The last few days of each year there are always many “best of” and “year-in-review” lists and specials. Here’s an article from the NY Times that is an “agricultural year-in-review.”
“This is the year everyone discovered that food is about politics and people can do something about it,” said Marion Nestle, a professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health at New York University. “In a world in which people feel more and more distant from global forces that control their lives, they can do something by, as the British put it, ‘voting with your trolley,’ their word for shopping cart.”
The organics movement went mainstream this year, too, as Wal-Mart rolled out a wide selection of food bearing the United States Department of Agriculture’s organic certification. The chain also vowed to price these products only slightly higher than conventional foods.
But there were signs that organics may have become too successful for their own good. Once welcomed as the savior of the small farmer and the conscientious eater, organic farming has lost some of its luster, dulled by large operators who follow the letter of the law but ignore the larger principles that once characterized the organic movement.
After the outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 in spinach in August, sales of the vegetable plummeted 60 percent. With several outbreaks this year, including one involving E. coli at the Taco Bell chain, the idea that eating local may be safer is taking hold. The discovery of contaminated produce is happening at a time when advice about eating more fruits and vegetables seems to be having an impact. So concerns about safety may be contributing to the success of local farmers’ markets.