Article Source: msnbc.com
from:msnbc.comGerman E.coli outbreak death toll rises to 10
Seeded on Sat May 28, 2011 8:53 PM EDT (msnbc.com)
— Filed under: health
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ewwww
cucumber's are just raw dill's ...waiting to happen..
Keep it over there PLEASE !!!!!
As someone living "over there," I have to register my amusement when American journalists quote the Bild newspaper without mentioning that it's a tabloid with booby pictures that low class people read in the subway.
Snickering aside, restaurants here are insisting that their cucumbers and tomatoes are from Holland and that they've been washed and washed and washed, so "if you get sick, it's because you haven't washed your own hands after using the toilet."
I've worked enough in restaurants and strawberry fields to accept the likelihood that this is from unwashed hands or even contaminated cleaning equipment. It can and does happen in every part of the world, regardless of the nice green leaf printed on the bag. Organic orshmanic.
Birds, foxes, and food production employees all poo and spread bacteria without realizing it. Maybe you're touching poo right now. Someone could have made a poo, didn't wash well enough, touched a doorknob that someone else touched who then handed you your change as you bought that ice cream cone....
I wonder if this can be transmitted person to person? Does America get Veggies from Spain? We already have E Coli here from Veggies, imported and home grown, :ie-spinach, lettuce, and more.
no it cant be transmitted person to person unless you ingest their feces somehow...hand wash, hand wash and then hand wash again!!!
And for goodness sake, wash your produce thoroughly, even if it is already bagged by the supplier.
When I was a youngster the world was not overpopulated and we did not have all the high tech corporate farms. Every time you turn around I hear stories about some poison some disease some infestation in our food air and water not to mention dangerous side effects from GMO crops an the pesticides used in conjunction with them. The scientists warned this was coming but no one listened hell there still not listening. In this modern world where the FDA and other organizations around the world are supposing to be protecting the food supply they are failing. Human life becomes less valuable when there is a surplus of it. At least that is the way big business and corporations look at it and the governments are run by corporations and the bottom dollar.
You are 100% correct.
It would be nice to know what brand of seeds were used in growing or if the seeds were GM and the chemicals used in the growing process were the cause.
It is redundant if they do not give us the information to where we can make the decision on who or what is the cause. Vegetables do not kill unless man has has something to do with it.
Kerry there is some very good information on responsibletechnology.org. There is a video on there that goes into detail about GMO an the pesticides that they are using with them. Monsanto had a gag order on an independent study done on the effects of GMO foods which has finally been released. It took 10 years to get the courts to release the reports. It is not good. Also the propaganda that GMO seeds will produce higher crop yields is bogus. Organic seeds actually can produce significantly more. Yes it is more labor intensive but it produces more and the farmers can keep the seeds. In addition the nutritionsl value of organic food is 25 percent acroos the board/ Another disturbing fact is that the pesticides used with the GMO seeds is not released from the body. Organic pesticides do release from the body. You also can get a list from a google search as to what seeds are currently being produced as GMO. The cukes from Spain were probably not GMO as I think most if not all of Europe put a ban on GMO seeds. Smarter than us. Hope this info helps you
Chemicles or seed brand will have nothing to do with a strain that is resides in a colon. Follow the pewp...and you will find the answers you crave
Absolutely agree with Kornfed. E-coli has to do with the ingestion of feces, not the chemicals used on the plants or where their seeds came from. There are actually LESS outbreaks of food borne illness now due to the knowledge we have about sanitation, hand washing etc. They are more noticeable because we have more media coverage and better ways of detection. The food of today is not any more likely to make you sick than in the past, and if you read the article you might have noticed that it was organically grown vegetables that were suspect.
But people often got sick from pork and poorly refrigerated meats. Wash, wash, wash. And cook, cook, cook.
Uh, no. You are NOT 100% correct. It is extremely unlikely that this is a case of "GMO" anything. Hemolytic uremic syndrome is often caused by a particular strain of E. Coli. The victims are usually young children, people with weakened immune systems (AIDS or post-transplant patients for example), adults older than 60 or 65 and a few others. There's a premature breakdown of red blood cells, and the resulting debris clogs the kidneys filtering system and causes damage sometimes leading to kidney failure.
This is more likely a result of farm workers not washing their hands after using the toilet than some nefarious "GMO".
This is not something anyone should have to go through. Our 2 year old daughter last year got HUS and now suffers from chronic kidney disease and be on medicine the rest of her life and more then likely require a kidney transplant at some point. She was in the hospital for 7 weeks, had blood transfusions and wouldn't eat you can view her story at:
Chris from Pennsylvania
Chris in Pennsylvania is correct. Nobody should have to go through! My 18 month old son had HUS 9 years ago and spent 6 weeks in the hospital. He had blood transfusions and had to have Peritoneal dialysis during that time. It was the most terrifying experiance I have ever had to deal with. We were not sure he was going to make it. When he finally responded to the treatment and his kidneys started working again, he then had to learn to walk all over again because of being so weak and bedridden. He appears to be fine now and has not lasting affects due to this disease, but we will forvever have to watch him. He may at some point have to also have a kidney transplant.
I was upset that in the rural area where we live that we were never warned about the dangers of cow manure. We believe that our son contracted this by being on farms with his Dad and somehow must have had it on his hands and putting it in his mouth. More people need to be aware of this terrible disease and the ways to contract it. I certainly watch my family closely and the things that they do and eat. Wash, wash and wash hands. Also be careful of the things you eat at fairs. Undercooked hambugers. Please be aware and be safe this summer with all the fairs.
