We’ve all been hearing about the Cyclospora outbreak. A few customers have been asking if our produce is safe. I received a message today from an email list I’m on called Farmhand that gave an excellent explanation as to why small, local farms are almost never involved in this kind of outbreak. Here’s what they said:
“Weeks into this outbreak, the most important detail is still the one nobody prints in bold: officials can’t find the source. That’s not because the investigators are bad at their jobs. It’s because the industrial food system is built in a way that makes the question unanswerable. A bag of salad greens passes through growers, consolidators, processors, distributors, and retailers — so many anonymous hands that by the time someone gets sick, “where did this come from?” has no answer at all. The anonymity isn’t a bug in that system. It’s the design.”
At Red Wagon our produce is only handled by us! It goes straight from our field to our pack house to you. It doesn’t pass through many hands in different facilities with the potential to be involved in a nationwide food-borne illness outbreak.
You should always follow common-sense food safety procedures like washing your produce and using clean hands, tools, and surfaces for preparation. But you can rest assured that nothing you get from Red Wagon has passed through the black box of the industrial food system in our country. It’s one more reason to support local farms year-in and year-out. So we can stay in business and be there when you really need us!
With health and food safety,
Amy
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