Tainted Spinach Traced to California (Organic Food Grower--Earthbound Farm)

AP ^ | 9/16/2006 | Andrew Bridges

[stlnative]

[adamsjas]

Sadly, this might end up with the government telling "backyard gardeners" that they can't use manure for fertilizer - and that makes me even more uncomfortable.

Not half as uncomfortable as e-coli will make you.

Contrary to common birkenstock belief, most of the stuff in Manure is not beneficial for gardening. The part that is, well you can get that in a bag and be assured of getting just the best part. Chemistry is your friend. Mankind stopped crapping in the fields a long time ago.

[Dallas59]

Pretty good stuff.

[Aussiebabe]

excellent comment

[carumba]

Sources of the bacterium include uncooked produce, raw milk, unpasteurized juice, contaminated water and meat, especially undercooked or raw hamburger.
Mankind stopped crapping in the fields a long time ago.

You might not want to eat the fresh leafy stuff or raw strawberries when you travel abroad.

[BossLady]

Being a vegetarian and organic food consumer for about 20 years....I have yet to contract E. Coli. People need to be careful and research no matter what they consume... whether it is food, pharmaceutical medicines or supplements...

[adamsjas]

You might not want to eat the fresh leafy stuff or raw strawberries when you travel abroad.

Or when traveling to California, it seems.....

[stlnative]

http://www.nbc5.com/health/9856155/detail.html

Recall Issued By Calif. Company Linked To E. coli Washing Not Enough, Officials Say

snippet...

The outbreak was traced to Natural Selection Foods, based in San Juan Bautista, Calif., and the company has voluntarily recalled products containing spinach.

FDA officials stressed that the bacteria had not been isolated in products sold by Natural Selection Foods but that the link was established by patient accounts of what they had eaten before becoming ill.

An investigation was continuing.

"It is possible that the recall and the information will extend beyond Natural Selection Foods and involve other brands and other companies, at other dates," said Dr. David Acheson, the chief medical officer with the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

The FDA warned people nationwide not to eat the spinach. Washing won't get rid of the tenacious bug, though thorough cooking can kill it.

[Penner]

FDA officials stressed that the bacteria had not been isolated in products sold by Natural Selection Foods but that the link was established by patient accounts of what they had eaten before becoming ill.

The victim's son identified her Friday night as Marion Graff, 77, of Manitowoc, who died of kidney failure on Sept. 7.

"We're trying to get to the bottom of this and figure out what happened. Everybody is terribly concerned," said Dave Kranz, a spokesman for the California Farm Bureau Federation.

This is BS. CA has the highest food quality standards in the nation.

Vegetables are washed numerous times during processing to prevent this kind of thing from happening.

This sounds similar to the incident in Arizona, where the "victim" spilled coffee on herself and sued the company who provided the coffee.

Be careful, organic food is not automatically safer --the use of untreated cow manure in the industry is good source of E. coli which can cause this type of problem.

Maybe that's how it's done in Australia.

But that's not how it's done in California.

[BJungNan]

Why is it that we are not worried about this in our home. Hmmmm, could it be we never believed produce is the U.S. was clean enough to eat right off the shelf?

[dandelion]

I'm sorry, but do you really think that I - and my neighbors, a bunch of Texas ranchers who have been making a living at ranching a farming for the last one hundred and fifty years - have "birkenstock beliefs" and need to learn about the chemistry of farming from you?

I really have to ask - do you garden, farm or ranch, like we do? Because manure is considered to be one of the BEST things for gardens, as long as it's not fresh and raw. I'm not trying to be combative, it's just that I'd love to know who told you that manure was "not good" for gardening. It sounds like something the liberals would say, because they believe anything that comes from those bad old methane-producing cows and their land-raping farmers is BAD. It's the kind of thing that obnoxious yuppies say (right after they move in next to their farming neighbors who have been there for a hundred years) right before they sue for damages from the "toxic waste" from the sheep flock in the neighbor's field...

It's not a "birkenstock" thing - it's a millions of years of farming and ranching thing. Have you all gotten so far away from farming that you no longer know how it was done just thirty years ago?

