So you've heard about the massive egg recall? Apparently most of the eggs in the country's grocery stores come from like 3 different huge factory chicken farms. One of these farm's eggs are tainted with salmonella, hence a recall of about a third of the eggs nationwide. The tainted eggs are sold under tons of different labels/brands, but they all come from the same (sick, cruel, and dirty) factory farm. (At least this is what I've gathered from half listening to the news on NPR lately- don't quote me on the details.) So I heard a news commentator saying how people are "scared" of where their food comes from, and they "can't trust" the producers or the government to regulate. Well, duh! They should be scared! Have you noticed that grocery store eggs come with numbers printed on them now! On eggs!
And I find myself thinking...I can trust my eggs, because I know where they come from. When I'm lucky enough to have my parents deliver a few dozen when they come to visit, well I definitely know those chickens and trust where those eggs come from. And when we run out (though it takes awhile, because I hoard those delicious eggs, with their golden-orange yolks), I go to the Farmer's Market, and I get eggs from a woman who herself takes care of the chickens. I'll keep doing this until we get our own hens (which I hope is in the not-too-distant future).
This salmonella outbreak is just another example of why we should be eating locally, from small farms. If we were doing this, then first of all the chickens wouldn't be stuffed into a filthy factory farm where disease runs rampant. And if, by chance, one of the small farms did produce contaminated eggs, only a small number of people would be affected. I feel like Mother Nature keeps giving us lessons in why & how the status quo isn't working (like say, this egg recall, or the Gulf oil spill). When are the masses going to wake up and smell the coffee? Or is everyone going to keep on drinking the Kool-Aid?
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