Food safety lawyer Bill Marler got verbally beaten up a bit by daring to say that local food needs to be safe food.

Devra Gartenstein, the owner of Seattle’s Patty Pan Grill and the author of two cookbooks, Local Bounty: Vegan Seasonal Produce and The Accidental Vegan, wrote on something called The Green Fork yesterday that,

“It’s certainly true that food purveyors at every level should be scrupulously clean and conscientious about how they handle their food. But it’s patently untrue that farmers’ market prepared foods are unsupervised, at least here in Seattle, where both Mr. Marler and I live. Prepared food vendors are permitted and inspected by the health department. When health inspectors aren’t personally on site, the market managers act as their proxies, checking temperatures and handwashing stations. We’re also required to take classes in proper food handling procedures.”

That’s great. But what about local food that isn’t prepared or processed? The author seems to be playing semantics, jumping from prepared foods – which are clearly under local health folks supervision – to other local foods, like produce that isn’t processed.

The author recites the usual food porn about how she knows the grower so it’s safer, but I’m looking for data: water quality results, data on soil amendments, evidence of compliance with handwashing and safe handling.

It isn’t about local, small or big. It’s about what will make folks barf. And that requires control of dangerous microorganisms, regardless of politics.