E. coli is a naturally occurring bacteria in animal digestive tracts (including human). The much more virulent strain in the manure that contaminated that spinach grows in the acid stomachs of grain-fed beef. Simply switching from grain to grass or straw, when tried, has almost completely eliminated the bad strain.

And in real organic farming (as opposed to the “organic” factory farming that government labelling restrictions, adopted at industry behest, prohibit distinguishing from the real thing) manure is either carefully composted or at least not used to fertilize leafy green stuff that’s grown at ground level and eaten raw.

Vanmind, which “fertilizers” are you referring to?

Just an FYI, but here’s a situation that occurred in Monterey County (site of the most recent contamination) back in 2003. It affected spinach and lettuce.

http://www.ecoliblog.com/2005/01/articles/-e-coli-outbreaks/creek-flooding-blamed-for-03-e-coli-cases/

It is always characteristic of the government and its agents that they always seek POWER, and avoid RESPONSIBILITY.

Every accident on the government-owned roads is attributed to the allegedly faulty automobile construction–”Greedy auto companies”–or to driver error or malice (e.g. DWI) and NEVER attributed to faults in road construction, maintainance, or inspection, where there is a primary role and responsibility of the government, and the vastly safer alternatives of private, profit-oriented ownership are forbidden. We also see that every health-care mishap is always attributed by the government and its apologists to the alleged “malpractice” on the part of “greedy” insurance companies, health-care providers, or caregivers, and almost NEVER to the arbitrariness, irrationality and corruption of the FDA and AMA, whose regulations and restrictive, legally protected monopoly of medical services make such deaths or injuries almost inevitable; one is therefore inclined to wonder which regulations, of some government agency,e.g. the USDA or the EPA, made this very unpleasant spinach incident a disaster waiting to happen?

Far from this being an incidence of “market failure”, could this be a case of unintended consequnences of some foolish and shortsighted government regulations (although probably well-intentioned) that later cost OTHER PEOPLE millions of dollars in damages, and endangered or injured hundreds of innocent people? Political failure might be a much sounder description!!

Such questions should at least be asked by those who are concerned with food safety or wholesomeness, especially since the government has been so noisily assuming authority in these areas on both the Federal and the State level.

PEACE AND FREEDOM
David K. Meller

Totalitarian governments like to pass so many laws that everyone is a criminal. Then they can pick and choose what laws to enforce knowing that they can get you for something if you step out of line.

For example, the men arrested in Texas for buying cell phones. Their crime? Buying anything that could be used in an act of terrorism, in this case a cell phone battery that could be used to detonate a bomb. I own a cell phone, so I could be prosecuted as a terrorist, too.

The moral of the story is that we should stop using cell phones and any other battery operated devices.