The Link Between E. Coli in Spinach and Industrial Cattle
by Union of Concerned Scientists on 09.25.06
This month’s massive recalls of potentially infected spinach show how quickly and easily our nation’s produce supplies can become infected with E. coli. Right now, government investigators are focusing their search for the origin of the recent spinach outbreak on just nine farms in California’s Salinas Valley. But already, 23 states have reported E. coli cases related to spinach. How does infected spinach from a relatively small area find its way to salad bowls and dinner plates across half the country?
The outbreak can spread quickly because agriculture has become highly centralized in the past few decades. Spinaches from different farms are mixed together in processing facilities along the production chain. During sorting, shipping, and handling, E. coli from tainted produce is exposed to produce from other farms and other regions.
The same sort of centralization contributed to the E. coli outbreaks in fast food beef that captured national attention back in the 1980s. At the time, meat processing was becoming centralized, too, in part because of increased demand from the burgeoning fast food industry.
There’s also another link between this outbreak and the beef industry. The E. coli that found its way into the spinach originally came from cow manure, perhaps by way of irrigation water. Normally, your stomach can kill any E. coli you eat, but the particular strain behind the recent spinach outbreak has evolved to survive in a highly acidic environment: the stomachs of grain-fed cows. Without grains, especially corn, cow stomachs are much less likely to harbor dangerous forms of E. coli.
Most industrial feedlots feed their cows grain up until the day of slaughter. A study shows that feeding them hay for just a week can reduce the amount of this particular strain of E. coli in their system by a factor of 1,000. Even better would be to get cows out of feedlots altogether and raise them on what nature intended – grass.
To learn more, check out a video UCS produced about the advantages of grass-fed beef.
Photo Credit: Enviornmental Health Perspectives.
Another case for eating local, or what's been called the 100 mile diet.
Small local produce growers have not been having problems with e.coli in their greens.
So eat local, eat healthier, reduce your carbon footprint.....
amen jody!
its interesting that none of the media are mentioning this fact. that we need to eat local, be in touch with the farmers that make our food, and know exactly where our food is coming from. the fact that FDA is having a really hard time tracing the e.coli back to the farms says a whole lot about how bad our food system is in the USA.
What would one eat, if eating local, during the winter months? Do some people grow in green houses in the winter? Or do you just need to stock up?
What happens if you live in an area where little to nothing is grown within 100 miles? My in-laws, for example, live in the southeast corner of Georgia. They grow what they can and have a few chickens, but other than that they have to buy the majority of their food. I mean, they're in their 60's and have a variety of health problems between the two of them. The vast majority of the farms that used to be in that area are now tree farms because the younger generations wanted to make money off the land without having to actually work.
So, the 100 mile diet is great in theory but there are areas where it really is not practical to follow.
How well established or speculative is the corn-fed-cow/e.Coli connection? It sounds good, but has it been documented? If so, where and by whom?
Great comments. I think that the 100 mile diet is definitely applicable for a vast majority of people - but of course probably not for everyone.
As for the comment what to do during winter months: yes, build a greenhouse. You can't stock up fresh produce. At least not the majority. There are excellent articles and links to great sites on treehugger that explain that the way to go is definitely with greenhouses. And to heat the greenhouses in an environmental friendly way. We live in BC, Canda (just moved here from Montreal, Quebec) and it is so damn easy here to have a greenhouse. In winter, the temp hovers around 0 Celsius. We really have no excuse not to build one. And consider this: on freecycle or buysell.ca, you can find tons of people pretty much dumping wood and glass for dirt cheap - perfect for building a greenhouse. And if you also compost, then you don't even need to buy manure! Really, you win every which way. I fully intend to promote composting and greenhouses in my community vehemently. Eventually I'd like to even offer seminars to people on how to build them, and how to build mini-ones for appartments - all from recycled or reclaimed ressources.
Thanks for the comments, everybody.
For a lot more on the 100-mile diet, you can do a search for it in the field on the top right of this website, or check the links at the bottom of this post.
Hold the livestock folks. Looks like this particular e-coli outbreak may be caused by deer.
RE eating local in the winter months...in the good old days, people would pickle, dry, jam, and/or can things up for the winter.
These days we have something even easier - the freezer.
Of course you'd need a pretty big freezer - just make sure it's solar powered!
I'll just use the good old grocery store.
Actually "Anonymous"- though I disagree a bit with your position- you've got a bit of validity. While this scare is an interesting study, the bark is a bit scarier than the bite. Such a small percentage (some 87 peole in the entire U.S.) have been affected relative to other, larger issues. And to think that the general population is going to change habits due to something relatively minor is a bit absurd. It does, however, bring light to the general issue of the fragile food supply.
Although this particular outbreak has nothing to do with organic food, there is something that I wonder about.
Organic and small-scale farm are more likely to use manure and other natural fertilizers. Doesn't that make them more susceptible to outbreaks than factory farms that would use more sterile fertilizer?
Don't get me wrong---I am a huge supporter of local and organic, but I do wonder if a higher incidence of e.coli (and other food-borne bacteria) is an unfortunate side-effect of it.
I think you have a valid point on that. The only thing I've been able to find http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6098858 isn't very complete- but it is raising the same question that you are. Again, I think the bark is worse than the bite with this story. You've got such a minute chance of contracting something like this... still pretty interesting though
I think you have a valid point on that. The only thing I've been able to find http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6098858 isn't very complete- but it is raising the same question that you are. Again, I think the bark is worse than the bite with this story. You've got such a minute chance of contracting something like this... still pretty interesting though
I think you have a valid point on that. The only thing I've been able to find http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6098858 isn't very complete- but it is raising the same question that you are. Again, I think the bark is worse than the bite with this story. You've got such a minute chance of contracting something like this... still pretty interesting though