Megafarming is showing its scary side in the recall of eggs that may be tainted with salmonella. The number of eggs recalled may reach half a billion. Gods, where will they put them all?

Factory farming makes it inevitable that animal diseases will spread and affect the food supply.

This egg disaster goes hand-in-hand with industrial food production, some experts insist.
Years ago, communities would get eggs from nearby farms, so any outbreaks would be geographically localized, says Dr. William Schaffner, chairman of the department of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. Today, if there is a problem in some early stage in the distribution chain, it spreads quickly over a very large geographic area and involves a very large number of people, he says.

Is it the price we pay for a cheap breakfast? Not all experts agree.

“Yeah, when there are more birds, there will be more problems,” says Jeff Armstrong, dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Michigan State University, “but there is no clear data on whether one system of housing birds is more or less likely to encourage disease. The bottom line is that we can and have been producing eggs safely and economically in confinement.This unfortunate problem is not an indictment of the system.”

With thousands of people feared sickened, it seems that the arguments are destined to continue.
As for Nestle, she shops for eggs at her local farmer’s market. They cost more, but she says she knows how they are produced.

I don’t have any worries about it because East Side Pharmacy sells eggs from Stamp Farms in Johnston. There are a number of chicken farms in Johnston and around the state. I don’t know how freely the chickens range inside that big red barn at Stamp Farms, but at least I know where the eggs come from, and they’re not expensive like pretentious organic eggs from New Jersey, or Idaho, or wherever.

In honor of all things Rhode Island, here is the local list.

Me Vida Local List–
Acme Video
Silver Star Bakery
United BBQ
Stamp Egg Farms
East Side Prescription Center
Yacht Club Soda
Mangiarelli’s Fruitlands
Four Mile River Farm

Follow the above links to local providers. Keep our economy from tanking any worse.