After the media dashed to slam organic growing practices, particularly the use of manure, as a dangerous potential source of bacterial hazards like E.Coli, today the German government announced that the organic veggie sprouts they fingered as the culprit yesterday are off the hook. In fact, they are back to square one -- baffled. And never mind that they have devastated the European fresh produce market, in the midst of an already tough economic downturn.
Media hype and the rush to a feeding frenzy seems to be the sort of info-news-ment the American public enjoys, and it is a key factor in the present big-agribiz mindset that gets consumers thinking that only factory farmed food is safe. (For a beautifully written, thoughtful reflection on how that media hype plays out in our television weather reporting, grab Tim Brookes' Thirty Percent Chance of Enlightenment as your next summer hammock read.)
We still don't know the source of the outbreak of the deadly E.coli strain which has killed about two dozen people and hospitalized hundreds more. The sad thing is that by now, we may well never know, and the potential for a take-away lesson will have been lost. The source of the economically deadly smear on European produce growers and organic farmers--and bean sprouts--is easy to pinpoint, however.
If you grow your own food, or purchase from local farmers, if heaven forbid there should be a health issue resulting from the food, you will know exactly where it came from. That's not to say I don't eat out or buy rice that's been grown elsewhere (though my Co-op food shelves label the rice farm origins, so at least I know where that came from), nor do I mean to imply we should build high walls and live in isolated feudal castles. But the closer you are to the source of at least most of your food products -- meat, dairy, produce -- the more genuine information you will have about it. You will be able to rely on the facts you gain about your food from your own eyes, ears, nose and tongue -- and not from the infotainment rants of what passes for commercial news sources.
Media hype and the rush to a feeding frenzy seems to be the sort of info-news-ment the American public enjoys, and it is a key factor in the present big-agribiz mindset that gets consumers thinking that only factory farmed food is safe. (For a beautifully written, thoughtful reflection on how that media hype plays out in our television weather reporting, grab Tim Brookes' Thirty Percent Chance of Enlightenment as your next summer hammock read.)
We still don't know the source of the outbreak of the deadly E.coli strain which has killed about two dozen people and hospitalized hundreds more. The sad thing is that by now, we may well never know, and the potential for a take-away lesson will have been lost. The source of the economically deadly smear on European produce growers and organic farmers--and bean sprouts--is easy to pinpoint, however.
If you grow your own food, or purchase from local farmers, if heaven forbid there should be a health issue resulting from the food, you will know exactly where it came from. That's not to say I don't eat out or buy rice that's been grown elsewhere (though my Co-op food shelves label the rice farm origins, so at least I know where that came from), nor do I mean to imply we should build high walls and live in isolated feudal castles. But the closer you are to the source of at least most of your food products -- meat, dairy, produce -- the more genuine information you will have about it. You will be able to rely on the facts you gain about your food from your own eyes, ears, nose and tongue -- and not from the infotainment rants of what passes for commercial news sources.
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