Share & Voice: real or fake christmas tree?

Well, I may have some personal bias with this issue, but I wanted to look into whats more eco-friendly. A real or fake Christmas tree? My parents own a tree business and we sell REAL Christmas trees this time of year. I believe families getting together and picking out a tree is a great way to spend time before Christmas, we see tons of happy families come in and sometimes spend hours outside deciding what tree is perfect for them. I see a lot of my classmates from high school even come in when I work there which is cool because this is something families of all ages enjoy doing!


This video takes a look at why many believe cutting down real trees is actually more eco friendly than getting fake trees, EVEN after the fact that fake trees can be re-used. 







I love the fact that many towns re-use the trees in many different ways, I didn't even know that was happening.
I personally agree with this video; I love having a real Christmas tree in the house, they smell so good and they're refreshing. And looking at sales this year, it seems as if the Christmas tree business is still prosperous in rural Minnesota :)


Have a wonderful holiday season everyone!

Reflection: Weeks 13 & 14 combined withReflection: Overall Course

The last two weeks of this class went by way too fast, and I am sad that its almost done :(


Week 13 started with a tour of Goodwill, which was insane!! I had no idea that place was so big, nor did I know how much they recycle used items. Our tour guide was very informative, he knew the business in and out and gave us a great tour. He talked about jobs they give to people with disabilities and how much their company saves our landfills. Our letters to a public official were due as well, and I got an response from Al Franken, I believe it was a pre-written response but still cool, inviting me to a breakfast at the white house with his committee. 

Week 14 began with our junk project show, it was cool seeing what everyone came up with! I took the motherboards from a couple computers that my friend had and decided to used them as end table-tops. They look really intricate up close. We had a discussion about the overall things we learned in class and it was really nice, even though I've spent all semester with these people, I felt like I got to know them in a different way and like we were more unified after this discussion, it just seemed more personal and we all were comfortable saying whatever as we sat in a circle. 


Overall Reflection: As I stated in class, this class has hugely impacted my life. Not only do I feel healthier, but I've nearly turned into a vegetarian due to this class. I see life differently. I think that every freshman coming into college should take this class! We need to see these issues that we learn about first hand, and this class shows us and puts us right there! The eye opener about skin products was probably the 2nd most important activity to me personally because I learned about how dangerous my skin products were, so I'm slowing incorporating safer, more environmentally friendly products into my life and I feel much better. 

Advocacy Project: Sanitation, online learning activity

Sanitation Overview Lesson:

I chose the topic of sanitation for my project because it is something I will be working with in my future.

The issue of sanitation is both an issue we face in our day to day lives as well as a global crisis.

For this lesson, I would like to focus a little bit on both of these spectrums.

The purpose of my first part of this lesson is to show how much of a global problem poor sanitation is STILL causing.

My main purpose is that I would like this lesson to show students how necessary it is to have public health inspectors, and that even in our society we need more of them! There is so much that goes on behind closed doors that so many people are unaware of. We need cleaner, safer food for the average consumer.

I have chosen three videos as part of my activity, and I have asked response questions for each.

Everyone is affected by poor sanitation, many of us just don't realize it and take clean air, clean water and clean food for granted. Somewhere, at some point, someone checks these things to ensure our safety. The question that I have is when did this come about? Think about the different decisions that had to be made.

What happens if there is no policy, no regulation, and those who do have the power aren't doing anything?

Think about these questions as you watch the following video.

In the video below which is brought to you by WECF (Women in Europe for a Common Future), we see women uniting to try and find solutions for poor sanitation problems. I chose this video because it features several countries across Europe. Usually when I think of Europe, it seems more developed, more on the ball! There are so many European countries that need help!

After seeing this video, how do you feel about the fact that this whole European program, creating better sanitation for all, is developed and carried out by women?

Poor sanitation in the U.S. still exists as well. We may have more policies, regulations and enforcers, but that does not mean all is well at the home front. Has anyone noticed the high amount of serious foodborne diseases in the recent years? Some of these foods still make me cringe a little bit when I buy them!

On September 14th, 2006 the FDA warns consumers to "not eat bagged spinach due to serious E.Coli breakout." The FDA keeps updating more and more cases of people getting sick up until March 23, 2007! Thats a long period of time to not eat a product that I eat religiously.

