|
Today’s
column explores three aspects of Regional
Security. The focus is not protecting life and
property against attacks by terrorists. The
immediate objectives are even more important: creating
a Regional defense against disease and economic
collapse. Of course, a New Urban Region with
safe food and a prosperous economy would provide
a much more robust defense against terrorists of
all persuasions.
Eat
Your Spinach
According
to MainStream Media reports, the Food and Drug
Administration has declared spinach, even from
the three counties with 12 suspect fields around
Salinas, Calif., to be “safe.” The MSM also
reports that government sleuths have not found
what caused the latest E.coli 0157:H7 outbreak.
That investigative performance mirrors the
results of previous E.coli contamination of
fresh spinach.
The
latest spinach episode should give everyone
cause to carefully consider Regional Security.
At
S/PI, “Regional Security” is called New
Urban Region and Urban Support Region Security.
If one does not understand New Urban Regions and
Urban Support Regions, they probably do not have
a comprehensive conceptual framework with which
to consider the importance of “the spinach
problem.”
It
should not take a rocket scientist to
understand that there is a direct relationship
between food chain safety and sustainable New
Urban Regions (NURs) with functional
settlement patterns.
Every
NUR may not manufacture its own long-range jet
aircraft or support its own army but New Urban
Regions (and Urban Support Regions) could do
much more to produce their own food supplies and
far more to protect their citizens from
food-borne diseases and diseases in general.
“Regional
Food” might cost a little more at some times
of the year and there may be less variety at low
prices in the “supermarket,” but food could
be far safer because it would be easier to
detect, trace and correct problems in the food
chain. We address food cost below, but setting
aside price for the moment, consider the
following in the context of a well understood
Regional Food Supply program:
-
How
often would a grower, processor, distributor
who lives in the same Region, or perhaps
even in the same Alpha Community, look the
other way when she knows that the person
eating the spinach is her child at home or
in a school lunch program?
These
are only threshold questions to get the
conversation started. The topic is complex and
there are many as yet unexplored aspects of
Regional Food Security. There is, however,
plenty of information to start the discussion.
It is imperative that the discussion start soon.
A
comprehensive Regional Food Supply System with
Regional-, Subregional-, Community-, Village-
and Neighborhood- scale production and
distribution would provide a living wage for
those who say they would like to raise food but
are now priced out of the market by factory
farms, mega food corporations, mega retailers
and international food distribution systems.
Some aspects of such a program are explored in
Jac Smit’s 1996 book “Urban Agriculture:
Food, Jobs and Sustainable Cities (sic)”.
Jac meant to say "Sustainable
Regions."
Regional
Food Labs
Before
further examining the Winner-Take-All context of
inter-regional and global food
production/distribution, let us pause to note an
immediate need:
Every
region should have high quality food analysis
laboratories. There should be enough labs to
meet the demand of the Region and there should
be public access so anyone could submit a
sample to check the quality and content of any
food product.
To
the extent that Labs exist, their location is
unknown to the public and access is not open.
It
is not just E.coli in spinach or hamburger that
is a cause for concern. There is Mad Cow Disease
(BSE), mercury in fish and persistent organic
pollutants in many other foods.
A
system of Regional Labs would be a first step
toward a longer term goal:
Regions
must use technology to make food safe, not
just make money for those at top of economic
food chain.
Regional
Labs that establish systems to test and monitor
food and support existing public health programs
also could assist in the disaster planning,
detection and education for infectious and
contagious diseases. Avian Flu comes to mind.
Disease
and contamination are not the only issue that
need to be monitored. Food processors employ
salt and sugar to make their foods taste better.
The fact that these additive cost so little
invites overuse.
But
high-sodium, high-sugar diets contribute to the
epidemics of high blood pressure and obesity.
It's nice to make headlines by taking hazardous
“soft” drinks out of schools as Bill Clinton
did last week but that does not get to the core
problem.
Regional
labs also could provide small food producers
the raw or prepared food the
detailed label now requires on interstate food
re sodium, carbs, trans-fat, etc.
Worth
the Effort?
Before
we consider the implications of Regional Food
Security and Safety there is an important
question to ask: Is it worth the effort?
Business-As-Usual
advocates will say Food Security is not a big
problem. After all only three lives were lost
(so far) in the latest E.coli scare. We loose 1,000
times that many citizens every month from the
Autonomobility system that is subsidized by the
government to provide access and mobility for
citizens. The September data indicates that, at
the current monthly rate, there are over 250
times that number of causalities in the Second
Gulf Oil War.
So
what is the big deal? The answer should be
obvious.
For starters, who thinks the
demonstrated weakness in tracing E.coli in
spinach was lost on those who are planning to do
whatever they can to kill and maim citizens of
the United States?
Even
without the threat of terrorism there are scary
prospects on the horizon.
About 3,000 die every day from
increasingly drug-resistant strains of Malaria.
