I never blogged about the spinach/lettuce crisis, did I
I'm watching an NBC 11 story about E-coli right now. I did write a story about The Spinach Crisis, and people did another one about lettuce...It took me days to finish it, cuz I was trying to figure out what to say in this paragraph:
"It has been difficult for the FDA to discern the exact source of the E-coli. It seems to have been narrowed down to several farms in the Salinas Valley. The E-coli could have gotten into the soil or water in several ways. Cows from neighboring farms could have wandered into spinach fields and defecated. Farm laborers who do not have enough access to bathrooms could have simply defecated in spinach fields. Many organic growers import composted manure to use as fertilizer. "Processed" sewage sludge could have been used as a fertilizer for spinach farms. Many place the blame on the factory farming system. Large dairy farms can yield fecal runoff in rainy weather, and cattle that eat grain instead of pasture grasses can have more acidic stomachs and more E-coli in their manure. Supporters of organic farming methods point out that none of the E-coli cases have been attributed to organic spinach, and that a spread of disease such as this can only occur in an industrial context."
I really enjoyed getting to point out the problems (failings) of industrial agriculture.
"It has been difficult for the FDA to discern the exact source of the E-coli. It seems to have been narrowed down to several farms in the Salinas Valley. The E-coli could have gotten into the soil or water in several ways. Cows from neighboring farms could have wandered into spinach fields and defecated. Farm laborers who do not have enough access to bathrooms could have simply defecated in spinach fields. Many organic growers import composted manure to use as fertilizer. "Processed" sewage sludge could have been used as a fertilizer for spinach farms. Many place the blame on the factory farming system. Large dairy farms can yield fecal runoff in rainy weather, and cattle that eat grain instead of pasture grasses can have more acidic stomachs and more E-coli in their manure. Supporters of organic farming methods point out that none of the E-coli cases have been attributed to organic spinach, and that a spread of disease such as this can only occur in an industrial context."
I really enjoyed getting to point out the problems (failings) of industrial agriculture.
1 Comments:
At 11:28 PM, Michelle said…
Hi there, I am Michelle Gale, Founder of the www.organicfoodswapcoop.org a FREE/NON PROFIT org that is worldwide. I am yet to start listing with the search engines but have started work on it this week. Please come and visit, we are about to rebuild parts of the site, the giving tree and the LOG IN are incomplete in there function but not for long, Griffith uni is helping me to finish these over the next few months. I hope that we will see you at OFSCO very soon. Kindest Regards, Michelle Gale michelle.net.au
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