THEN, in June 2007 the FDA gives a nationwide recall on certain tomatoes and jalepeno peppers due to a Salmonella outbreak...this one lasted until the end of July before we could start buying tomatoes and feeling *better* about eating the tomatoes that weren't even on the list. We continue to be skeptical about certain types of peanut butter and pistachios both recalled within the last year, but why is this happening so often?

Don't we have policies, food inspectors? How do these recalls affect those selling these products? Think about these questions as you watch the following two videos.

There are gaps in the system.This is a serious problem, and that is why the bill I am supporting (S.1269) is to get more regional food safety centers and put our consumer safety first. These recalls don't only hurt the people, but they greatly affect those marketing these recalled products that are actually safe (i.e. the tomato growers from the video!)

If you are concerned about foodborne outbreaks check out FoodHaacp which is updated daily and has an extensive database of past outbreaks.

Read 'n' Seed 6: Final Review of "Newman's Own: Guide to a Good Life"

Newman's Own: Guide to a Good Life was a great general guide for beginning a healthier and more eco-friendly lifestyle. 



This book had many eye-opening chapters; I'd say it was a perfect way for me to get started on a healthier life, just as the title insinuates. I liked that it wasn't particularly too in depth on any specific topic. Of course, each topic got plenty of attention, but it mostly touched base with everyday issues to inform readers of things to look out for in daily living and what you can do to ensure healthier living. Nell, the author, kept with need-to-know facts on a topic that would be just enough to keep you interested and inform you enough to lead you in a direction so you could further research on your own if anything caught your eye. I enjoyed how personable she was with each subject. She always mentioned her own experiences, such as with her own gardening tips and pet tips in each of those sections, as well as her opinions on consumerism that were both interesting and informative. I especially enjoyed some of her analogies that made many of her topics much more understandable for the general reader. Each chapter began with a personal story involving her, or someone she knew, and it always brought the subject into perspective for me. She then would give a section of statistics on the subject, followed by tips for the reader. I really like that she laid it out this way because I could always count on tips at the end of the chapter if I had any questions in the beginning. She never brought up problems that she didn't have any tips on changing which was nice. 


I think one of the most significant things I found was that this book is definitely something that nearly anyone, in any socio-economic stance could read and take tips from. Another significant thing, as I mentioned above, would have to be the personal tips she left at the end of each chapter, I have already started using the pet tips that she gave because I did not realize that my dog can eat many things that I eat safely, and its better for my dog to eat to eat some of my food because a lot of pet food isn't safe!! The third most significant thing I found would have to be her chapter on consumerism and how we need to stop feeding the powerhouse mega stores! Many of them don't care about the community, and take business away from the little guys. I enjoyed a quote she stated about how we should be more willing to pay that 50 cents extra for a safer product from a local place, isn't our health and our community worth it? 


This whole book had priceless information. She puts high value on both personal and environmental health, and her small tips could be followed in small easy steps! It is too bad that we have to be reminded of these things, it means a lot to me that she took the time to write a guide that anyone can use. It is something than that anyone can follow! I would definitely recommend this book, not only because it has valuable information and is an eye opener, it can be followed by anyone! It touches on elements that effect everyone! She shows that you do not have to be rich to go green! Anyone can do it. But we all need reminders, so read this book! 

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 10: Overall Project Reflection

It is already the last week of my eco-chic lifestyle change! BUT this does not mean may change will stop at a dead hault. Everything I have taken from this experience will stick with me and so will many of the habits I have picked up due to it, as well as the class.


My original SMART goal was to not eat any red meat and eat less than 2 servings of other meats per week.
Of course this was a difficult step for me in the beginning, but i very quickly realized that the hardest part was just making that decision. As I got used to it, I decided to incorporate a hault on dairy into my goal as well. This non dairy step was not as precise so it was harder to measure, but I was able to say that I completely stopped buying both cheese and milk, so I know that was a definite change. Eventually I incorporated smaller everyday changes into my goal as well, such as using a metal refillable water bottle instead of buying disposable plastic water bottles. I also bought cloth grocery bags so I don't have to make the tough decision of paper or plastic when I go to the grocery store (and of course don't have to get disposable bags that are bad for the environment). 


