Bad eggs, as a reason for taking control of your food.
Ok, 300+ Million eggs that might be tainted. That is a lot.
So where do we go from here? Government commissions? Outrage? One would think that this would generate the same outrage that the Gulf Oil Spill did. I am serious people, this is our food supply. If any of you toured a chicken and/or egg processing facility, you would become vegan in a heartbeat. (I have. Both, as well as slaughterhouses)
(Additional note of disclosure: I have been in the food processing business for most of my life)
We need to pay attention to what we put in our bodies, and where it comes from. I recommend seeing the movie Food, Inc. as well as reading “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” . I have been trying to take advantage of the local markets and sourcing food for my family with an eye towards less processed and more fresh/humanely treated.
Try to pay a little more attention to the path that food takes from start to finish. You will be quite surprised. We as a public have complete control over this. We exercise it with our dollars. Is it easy? Hell no. We are harried, busy individuals and families, with little time to go out of the way to get something better. Well that “It’ll just have to do.” mentality needs to be rethought.
Take control over what you feed yourself and your loved ones. Research just what those egg processors do. It is not nice and tidy. I’m not advocating a boycott or anything, just public awareness, and the strong pressure that a purchasing public can exert to reason change, towards the positive. I am not perfect in my food purchases. But I am becoming more aware.
Looking back, looking forward 
I remember in 8th grade seeing a documentary about slaughterhouses. Swore I wasn’t going to eat meat again, but at lunch two hours later I took one look at the choices, burger or mystery casserole, and my resolve melted away. On the other hand we’ve purchased meat directly from a farm before (for the record a 1/4 cow is a LOT of meat) and it definitely tasted better. Still, when you buy local you’re often choosing to pay more.
Actually, when you buy healthy you’re choosing to pay more. It’s amazing to me how much cheaper it is to eat crap.
It really is disheartening that the cost differential is so great. But, I guess it is one we have to bear, and I would guess in the long run it is cheaper.
I am pretty entrenched as an omnivore, but have made effort to go with less processed, local source foods. It is better quality and I feel good about helping local growers. It has also been a good summer for local grown produce. That made me happy.
Love this post, Paul! Both of those recs – the movie + book – are two of my favorite. (I’m like Jon though, I saw Food Inc and swore off meat… for a few hours.)
A great quote from Michael Pollan (author of Ominvore’s Dilemma): “Cheap food has a high cost.” Love this. Because it is cheaper to eat crap in the short term, but the long term cost of our health and our communities are where we’re paying for the cheap food later.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some eggs in my fridge I better throw out!
One of the many eye opening experiences I had at the Food Bank was the ServSafe training. It brought home just how fragile our food is. If our home kitchens and practices were inspected like restaurants are, we would be surprised by the sheer number of bad practices we do. I think a class like that should be taught in High Schools as part of life skills training!