What is safe to eat?

One of the most pronounced differences which I see in the difference between how Americans and Europeans look at their food is in terms of food safety. In the US, food safety regulations are relatively stringent in the last stages of preparation - in the kitchen - but virtually non-existent or unenforced on the farm or in factories. In Europe, things seem to be just the opposite - restaurants have little regulation while farms have strong rules on what can and cannot be grown. Talking to the French about their food, they wonder why someone would ever worry about refrigeration, but are shocked that I have been (inevitably) been eating genetically modified foods for the past decade and I am not dead.

I guess one of the surprising facts is that Americans do want stronger regulations on food - they are simply unwilling to make the government do anything about it. Consistently there is support for the labeling or banning or genetically engineered foods, surveys show for support for country of origin designations, and Americans overwhelmingly oppose the approval of cloned meat, yet the government just bowed to industry pressure to allow it and all else. Americans are clueless about where our food comes from and what it contains because the government keeps it that way. However, you will (usually) see hairnets, washed hands, and food stored four inches from the floor because the government takes a special interest in all the little things being done just right. While recalls of millions of tons of tainted foods from poor factory conditions are becoming regular in the US, you are protected from the harmless hair which may fall from the head of the fellow making your sandwich.

I have had several French people tell me that they thing US health code is hypersensitive and ineffective.* A little bit of the right dirt never killed anyone. With a much less centralized food system, if something does go wrong it effects dozens, maybe hundreds, but rarely the millions that it can harm in the US. They are committed to this idea of decentralizing problems with good reason. Mad cow seems to have made a much greater impact on the psyche of people here than it has back home. A problem was identified - the cutting of corners in the cattle industry leading to animals being fed major components of the nervous systems of other animals - and a solution was found - stop it, test for it all the time, and make there be repercussions. With any other potential risk which rears its head, the government here is sure to make sure that things are tested and regulated before things go wrong rather than trying to make up for them afterwards.

I don't know where to place the origins of this strange divide. Why do Americans need all their soaps to be anti-bacterial (even though the small amount of anti-bacterial does not clean hands any better than regular soap) yet don't take a stand and demand that our food processing system clean up and decentralize? For lack of a better place to direct blame, I will say it has something to do with the American individualist notions of responsibility vs the collective lovefest generally favored by Europeans, but just a guess... Until then, I will brush the dirt off of my baguette, made from wholly traceable and safe ingredients.

*A theory of health that says that low exposure to bacteria helps promote a healthy immune system. The American style sterile environments breeds weak immune systems which are knocked out easily by a rogue bacterium, hence Americans being generally less healthy today because of (not in spite of) their ever increasing cleanliness.