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from Dawnwatch.com:
This week, America shunned spinach after some was found to carry a
deadly strain of E.coli bacteria. The Thursday, September 21, New York
Times, however, included an op-ed, by Nina Planck, author of ''Real Food:
What to Eat and Why," who suggests that the spinach farmers are not the
culprits.
In the piece titled, "Leafy Green Sewage" (pg A31) Planck writes:
"Indeed, this epidemic, which has infected more than 100 people and
resulted in at least one death, probably has little do with the folks who
grow and package your greens. The detective trail ultimately leads back
to a seemingly unrelated food industry -- beef and dairy cattle.
She explains that E. coli O157:H7 is different from most E.coli which
is harmless to humans. She writes:
"Where does this particularly virulent strain come from? It's not found
in the intestinal tracts of cattle raised on their natural diet of
grass, hay and other fibrous forage. No, O157 thrives in a new -- that is,
recent in the history of animal diets -- biological niche: the
unnaturally acidic stomachs of beef and dairy cattle fed on grain, the typical
ration on most industrial farms. It's the infected manure from these
grain-fed cattle that contaminates the groundwater and spreads the
bacteria to produce, like spinach, growing on neighboring farms."
And she discusses "the contamination of ground water, flood water and
rivers -- all irrigation sources on spinach farms -- by the
E-coli-infected manure from cattle farms."
She writes:
"The United States Department of Agriculture does recognize the threat
from these huge lagoons of waste, and so pays 75 percent of the cost
for a confinement cattle farmer to make manure pits watertight, either by
lining them with concrete or building them above ground. But taxpayers
are financing a policy that only treats the symptom, not the disease,
and at great expense. There remains only one long-term remedy, and it's
still the simplest one: stop feeding grain to cattle."
And she concludes
"California's spinach industry is now the financial victim of an
outbreak it probably did not cause, and meanwhile, thousands of acres of
other produce are still downstream from these lakes of E. coli-ridden
cattle manure. So give the spinach growers a break, and direct your
attention to the people in our agricultural community who just might be able to solve this deadly problem: the beef and dairy farmers."
You'll find the full piece on line at
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/opinion/21planck.html . It addresses
a danger of factory farming from the standpoint of public health but
does not mention animal welfare. Most cattle, fed on corn, live pathetic
lives. Contrary to the images we remember from childhood of animals
grazing in meadows, those raised for beef and milk today live in
disgusting feedlots, often knee-deep in their own manure, with no protection
from the elements. In 2002 the New York Times Magazine ran a cover story,
'This Steer's Life,' in which Michael Pollan documented the life of a
steer from birth to death. That piece is available on Pollan's website
at http://www.michaelpollan.com/article.php?id=14 . It is well worth
reading.
Planck's op-ed deserves some appreciative letters to the editor against
factory farming. Feel free to sing the praises of a veggie diet.
The New York Times takes letters at [email protected]
Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when
sending a letter to the editor. Remember that shorter letters are more
likely to be published. And please be careful not to use any exact
phrases from this alert in your letters; the editors wish to receive
original reactions from their readers.
This week, America shunned spinach after some was found to carry a
deadly strain of E.coli bacteria. The Thursday, September 21, New York
Times, however, included an op-ed, by Nina Planck, author of ''Real Food:
What to Eat and Why," who suggests that the spinach farmers are not the
culprits.
In the piece titled, "Leafy Green Sewage" (pg A31) Planck writes:
"Indeed, this epidemic, which has infected more than 100 people and
resulted in at least one death, probably has little do with the folks who
grow and package your greens. The detective trail ultimately leads back
to a seemingly unrelated food industry -- beef and dairy cattle.
She explains that E. coli O157:H7 is different from most E.coli which
is harmless to humans. She writes:
"Where does this particularly virulent strain come from? It's not found
in the intestinal tracts of cattle raised on their natural diet of
grass, hay and other fibrous forage. No, O157 thrives in a new -- that is,
recent in the history of animal diets -- biological niche: the
unnaturally acidic stomachs of beef and dairy cattle fed on grain, the typical
ration on most industrial farms. It's the infected manure from these
grain-fed cattle that contaminates the groundwater and spreads the
bacteria to produce, like spinach, growing on neighboring farms."
And she discusses "the contamination of ground water, flood water and
rivers -- all irrigation sources on spinach farms -- by the
E-coli-infected manure from cattle farms."
She writes:
"The United States Department of Agriculture does recognize the threat
from these huge lagoons of waste, and so pays 75 percent of the cost
for a confinement cattle farmer to make manure pits watertight, either by
lining them with concrete or building them above ground. But taxpayers
are financing a policy that only treats the symptom, not the disease,
and at great expense. There remains only one long-term remedy, and it's
still the simplest one: stop feeding grain to cattle."
And she concludes
"California's spinach industry is now the financial victim of an
outbreak it probably did not cause, and meanwhile, thousands of acres of
other produce are still downstream from these lakes of E. coli-ridden
cattle manure. So give the spinach growers a break, and direct your
attention to the people in our agricultural community who just might be able to solve this deadly problem: the beef and dairy farmers."
You'll find the full piece on line at
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/opinion/21planck.html . It addresses
a danger of factory farming from the standpoint of public health but
does not mention animal welfare. Most cattle, fed on corn, live pathetic
lives. Contrary to the images we remember from childhood of animals
grazing in meadows, those raised for beef and milk today live in
disgusting feedlots, often knee-deep in their own manure, with no protection
from the elements. In 2002 the New York Times Magazine ran a cover story,
'This Steer's Life,' in which Michael Pollan documented the life of a
steer from birth to death. That piece is available on Pollan's website
at http://www.michaelpollan.com/article.php?id=14 . It is well worth
reading.
Planck's op-ed deserves some appreciative letters to the editor against
factory farming. Feel free to sing the praises of a veggie diet.
The New York Times takes letters at [email protected]
Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when
sending a letter to the editor. Remember that shorter letters are more
likely to be published. And please be careful not to use any exact
phrases from this alert in your letters; the editors wish to receive
original reactions from their readers.