There were many variables that added to my success in this goal. Feeling better about my impact on the environment as well as my health was the number one variable. I also impacted others behaviors with my changes which was awesome! There were a few things that did get in the way such as family meals when I went home that usually involved red meat, so there were probably 2-3 times during this change that I have had red meat, but that is much better than I expected. In the future I hope to take part in more of the cooking when I go back home, and maybe try converting my parents to ground turkey over ground beef!


This project benefited me much more than I expected. I thought this decision to stop eating red meat may result in a failure. Not that I don't have faith in myself, but I just never expected it to happen. Education in good nutrition is something I possess, so I know that eating red meat is really not a good choice for me, so having that extra push to TRY going without it for awhile was great!! I realized I could do it. I even impacted those around me. My boyfriend actually took part in the project with me almost 100%, and now he is also trying to cut out red meat and dairy completely even after I'm done with the project. I also impacted my parents and my brother a little bit; they have been forced to try a few meatless dishes. I cooked wild rice burgers for them one time and they loved it, so I gave them the recipe and they now have one item they can make that is meat free! 


I plan to continue this behavior. I cooked plenty of meat free meals this semester so now cooking them on a weekly basis is more of a habit than a limit. 


I think anyone who is even considering making a lifestyle change, even if it is extremely minimal should know that it's easiest taking it one small step at a time. And, just deciding to make that change is the hardest part, once it is a mind set it becomes a habit just like brushing your teeth! For me, just having it down in writing that I am not going to eat meat was one of the biggest parts. Also the process of incorporating meals into my diet that didn't have meat got easier as I began learning new recipes and tried cooking with substitutes.


blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 10 hosted by Amy@Eco-Chic with Amy.
 Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 10

Advocacy Project: Letter to Public Official

Danielle Wall

2824 Branch St.

Duluth, MN 55812

December 5, 2009

wall0743@d.umn.edu

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Al Franken

United States Senate
320 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-2304

Dear Senator Franken:

I am writing to ask you to support Bill S.1269, titled:  A bill to provide for enhanced foodborne illness surveillance and food safety capacity, to establish regional food safety centers of excellence, and for other purposes. I am a fourth year student at the University of Minnesota Duluth majoring in Community Health. I did a summer internship at Kandiyohi County Public Health, and I believe that this bill could greatly assist public health facilities.

The purpose of this bill is to help out existing public health facilities as well as establish regional food safety centers.  It proposes enhanced foodborne illness surveillance which is critical in recent times where we have seen huge E. Coli and Salmonella outbreaks. For example, the Salmonella outbreak found in spinach in 2007 forced the recall of 8,000 cartons of spinach, as well as the recall of certain types of peanut butter in 2009 both showed a gap in our food safety system. Bill 1269 would allow for better surveillance to help prevent these types of happenings.

I think that this is an important bill. It will benefit not only consumers by assuring safer production of food products, but it will also benefit the already overwhelmed public health workers. Opening more safety centers will provide more jobs to public health workers while relieving some of the burden on current public health employees.

Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Danielle Wall

Reflections: week 11 and 12

The past two weeks have gone by extremely fast! It seems like just yesterday I was posting my last reflection...I can't believe there are only 2 weeks of class left! wow. The past two weeks also proved to be challenging for my SMART goal, but I did my best! I also finished my Read'n Seed book and found the last couple chapters to be very intriguing!


Week 11 started with an environmental literacy activity where we got into groups and tried defining environmental literacy in our own words.We then did an intro to junking project where we were asked to come up with different  uses for random pieces of junk which we had no idea what they originally were used for. Some groups came up with some very interesting things! My favorite piece of junk was this random wire-y thing with a wood stand that we decided would make a good spice rack!


Week 12 introduced us to blog hopping...which panned out to be very useful for showing each other our photo essays! The essays turned out really well, I enjoyed seeing everyone else's pictures and really learned some neat ideas from other people. We also talked about communicating with decision makers and how we would write a letter to an editor or policy maker. This was also pretty helpful because our next advocacy assignment will involve writing to an editor about our issue.



Pictured at right is what is called STEAMPUNK!! The junking project reminded me of this because it actually is a type of junking. If you have not heard of it, check it out. The people that create this art are genius's. They take old antique appliances, and put in the parts that make them run, they basically resurface, refurbish and rebuild modern day things that we use and make them look like they're from the 1800's. Just type in STEAMPUNK into google images and see all the amazing stuff that pops up!

Share & Voice: how about some travel!