Very sorry to hear about your daughter Chris. I had HUS when I was 13 years old and almost died, same story, ICU for 2 weeks and 8 total weeks in the hospital. Since this was 25 years ago there was a lot less known about HUS. After I was released from the hospital I remembered that I drank a lot of "All natural" apple juice (from an orchard, and unpasteurized as well) and I believe that this was the E coli source. I was the only one to drink it luckily. Please spread the word to everyone you know to double check the natural juices and every can or bottled juice drink for pasteurization. Best of luck with your daughter. God bless.
Wow. Food isn't safe in Europe, either. Cukes, tomatos and lettuce is a salad right there. Bad news.
This is clearly Barack Obama's fault.
There are fewer mysteries in this than most folks imagine, and in North America the primary culprit is high-intensity cattle feedlots, which is a reasonably new bit of megacorporate Frankenscience where for several weeks prior to slaughter cattle are kept in tightly packed holding pens where they are fed corn and other grains in increasing rates to cause them (a) to gain more weight and (b) to add more fat . . .
Making this practice all the more strange and bizarre is the fact that the ground in high-intensity cattle feedlots is covered in cow poop to the point that it looks like a field of black mud where nothing grows other than gnarly stuff like E. coli bacteria and so forth and so on . . .
The next phase in the sequence is that runoff from the high-intensity cattle feedlots finds its way to nearby vegetable fields where the gnarly bacteria and viruses are absorbed by the vegetables and other botanical produce . . .
But it is not limited to runoff events, since the cow poop also is sold as fertilizer, which for a fully enclosed greenhouse type of botanical produce facility is one of the primary ways the gnarly bacteria and viruses get into the vegetables and so forth . . .
Wild animals are another vector, which is the best explanation for the leafy vegetable (spinach primarily) event that happened a few years ago, where leafy vegetables grown in California were contaminated by wild boar that visited a runoff area from a nearby high-intensity cattle feedlot and then moved to the leafy vegetable field for salad or whatever . . .
Something similar happens in Mexico, and there are huge hog operations there, which led to the recent swine flu epidemic, but there also are problems with Salmonella and E. coli, where a few years ago contaminated hot peppers grown in Mexico basically shut-down the Florida tomato industry, since initially it was thought that the culprits were Florida tomatoes, so the FDA and USDA imposed Draconian restrictions on Florida tomatoes, which if nothing else was a vast clue that the FDA and USDA folks have no sense, because (a) there were no reports of illnesses in Florida and surrounding states, but there were significant illnesses in Texas . . .
Salmonella is a different matter, but for E. coli the simple rule is that leafy vegetable production moves to California in the early Spring and continues there through early Fall, at which time it moves to the deserts of New Mexico and Arizona, where the key bit of information is that until recently there were no cattle in the desert, although I am starting to find an occasional bit of information about a high-intensity cattle feedlot in those states, as well . . .
So, the general advice to novices is that leafy vegetables are not on the Baldenario Approved for Novices Menu™ beginning in early Spring and continuing through early Fall, but once leafy vegetable production moves to the desert where there are no cattle and very few insects and bugs, since nothing much lives and grows in the desert, it is acceptable to consider taking the risk of enjoying a tasty leafy vegetable salad, although perhaps not . . .
And from a different perspective, the basic problem is that cattle are not designed to eat anything other than grass and hay, so what happens when cattle primarily are fed corn and other grains is that their gastrointestinal system becomes abnormally acidic (pH), and the other fact of the matter is that E. coli thrives in the acidic environment which just happens to occur when cattle are in an high-intensity feedlot environment . . .
Another useful bit of information is that cooking stuff for approximately 10 minutes at 160 degrees Fahrenheit or hotter zaps nearly everything except prions, where the basic rule for zapping prions is that it requires an acetylene welding torch, which is one of the reasons there is nearly no research done on prions, since it is extraordinarily difficult to keep a laboratory clean when there are prions, and for reference prions are the most likely culprits for "Mad Cow" disease and the various human variants, which for the most part came into existence when megacorporations had the patently stupid idea that feeding parts of cattle carcasses to cattle to boost protein was a great way to pinch a few pennies, which essentially transformed a herbivore (cattle) into a cannibal carnivore, where one hypothesis on this is that cattle were fed sheep carcass parts, since "Mad Cow" disease is very similar to a disease that affects sheep . . .
There are no mysteries to any of this, and the causes are well-known, but it will continue so long as the federal and state bureaucracies and scientists who are supposed to be protecting consumers choose instead to protect megacorporate farm operators . . .
Until everything changes dramatically, which will not happen for a long time (perhaps decades), the simple solution for novices is to stop eating raw or uncooked vegetables, which is not so difficult to do, really . . .
"Normal" fruit like apples, pears, and oranges are not problematic, but strawberries can be a bit of a problem, as can grapes and anything else that is grown in locations where there are low-paid farm workers and high-intensity cattle feedlots . . .
Summarizing, the simple solution is to cook your own food and generally to limit the raw and uncooked stuff to apples, pears, oranges, lemons, limes, and watermelons grown in the Deep South, since there are not so many high-intensity cattle feedlots in the Deep South, because it is too hot and all the cow poop becomes overwhelming, plus people in the Deep South tend to have sufficient sense to know that forcing cattle to live and sleep in 6 to 12 inches of cow poop is patently stupid, for sure . . .
