Current research and available science articulate the
false nature of the conflict between food safety and environmental stewardship.
Eliminating wildlife, which studies have shown do not pose a significant
risk to food safety, and removing wildlife habitat that filters pathogens
exacerbates the problem of E.coli 0157 entering the food supply.
Download
Photos of Habitat Destruction
The photos of habitat destruction appear in an addendum to WFA’s
Food Safety paper. To learn the full extent of the problem and recommendations
for improvement, go to: Food
Safety Requires a Healthy Environment: Policy Recommendations for E.coli
0157
WFA works in a region directly affected by this issue, and we are seeing
and hearing first hand reports of how compliance with unreasonable food
safety requirements is resulting in significant environmental degradation.
Our mission of promoting agriculture that protects and restores wild nature
strikes at the heart of this matter. Without changes to the direction
food safety programs, stewardship practices supported by USDA and others
that protect the environment would be jeopardized nationwide.
In the paper, a set of recommendations is made for all current and future
government-sanctioned food safety programs. Some are suggested changes
to Good Agricultural Practice metrics, and others are changes to the scope
of what food safety programs cover. Additionally, suggestions address
wider-reaching core problems that when dealt with concurrently, yield
a more comprehensive plan for the safe production of food.
Major recommendations include: a) the unfounded targeting of wildlife
is stopped; b) buffers between crops and grazing lands are vegetated instead
of left bare, and no buffer is required between crops and habitat; c)
a ceiling is placed on all government authorized food safety programs
to curtail the use of environmentally destructive super metrics; and d)
food safety auditors are certified through programs teaching agricultural
natural resource protections that reduce the incidence of harmful pathogens
on the landscape.
More information:
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