Spinach Scam E.coli? here's an answer

[wyjoz]

I was in Ashland Oregon Co Op and there was spinach (local) galore ! I wish I had time, I would have stood by the produce with a sign LETS EAT SPINACH! Yum.

THERE WAS NO E coli FOUND IN THE FIELD OF SPINACH AND IT WAS PLOWED UNDER ! Could someone please explain that to me.

Having a spinach peach smoothie; To Health Joz

[Pailani]

THERE WAS NO E coli FOUND IN THE FIELD OF SPINACH AND IT WAS PLOWED UNDER ! Could someone please explain that to me.

Somewhere back earlier in this thread someone said that the authorities have been telling spinach producers to clean up their act for awhile and they didn't - this is sounding like they're determined to "teach them a lesson" by forcing all spinach growers out of business, even the ones who aren't guilty. It does seem vindictive rather than in the interest of the public to make all spinach growers plow their fields under, even when some companies and organic spinach haven't been implicated.

[Sharon in Colorado]

I would like some good articles to send my mother, if anyone has any good ones, not from health sites though, from general news sites.

I just spoke with her this morning and she said to me "you aren't eating any spinach are you?" and proceeded to tell me about how a 2 year old either got very sick or died.

I gave her the heads' up on it, but as always people are more likely to believe news reports.

[alex]

Latest news??

The problem is not the spinach!!


NY Times Goes to the Root of the E.Coli Spinach Crisis
Leafy Green Sewage

By Nina Planck
The New York Times, September 21, 2006

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 FarmerÂ’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 itÂ’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 itÂ’s still the simplest one: stop feeding grain to cattle.

CaliforniaÂ’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.’’


alex

[wyjoz]

The Problem was not the Spinach; so lets start with post #1 again. Joz

[mongomango]

The inception of the problem was not with the spinach. The culmination of the problem does in fact, seem to be now, the spinach. If the news can be believed...which at times is quite dubious...but if it can be at this instance, the E-Coli was found in a bag of Dole spinach in a victims refrigerator. While it's very sad for the spinach farmers at present, it will be even sadder within your own family if someone succumbs to e-coli after eating spinach.

One should really choose their fights very carefully. How the ecoli got into the spinach is a story for another day. Right now, making sure that the ecoli doesn't get into you is a better plan of action. If there is a conspiracy underway, well, people are routinely put in harms way and even killed to sway the masses to an agenda that the powers that be want us under. Tthis instance, if a conspiracy and not just gross negligence, would be no exception. It is simply not worth the chance to buy any spinach at all from a national grocery chain that uses huge processing firms. In fact, it is rather self defeating to buy from such vendors anyhow as all the organic farms are being swallowed up the the agri-giants who are forcing detrimental changes to the organic standards.

By all means, go to your local farms or farmer's markets, or grow your own..but imo, advocating buying spinach from national retailers or that such spinach at present is safe, is doing no one any favors.

[Sharon in Colorado]

The Problem was not the Spinach; so lets start with post #1 again. Joz

For those who got sick, developed kidney failure and died the problem WAS the spinach. For everyone else the problem was not the spinach.

[Xanadu]

Here's something that would probably help. http://www.dreamhawk.com/gse.htm

[wyjoz]

For those who got sick, developed kidney failure and died the problem WAS the spinach. For everyone else the problem was not the spinach.

I should have said not the organic spinach they sell in little bundles. It was 'bagged' spinach !

[wyjoz]

not to rehash all that has been said already, BUT, remember the older woman that died from eating spinach? no name, no city, no hospital, nada! here is just an explanation of how this works! http://www.goodnewsaboutgod.com/stud...silly_bird.htm
after reading this article return to home, and read about Sars, Anthrax, and other articles Lorraine Day posted. Interesting. Form your own opinions and don't need to write me and argue. I just read this and I'm sharing it for you to form your own opinions. I have no intentions to manipulate anyone to think 'only one way' RAWgards Joz

[LightLover]

!!!!

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A fabulous article in the New York Times - yes, The New York Times! - traces the spinach contamination to grain-fed cattle!! That's right, it turns out that this particular form of E. coli only survives in the stomach of grain-fed cattle; cattle that are fed their natural diet of hay, grass, and other foliage don't have this problem. Apparently, this E. coli from the feces of grain-fed cattle can contaminate ground water and thereby the plants at neighboring farms.

Here is a link to this excellent article....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/o...ea79&ei=5087%0A

You'll have to sign up for the New York Times online but it is free and only takes one minute!

With thanks to Courtney for this tip!


Update: We were evacuated due to the nearby forest fire but we're back home and catching up. For those awaiting DVDs a new batch is being printed up now and we apologize for the delay!


Jinjee
http://www.TheGardenDiet.com