For sure!
Baldernario Excellent report and very informative. I buy mostly organic and only eat fruits that I get from the south. However I get my meat from Le Cense Beef which is all grass fed beef and they do not send their beef to the large slaughter houses where a lot of these harmful bacteria get on the meat. I find that Le Cense Beef has the best prices and their higher grade steaks Filets TBones etc are surprisingly tender. Thanks for the info.
Organic is even a higher risk I would think. No chemical treatments...
@fight for freedom:
Local grown and raised food is better, and free-range beef is fine . . .
Last year, I noticed that the local butcher shop had some smoked hams, so I decided to try one, and I was simply amazed . . .
The surprising thing was that it was not heavily salted, and it had outstanding flavor, at which point I realized that this was the first correctly smoked ham I ever had, which is like the first time you enjoy a tomato grown by a farmer who knows how to grow tomatoes . . .
The only bad aspect is that it essentially ruins everything when the only options are getting stuff from the grocery store, because once you have had a homegrown tomato, grocery store tomatoes taste like elementary school art paste . . .
This also happened for me in the late-1950s with peaches, and while it is a memorable experience, one you taste a tree-ripened freestone peach picked from the tree at an orchard where the growing conditions are perfect, what you thought was a grading scale from 1 to 10 becomes a grading scale from 1 to 100, and all the stuff at the grocery store is a 10 at best, but so what . . .
So what!
I like watermelons, and last year the watermelons from Louisiana were stellar (best in a decade), so depending on how the Mississippi River flooding affects everything, it is possible that this year will be another great year for watermelons, since a warmer than average Spring tends to map to outstanding Louisiana watermelons . . .
The small, dark green, round watermelons from Texas are very good this, and this might be a good year for peaches . . .
So far, it has not been a good year for strawberries, however . . .
Red pears were excellent last Winter, and apples were very good, too . . .
Back to beef, there are no high-intensity cattle feedlots in Australia (at least several years ago), and all their beef is free-range with no added hormones and antibiotics, and on average Australians are 10 pounds lighter than Americans who eat the same quantity of beef . . .
Cattle are herbivores, and they are designed to eat grass and hay, perhaps with a tiny bit of corn meal every once in a while (perhaps a cup or two) as a treat, but the fact of the matter is that corn is so totally wrong for cattle that feeding a gallon or two of corn meal (which basically smells like whiskey mash) to a cow will kill it, so if you have corn meal for treats, you have to keep it locked in a secure location where the cows cannot get to it . . .
And regarding the E. coli event in Germany, for a news reporter and journalist this is one of those stories that is so predictable it can be written in advance . . .
The cause will be traced to a high-intensity cattle feedlot in a path involving incorrectly processed cow poop, runoff, or a low-paid farm worker who had two jobs but wore the same work clothes and shoes in both jobs, where one of the jobs involved stepping and working in cow poop . . .
One way or another, it will involve cow poop and the cattle will have been feed high levels of corn or any other type of grain that makes their digestive system go highly acidic . . .
The only mystery is how the E. coli in the cow poop got into the growing matter or hydroponic irrigation system of the cucumber greenhouse . . .
And there is a lot more to the poop aspect, since another favored tactic of corporate megafarms is to cover their fields with processed sewage liquids and solids from the local waste treatment plant, although in recent years the USDA has imposed a few restrictions on using human poop as fertilizer, where the field cannot be used for a year or so, or whatever . . .
One of the problems is that human viruses are not killed by waste treatment procedures, and it is entirely possible for a disease like hepatitis to get into tomatoes that are fertilized with waste treatment plant "sludge", and then someone eats the tomato and gets hepatitis . . .
There are no mysteries about this . . .
It might take a while for biologists and public health officials to determine the specific vectors and the way the bacteria, viruses, and prions got from point A to point Z, but other than specifically how it got from one place to another, there are no mysteries . . .
Several decades ago there was a research facility in Colorado that was studying "Mad Deer" disease, and after a while what happened was that the facility became contaminated with "Mad Deer" prions to the point that every deer in the facility became infected and died, so the federal and state officials decided to decontaminate the facility, but after doing what they thought would be sufficient decontamination procedures, the problem recurred, so they switched to more extreme decontamination protocols that included literally removing the top 12 to 19 inches of soil from the area around the facility, but that did not work either, so the only solution was to designate the facility and surround land as a contamination site and to move the facility to a new location, which is what they did, and the new facility is perhaps 100 or so miles from the now toxic old site . . .
There are no mysteries . . .
There are a lot of different types or strains of E. coli, and it is everywhere and some of it is beneficial to humans, but the types of E. coli that are deadly to people require a particular growing environment that is more acidic, and this particular growing environment is produced by the feed and methods used in high-intensity cattle feedlots, really . . .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escherichia_coli#Role_in_disease
Really!
Kudos for the report.
There was a man who died years back and his class videoed his deterioration as he taught his music class.
He had Familial Insomnia. I did some checking and it is caused by a prion.
Eat meat grown the way God intended it to be raised. Butcher it yourself, or find a clean meat-packing business.
Practice good hygiene when you work in the garden or kitchen.
Keep safe, please.
@Kornfed:
You wrote this:
In the US, there are vastly strict rules for USDA certified organic stuff, although the entire thing actually is a bit of a joke in some respects, because there are so many exceptions that it essentially is meaningless . . .
