That was the title of a talk I gave at the International Association for Food Protection annual meeting this morning in Orlando.

I spoke about the evolution and marketing of organic, genetically-engineered free and local food production systems, and commented on the rise of food pornography. The slides are available here. The abstract for a paper Katija Blaine and I prepared in 2004 on organic and conventional food safety systems is available here.

The formal abstract is below.

Douglas A. Powell, Katija Morley, Stacey Cahill, Benjamin C. Chapman and Amy L. Hubbell

Scientific Director and Associate Professor, International Food Safety Network, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, 66506, U.S.

Fresh fruits and vegetables have been identified as a significant source of microbial foodborne illness for at least the past decade. Outbreaks have been linked to both conventionally and organically grown produce.

Previous studies have identified gaps between U.S. Food and Drug Administration on-farm food safety guidelines and organic standards in terms of microbial food safety. Although microbial food safety standards are often achieved indirectly under organic production, organic standards are process-based, and have nothing do to with end-product safety. Specific omissions include worker hygiene and recommendations for safe use of processing and irrigation water. Further, any guideline or standard is meaningless without robust verification. The production of safe food is the responsibility of everyone in the farm-to-fork chain — conventional or organic — and food safety, especially with fresh produce, must begin on the farm.