By Bill Duesing
Both organic and conventional foods can be a source of
food poisoning outbreaks. However, in an organic system, there’s a much higher level of
microbial biodiversity, so there are more naturally beneficial microbes in the
system and soil.
Studies show that when you introduce pathogens into an
organic system, they often don’t survive very long because
the biologically rich community of organisms that’s
naturally there either competes effectively with them or uses them for lunch.
-Charles Benbrook, a research professor at Washington State
University’s Center
for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources in Pullman.
We all want our food to be "safe." We expect those mixed greens we buy for our
salads to be free of microbes that could make us sick. That's the case whether we pick up a plastic
package of conventional mesclun which comes from the other side of the country
or our organic CSA share, freshly mixed from produce of several neighboring
farms. *(See #2 below.)
In September, as part of its implementation of the
Food SafetyModernization Act (FSMA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued the
second versions of the two Rules which apply to fresh fruits and vegetables
which are normally eaten raw. The
Produce Rule applies to farms. The
Preventative Controls Rule applies to facilities which process food. In the rules there are many references to
RACs. Those are raw agricultural
commodities. The extensive Table 1 in the appendix lists all the different
things that are done to RACs and whether they are classified as harvest
activities or processing activities.
FDA will accept comments from farmers, eaters, handlers and
researchers on these new versions until December 15, 2014. Your comments are
critically important.
We will begin counting down to CT NOFA's largest celebration of local and organic food, farming and community with a glimpse into to line-up each week showcasing a few workshops we have recently announced. 
