Searching the Athens Yellow Pages for restaurants will result in approximately 350 options. But how well does a consumer know what they in fact consume? Oscar Garrison, of the GA department of Agriculture, questions.
Garrison is the Assistant Commissioner of Consumer Protection for the Agriculture Department. On Thursday, he gave a speech on the emerging issues in agriculture and food defense in the Auditorium of the Ecology building.
“This is your issue.” Garrison said,”At some point it becomes the consumers’ job to help themselves.”
According to a recent CDC study, every year 1-in-4 Americans get sick with a food-borne illness. In addition, 325,000 people are hospitalized and 5,000 Americans per year die of a food related illness.
People in many cases aren’t aware of what they consume. Bacteria, viruses and parasites can be introduced to an innocent person’s food directly or by association and can be intentional or accidental. “Although there are many rules and regulations at this point, it still isn’t enough” Garrison clarified. There are simply not modern means to completely protect the consumer. To explain the difficulty of locating one bacterium in 25 grams of food, he used the analogy of locating a golf ball in 25 cubic miles of garbage. Again he explained that although he and his associates do their job as best they can, the food industry and agriculture will never be completely safe.
America, although not completely safe, is still better off than many places world wide. Garrison recalled a visit to Shanghai, China in which he witnessed unregulated open-air and wet markets where conditions were completely unsafe and unsanitary. Cultural differences and customs make things such as lack of temperature regulations, lack of toilets and no facilities acceptable there.
In a diverse location like Atlanta, many things can still ‘slip through the cracks’ Garrison explained. In the last year alone, the Agriculture Department has shut down distributors on Buford Highway for attempting to sell skinned dogs, guinea pigs and illegally-imported clams for consumption.
Not only are small personal trade products getting into the country without notice, but a recent issue with counterfeit products and melamine-contaminated products has arisen. Melamine is an organic base, that when consumed in small doses is not harmful, but it is still toxic and in certain situations can cause fatal kidney stones.
In addition to the melamine products, in the summer of 2007, a Chinese company imported pre-packaged fish labeled as ‘grouper’ which actually turned out to be Asian catfish. Catfish is a farm-raised fish which is full of hormones and antibiotics. This fish passed through customs without testing because of the deceptive labeling.
Garrison points out that even American farmers can be deceptive for their own profit. This past year’s tomato scare ended in thousands of tomatoes going to waste and hundreds of farmers losing money. There were actually no contaminated tomatoes at all, but in fact the scare resulted from a Florida farmer importing Mexican peppers, repackaging them and reselling them for over double the price he paid.
The United States Department of Agriculture recently gave the University of Georgia a grant to write guidelines for GA food producers, transporters and distributors. Garrison was a key participant in the award of the grant and hopes to use it to further protect consumers.
“The speech was sort of scary” said 21-year-old Jenna Porto “It really opened my eyes to risks I didn’t know existed. I definitely plan on being more careful in the future.”
Being careful is about the only thing a consumer can do in present day according to the speech. “You have to stop, look, ask and know.” Garrison said. He reiterated, “This is your issue.”
Garrison is the Assistant Commissioner of Consumer Protection for the Agriculture Department. On Thursday, he gave a speech on the emerging issues in agriculture and food defense in the Auditorium of the Ecology building.
“This is your issue.” Garrison said,”At some point it becomes the consumers’ job to help themselves.”
According to a recent CDC study, every year 1-in-4 Americans get sick with a food-borne illness. In addition, 325,000 people are hospitalized and 5,000 Americans per year die of a food related illness.
People in many cases aren’t aware of what they consume. Bacteria, viruses and parasites can be introduced to an innocent person’s food directly or by association and can be intentional or accidental. “Although there are many rules and regulations at this point, it still isn’t enough” Garrison clarified. There are simply not modern means to completely protect the consumer. To explain the difficulty of locating one bacterium in 25 grams of food, he used the analogy of locating a golf ball in 25 cubic miles of garbage. Again he explained that although he and his associates do their job as best they can, the food industry and agriculture will never be completely safe.
America, although not completely safe, is still better off than many places world wide. Garrison recalled a visit to Shanghai, China in which he witnessed unregulated open-air and wet markets where conditions were completely unsafe and unsanitary. Cultural differences and customs make things such as lack of temperature regulations, lack of toilets and no facilities acceptable there.
In a diverse location like Atlanta, many things can still ‘slip through the cracks’ Garrison explained. In the last year alone, the Agriculture Department has shut down distributors on Buford Highway for attempting to sell skinned dogs, guinea pigs and illegally-imported clams for consumption.
Not only are small personal trade products getting into the country without notice, but a recent issue with counterfeit products and melamine-contaminated products has arisen. Melamine is an organic base, that when consumed in small doses is not harmful, but it is still toxic and in certain situations can cause fatal kidney stones.
In addition to the melamine products, in the summer of 2007, a Chinese company imported pre-packaged fish labeled as ‘grouper’ which actually turned out to be Asian catfish. Catfish is a farm-raised fish which is full of hormones and antibiotics. This fish passed through customs without testing because of the deceptive labeling.
Garrison points out that even American farmers can be deceptive for their own profit. This past year’s tomato scare ended in thousands of tomatoes going to waste and hundreds of farmers losing money. There were actually no contaminated tomatoes at all, but in fact the scare resulted from a Florida farmer importing Mexican peppers, repackaging them and reselling them for over double the price he paid.
The United States Department of Agriculture recently gave the University of Georgia a grant to write guidelines for GA food producers, transporters and distributors. Garrison was a key participant in the award of the grant and hopes to use it to further protect consumers.
“The speech was sort of scary” said 21-year-old Jenna Porto “It really opened my eyes to risks I didn’t know existed. I definitely plan on being more careful in the future.”
Being careful is about the only thing a consumer can do in present day according to the speech. “You have to stop, look, ask and know.” Garrison said. He reiterated, “This is your issue.”
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