However, poop is prohibited, which is an excellent start . . .
On the other hand, years ago I was contemplating the idea of purchasing an old apple orchard, so I asked the local county agent about what was required to have nice apples, since I was concerned about using chemical pesticide, and my question basically was whether using organic methods was safer, and the local county agent pretty much thought it was a hilarious question, where the summary answer was that when you apply chemical pesticides you have to wear a mask and stay out of the orchard for about 4 hours, but when you apply organic pesticides you have to wear a protective suit and masks, and you have to stay out of the orchard for at least 48 hours, which basically is a long way of explaining that the "organic" stuff is considerably more gnarly than the "artificial" stuff . . .
There are other strategies, of course, and it mostly is a matter of good taste versus good appearance . . .
If you do nothing other than introduce some beneficial insects that eat all the bad insects, then most of the apples do not look very attractive, but they taste really good, which is the way it works . . .
All the vegetables and fruit at the grocery store look really good but for the most part they have the taste and texture of elementary school art paste . . .
There are no mysteries, really . . .
Really!
What constitutes organic? We are lulled into thinking that "organic" is healthier and yet that is not often the case. Organic can mean that produce has been grown with "honey pots" rather than chemical fertilizer. Is this really more healthy?
Kornfed- Organics, CERTIFIED organics are not the problem, the problem is they are using sewage sludge to fertilize with, HUMAN sewage sludge, and then selling it as "organics". Any person who has researched knows that organic (certified) organic can not use sewage sludge, or anything NON-organic on organic crops. If you knew the waste, both industrial (flouride for one) and supposidly natural they sell to the population you would be amazed.
RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH!!!! Organic Consumers dot org is a good start. Union of Concerned Scientists is another. See the movies Food, Inc., The Future of Food and Food Matters. Educate yourself, see what they are pawning off on the sheeple.
Baldenaro has most every step covered - but one key is missing. My son too had HUS, transfusions, periteneal dialysis and it was a nightmare. As I researched this I realized that cross contamination happens - not just at the farm or downstream from the farm - but AT THE GROCERY STORE!!! How many times have you seen meat packs "bleed" and then get run right across the scanner. Then think how many times you have seen the clerk clean the belt and scanner - much fewer would be my guess. I am very, very picky about making sure the belts and scanner are cleaned. I actually have boycott a specific store for more than 2 years because they rarely, if ever cleaned their belts. Does your grocery bagger put meat in the same bag as vegetables? What about in your own fridge? Keep raw meat away from everything else - and ensure that your grocer does the same!
@momofhusboy:
You wrote this:
This is absolutely correct, and it applies for all raw meat and seafood, for sure!
For sure!
And it is not only cross-contamination at grocery stores, since this happens at restaurants, home kitchens, and anywhere people prepare food and do not follow good food storage and preparation practices . . .
It has been a few years, but there was an incident at a restaurant of a national steak house where customers were infected with E. coli, because a restaurant worker allowed blood from steaks or ground beef to drip on some of the fresh vegetables and sliced fruit being prepared for the salad bar, which as I recall included watermelon . . .
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=118084&page=1
[NOTE: One of the advantages of reading the news every day when you have a nearly eidetic memory is that it makes it easier to find older news reports, at least if they are available somewhere on the web . . . ]
There are a lot of rules for safe food storing and handling, but the rules are not so difficult to understand and follow . . .
At least once a day I make about a quart of sanitizing stuff, which is about an ounce of Clorox® bleach and the remainder in tap water, and I wet a kitchen "bar mop" towel and run it over the countertop, sink handles, refrigerator door handles, and the front of the microwave. And I soak the sink "spray wand" in the quart container along with the upside-down hand soap container for about 15 to 20 minutes, and then I pour the bleach water around the sink and let it air dry . . .
[NOTE: Sanitizing the hand-soap container is a newly added practice based on a rather disturbing MSNBC.com news report that appeared this week or last week about a research study where scientists examined hand-soap dispensers and found that a lot of them had all sorts of bacteria and other gnarly stuff. I think this has been known for a while, but probably only at hospitals and clinics, since the news report mentioned that medical facilities switched to disposable hand-soap container systems years ago, but it was not something that I had considered, although I had sanitized the hand-soap container every so often but mostly to keep the white plastic parts looking clean, which has the same effect, except that my thinking was more along the lines of liking the hand-soap container to look clean, since it never occurred to me that it could be a source of bacteria if not regularly sanitized. MSNBC.com provides a lot of very useful information, which I appreciate . . . ]
I wash the dishes in a Maytag dishwasher that has a heat-sanitizing cycle, and I have food thermometers in the various sections of the refrigerator and freezer . . .
And I use either a wood cutting board or a marble cutting board, and I clean and sanitize the cutting boards regularly, but I only use them for vegetables and fruit . . .
[NOTE: Plastic cutting boards are problematic, since some bacteria actually consider plastic to be "food" . . . ]
For cutting meat, I use paper plates or stainless steel metal plates (which I wash and sanitize), and I do not use the same utensils for preparing meat and for preparing vegetables and fruit . . .
I keep the food preparation utensils separate, and I clean them frequently, and I wash my hands thoroughly before switching from working with raw meat and seafood to working with vegetables and fruit, which includes using fingernail scrubbers like the ones doctors use, and this maps to washing my hands perhaps 25 to 50 times while preparing a meal, and I also microwave or soak the kitchen sponges in the bleach solution, and so forth and so on, but so what . . .
