mechanism by which people are allergic to so many things now.
I don’t know why it escaped me before, that you lived in Snohomish county, I am in Marysville
November 6, 2011 at 9:06 pm
Kathryn Grace, I think that’s the million dollar question! I think some things are no-brainers, like using statistical analysis to choose better breeding stock which can improve efficiency in production over time. Other things are probably clearly out: over-use of routine antibiotics as a preventive measure, or things which definitely cross the line in very basic animal welfare standards.
But there is so much gray area in the middle, it seems that’s where nobody can agree. If I make my sheep stand out in the rain in the pasture, I get fewer points for animal comfort, but more points for lower environmental impact: reduced labor, fuel, bedding materials used from not housing them indoors, and better manure management which impacts water quality. I can refuse to ever use antibiotics at all and get extra points from the humans eating my lamb who want super clean food, or from people who are worried about drug-resistant disease. But then I lose points for the lamb that died and could have been saved by drug treatment and the extra food cost these wasteful losses incur.
It’s these priorities in tension that are hard, and we’ll have to keep working to try to solve. I don’t think anybody has all the answers! I mostly try to think of the “middle way” all the time, and avoid any answer that is extreme in either direction. I think it’s the extremes that end up causing us the most trouble.
November 6, 2011 at 9:19 pm
Bill, you raise really good points, and I have a lot of the same questions.I am kind of sick of the word at this point, because it does seem like it’s just become a buzzword that’s defined differently by every person.
If we could flip a switch and make everyone grow everything organic overnight, what would happen? I suspect it wouldn’t be all good- we’d have much lower production and increased labor costs, driving food prices very high, so a lot more people would go hungry or be required to eat less. Everyone’s budgets would be affected, with more money going towards food, less money for luxuries and other needs.
I’ve not seen good data on the net environmental gains either: less chemical use seems better, but what is the fuel trade-off of needing to have many more farm laborers drive to the farm every day to hand-weed? And are those laborers well paid and treated well, or is there a human welfare trade-off as well? And yes, it seems like the foodborne illness risk must increase with more use of manure as fertilizer. Manure is a biohazard too, after all!
I think we still must always work towards doing better on all these fronts, being kinder to animals, workers, and the environment, and making food safer and less expensive. But solving this problem is not a trivial equation, especially considering our population growth and loss of farmland. Definitely a lot of priorities in tension…
November 6, 2011 at 9:43 pm
Cara, indeed- I think Marler’s point was that there is some overlap in our bubbles at the very least. CAFOs may have all sorts of things we claim to do better, but bacteria isn’t choosy about where it resides.
I think you are very right that city people may have a very different immune system than country people. I would imagine they are more resistant to disease which passes easily between people; but less resistant to rural bugs. When I work in Seattle, I always reflect on this irony- you can smell human urine in the streets in summer, and I always think “this place is a cesspool of human disease vectors…” But humorously, these city people visit my farm and freak out if a speck of manure gets on their shoe.
But there is cause to worry about them: though I might not get too excited if a spot of manure gets flung into my mouth or lands on my sandwich,
it’s a different matter for a non-farm person to have the same thing happen. That’s been a notable concern at our county fairs in the last decade, that we’re inviting droves of city folks to come and fraternize with the animals for a day, all while handling and eating fair food. I don’t blame the Health District for putting signs and hand washing stations EVERYWHERE. They won’t let us put picnic tables inside/near the animal barns anymore either, for this same reason.
November 7, 2011 at 12:32 am
Excellent post Michelle. We have several neighbors who have turned their farmsteads into manure/mud pits with pigs and chickens. They sell their wares through a CSA and a small “health” food store claiming the health benefits of their non-rotated year round pasturing. Unfortunately the consumers who purchase their products either don’t understand the basics of animal husbandry, or they feel the CSA and store owners have vetted the product already. Even worse another neighbor is selling raw milk from less than healthy cows…for top dollar. He delivers the milk, the consumers trust in the person who receives the milk and distributes it, and his customers do not come to the farm. As long as nothing goes wrong, it’s a great world charging lots of money for “natural” food, but the minute someone gets sick from these under-the-radar food production methods, all shit will hit the fan.
I am glad to grow most of my own food, and have the time & trained eyes to vet what I can’t produce myself. Not everyone is so lucky though. I wish I knew what the answer was.
Again, great post!
November 7, 2011 at 3:14 am
matronofhusbandry, so true, I have seen some farms in our area that are, at best, scuzzy.
I’m so amazed that people buy from them, but they do! I have to imagine those kinds of farms are even higher risk as far as disease and cleanliness go.
But I think Marler’s point was more that even if things look or seem clean, it’s still possible for bacteria to be lurking. He cited the recent case of listeria on cantaloupes, and how they were handled and stored in a way that wouldn’t necessarily arouse suspicion. Probably a lot of people have the same kind of situation- using old, used equipment because it’s affordable (but then also hard to clean), or old barns and places that don’t have perfect drainage or very clean-able floors.