Cleanest Countries in the World

I decided I wanted to do a little research on the cleanest countries in the world to visit because I am very interested in doing some traveling in the near future, and right now I could use a little narrowing down on my list.

First of all, I will more clearly explain my research and what I was exactly looking for. I have pretty bad asthma so the first item on my checklist was to look for countries with the cleanest air. Second, I was looking for places that ranked the highest in Environmental Performance Index (EPI) which would determine the cleanliness and environmental safeness of a country. The EPI in most basic terms is an index that ranks countries based on their environmental performance in categories such as water quality, air quality, biodiversity, their use of pesticides, etc. 

Just for the record, with 1 being the best/ cleanest and 140 being the worst, the U.S. ranks at a dismal 39th on the list. Not the worst, but for real?? How sad is that. For being such a "developed" country...I guess I'm just not even going to go there.

 Anyways, back to my main focus, there were a few different sites that all agreed on the same places and a few that only slightly differed from the norm.  When it comes to clean countries Switzerland takes the cake. According to Forbes, "Switzerland scores a perfect 100 in eight environmental indicators, including sanitation and water quality, forest health and pesticide regulation."  WordPress also indicated Switzerland as number 1 and stated, "The environment has been in the country’s interest as early as 1876 when it passed a forestry law...Nearly all electricity comes from dams and nuclear plants, reducing emissions caused by burning fossil fuels. Strict standards for exhaust are placed on vehicles to lower air pollution. The country is also one of the top recyclers in the world, with stiff penalties levied on offenders." 

Next on the list was Sweden, although all of the Scandinavian countries (Sweden, Norway and Finland) nearly scored the same EPI. According to Forbes, "Sweden has low levels of airborne pollution, pristine drinking water and low per-capita emissions of greenhouse gasses" 

Costa Rica followed the Scandinavian countries, thanks to 25% of the country being under wildlife preserves.

Columbia, New Zealand, Japan, Croatia and Albania (due to the fact that has not yet become industrialized) all made it in the top 10 overall cleanest countries. 

If we are just talking air quality, Tasmania, Iceland and South Africa are all pretty safe according to Travel Leisure. Many of the cleanest air countries can thank their location; high elevation or wind direction can often prevent the movement of pollution from other countries. 

Of the places that I researched, several of them ranked in the top ten on my list of places I would like to travel, so that was awesome! I also believe that traveling to any of these countries and seeing how their daily lives differ from ours as well as how the government has implemented more environmentally friendly choices would be awesome to see first hand.

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 9: Weekly Update

This past week has been quite the challenge for my lifestyle change.

My SMART goal is to not eat red meat, and eat less than 2 servings of other meats/ week.

Well, I would say this week wasn't a complete failure; I did eat red meat on Thanksgiving last Thursday, but it was a very small serving and consisted of venison which my dad caught! (very organic). I did stick to the less than 2 servings of other meats part. I also continued to not use cheese or milk in any of my cooking. (pictured below a delicious looking salad I'd like to try in the near future!!)

The challenges and successes this past week both had to do with Thanksgiving. I knew Thanksgiving would be a challenge, obviously, there is always a ton of food, and who wants to be picky on Thanksgiving? Especially when my mom has made so much delicious food! Also, I personally am not very fond of turkey, so when my mom mentions she has made wild rice meatballs, it was impossible to turn down. I had to try some! The successes were that there was a lot of other food that were vegetable based! So I tried my best to fill up on those. There were also tons of leftovers, so I was able to eat healthy for most of the week.

My feelings weren't hugely impacted this week, nothing was too different from the past weeks, but I did feel a little guilty about eating red meat. Although I think I may have felt worse not trying them. Maybe next time I will suggest making them out of ground turkey! 

I learned that it is not impossible to stick to your diet and your goals even in the most tempting situations! I watched Jessica turn down everything except for the veggies and bean dishes and I need to make it my goal to stick to my diet over Christmas. 

My plans for next week will be to continue my goal, and try out a few new meat free recipes to add to my collection.
Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 9 hosted by Amy@Eco-Chic with Amy.
lifestyle change post 9

Eye Opener: Photo Essay

For my photo essay, I found several great ideas back at home this Thanksgiving weekend, so I decided I would combine them into an eco-chic Thanksgiving theme. Compared to past years, this Thanksgiving turned a new leaf; my parents have been making many eco-chic changes back at the homestead so I figured its time to document this awesomeness!