So what!
There are other things that are part of the program, but keeping everything clean and at the correct storing temperature, as well as cooking everything correctly and checking expiration dates, tends to work nicely, for sure . . .
For sure!
@RN in Philly:
You wrote this:
My focus primarily was on the way things work here in North America, since I do not have much information on what counts as being "organic" in Europe and elsewhere, and the fact of the matter in our great nation is that gnarly E. coli primarily is the direct result of megacorporate high-intensity cattle feedlots and high-density growing and locating practices, and while there are rules and so forth, one of the things the sneaky weasels do is to move their vast production facilities to countries where the laws and regulations are not so stringent, which is what happened in Mexico and led to the swine flu epidemic of a few years ago, which started at a vast hog operation of a US-based company that moved its production facilities to Mexico . . .
E. coli is everywhere, and some of it is quite beneficial to the human body, where for example "good" E. coli produce vitamin K in the human body (intestines), but if you check the literature on the "gnarly" E. coli what you discover is that it is a reasonably new phenomenon, although not entirely new, since Upton Sinclair wrote a scathing expose of the meat-packing industry at the turn of the 20th century in his classic book, "The Jungle", which led to federal regulation and so forth, which worked very well for a while, but the sneaky weasels devised new ways to do what they always do, and all the current "gnarly" E. coli events started happening around the same time in the early-1980s that high-fructose corn syrup was introduced in the US on a grand scale, which coincided with the proliferation of high-intensity cattle feedlots . . .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jungle
There are no mysteries to this stuff . . .
Some way or another, gnarly E. coli got into or onto raw vegetables in Europe, and there are several vectors, but for the most part it ultimately traces to cow poop from high-intensity cattle feedlots or something similar . . .
And based on what Spanish public health authorities have said more recently--which basically is that nobody in Spain has become ill--this tends to suggest that the gnarly E. coli contamination happened another way, which is entirely possible . . .
As noted in my first post, something similar happened a few years ago with Mexican peppers, which at first was thought to be caused by Florida tomatoes, but at the time nobody in Florida was sick, as was the case in surrounding states, so my thinking was that if Florida tomatoes were contaminated, then there should be some sick people in Florida, except there were no illnesses reported in Florida . . .
So, based on there being no reported illnesses in Spain, this tends to suggest that the gnarly E. coli contamination occurred elsewhere, although perhaps not . . .
Public health folks are skilled in discovering the origins of these outbreaks, but it takes a while to do the patient interviews and testing, which includes testing and fact gathering by agricultural investigators, as well . . .
There are lots of possibilities, but it all traces to cow poop, and for this particular strain of E. coli the most likely culprit is an high-intensity cattle feedlot, although it can be something so simple as hauling fresh vegetables in the same truck as raw meat or using the same shipping container for raw meat and fresh vegetables without cleaning and sanitizing the shipping container between trips . . .
But regardless of the specific vectors and path, it is highly likely that at least one generally-accepted food handling practice was not followed . . .
Regarding organic food in the US, the USDA has a reasonably good organic certification program, and there are strict rules regarding poop as fertilizer, but the problem I have with the USDA program is that it allows exceptions for some types of products, where if there is no organic product, then it is OK to use a non-organic product, although this is more for prepared organic stuff rather than for organic vegetables and fruit, obviously . . .
However, the biggest problem I have with the USDA organic certification program is that the various USDA Certified Organic symbols that for example appear on plastic packs of prepared lettuce do NOT certify that the lettuce contained in the plastic pack is organic . . .
Instead, the USDA Certified Organic symbols indicate that the producer or manufacturer follows USDA guidelines and is routinely inspected by independent organic certifiers, which is a bit misleading . . .
It might be a bit on the "picky" side of things, but the USDA makes it very clear that their Certified Organic designations and symbols on packaging do not specifically guarantee anything about the actual contents of the package other than everything is done according to standards and so forth . . .
And it took me a while to understand this, since when you first read about it, the impression is that the USDA tests the vegetables and whatever that are contained in the package, but there was a bit of ambiguity in the high-level information, so I started doing a bit of research, which led to finding more detailed specifications (hundreds of pages of highly specific requirements and so forth), and somewhere in all that information was a FAQ "question and answer" section that provided the facts, which basically is that the USDA is not guaranteeing the contents of the package actually are organic . . .
Instead, the USDA is guaranteeing that the food is produced according to its Certified Organic standards and requirements, which includes regular audits and inspections by independent organic inspection services, which also are certified and audited by the USDA . . .
And while it is not feasible to inspect every piece of lettuce, there are ways mathematically to ensure with an extraordinarily high level of confidence that lettuce is safe . . .
For example, this is the way light bulbs are tested and verified, and it works . . .
The mathematics is advanced, but the short version is that you do not need to test and verify every light bulb . . .
Instead, there is a well-defined set of mathematical theorems and procedures that make it possible to do a small number of carefully selected tests at each step of the manufacturing process, as well as on a small selection of the completed light bulbs, and when this is done correctly, testing perhaps 100 light bulbs is sufficient to determine whether 1 million light bulbs will perform for the stated number of hours . . .
Even when you fully understand the mathematics, it appears to be a bit like magic, but it works . . .
For the most part, the key to the mathematics is having an excellent random number generator, because while perhaps only 100 light bulbs actually are tested, the way the 100 light bulbs are selected for testing is the key to the results applying to all of the 1 million light bulbs manufactured in the particular production run, really . . .
