“Food production takes place within a biological environment. Microorganisms, parasites and other potential hazards are part of that environment. Food safety is about understanding those hazards and managing the risks they present.” – Mike Crewe-Brown, Wickedfood Earth Farm

Food production has always been biological

Ever since humans began cultivating the land and raising animals to feed themselves, we have had to contend with the biological environment around us. History is full of examples: plagues of locusts, crop diseases, animal diseases, epidemics and famines. Some of these threats were visible; others were caused by microorganisms and parasites that humans did not even know existed until relatively recently.

For much of human history, farmers had little choice but to work within these biological constraints. We observed, adapted and developed practises to reduce the risks, often without understanding the science behind them.

Today, we have a much greater understanding of the biological world and far more tools available to us.

As farming has become increasingly industrialised, we have developed increasingly sophisticated ways of controlling biological hazards and increasing production. Pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, antibiotics, veterinary medicines and other interventions can all have legitimate roles when used appropriately.

But every intervention has limitations, and some can create new risks of their own, some to the detriment to our health, long-term.

The answer, therefore, cannot simply be more intervention.

Nor is the answer necessarily to assume that organic production is automatically free of biological hazards. Food-borne pathogens do not recognise farming labels. Some of the most significant food-safety incidents have occurred in food which is produced under systems that consumers might assume are inherently safer or more “natural”.

So what is the answer?

The same principle that farmers and food producers have always had to work with:

Understand the hazards and manage the risks they present.

Simple, or is it?

The farm as a living system

It is easy to think of food safety as something that begins when the produce, whether fruit, vegetables, grains or livestock, leaves the farm.

In reality, it begins much earlier.

Every farm is a biological environment.

Soil contains microorganisms. Water contains microorganisms. Plants, insects, birds and wild animals are part of the ecosystem. Livestock carry their own populations of microorganisms. Manure returns biological material to the soil. Weather and seasons continually change the conditions in which all these organisms live.

This is not a failure of farming.

It is farming.

The challenge is understanding the environment in which we produce food and managing the risks that environment presents.

This is particularly relevant to free-range farming.

At Wickedfood Earth Farm, as in any free-range farming system, our animals spend their lives outdoors. Our pigs root in the soil, graze vegetation, explore pasture and interact with an environment that is very different from an enclosed intensive production system.

So do our chickens.

That environment is central to the way we farm.

It also means that we cannot separate animal health, soil health, pasture management, hygiene and food safety into completely independent subjects.

They are connected.

Where do parasites fit into this?

Parasites are organisms that live in or on another organism and obtain some benefit from that relationship. Some parasites are relatively harmless. Some are even beneficial. Others can affect plant or animal health, growth and productivity. And some parasites are also important from a food-safety perspective because they can infect peoples’ health in a negative way.

The important point for the farmer is that not every parasite represents the same risk.

Risk depends on a number of factors:

• Which parasite is present?
• Is it capable of affecting our animals or produce?
• Can it affect people?
• How is it transmitted?
• How common is it in the particular farming environment?
• What conditions allow it to survive and multiply?
• How much exposure do the animals or produce have?
• What farming or husbandry practises can reduce that exposure?
• What happens between the farm and the consumer?

This is why simply saying “microorganisms and parasites are dangerous” isn’t particularly useful.

A farmer needs to understand which hazards matter, where they come from, how they move through the farming system and what can be done about them.

Free-range or organic farming do not mean uncontrolled

There is sometimes an assumption that because organic vegetables and fruit, or free-range animals, have greater contact with the natural environment, they must automatically have greater food-safety risks.

That is too simplistic.

Free-range and organic farming systems change the nature of the risks. They do not remove the farmer’s ability, or responsibility, to manage them. Good farming is about managing exposure. That starts with the basics:

• Healthy soil.
• Healthy animals.
• Good nutrition.
• Clean water.
• Appropriate stocking densities.
• Well-managed pasture.
• Effective manure management.
• Good hygiene.
• Sound biosecurity.
• Regular observation.
• Appropriate veterinary advice.
• And proper processing and handling of the food.

None of these measures exists in isolation. Together, they form a system of risk management.

The importance of observation

One of the most valuable tools available to a free-range farmer is simply looking.

The soil, our plants and our animals tell us a great deal when we pay attention. Changes in condition, growth, behaviour, appearance or productivity can all provide clues that something has changed.

The pasture tells us something too. So does the weather. So does the condition of water points, feeding areas, sleeping areas and manure accumulation.

This is one of the advantages, and responsibilities, of working closely with the land and with animals in an outdoor system. A farmer who knows what is normal is better placed to recognise when something is not normal.

Observation does not replace science.

It is the starting point for asking the right questions.

In livestock farming, prevention is better than reaction

Farm management should not simply mean reaching for a treatment or chemical whenever a problem appears. Treatment has an important place in livestock production, but good parasite management begins much earlier. It begins with reducing unnecessary exposure.

That may involve pasture rotation, avoiding excessive stocking pressure, managing manure, protecting feed and water from contamination, preventing contact with potential sources of infection and maintaining appropriate quarantine and biosecurity procedures.

It also means understanding the limitations of each intervention. There is no single practise that eliminates every parasite risk.

And because parasites can develop resistance to some treatments, indiscriminate or unnecessary use of antiparasitic medicines can create another problem rather than solving the first one.

The objective should therefore be targeted, informed management rather than blanket treatment.

From animal health to food safety

There is another important distinction. A parasite problem affecting animal health is not necessarily the same thing as a food-safety problem affecting the consumer. The two can overlap, but they should not automatically be treated as identical. Food safety requires us to follow a hazard through the entire production chain:

• Where does it originate?
• How does it reach the animal or crop?
• How does it develop or survive?
• Can it reach the harvested produce or carcass?
• Can it survive processing?
• Can it reach the consumer?

And, importantly: At which point can the risk be controlled?

This is the basis of sensible food-safety thinking. We are not trying to create a farm in which biology does not exist. We are trying to understand biology well enough to manage it.

The free-range challenge

This is perhaps the most important idea behind this series. Free-range farming deliberately gives animals greater contact with the biological environment around them. That brings enormous benefits, but it also requires a farmer to understand that environment.

The answer is not to pretend that the risks aren’t there. Nor is it to assume that every natural organism represents a threat. The answer lies somewhere between those two extremes:

• Understand the hazard.
• Assess the risk.
• Reduce exposure.
• Monitor the animals and environment.
• Intervene when necessary.
• And maintain good hygiene and food-safety practises throughout the production chain.

That is responsible free-range farming.

At Wickedfood Earth Farm, we believe that producing good food begins with understanding the environment in which that food is produced.

Our animals, including our pigs, are part of a living farm ecosystem. So are the plants, soil, insects, microorganisms, wildlife and people who work here.

Food safety is therefore not something added to farming at the end.

It is part of good farming from the beginning.

In the next article

We’ll move from the general principle that microorganisms, parasites and other potential hazards are part of the food-production environment to the practical question:

What parasites should we be aware of when livestock farming?

We’ll look at the parasites that can affect livestock, with special emphasis on free-range pigs; how they enter and move through a free-range farming system; which ones matter for animal health; which have food-safety implications; and, most importantly, what a farmer can realistically do to manage them.