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Medical Forum / General / Nutrition / December 2006Californian farmers committing agricultural suicide
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=2709899 By GARANCE BURKE FRESNO, Calif. Dec 8, 2006 (AP)- An E. coli outbreak that has sickened nearly five dozen people in the Northeast is prompting concern among West Coast farmers after officials announced that scallions suspected as carriers of the bacteria came from a Southern California farm. The green onion link to the infections mostly of customers at Taco Bell restaurants in the New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia areas hasn't been confirmed. But some experts say the questions already have cast a shadow on an industry still recovering from a similar bacterial outbreak traced to locally grown spinach. "Even if it turns out that the implication to green onions doesn't hold up, a lot of damage is done," said Trevor Suslow, a vegetable specialist at the University of California, Davis. "It certainly heightens concern and undermines confidence among consumers and buyers about the safety of products coming from the state." Testing by an independent lab found three samples of green onions that appeared to have a harsh strain of E. coli. But FDA spokesman Michael L. Herndon cautioned: "All we have been given is presumptive evidence only from a contract lab whose results we can't confirm." Federal authorities said Thursday there were no plans to issue warnings about scallions. Taco Bell, an Irvine-based unit of Yum Brands Inc., told customers that in addition to getting rid of its green onions from all 5,800 of its restaurants, it sanitized the affected restaurants and set up a toll-free number for people to call with concerns. Ready Pac Produce, the sole supplier of green onions to Taco Bell restaurants, stopped scallion production at its Florence, N.J., plant, where the vegetable is washed, chopped and packed. "As soon as we heard news from Taco Bell about the positive yet inconclusive results, we took immediate action to do everything we could," said Steve Dickstein, marketing vice president for Irwindale-based Ready Pac, one of the nation's leading produce packers. The suspect scallions were grown by Boskovich Farms Inc. of Oxnard, Dickstein said. etc. ***** How many e. coli outbreaks do these people need to see before they clean up their operations? The farm owners should be chanrged and jailed and lose their land. Maybe that'll send a message to the rest of them to clean up their operations. Or test their produce for e. coli on site. How hard would that be to do? TC "How many e. coli outbreaks do these people need to see before they clean up their operations? The farm owners should be chanrged and jailed and lose their land. Maybe that'll send a message to the rest of them to clean up their operations. Or test their produce for e. coli on site. How hard would that be to do?" It would be very hard as almost every plant would have to be tested to ensure no spread of the bacteria, and of course a plant tested is a plant not used. At best random testing could be done, and even might be so even now. Btw, smile, it was red meat that caused the last outbreak, wild hogs broke into a fenced field and left their droppings which mixed with water to pollute the plants. The particular bacteria in question is harbored in the guts of a handful of animals including hogs but not in many others. It can and is spread by meat production, which should give you pause the next you chomp into a nice pork chop or chicken. > "How many e. coli outbreaks do these people need to see before they > clean up their operations? The farm owners should be chanrged and [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > many others. It can and is spread by meat production, which should give > you pause the next you chomp into a nice pork chop or chicken. Smile? Hogs = red meat? Are you sure of that. And I know what caused the contamination. That is what I meant by cleaning up their operations. Keeping domesticated animals away from their fields. Proper fencing and adequate distances between the animal enclosures and the growing plants. And e. coli contaminated meat is not a problem because the meat I eat has all its exposed surface cooked to a temperature that will kill any e. coli contamination. Fresh produce, such as onions, and especially green onions, are more often a concern because much of it is eaten raw or minimally cooked. TC "Smile? Hogs = red meat? Are you sure of that." Sure, "pork, the other white meat", from the various pork packing industry marketing groups. "And I know what caused the contamination. That is what I meant by cleaning up their operations. Keeping domesticated animals away from their fields. Proper fencing and adequate distances between the animal enclosures and the growing plants. It was wild pigs, please read carefully. They were huge truck garden farmers with no animal production. However some miles away are animal yards which is suspected the ultimate source of the bacteria. "And e. coli contaminated meat is not a problem because the meat I eat has all its exposed surface cooked to a temperature that will kill any e. coli contamination. Fresh produce, such as onions, and especially green onions, are more often a concern because much of it is eaten raw or minimally cooked." Don't be so sure, for example most infections from meat are not from consuming the flesh directly but from transfer of the bacteria to other surfaces when uncooked. I haven't looked into it but think it reasonable that as a public health issue the latter source is the cause of most such infections. Health inspectors of restaurants look very carefully at this source of infections and not the meat itself and much time is given to educating staff how to avoid it. In any case, the bacteria is found in nature in the gut of animals as the ultimate source, including human guts. |
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