Really!
German officials said Thursday they suspected cucumbers imported from Spain as a possible source of the outbreak of hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS), a serious complication of a type of E. coli known as Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC).
That's funny. A lot of our E.Coli tainted foods also come from a Spanish speaking nation....
There is nothing funny about falling ill with Ecoli....or dying because of it.
Must be a Spanish speaking strain of E. coli...
A very big culprit in cases like this, not to burst anyones bubble, is the substandard personal hygiene level of the workers themselves who handle the products, specifically in the harvesting process. Europe is not immune to the greed driven employment of illegal aliens which has swept like a tsunami over North America. In other words, yeah, they're really, really cheap, folks, and chances are they're really, really filthy too. You get what you pay for................
And those who bring it home and do not properly wash it, store it, and cook it.
I agree 100% Peter. When you're paid 25 cents an hour, are you really going to take a potty break? Nope, you're gonna sqat and wipe with a veggie leaf.
F.f.F. & Kerry,
May I have some of what you've been smoking? The problem is E. Coli. It's got nothing to do with plant genes. Hint: Coli refers to the colon - it comes from feces that ends up on the plants.
You've got to be kidding. If all the farmers in the world practiced "organic" farming (whatever that means), billions of people would starve.
As for GMO horrors, the world eats really well because of our popular hybrids. In the 1950s (when far more people lived on near-starvation diets), farmers could get around 20 bushels of corn per acre. With high-tech seeds (read GMO), the yields are over 200 bushels per acre today.
Even better (and I'm pretty sure this irritates you no end), evil corporations actually make money helping all the world to live better.
E. coli comes from the intestinal tracts of mammals. That means either there are animals or people on those farms that have this and there is no hand washing after handling the infected materials.
Soap and water work wonders.
This is similar to the food grown in Mexico as its questionable what they use for fertilizer and other disgusting organic thoughts.
All these years I've been told that organic is the way to go since all those regular veggies were tainted with pesticides, etc.
So we shouldn't eat the meat because its bad for us and has toxins and hormones etc., we shouldn't eat fast food its bad for us, we shouldn't eat too much wheat/breads/grains because they are bad in quantities...and now no veggies because they might kill you. hmmm, so what?, just take my soylent green and shut up and I'll see ya'll on the otherside? We need a hero.
The best thing is to just grow your own. Then you know what your eating.
For many, that is an impossibility.
It's really not.
Mary Jones, you are right. If you can grow a house plant, you can grow food. Just replace that non-edible plant with an edible one.
There are tomato seeds now I think called "Patio Pick" which are great for containers. Try that and some bush variety cukes, beans, some herbs, a few green onions. Greens don't require much space either and you can continue to harvest from your pot or box of lettuces for a few months at least. Just pick enough for your salad that day.
Everyone could at least try. Start small and as your confidence and experience grows then try other crops on your balcony, window sill, patio, small yard. Did you know you can train vining crops to grow on a sunny wall?
Well, we don't listen to science much about anything anymore, do we?
Would someone please give us the facts? These bacteria are on only the surface of the vegetable right? Washing in soapy warm water would remove the agent. Then if in any doubt, peeling would further ensure an ok product? I can't imagine that a cucumber plant would take up e-coli through its root system to spread internally into the plant parts.
So, someone working in the farm or packing house didn't wash their hands after using the toilet? Feces contaminated the vegetables?
All the panic and few facts. Any suggestions on where I can read the real story?
Uh... Isn't cow manure a common fertilizer for "organic" vegatables?
Cow manure or any manure can be used, but to be used; Iowa rules require that raw manure be applied three months prior to harvest for agronomic crops and four months for horticultural crops, in order to allow adequate decomposition, and avoid any problems of bacterial contamination of produce. It is most likely similar in other states.
Perhaps you failed to notice that these were organic grown vegetables. The greed is also in the green industries preaching their care for the planet. Perhaps criminal prosecution should be brought into this case.
I feel for the victims of this outbreak but I can't wait to sink my teeth into a megacorporate produced McBurger.
We can all go to organically grown vegetables and free ranged beef and be all happy with our raised prices because we can afford the higher cost. Remember though that there are those who are not so well off to be able to buy a newer car to save te environment, shop at organic food stores or add solar panels to their home.
Giving them handouts or tax credits are not the right way to help either.
Me neither. One of the great advantages of "megacorporate" food is that it almost surely doesn't have E. coli in it/on it.
That would be most of the population of the world. If all food were grown in the romantic image of small farmers working their fields and selling their produce at the local farmers markets, half the world would starve to death.
Farmers small and large for centuries have been using animal manure for fertilization practices. Preparation is the key for clean eating. Eating raw anything was carefully evaluated and we always thoroughly cleaned our plants before consuming them. When buying food in a supermarket I especially take the pains to clean every plant because you don't know where it's from. I never buy raw vegetable trays for parties usually they are made from scratch. I am just as picky with meat and fish also. I just don't trust the megacorporate food production because penny pinching is their only concern.
I'm from the "deep south" and have family that has farmed or does farm today. I never got sick from eating anything. Of course we took responsibility to see that a good product was sold or consumed.
Sorry about the crazy structure of the comment. I tried the old copy and paste, experienced a distraction, and ran out of time. I hope you can get the idea I'm trying to convey.