November 7, 2011 at 5:21 am
CAFO doesn’t have a minimum size in the regulations. Should they choose to, most chicken coops would be considered a CAFO. Sacrifice paddocks, deep litter systems for pigs or cows… CAFO. Matron, your neighbor with mud pit chicken and pig runs would certainly qualify as an AFO, and probably as a CAFO. As a farmer, you do NOT want to be classified and regulated as an AFO or CAFO.
Don’t take my word for this. Here’s the link to the USDA
http://www.epa.gov/region07/water/cafo/index.htm
Liability for food borne illness is something that most small farmers don’t consider. In terms of protecting your farm, a general liability insurance policy will help, but good practices and taking it seriously is the best thing to do — financially and morally.
November 7, 2011 at 5:48 am
Michelle, you say that the local health department is helping small farmers. May I ask what contact you’ve had with the snohomish county health department on your farm?
My experience with them hasn’t been helpful or useful in any way.
First contact:
http://ebeyfarm.blogspot.com/2011/08/notice-of-violation.html
Second:
http://ebeyfarm.blogspot.com/2011/08/notice-of-violation-followup.html
Third:
http://ebeyfarm.blogspot.com/2011/09/farm-inspection-by-health-department.html
I’m now waiting for the local conservation district to come up with some sort of plan. I’m curious what it’ll say, and what the health department will say about it. The conservation district was a suggestion by the attorney I have working on the matter.
Love it when you have a farm attorney. Or two.
November 7, 2011 at 9:14 am
Keep in mind that lawyers are always looking for potential liability. Always. They look for it under their bed. The result of this thinking is there would be no progress because no one would take risk for fear of a lawsuit or failure to comply with some obscurely written regulation in the deep recesses of the many pages of rules printed as the ever growing mountain of regulations that are known as “laws”. Risk will always be with us, and the future always uncertain no matter what rules exist. At the end of the day, you can only control what you can control, and this is not very much no matter who you are or how well financed you are. Modern society tends to forget this. All progress comes from taking risk, not cowering from it.
November 8, 2011 at 2:04 am
I’ve sold “raw” (I hate that descriptor) honey here for years, as much as a ton annually roadside in front of the house. This post scares the “bee” jeebers out of me. Honey supposedly is anti-bacterial. So far no issues, but your post gives me pause….
TMJ
November 8, 2011 at 5:10 am
TMJ, ok, ok! I’ll try to write soon about the “what to do part.”
November 8, 2011 at 5:12 am
Steve, you are so right, and I admit, a part of me wants to think “forget it, I’ll just punch the clock at my day job, there is so much less risk there…” But I think there are things we can do to protect ourselves- to both reduce the risk of causing a liability question in the first place, as well as be prepared if a lawsuit does happen. That’s part 2!
November 8, 2011 at 5:41 am
Bruce, you raise a good point that technically a CAFO doesn’t need to be large to create the questionable circumstances to which most people might object. But it does seem to me that, logical or no, in the consumer mind, if it’s a “small” or “family” farm (or both), then they are exempt from the hatred that’s directed towards large CAFOs. I think consumers just have a general objection to anything “big corporation.” I think matronofhusbandry is right, that for whatever reason, a small farm can be as scuzzy as a huge CAFO, but somehow a lot of people are ok with that.
As far as the Health District goes, I was thinking of the news report I saw of a local farmers market, where they were just focusing on “ok, let’s get these violations fixed” and focusing less on penalties. We’ve interfaced with them a lot over the fair, and I think they have made good calls there- like not putting picnic tables in areas where animal dust resides, rightfully thinking, we don’t want city people to be sitting down and eating where there is chicken or cow dust settling on the table top… And making sure there are bazillions of hand washing stations and educational signs about zoonotic disease- all hopefully preventing illness and CYA’ing us all otherwise. And the new laws for small farm poultry processing are pretty flexible. But overall, we’ve been lucky, though we are as visible as you, knock on wood, we just don’t have anyone from agencies dropping by unannounced, other than Animal Control, but they’re cool, and always welcome here.
But you, yes, you do seem to be a magnet for government agencies in general, on farm and off, and in both counties, I don’t know if it’s your karma, or what!
You get way more focus than anyone I’ve ever met. If you can be helped, the conservation district will help you, they have been the ally of many farmers I know, and they have helped me a ton. They are my first phone call whenever I’m navigating a regulation. But if you’ve made enemies in other agencies, there may be only so much the district can do to help you recover from that.
November 14, 2011 at 5:17 am
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November 30, 2011 at 5:11 pm
Speaking to the helpful Snohomish county health department, I’ve written up my latest interaction with them.
The title of the post is “If you buy an apple and feed it to a pig, is that solid waste?”
http://ebeyfarm.blogspot.com/2011/11/if-you-buy-apple-and-feed-it-to-pig-is.html
I’m not finding my interactions with these guys very helpful at all.
December 21, 2012 at 5:05 am
[...] year also had the lawyer guy who sues agricultural operations for foodborne illness, whether they deserve it or not. [...]