There's a Bug in Your Food! -- July 20, 2009

I am lucky.  I know it.  When I cook at home, I use meat that was locally and humanely raised, without hormones or antibiotics.  In many cases, I actually know the farmer.  That is so with the beef tenderloin I wrote about last week. It is a comfort to feel so good about the food I prepare for and feed my family.

When I eat out, I ask the proprietor about his/her meat sources.  I almost always am met with a blank stare.  Recently, at the new restaurant Mooney's, in downtown Winston-Salem, I was told that local meat was too expensive and that they would have to double the price of their sandwiches to provide local meat (funny, though, at Zaytoon's in Greensboro, their hormone and antibiotic-free meat is featured on sandwiches that retail for about a dollar more). When I get this type of response, I go vegetarian.

I like to think that most people have access to locally, humanely raised meat and poultry.  Yes, it takes some effort to seek out these sources, and yes, in general you will pay more.  But, consider the alternative ....

Prevention magazine recently published an expose on MRSA, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, The Superbug in Your Supermarket.  Seriously, this superbug should be the subject of an episode of House. If you to read this article, I would wager that you would never eat factory-farmed meat again.

Now it seems that the FDA and the Obama Adminsitration are waking up to the dangers of pumping our (okay, "your" because I don't eat the stuff) food full of antibiotics. I hope the power of agribusiness does not defeat important legislation designed to protect our food supply. Perhaps one day I will be able to order a burger in a restaurant again.