Dogma triumphs over data in Canada’s food safety public relations bubble

From Doug Powell at Barfblog:

Image via Barfblog.

“Canada has the best health care system in the world.

And really clean water.

And really safe food.

And a lot of delusional people who apparently think repetition rather than data makes something true.

This week was particularly strong for some food safety nosestretchers in the wake of comments make by supermarket mogul Galen Weston Jr. that food at farmer’s markets were going to kill someone someday.

First up, Sylvain Charlebois, acting dean and professor at the University of Guelph’s College of Management and Economics, who wrote in a widely circulated op-ed that,

“The 2003 mad cow crisis in Canada was really the first major food safety-related event our country had experienced.”

Backyard chickens should “fly the coop”, local editorial writer suggests

From Crystal Crimi in the Northumberland News:

U.S. government encourages backyard chickens, circa 1918

“It’s time for the chickens to fly their backyard coop in residential Campbellford.

After months of dealing with the Bacher family and the seven hens they keep in their Doxsee Avenue backyard, the municipality is taking them to court for a zoning violation. If successful, the charge comes with a maximum fine of $25,000 — that’s a lot of eggs.

But not enough to make the Bachers give up their hens. They’re fighting the charge with the pro bono services of Belleville lawyer Karen Selick — the same woman who represented Michael Schmidt, an Ontario dairy farmer convicted last fall for offences relating to selling raw milk. 

Globe and Mail picks up the USA Today story based on the CDCs selected “facts”

This whole thing seems to be a “public relations” exercise arising from the Harvard debate, which you can watch in the preceding post. See also this earlier post from David Gumpert discussing the USA Today story, as well as this post from Kimberly Hartke, setting things straight for the WAPF. From Wendy Leung, in the Globe and Mail:

“Those who feel strongly about the benefits of raw milk are willing to go to great lengths to fight for access to the unpasteurized dairy product.

But contributing to the raw-milk debate, a new study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says unpasteurized milk is 150 times more likely to cause outbreaks of food-borne illness than the pasteurized stuff.

Feb 16 Harvard raw milk debate video