The Texas peanut industry^† is taking a bit hit thanks to one small-time player, Peanut Corp. of America. It’s sad, because they aren’t involved in the recall, and for all I know, they produce perfectly good peanuts and peanut products. The problem is, I, as a consumer, have no way of knowing whether the peanuts in any particular product are from Texas, Georgia, or the outer plains Orion’s Belt. Therefore, peanuts are off the platter in my household until further notice.

Though I may break down soon. We eat a lot of peanut products. We miss them dearly. At some point, the desire to eat something containing peanuts will overwhelm the desire to not potentially eat something which could make us sick. I imagine it will be a little while yet, since there was yet a new case of peanut-related salmonella discovered right here in Central Texas last week.

When I consider that a very small player in the food production industry has been responsible for the largest product recall in the history of the USA, it makes me consider what the scope would be if it was a larger company … one that really has a busy production line and creates even more consumer products and ingredients for consumer products. Then I freak out and think about something else for fear of never being able to happily eat anything bought in a store again.

I don’t expect perfection in processed foods or factory-farmed fresh goods. Perfection is not possible. It’s not even feasible to consider achieving perfectly processed consumer foodstuffs, but it is a worthy goal that all companies and farms should be striving to achieve, not because someone tells them they have to do so, but because it’s the right thing to do. What happened to pride of product? Making something good that’s worth paying for? Oh yeah, it got drowned in the bathtub and buried in the back yard by corporate greed.

What I expect when I buy a jar of peanut butter is it will be a better jar of peanut butter than I could make myself. The companies have the equipment, the manpower, the raw materials, and the knowledge for how to make a jar of peanut butter which won’t kill me. I do not have the equipment, the manpower, the knowledge, or the raw materials to do so myself. Buying equipment is expensive. My time is worth more than a jar or two of peanut butter. I could acquire the knowledge, but there are so many hours in the day. I could never grow enough peanuts to fulfill our yearly needs. Therefore, I am willing to outsource the production of peanut butter to those who are better able to produce it, and I am willing to pay them a decent price for their labor … even if it occasionally contains an animal hair or ground up bugs, which anything I produced in my own home would likely also contain. All I ask is they do their best to produce a product which is as near perfection as humanly possible, and when they realize they have produced something substandard to not ship it to the shelves anyway for fear of monetary losses. I want them to take pride in their product and respect for the human lives who have outsourced their own food production to those who should be more capable of doing the task. I want them to be as horrified to consider causing harm to someone as I am when I make someone cookies or give them vegetables I grew in my yard. I don’t think I am asking too much by asking companies and those who run them to have a conscious.

So one of thousands, possibly millions of small-time food producing companies didn’t have a conscious, and now an entire industry has been painted with a broad brush as being unsafe. That’s both sad an unfortunate, because I still have faith there are peanut companies out there creating perfectly edible and safe peanut products. I have no way of knowing which products these are, and every day more and more products are put on the recall list. The cookies I buy today may get put on the list tomorrow, and by then, it would be too late, and I would have gambled with our health. That’s not something I gamble with lightly. My health is certainly worth more to me than my craving for a peanut butter cookie.

I don’t really have a solution to this problem. I think one step in the right direction would be more self-monitoring and self-testing by the companies themselves, combined with total transparency to the consumer about the results of the monitoring and testing. I should be able to go to a company’s web site, see from whom and where they buy the ingredients. I should be able to see the results of safety testing without having to write letters or get court orders. If a company’s goal is a healthy and safe product which comes as close to perfection as humanly possible, then work toward that goal, and show everyone how well they are doing. Wouldn’t need to be mandatory. Everyone wouldn’t need to keep up with every company on a weekly basis either. In this day and age, a company that was cagey about showing test results or who was doing poorly at producing a good product would feel pressure from consumers all the same. Word of mouth is still the greatest marketing tool of them all.

So that’s one possible step toward a solution to companies that don’t give a damn about anything but the bottom line. I’m sure there are others, but transparency of production is one I would personally find helpful in making decisions about which products are worth outsourcing their production to companies who should be able to produce them better than I could do so myself. And it all boils down to pride of product and respect for consumers … and a little less greed.

Tangential Note: I visit the FDA web site about once a week to read through the latest recalls. I visit more often when something like the current recall is ongoing. What I have noticed since the peanut recall has begun is that the only things listed on the daily lists are peanut products. I know all the medical supplies, drugs, and other foodstuffs haven’t suddenly achieved production perfection, and yet, there hasn’t been anything other than peanut products listed for weeks. Makes one wonder what other illness producing or deadly products are slipping through the cracks right now while our overworked system deals with peanuts.

1. † Texas is the second largest peanut producer after Georgia. [↩]