It's Not Just Avian Flu: The Hidden Risks in Our Food System
On today's podcast episode, longtime farmer Jeff Bender on how consolidation threatens the stability of the most basic of human needs.
(photo courtesy Paul White)
Welcome to the podcast Organized Money. You can listen to today’s episode with farmer Jeff Bender on Apple, on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Yesterday the New York Times had an ominous headline: “Cows Have Been Infected With a Second Form of Bird Flu.” With any influenza, the fear is a mutation from the initial host into other species. Already millions of birds have been deliberately killed to try to stem the avian flu outbreak; now it may have transferred to cows, infecting beef but also potentially milk and dairy products. And humans may be next.
The recent avian flu outbreaks have led to significant egg shortages; Waffle House just put a 50 cent surcharge on every egg purchase. But this slow-motion crisis isn’t just hurting our pocketbooks; it reveals how the consolidation of American agriculture has created dangerous vulnerabilities in our food system.
Today on Organized Money, we dive deep into the precarious state of American farming with Jeff Bender, a North Carolina grain farmer with 40 years of experience. Bender explains how farming has transformed from the diverse “Old MacDonald” model of small family farms to a rigid, industrial system dominated by monocultures and massive operations, where a single disease outbreak could devastate entire sectors of food production. This fragility is not well understood by most people, and Jeff takes us through it.
Listen via Apple:
Or Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Another thing we’re doing this year is providing transcripts and video for every episode. Check your inbox for that tomorrow.
Thank you so much for listening. If there’s a monopoly you’d like us to explore this year, or if you have anything else to tell us, please let us know by leaving a comment or by responding directly to this email.
Great episode, as a Canadian I know we have a strong supply management system with eggs and milk and our prices average higher but we are more robust, during this avian flu we haven’t seen much fluctuations, egg barns are smaller and regionalized, americas mega sized farms are the problem with your eggs
As a vegan (and as someone who used to thoughtlessly eat meat and dairy products), I know how horrific the meat & dairy industries are. They commit mass cruelty to billions of animals annually; they exploit workers (many of whom have mental issues due to their vicious jobs); they cause a significant amount of climate chaos; they reduce the efficacy of antibiotics; etc.