Thanks
Oh yes, clearly. (LOL)
Would someone please give us the facts? These bacteria are on only the surface of the vegetable right? Washing in soapy warm water would remove the agent. Then if in any doubt, peeling would further ensure an ok product? I can't imagine that a cucumber plant would take up e-coli through its root system to spread internally into the plant parts.
So, someone working in the farm or packing house didn't wash their hands after using the toilet? Feces contaminated the vegetables?
All the panic and few facts. Any suggestions on where I can read the real story?
@Hope:
The various types of gnarly bacteria, viruses, and prions can be inside the vegetables, as well as on the surfaces, so in some instances there is no amount of washing that will remove the gnarly bacteria, viruses, and prions, so the with the exception of prions, the only safe strategy is to cook everything at 160 degrees Fahrenheit or hotter for at least 10 minutes . . .
One of the more disturbing bits of information I learned happened in the early 1980s when I was helping a friend get waste treatment plant "sludge" for use as fertilizer, since at the time it was free and he had a pickup truck . . .
Aside from the fact that I actually went to a waste treatment plant and shoveled "sludge", the entire thing was a bit surreal, but I was young and had no sense . . .
Being a bit of an entrepreneur, I noticed that there were a lot of cherry tomatoes growing on the heaps of "sludge", and I did a bit of dot connecting and suggested to my friend, who was a botanist, that we could start a business selling cherry tomatoes to local restaurants . . .
But his response first was to scream, "Don't eat the cherry tomatoes!", which he followed by explaining that the "cherry" tomatoes actually where what in botany are called "volunteers" and that they are produced by seeds of hybrid tomatoes that traveled through the gastrointestinal systems of everyone in town and then were pooped and sent to the waste treatment plant, where after a bit of processing they found their way to the heaps of "sludge" and then started growing, eventually becoming "cherry" tomato plants . . .
He also explained that while "sludge" is an excellent fertilizer for ornamental shrubbery, it cannot be used in a vegetable garden, because for example if a person has hepatitis and eats a tomato, followed by digesting it and so forth and so on, then the hepatitis virus can become attached to the tomato seeds, which then get flushed and sent to the waste treatment plant, with the result that the "cherry" tomatoes can contain hepatitis virus, hence can infect someone who eats the "cherry" tomato, which also is the case with other gnarly stuff . . .
So, the fact of the matter is that sometimes the gnarly contamination only is on the outside of vegetables and fruit (since tomatoes technically are a fruit), but other times the gnarly contamination is inside the cells of the vegetables and there is no way to wash the inside of cells . . .
If the plant has absorbed or incorporated the gnarly bacteria, virus, or prion at the cellular level, then washing the outside of the vegetables and fruit will not remove the contamination, which basically makes fully cooking the vegetables and fruit the only safe strategy . . .
However, prions are especially resistant to nearly everything, including high heat, and it basically requires an acetylene welding torch to zap prions . . .
The chemicals required to zap prions are vastly gnarly, and Clorox® bleach is not sufficient to zap prions, which is one of the reasons that there are so few research facilities that study prions, because keeping the laboratories clean is extraordinarily difficult, and for reference prions are the most likely culprits for "Mad Cow" disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) and it human variants, such as Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease . . .
Regarding the specific vectors and pathways that led to the E. coli event in Germany and elsewhere in Europe, there are quite a few possibilities that range from (a) the vegetables being contaminated in the growing facilities, in which case the E. coli can be in the vegetables as contrasted to "on" the surface of the vegetables, to (b) the vegetables being contaminated after the fact by unsafe handling and shipping practices . . .
Unless everything in Germany has changed dramatically over the years, it is highly unlikely that the various vegetables were not washed, since Germans are a bit nutty about cleanliness and it is not unusual for a German housewife literally to scrub the front porch and walkways leading to the house perhaps once a week . . .
So, this tends to suggest that the E. coli was inside the vegetables . . .
Vegetables are a bit different from people in the sense that picking a vegetable does not cause it to stop growing, which is easily observed by the fact that you can plant a potato or onion, and it will continue growing . . .
Cucumbers continue to grow, as does lettuce, and so forth and so on, although cucumbers tend to have a tough outer skin, which typically is coated with a thin layer of paraffin or wax to make the cucumbers look better, as is done with most fresh fruit at grocery stores (apples, in particular), and you can "polish" an apple like a pair of shoes if you have a buffing cloth . . .
The possibility with cucumbers is that the end where the stalk was attached might not be completely sealed, so at least in theory various material can be absorbed into the cucumber via the stalk "stub" or whatever it is called . . .
Regarding the source of the contamination, it probably will be traced to something involving cow poop in one way or another, where an high-intensity cattle feedlot will be involved, but it does not need to be cow poop directly . . .
E. coli live in the gastrointestinal system of cattle, but when cattle graze on grass and hay, it is constrained and typically is not so gnarly, but when cattle are feed diets high in corn and other grains, their gastrointestinal systems become more acidic, which just happens to be the ideal conditions for gnarly E. coli to start growing, which is the basic problem . . .
How the E. coli get from cattle or even wild animals onto and into fresh vegetables can involve a complex sequence or series of events, which can include seeping or leaking contaminated fluids from raw meat, workers tracking cow poop from one place to another by not changing their shoes and following standard food handling procedures, reusing shipping containers without cleaning and sanitizing them when switching from hauling raw meat to hauling fresh vegetables, and so on and so forth . . .
It also can be something like a forklift operator carrying a leaking container of raw meet through a food distribution warehouse and some of the contaminated liquid splashing or dripping on containers of fresh vegetables . . .
