Eggmergency? Eggpedemic? ArmEGGeddon? Maybe not, but right now, we are in the middle of the biggest egg-borne Salmonella outbreak in U.S. History. At least 1300 people are sick, a prom was ruined, the FDA is furiously telling us that everything is cool, eggs are being recalled left and right, egg prices are skyrocketing, and the whole nation is trembling at the feet of Salmonella. This whole fiasco makes me think about two things. The first is a little I-told-you-so sounding, but the reason this epidemic is so widespread is because the American food industry is dependent on a small number of huge factory farms that distribute food to the entire country. The infected eggs, it seems, came entirely from two farms in Iowa. Basically, this wouldn’t have happened, at least not as badly, if we got our eggs from local farms. I know we always talk about local farming at WOYP, because that’s what we’re all about, and it’s obnoxious for me to talk about how right I’ve been all along. But seriously, Internet, when two farms are sending eggs all over the country and some chickens in those farms get sick, those diseases get put on trucks and sent to grocery stores thousands of miles away, and we get this. And it makes it harder to track an epidemic when people are getting sick simultaneously on opposite sides of the country. Replace the small number of huge farms with a huge number of small ones, and if you do get Salmonella in some eggs, the epidemic will be small, and the source will be easy to trace.
Of course, it’s easy to say that a few huge farms are easier to keep safe and healthy than a vast number of small farms scattered across the country, and that would be an excellent point. Which brings me to my second thought about the egg recall: as linked above, the FDA does not think it is necessary to start vaccinating chickens against Salmonella. I get that it’s dangerous to over-medicate livestock (antibiotics in my milk! gross!) but chickens depend on farmers to keep them healthy, and getting your shots is part of staying healthy these days. Sure, I think factory farms and cruelty to animals cause most food problems, but this really never would have happened to such an alarming degree if we didn’t depend on huge farms and watched out for our chickens’ health. So, People of the Internet, it’s your job, as it always has been, to seek out local farmers for your eggs, and FDA, it’s your job, as it always has been, to regulate a food system that takes care of its chickens. Go forth!