Wow, let me explain... it's not about "mankind crapping in the fields", it's about animals making fertilizer, and it has a LOT more in it than just nitrogen. Ammonia, salts, urea, and a host of other compounds are there, they're useful, and it's FREE. If manure is not used as fertilizer, it has to be hauled off. If used properly, as it has been for thousands of years, E Coli shouldn't be a problem in composted manure. The key is COMPOSTING - and once again, that's not some "hippie" thing, it' just what people in the country do with their leftover vegetable matter and animal manure.

The problems arise when RAW manure is used on vegetables, and that raw manure is considered to be inferior to composted manure by most gardeners. Not only is raw manure yucky to use, it's can also "burn" your garden if improperly applied.

And it's about more than animal fertilizers - it's about clovers and vetches and other cover crops. What I can do for my piece of land is WAY more than I could ever just pour out of a bag...

Yes, chemistry is our friend, and so is knowledge. Read "The American Farm Book" (1847) and learn more about both.

[Thinkin' Gal]

Has anybody asked yet, if Tyson has taken an interest in organic farming?

[Tall_Texan]

"We are very, very upset about this," Natural Selection Foods spokeswoman Samantha Cabaluna said Friday night. "What we do is produce food that we want to be healthy and safe for consumers, so this is a tragedy for us."

Not a very good spokeswoman either. This isn't all about you. How about a little compassion for your victims? I'm sure their attornies would like to discuss it with you.

[dandelion]

Wow, that's just creepy (tinfoil hat ON)

stlnative: nice link, I think I'm actually going to have to get a thermometer so I can see if I get up to temperature or not in the pre-treating "tubs". I suppose that's the only way to know...

ALL: Perhaps you have some advice. The reason this thread interests me: I've been collecting the compost to try and enrich the garden area of our newly-bought pasture, which has become extremely poor.

We just moved in on 36 acres of sandy loam, ten acres of which has been used as a coastal bermuda hay pasture for the last ten years (no animals on it, inorganic fertilizer, yearly cuttings). EVEN THOUGH it's been artificially fertilized, the nitrogen is WAY low, phosphates extremely high, and the potash almost non-existant. Other ranchers felt this is because it's had no "organic matter" like manure and humus added to it for over ten years.

I'm thinking a cover crop is the answer. I've actually got an incredible amount of spring vetch on it (if it ever rains), and I would think that would fix the nitrogen, but I'm wondering if I'm going to have to cut it and let it lie. Any thoughts?

[stlnative]

Natural Selection Foods LLC was linked to the E. coli outbreak that has killed one person and sickened nearly 100 others. Twenty-nine people have been hospitalized, 14 of them with kidney failure. FDA officials said they had received reports of illness in 19 states. Officials hunt for other E. coli sources http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/15530448.htm

[Tall_Texan]

Mad cow disease for smug vegetarians. Let's see countries ban importing spinach.

[dandelion]

When you combine this with your previous post (that the E Coli could actually be GROWN into the leaves of the plant) it becomes downright scary. I have an elderly mother and my young son living with me and my husband, and we have fresh salad greens every night. Because our rain has been so poor this year, I couldn't grow a salad garden and just bought leafy greens, including the bagged ones.

This makes me want to go in and chunk it all into the chicken's scrap pail. (I wonder - can chickens get E Coli infections?)

Either way, what you've posted about the growth into the plant means it's impossible to eat fresh lettuce without risking a possible E Coli infection, unless one knowa what was used for fertilizer; but I don't think they list that on the packages...

[NinoFan]

They are sold under many brand names, including Earthbound Farm, Dole, Green Harvest, Natural Selection Foods, Rave Spinach, Ready Pac and Trader Joe's.

Quite a few brands there. I know I've had some of those (although not recently). And they say it might be in other companies' brands... not good.

[humblegunner]

I used to have to haul the "cow lot dirt" to the garden as a kid.

We had the biggest cucumbers and tomatos and green beans and watermelons you ever saw.

[AngelesCrestHighway]

I'm Popeye the sailor man with e-coli in the can....