Decorating was my favorite part. My mom decided we wouldn't spend any money on decorations this year, so my dad and I explored our field and found some natural decorations. My dad is a botanist so we have tons of plants. Dried hydrangea's, berries, pheasant feathers and oak leaves made up 2 of our fall-themed vase decorations (pictured at left).

For other Fall-themed Thanksgiving decorations we lined our windows with wild dried grasses from our fields, and used gourds and mini pumpkins which my parents grew in our garden to hold it down (a much bigger garden than previous years!!). Our last decoration was a center piece I made with more colorful squash, mini pumpkins, and oak leaves, placed in a decorative bowl my mom had (pictured below).

For the meal this year, we had several dishes that came straight from our garden such as squash and mashed potatoes.

  

My mom also made her famous crunchy cream-corn dish, but this time with our own corn from the garden and eggs from our own chickens! We also had a green bean casserole with beans from our garden.

I also made my apple-banana bread which contained apples from our own apple trees.

We topped the bread with jelly my mom made from our own grapes in my dad's mini vineyard behind the house.

These are just a few of our eco-chic changes back home! Overall, I would say a very successful and tasty Thanksgiving!

Read 'n Seed 5: Fourth quarter of Newman's Own: Guide to a Good Life

For my Read 'n Seed this week, I covered chapters 8 and 9 (p. 129-175) of Newman's Own: Guide to a Good Life.

Chapter 8 covered "cleaning and household pests." Nell's introduction to this chapter makes perfect sense. I must quote one line to keep from screwing up her meaning, " A pest is something that annoys us. Annoying doesn't mean useful, so 'pest' is a relative term. Consider stoplights. Annoying? yes. Essential? probably." This being said, we live in a world where we don't want to stop and think about whether "pests" have a purpose, we just want to kill them so they don't bother us on our picnics or pop up in our gardens. Killing these pests doesn't come without a consequence as the chapter suggests; we become exposed to numerous chemicals just because we don't want to weed our gardens and can't handle a few ants at our picnic. BUT as the chapter goes on, Nell provides different eco-friendly ways to rid your house of many different pests, as well as making your own cleaners. One thing I found really interesting that she listed were different plants that clean the air, such as areca palm and english ivy. A couple of new terms I learned from this chapter involved reading product labels. The exact definition of toxic is provided as "toxic materials are substances that can be poisonous to people and pets, can cause illness and death if swallowed or absorbed." Corrosive products "can severely burn skin and eyes or internal organs if swallowed."

Chapter 9 covered "gardening." One factor Nells puts extreme importance on is "composting" which involves letting nature decompose your biodegradable products such as yard waste, you can then use them as fertilizer in your garden. She then discusses some gardening tips such as eliminating chemicals, banishing pests the "green" way, and knowing how and when to properly water. 

All in all, these chapters were really informative and definitely gave me a new look on our culture and pests!

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 8: Weekly Update

This week, my lifestyle change goal went pretty smoothly. It helped that I was trying not to buy anymore groceries before Thanksgiving break, so I had no meat left in my cupboards besides some tuna. 

My SMART goal is to not eat red meat, and eat less than 2 servings of other meats/ week. This week I met that goal with flying colors. I had a tuna sandwich one day, and ended up going with meat-free soups the rest of the week. 

The successes of meeting my goal this week, as I mentioned previously, had to do with me not buying groceries...it sounds weird BUT I had food that I had been avoiding eating that needed to be dealt with (such as potatoes, onions, canned spinach and some canned soups). So I had a cheap week I guess, but a successful one. I did stop and get some egg nog one day though, sometimes I get the weirdest cravings, and after a successful week, I thought I should probably have some sort of reward. The challenges this week were minimal, but Thanksgiving is just around the corner, so I am hoping I can keep to my goal as the holidays begin to tempt me. 

My feelings about this week were pretty good, after reading a few other blogs, I too have been getting ideas to incorporate into my lifestyle change such as using a metal water bottle and just re-filling it, and buying products in bulk when I can to avoid small packaging.  I learned this week that basically you just have to tough it out once in awhile and save money!.. Especially this time of year when Christmas is just around the corner.

My plans for next week are to continue my regular SMART goal as well as to avoid dairy as much as possible. I would also like to add that I use my metal water bottle instead of buying one-time-use water bottles.                         (Thankful for the time I got to spend with my grandma.)         

