The FDA has confirmed the prescence of E. Coli 0157 in raw samples of refrigerated Toll House cookie dough produced in its Danville, VA plant.  The FDA and CDC had been tracking the E. Coli outbreak, suspecting Nestlé’s raw Toll House cookie dough, since it was the one food commonly consumed by the over 70 people now sickened.

For its June 2009 issue, National Geographic magazine spotlighted the ongoing global food crisis with an in-depth Special Report by Joel K. Bourne, Jr entitled “The End of Plenty.”

Bourne’s article provides a full and compelling analysis of the genisis of the food suppy probelm, the benefits and failures of the Green Revolution, the effect food scarcity is having on the global population, and options for combating the crisis.

The author pays special care to the effects some methods of crop yielding has had on populations in countries such as India and China, particularly the profound health issues among farming villages that may be linked to the use of the fertilizers and pesticides as well as abusive irrigation methods attached to crop growth systems installed through the science of the Green Revolution.

Bourne also looks at the pros and pitfalls of various options for addressing the current food crisis, perhaps  to suggest that a “one-size-fits-all” solution would be unlikely.

Among the food policy experts Bourne speaks with is Joachim von Braun, director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, and Lester Brown, founder of the Earth Policy Institute.  Both von Braun and Brown appeared in the Great Decisions Television Series 2009 episode on the Global Food Crisis.  The episode can be watched in full from that link.

National Geographic recently posted the Special Report online.  “The End of Plenty” can be read in full, here.

Last week, Nestlé announced a voluntary recall of its Toll House chocolate chip cookie dough (frozen and refrigerated) after it was suspected to be the source of an outbreak of E. coli 0157.  With over 70 people falling ill to this strain of E. coli since March, the FDA is investigating the link between the cookie dough and the outbreak.

Responses to a food questionnaire by those who became sick found the eating of raw cookie dough was a common factor.  Tests conducted by Nestlé have not discovered any E. coli in its recalled products.  Additional information and a full list of the recalled items can be found on Nestlé ’s website.

Whereas salmonella poisoning is more typically linked to consuming raw, homemade cookie dough, E. coli contamination is usually associated with animal products not found among the ingredients of the cookies.

This recall adds to other recent high profile cases of contamination in the United States of peanuts and pistachios.  Food safety has been made a priority by the Obama administration, and this case adds to calls for new approaches to ensuring safe products in the U.S. food supply.

Access to food,  restricted by conditions related to the Global Financial Crisis, has exacerbated the Global Food Crisis, says the UN Food and Agricultural Organization’s (FAO) new estimate.  The full report will be released in October.

With global food markets still recovering from the 2008 food crisis, lower incomes and unemployment have pushed more people into hunger, especially in developing countries.  FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf explained the problem as,

“A dangerous mix of the global economic slowdown combined with stubbornly high food prices in many countries [which] has pushed some 100 million more people than last year into chronic hunger and poverty.”

An FAO spokesman told the BBC that although the global financial crisis has affected the entire world population, the food needs of those mostly living in the developing world have been acutely affected.

The BBC cites UN data of the world’s population affected by hunger, showing that

• nearly 642 million people live in the Asia-Pacific region
• 265 million live in sub-Saharan Africa
• 15 million people live in the developed world

Despite the challenges of the overall financial crisis, the FAO’s Diouf recommends avoiding “indifference” to the pervasive problem of hunger, which can be driven by conditions natural and/or economic.  He says that developing countries,

“…must be given the development, economic and policy tools required to boost their agricultural production and productivity. Investment in agriculture must be increased because for the majority of poor countries a healthy agricultural sector is essential to overcome poverty and hunger and is a pre-requisite for overall economic growth.”

A new report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found that the U.S. is overpaying for the purchasing and delivery of food aid that it donates to those in need, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.  Despite being the largest overall donor of food aid, the practice of buying food products from U.S. farmers and shipping them overseas on American ships costs the U.S. more and delays aid deliveries.

The practice of the U.S. government subsidizing U.S. farms by buying surplus food products for aid has been criticized in the past for keeping global food prices artificially low and preventing farmers in developing countries from earning enough from their crops to avoid poverty.

Some of the findings in the GAO report included:

• Food aid purchased and shipped from the U.S. cost 29% to 34% more than if procured locally
• International in-kind food aid deliveries averaged between 106 and 112 days longer to deliver than locally produced food aid
• Local food procurement faces the dangers of being hampered by inefficient suppliers, poorer food standards, weak logistics and poor infrastructure

The report concludes with the call to make changes to current policy,

“the timely provision of food aid is critical in responding to humanitarian emergencies and food crises, and LRP [Local and Regional Procurement] has the potential to better meet the needs of hungry people by providing food aid in both a more timely and less costly manner. To fully realize this potential,however, challenges to its effective implementation must be addressed.”

Among some of the challenges that need to be addressed, the report recommended,

• A gradual shift by the U.S. from exclusively offering internationally grown food aid to supporting locally grown food
• Increasing food “market intelligence” to assist developing countries with gauging food prices and keeping locally grown crops competitive
• Clarify the U.S. laws pertaining to food aid so that U.S. agencies dealing with food aid would be able to support LRP

A Kansas City Star article points out that any change in the policies on food aid purchases and shipping would fall under the responsibility of the House of Representative’s committees on agriculture and transportation.

The soaring price of food was one of the drivers of the Global Food Crisis, making it difficult for people to purchase food for themselves or feed for their animals.  The Financial Times cites a biannual United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) report that states that amount spent globally on  food supplies will decrease for 2009, following their all-time highs in 2008.  The damage done by the global financial crisis may be,

“Eroding purchasing power through a combination of falling incomes and real exchange rates… [afflicting] the affordability of food, however cheap it has become on the international market place.”

The report forecasts a building danger from natural disasters, which could hurt food availability and the recent spikes in the prices of staple foods like corn, wheat and soybeans.

The Obama administration is seeking $200 million in emergency aid for Pakistani refugees who have fled the Swat Valley region during a military campaign to oust Pakistani Taliban.  In the areas cleared of the Taliban by the Pakistani military; shortages of power, water, food and medical supplies have raised the concern of the U.S. government, which earlier pledged an additional $130 million in humanitarian aid in the past month.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has stated that its $543 million plan to provide food aid alone has only received 22% of that amount, so far, and that a dire situation for Swat Valley refugees will emerge very quickly.  U.S. Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, has called upon European and Muslim nations to increase their contributions, and prepare to fund a reconstruction of the Swat Valley to prevent a reemergence of the Taliban once the military campaign concludes.