There are generally accepted food handling, shipping, and storing procedures that keep these events to a minimum, so it is likely that at least one such generally accepted procedure was not followed . . .
The specific vectors (carrying or contaminating agents) and pathways should be identified over the next week or so, since doing the various public health and agricultural interviews, investigations, and tests takes a while (from a few days to a week or longer), but the information is there somewhere, and the public health and agricultural authorities and scientists will find it, sooner or later . . .
Regarding discovering how these events occur, one way is to read about previous events, since these events are happening more frequently at the dawn of the early-21st century, and when you read a few of the detailed analyses, it does not take so long to understand the various ways they happen . . .
It might have happened in a way similar to the way the spinach E. coli event happened in our great nation in 2006, which is explained in the following MSNBC.com news report:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15433871/ns/health-infectious_diseases/t/wild-pigs-suspected-cause-e-coli-outbreak/
This is the detailed CDC/EID analyses of the the 2006 E. coli spinach event, which is a PDF file:
http://www.cdc.gov/eid/content/13/12/pdfs/1908.pdf
The public health and agricultural investigators and scientists in Europe are doing these same types of highly detailed investigations and tests, and although it takes a while, they probably will be able to trace the contamination and to explain exactly how it occurred, really . . .
Really!
P. S. I have been following this stuff for years, and MSNBC.com is very good about reporting these events, even when the events at first are isolated and local . . .
Another way to follow these events is to check with the CDC, FDA, USDA, and World Health Organization (WHO) websites, since they have information on these events as soon as they occur and have been reported at the federal level . . .
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/recentincidents.asp
http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/default.htm
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Fsis_Recalls/index.asp
http://www.who.int/csr/don/en/index.html
He was just in europe wasn't he? Coincidence?
This is an unusual situation. A careful review of both the handling after harvest and skin histology of the cucumber is necessary. It would be a shame to cast doubt on organics globally with E Coli.
Organic means the very root and root hair are fully developed. Chemically grown cukes do not need the tiny final root hairs since their food is already prepared to absorb. An ORGANICALLY GROWN root hair must dissolve essential trace elements in the soil and then transmit this plant food to the plant stem for transfer to the leaves, where photosynthesis completes the cycle using the dissolved trace elements and other nutrients.
The Germans have the Max Planck Institute. I am sure they will look at these cucumbers with a microscope and even a cloned growout. Bacteria are basically too large to get past the safety net organic plants build. That's why they filter out lead, mercury, and other things found in cattle or even human treated sewage sludge.
These experiments were reviewed at large international composting conferences with published in the 1970's. Places like the Rodal Organic Garden and Farming Research group in Emmaus Pennsylvania, were involved. The press would do well to further their homework on ORGANIC GROWERS in this case! M. Bosold
A few assumptions, this is Europe and they are looking at organic sources so I doubt they used GMO cukes. The e.coli is an animal waste problem. The food was suspected to come from an organic source. Like in the USA organic doesn't mean it was raised by small market farmers, it was raised in a factory farm like the mega farms in California. This also means it was most likely sprayed with some type of large scale irrigation or cleaning system that somehow has been contaminated with a lagoon that has been exposed to animal waste or a human sewer. If a small farmer suspects there might be a contamination problem the more labor intensive drip irrigation should be used. Plants are marvelous, their roots can be in mulched contaminated soil, but if the fruit hasn't been sprayed it is still safe to eat. People that treat their crops like living entities instead of a process understand how and what the plants need to provide us with healthy food.
Bottom line is the big corps will use this as an event to attack their main competitor, the small market farmer that uses care and raises their crops like they are raising it for themselves, which they are. The big mega factory farm principal doesn't eat regular fresh food, they have enough cash to eat out in the fancy restaurants and buy processed food from sources other than food they raised themselves. Most of the time they live in large cities and country living is an abstract concept. The one thing they can do is hire lawyers and lobbyists.
Organic farming, as determined by the USDA, is being controlled by large factory farms. They have lobbied the government to shape the laws to benefit themselves. Try and start a small farm and you find out that the rules are setup to promote processes and red tape that only large factory style farms can meet. The laws they determined were to their best interest. I'm from Iowa and remember local farmers raising eggs for spending money. Almost every farm had 2 or 3 cows to sell milk. By the way they also used these same foods for their own consumption. There was not a health problem. The food was healthy and safe. Yes it didn't have miles of stainless steel and a huge building that housed the entire operation. Yet it produced food that is 20-30% more nutritious then what we get now and health issues were few and far between. The large corporate operations lobbied to have regulations set up that sound like it is protecting the consumer. Not true, as we see the recalls are all from mega-corp sources, not small local sources. Soooooo the rules are not protecting us, all it does is set up a monopoly. Local farmers eat the things they raise; they have to answer to their customer because many times the people that eat their food are their neighbors. They come out and look at their farm. Local sources have much more control brought by peer pressure then any regulation can do. There are no laws or regulations that control quality more than your customer looking over your shoulder. Please people just because it is organic and over regulated doesn't mean it healthy. The mega farms still load up the veggies with extra potassium to add starch to the plant. They could care less about micronutrients and soil quality. Remember it is sold by the pound, fat veggies bring more money. This is one of the reasons produce is 20-30% less nutritional then it was before the mega farms started supplying fresh produce (I use the term fresh as a loose term when referring to food raised 1000 miles away). Buy local, use commonsense in food laws.