Food Supply Related Terrorist Threats

I'm not much on watching the news, but I did see coverage this morning of the planned terror attack on hotel/restaurant food supplies.

At the risk of sounding arrogant, which is not the intention, I find the uproar over this discovery exasperating to say the least. Evidence of the deplorable condition and precarious safety of America's food production and supply chains has been mounting for the last twenty years to the point where one must be purposefully blind and deaf to avoid be clobbered over the head with it. The screaming headlines of proliferating of food borne illnesses and mass incidents of contamination over the past twenty years alone should have made it obvious that our foodshed hangs on to stability by fragile thread, likely to snap at any time from the slightest provocation.

That terrorists have waited this long to exploit such a weakness is a miracle in itself. I am sufficiently cynical towards our government and large scale food manufacturers that I do not believe even this highly public threat will prompt viable corrective action on their part.

So it is my humble suggestion that as we consider what our new year's resolutions are to be that we each quietly add to our list a determination to become personally responsible for the food security of ourselves and our families. Restaurants and hotels may be high profile targets, eagerly covered by the news, but they are by no means the most vulnerable or efficient targets for terrorists. It would take precious little to bring our current capricious system to its knees, unleashing panic, chaos and starvation.

The good news amidst this looming darkness is that underneath the tide of commercial food-ways most of American retains the roots of it's localized foodsheds, many of them freshly re-developing in the wake of recent organic and locavore movements. The framework for a safer, more stable food supply exists within reach of each of us if we will simply open our eyes, extend our hands and take hold.