Have a great thanksgiving everyone!! 

Advocacy Project: Issue Overview

Introduction:

The topic of my advocacy project focuses on reducing foodborne and sanitation related illness. 

Under Healthy People 2010's goal 8, "promoting health for all through a healthy environment," I will focus on objective 8.29 which specifically states "Reduce the global burden of disease due to poor water quality, sanitation, and personal and domestic hygiene."

One main issue is sanitation problems, which can refer the fact that  “Poor sanitation, hygiene and unsafe water claim the lives of an estimated over 1.5 million children under the age of five every year” (WHO 2009). Additionally, 2.5 billion people live without the access to effective urine and feces disposal which is a leading cause of diarrheal disease (wateraid.org). Together, these two issues alone create a domino effect of problems. For example, a child experiencing diarrheal disease due to improper water or sanitation, may also miss school and will need an adult around to take care of them; this adult will then miss work and miss out on the pay for that day/s until the child gets better, leading to more issues. Poor water quality, personal, and domestic hygiene all contribute to the sanitary issue.

The Legislation that addresses this is bill S.1269 which is titled "A bill to provide for enhanced foodborne illness surveillance and food safety capacity, to establish regional food safety centers of excellence, and for other purposes." This bill introduces a way in which we can improve our health at a local level by diminishing sanitation problems.

Those affected most by this issue are those living in developing countries, but you can find sanitation problems just about anywhere, including here in America. Anywhere that there are large amounts of people with very poor sanitation problems will arise that can greatly reduce human health as well and lessen the quality of life. According to WHO, the main routes in which human health is affected by poor sanitation include polluted drinking water, contamination into the food chain, dirty areas that provide breeding grounds for insects such as flies whom spread disease, and environmental pollution that limits certain sources of food such as fish. 

THe Development Goal (MDG) target is to "reduce by half the proportion of people without access to basic sanitation by 2015." If this were to happen The gains would be that people wouldn't have as many problems with poor hygiene which leads to "loss of productivity, preventable health costs, low educational achievement, high morbidity and poor social development" (WHO). These situations happen in America as well but not as extreme in most areas; if bill S.1269 does pass the losses may include a small increase in taxes to ensure that we are able to provide better surveillance when it comes to preventing foodborne illness, and establish these regional safety centers. 

We know the severity of this issue, but the consequences of putting another bill in place that would ensure better food safety and sanitation would be the need for funding. At the moment, I can't seem to find any information on how this bill will be funded whether it be by a specific health organization or the government. For those most affected by the issue, it seems as if the benefits would weigh out the consequences; for society these benefits would equal lower rates of foodborne illness contributing to better quality of life overall.

I may have touched on some of the economic impacts previously, but if bill S.1269 were to pass, and more regional safety centers were opened as well as more food safety surveillance, more jobs would be created in health services! Our economy seems to be at an all time low, so creating jobs seems like a really good boost, as well as lessening foodborne illness outbreaks. Overall, this bill should pay itself off over time rather than be a burden. "For every $1 spent on sanitation, up to $9 is returned in reduced healthcare burden and increased productivity."

I mentioned social impacts previously, and how better sanitation creates a domino effect of better health, better quality of life, less disease, better productivity, etc. for all people. As mentioned earlier, it is possible that the funding could slightly effect taxes, but at the moment we have no idea what the costs would be. 

 The barriers to addressing better sanitation worldwide includes many variables. Better education and cleaner availability of resources are key. In America, we have to reach out to areas that have the poorest sanitation, and make sure that we are educating and making these resources available to lessen the cases of foodborne illness. 

We will need resources such as funding for buildings for these safety centers, as well as resources to pay workers at the new jobs that will be created. Resources that least burden the general public is the number one goal. Restructuring county buildings where food safety surveillance could be optimized could also be a less expensive route. 

The history of the sanitation issue has expanded with time itself; as we have become more educated, sanitation issues have lessened. In the state of Minnesota, I have found that many food safety workers are over-worked due to some multi-county centers with very few workers trying address way too many problems, therefore, it is more likely that some problems get overlooked or don't get the attention they need. In many rural communities, it appears as if nothing is being done to address this problem. We need more safety centers/workers if we want to prevent foodborne illness.

It is likely that most public health workers would definitely be for this bill, I for one would recommend this bill. We need to put our health first!