1) How did the ecoli get on the fruit? No news report I've seen discusses the
issue of whether any bathroom facilities were available for workers (which they
often aren't), though this has clearly been highlighted within the field as
putting us all at risk from ecoli getting in our food. This is basic public
health stuff, no rocket science, and it's not even discussed.
Or - were the farmers using straight manure instead of compost? (As Johnathon
pointed out.) This would point to a solution of basic improvement in farming
skills.
2) How much of this is a problem because of our shipping food far and wide, vs.
eating locally (one of the arguments of many granola-crunching types)? Is this
just a natural risk/side-effect of our current type of food distribution system?
For instance, how many days from production to store for Odwalla's products?
Are they always kept in refrigeration? (re: story I think was on Dateline about
some germ inside of eggs that grows because rules aren't followed re:
refrigeration).
Again, a basic question I've yet to see addressed. Why? Because it questions
the system. No questioning of farming or distribution - how do they do that?
Anything to do with corporate ownership of the media and on their boards - thus
with vested interests? Nawww.... couldn't be that....
3) Of course the fact that the juice wasn't organic would seem to imply that
perhaps it could be some problem with pesticide ag (like perhaps the way it
disrupts nature's balance - like could it change the acidity?), at least more
than it proves a problem with organic ag.
4) And I think this is the most interesting question to ask that hasn't been in
the mainstream media - why was this E Coli able to survive a process that they
thought killed it? Were the apples for some reason not acid enough? Or do we
have a resistant strain?
As Dave wrote:
<<I am extremely concerned about these E. Coli incidents. It seems
that microbes are evolving around many of the tools humanity has developed
to protect itself. A friend mentioned yesterday that some of the genetic
engineering which has been done has used some parts of some strain of E.
Coli to manipulate things. With the widespread use of antibiotics and
genetic engineering who knows what natue will throw at us next.>>
It's been shown that our use of war-like tools like pesticides and anti-biotics
_does_ create resistant strains. Some diseases are making a comeback and the
antibiotic tools are failing, so people are dying of what once were curable
diseases! This is serious stuff folks - we've overused these tools (ex.
prophylatic use of antibiotics in livestock yards to maintain them in unhealthy
conditions) and the predictable results are coming back to haunt us. Genetic
mixing of species only throws another huge risk of huge disaster into the pot.
The only amendment I would make to Dave's statement is that we shouldn't blame
nature for throwing things at us, for that plays into the pro-risk assessment
folk viewpoint. Rather, it's our _monkeying_ with nature that flies back in our
faces. Pogo, as usual, was right.
Some (natural, organic, pure, and pesticide-free) food for thought.
P. Dines