Candidates Spin the Sushi

I noticed this hilarious take on the candidates by Clyde Haberman in Friday's NY Times. This tongue-in-cheek article arrived on the heals of Wednesday's High Mercury Levels are Found in Tuna Sushi (at the likes of Nobu Next Door, no less) and Thursday's Warnings Don't Deter Lovers of Sushi.

All this talk of mercury and tuna got me to thinking: why don't the candidates ever mention their plans for tackling the debacle (impending crisis?) that is our food supply. "Safe" growth hormones used liberally in dairy production. Eggs from factory farmed chickens that bear no flavour or colour resemblence to actual, well, eggs. E. coli outbreaks in bagged spinach and, of course, ground beef.

Last summer, I had the good fortune to work on a design project in Jamaica through the Farmer to Farmer program. While in Jamaica, I collaborated with Dr. Deacue Fields, an Ag Business Marketing specialist from Auburn University. In addition to being a real southern gentleman (the man raises quarter horses: how cool is that?) and all around nice guy, he was a wealth of information on farming, community sponsored agriculture programs, etc. He told me about a study at Auburn that analyzed ground beef. Evidently, the average packet of supermarket ground beef contains DNA from over 40 cows. Imagine the horrific process that could result in such a product. Deacue told me that he has not purchased ground beef from the supermarket since learning about the findings of this study. In turn, I have not purchased a single pound of ground beef since Deacue told me of his boycott of mass produced ground beef. Every time I hear of another E. coli beef scare, I'm not the least bit surprised.

Of course, beef is just the tip of the iceberg. I know our economy is a mess, our healthcare system is corrupt, and the war in Iraq is a quagmire, but what about that basic stuff that keeps us alive: food. I wish the candidates really would address the sushi crisis and the meat crisis and the dairy crisis and the pesticides/produce crisis. After all, how patriotic is a juicy grilled burger on the 4th of July? Too bad this is now an impossibility, as it it unsafe to eat ground beef cooked any less than well done, and we all know that that burger ain't gonna be juicy.