West Nile could mutate to be far more deadly to
humans, so could Lime Disease, Spotted Fever and
Chronic Wasting Disease.
While these are not transferred in the
food chain at this time, these or similar very
deadly pathogens might be at some point as Mad
Cow Disease (BSE) is now.
Even “common” pathogens like
Salmonella can be dangerous and may mutate at
any time to more deadly, drug resistant forms.
More important, a Regional Security
system for food would inform and support
Regional Security vis a vis other threats.
Food
Chain Security and Inter-Regional Competition
In
a civilization where the default setting is
economic competition, one must look to the
bottom line, not just lives or casualties.
Any
consideration of the economic impact of
Regional Security as it relates to food must
start with the reality that citizens believe
that cheap food is a birth right.
The
vast majority of citizens purchase food and
related products based on price and convenience,
not quality. Further, people are not adverse to
government subsidies to food producers as long
as those who receive the subsidy justify it on
the basis of being able to lower the cost of
food. Interregional and international food
prices are distorted also by nation-state
dumping and other factors unrelated to true
costs, much less nutrition.
Mega
corporations now have "organic" and
“non-organic fields,” testimony to the
growth in demand for items labeled
“organic.” At present, “organic” foods
cost more than non organic foods. Likewise,
local produce and other food products are often
priced higher than “imported” food. This is
in part due to the subsidies that distort the
transportation sector which we have explored in
past columns.
The
northern Piedmont of Virginia is blessed with
many sources of good food. They cost more,
sometimes far much more than the same products
at Giant, Safeway or Food Lion. Competition
among producers of good food would drive down
the cost.
Wal*Mart
and Other Mega Retailers
The
topic of competition and large-scale retailers
of food puts a spotlight on Wal*Mart. The world's
largest private corporation, Wal*Mart, is a
champion of cheap prices. In recent years Wal*Mart
has added a full line of food products to its
offerings.
Wal*Mart
has become the largest corporation in the
world by exploiting the consumer fixation on
“cheap.”
More
important, Wal*Mart prices do not reflect the
full cost of the goods sold. Wal*Mart goods are
subsidized by the consumers and by the
governance agencies as documented in Chapters
30, 31 and 32 of "The Shape of the
Future."
Wal*Mart
has recently expanded its advertising and
promotions beyond low prices to focus on its
“Green” policies. A Fortune magazine
article in the 27 July, 2006, issue provides a
positive profile of Wal*Mart’s new green face.
Fortune reports that Wal*Mart has hired
consultants with experience in national and
international sustainability programs to provide
advice. (See “Soft
Consumption Paths,” 7 August 2006.)
In
recent presentations we have pointed out that
the only way Wal*Mart can make a real
contribution to sustainability will be to change
the basic sales strategy model of having
customers drive long distances to big, cheap
stores to save a few pennies.
All
other efforts -- cutting the cost of its truck
fleet, selling ethanol, cutting energy or
packaging consumption or selling more
products/products for less than the competition
– are self serving.
Failure
to understand the locational impact of Wal*Mart
leads to further confusion. Recently WaPo
columnists who cater to a broad spectrum of
political thought all defended Wal*Mart against
attacks by representatives of one political
party.(1)
The
core problem is that members of one political
party are attacking Wal*Mart for byproducts of
their corporate strategy, not the root cause
of the problems they cause: dysfunctional
travel patterns and scattered land uses.
Food
Chain Security and Global Trade
Concern
for food processing and distribution raises
issues of regional self sufficiency, balance,
sustainability and ultimately survival. One can
glance over the fence at a related and even more
complex problem: Global trade and global
competition.
From
the perspective of building long-term economic
prosperity on a Regional scale, global trade
is the low hanging fruit. Concerns for
Security of the food supply provides an
introduction to this reality.
The
Commonwealth is in a good position to take
advantage of global trade because of the
location of the seat of the federal government
and international transport facilities in the
state. However,
global trade’s potential advantage is based on
the ideal that “cheap is good,” not that
quality matters or that Regional Security is the
key to long-term sustainability of the economy
and of civilization.
It
is not just a matter of eating your spinach. The
safest course of action is for citizens to grow their own spinach. Not
many are inclined to do that.
An
even better solution is to buy spinach from someone
who is known and trusted. An advantage of sustainable
settlement patterns is that many people can
enjoy the luxury of actually knowing their
farmers or their vendors personally. Those who
do not, can at least have confidence that that
the system that produces food and serves the
Region also is safe.
Right
now consumers are going to the market blind,and
the government and MSM are not helping. In fact,
they are working hand-in-hand with Business As
Usual leading citizens down the path to the
cliff.
--
October 9, 2006
(1)
George Will “Democrats Vs. Wal*Mart,” 14
September 2006; Robert J. Samuelson “Wal*Mart
as Red Herring” 30 August 2006; and Sebastian
Mallaby “Shopping for Support Down the Wrong
Aisle,” 28 August.
|
