This past week Veterinary Record published Dr. Patrick
Wall’s article “One Health and the food chain: maintaining safety in a
globalized industry”[2] discussing the
relationship between herd and farm animals with human health. Dr. Wall argues
that the current “farm to fork” consumer’s mantra is ‘naive’ and he presents an
alternate ‘maze’-like image of the food chain where even a slice from the local
pizzeria has been impacted by legislation as far away as China--a main
distributed of vitamins for animal rations.
 |
| [1] |
Dr. Wall further argues that the “final objective” for the
agri-food sector should be human health and that we should look to
veterinarians and plant and animal geneticists for future food health
interventions. Though many of his ideas are quite reasonable--no one can argue
that diseased animals should not enter the food chain, he seems to be
precariously close to calling out the so-called organic and small farm industry
whose popularity is spreading beyond the affluent. Even a diet consisting of
only home-raised animals will be touched by the animal feed industry. On
the one hand, more hands in the pot of production leaves more opportunity for
contamination. On the other hand, careful involvement by veterinarians and
scientists can lead to healthier a “final product”--for example, meat with
naturally less saturated fat.
Is the future of food locally grown organics or carefully bred, monitored, and enhanced animals and plants?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete