Thank you for your post.
The distinction is twofold: First, a leper, in fact, has leprosy. Second, leprosy is contagious.
A pepper grower in New Jersey who was de facto banned from selling his crop, never had anything to do with the salmonella Saintpaul — as the FDA has now admitted.
Second, Salmonella is common, with an estimated 1.4 million cases a year. Most people do not get sick enough to bother going to the doctor or hospital. They don't get sick at all unless they eat the salmonella. People can further protect themselves by making sure their food is cooked well.
Your comment about salmonella on the inside or outside is actually reversed. Salmonella on the inside would be very serious — it would indicate that Salmonella was internalized in the growing process, a question on which there is great debate as to its feasibility in field — not laboratory — conditions. Salmonella on the outside of a pepper -— or anything else — may or may not mean anything. Someone could have been cutting chicken and not washed his hands thoroughly and put the Salmonella on the exterior of a pepper.
As of today — July 26, 2008 — no further positives have turned up and the FDA won't tell us the number of negatives which we would expect are now well into the thousands.
Appreciate the contribution.
Jim Prevor
http://www.PerishablePundit.com
Our local tomato growers were hit hard by tomatoes bans caused by these toxic jalapeños from Mexico
Irony is that with NAFTA our tomato growers are under tremendous pressure from Mexican tomatoes and here you have Mexican jalapeños hurting them even more
8 years ago Chilean grape and fruit growers lost one billion due FDA foolishness
CHILE MAY SUE U.S. OVER GRAPE BAN
LEAD: Eighteen months after the United States briefly prohibited the import of Chilean fruit when cyanide was found in two grapes, angry farmers, exporters and politicians here are trying to build a case to demand at least $333 million in damages.
Dignity and Prestige
Senator Sergio Romero of the center-right National Renovation Party, the second largest force in the Chilean Congress, said recently that he was in favor of taking any steps ‘’that lead to reparations for the damage caused.’’
‘’The damage is much more than $333 million,’’ he said, ‘’because this involves the dignity of a country and the prestige of the fruit, on which you cannot put a price.’’
The F.D.A. said last March that it had received telephone threats saying that Chilean fruit shipped to the United States had been poisoned as a protest over unspecified policies of the Pinochet Government. Agency investigators tightened inspections of Chilean produce, but found no cyanide. Then, after another threat, investigations were again increased, and two grapes tainted with cyanide were found in an inspection in Philadelphia.
The food agency said its investigators found the two contaminated red grapes because they were discolored and had puncture holes surrounded by white rings of crystalline dust.
Although the scare over poisoned grapes passed quickly in the United States, the bitterness over the issue continued to simmer here and has recently heated up again because of the release by the Exporters Association of a report on studies challenging the F.D.A. test results. The studies, which were commissioned by the exporters, were done at the University of California at Davis and various Chilean universities and private institutes.
(SNIP)