![]() ![]() |
Animal Defenders of Westchester |
|
![]()
Home Page We advocate on all animal protection and exploitation issues, including experimentation, factory farming, rodeos, breeders and traveling animal acts. Animal Defenders of Westchester |
Articles E-Coli in Spinach blamed on beef and dairy farmers
Op-Ed article by NINA PLANCK FARMERS and food safety officials still
have much to figure out about the recent spate of E. coli infections linked
to raw spinach. So far, no particular stomachache has been traced to any
particular farm irrigated by any particular river.
There is also no evidence so far that Natural Selection Foods, the huge
shipper implicated in the outbreak that packages salad greens under more
than two dozen brands, including Earthbound Farm, O Organic and the Farmer�s
Market, failed to use proper handling methods. Indeed, this epidemic, which has infected more than 100 people and
resulted in at least one death, probably has little do with the folks who
grow and package your greens. The detective trail ultimately leads back to a
seemingly unrelated food industry � beef and dairy cattle. First, some basic facts about this usually harmless bacterium: E. coli is
abundant in the digestive systems of healthy cattle and humans, and if your
potato salad happened to be carrying the average E. coli, the acid in your
gut is usually enough to kill it. But the villain in this outbreak, E. coli O157:H7, is far scarier, at
least for humans. Your stomach juices are not strong enough to kill this
acid-loving bacterium, which is why it�s more likely than other members of
the E. coli family to produce abdominal cramps, diarrhea, fever and, in rare
cases, fatal kidney failure. Where does this particularly virulent strain come from? It�s not found in
the intestinal tracts of cattle raised on their natural diet of grass, hay
and other fibrous forage. No, O157 thrives in a new � that is, recent in the
history of animal diets � biological niche: the unnaturally acidic stomachs
of beef and dairy cattle fed on grain, the typical ration on most industrial
farms. It�s the infected manure from these grain-fed cattle that
contaminates the groundwater and spreads the bacteria to produce, like
spinach, growing on neighboring farms. In 2003, The Journal of Dairy Science noted that up to 80 percent of
dairy cattle carry O157. (Fortunately, food safety measures prevent
contaminated fecal matter from getting into most of our food most of the
time.) Happily, the journal also provided a remedy based on a simple
experiment. When cows were switched from a grain diet to hay for only five
days, O157 declined 1,000-fold. This is good news. In a week, we could choke O157 from its favorite home
� even if beef cattle were switched to a forage diet just seven days before
slaughter, it would greatly reduce cross-contamination by manure of, say,
hamburger in meat-packing plants. Such a measure might have prevented the E.
coli outbreak that plagued the Jack in the Box fast food chain in 1993. Unfortunately, it would take more than a week to reduce the contamination
of ground water, flood water and rivers � all irrigation sources on spinach
farms � by the E-coli-infected manure from cattle farms. The United States Department of Agriculture does recognize the threat
from these huge lagoons of waste, and so pays 75 percent of the cost for a
confinement cattle farmer to make manure pits watertight, either by lining
them with concrete or building them above ground. But taxpayers are
financing a policy that only treats the symptom, not the disease, and at
great expense. There remains only one long-term remedy, and it�s still the
simplest one: stop feeding grain to cattle. California�s spinach industry is now the financial victim of an outbreak
it probably did not cause, and meanwhile, thousands of acres of other
produce are still downstream from these lakes of E. coli-ridden cattle
manure. So give the spinach growers a break, and direct your attention to
the people in our agricultural community who just might be able to solve
this deadly problem: the beef and dairy farmers. Nina Planck is the author of �Real Food: What to Eat and Why.�� Fair Use Notice: This document may contain
copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the
copyright owners. We believe that this not-for-profit, educational use on
the Web constitutes a fair use of the copyrighted material (as provided for
in section 107 of the US Copyright Law). If you wish to use this copyrighted
material for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain
permission from the copyright owner. |
Your comments and
inquiries are welcome
This site is hosted and maintained by:
The Mary T. and Frank L. Hoffman Family Foundation
Thank you for visiting all-creatures.org.
Since