The egg and us.

I suppose many of you have already heard about the recent massive egg recall.

"egg recall" sounds funny to me. Food shouldn't be in the same company with lead painted plastic toys from China, or Car seats(or Cars!). Too much "consumer lingo" for my tastes.

Eggs have been recalled in 22 states. These eggs have been sold under 24 different brands. That's a lot of eggs. An FDA investigation has zeroed in on 2

Iowa based producers. Count them: 2.

Which makes me scratch my head when FDA commisioner Margaret Hamburg thinks the solution to these salmonella outbreaks is "GIVE THE FDA MORE POWER."

There is no mention of the terrors and errors of factory farming. No mention of scale.

Big farms are not good for chickens. They are not good for the eggs coming out of the chickens. They are not good for the people who eat the eggs coming out of the chickens.

But not to worry, because if we just give more power to the FDA, power to randomly raid and inspect every egg producer in the country, we should be able to clean up these salmonella outbreaks.

ha.

Ms. Hamburg's brand of comedy is rather tragic.

Here at the farm, we have no problem with government. We are not anarchists. We'd love it if the USDA saw fit to regulate the size of factory farms, and mandate pasture farming. If more regulatory power meant more crackdowns on mega-farms, and more opportunity for the small family farms, we'd cheer, and cheer wildly.

Unfortunately the FDA and the USDA aren't all that interested in regulating the big guys. Probably because the big guys have the big piles of money (that which runs the world)to lobby with...

while all I could offer them is a dozen (salmonella-free) eggs.