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European E. Coli Outbreak


DonRocks

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Among the very few foods that I can say I truly dislike are sprouts: especially alfalfa sprouts and mung bean sprouts. I don't mind a radish sprout or two. But really, who needs the damn things anyway? Fie on them for posing as healthy food and making so many people sick or dead.

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Among the very few foods that I can say I truly dislike are sprouts: especially alfalfa sprouts and mung bean sprouts. I don't mind a radish sprout or two. But really, who needs the damn things anyway? Fie on them for posing as healthy food and making so many people sick or dead.

I'm laughing... me too! When the spinach e coli outbreak happened, I was never more glad to have our farmers markets!

Seriously, this bug sounds nasty.

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Among the very few foods that I can say I truly dislike are sprouts: especially alfalfa sprouts and mung bean sprouts. I don't mind a radish sprout or two. But really, who needs the damn things anyway? Fie on them for posing as healthy food and making so many people sick or dead.

In Boulder, Colorado, Alfalfa's had a tray of sunflower sprouts growing in the Produce section. You just snipped off whatever you wanted to buy. Nutty w amazing, crisp texture, the sprout is about the only one I ever loved, especially with avocado and bacon in a sandwich or golden beets in salad. Still wish I could find this kind of setup. Makes more sense for the Rockville WFM to have trays of living sprouts for snazz factor as opposed to those stupid ostrich eggs.

Testing at the farm has found no evidence of the pathogen.

Thanks. I just heard the little hourly news clip on NPR w same info which Diane Rehm's guests were unable to hear since they continued to discuss bean sprouts as possible source. Poor farmer whose business gets ruined by premature reports and rumor!

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Poor farmer whose business gets ruined by premature reports and rumor!

Those are the same farmers who flex their political muscles to prevent governments from instituting good, comprehensive inspection programs that would largely prevent this type of thing in the first place. And this includes a good part of the organic grower crowd that has been right there with them. They made their bed and they can sleep in it.

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In an ideal world, snipping off your own sprouts, or pulling a bunch of bean sprouts from a large tub would be a healthful act, but what about people who don't wash their hands after going to the bathroom or coughing or sneezing?

Heck, half the time doctors still don't wash their hands between patients in hospitals.

I am perturbed because I eat a nice grocery store salad bar salad almost every day. Whole Foods, Giant, Harris Teeter, Safeway, Shoppers. Spring mix, shredded carrot, shredded red cabbage, chopped celery, sliced mushrooms, sliced peppers, sunflower seeds, and what have you, taken back to the office and eaten at my desk with organic virgin olive oil, wine vinegar, and a big sprinkle of Mrs. Dash. Slow sodium, no trans fats, gluten-free, lactose-free, eat-the-rainbow and all that.

But at least in a salad bar there are sneeze guards, there are serving spoons for every item, and at the base is a cooler.

As a salad bar aficionado, I have observed that some salad bar wallahs really take it to an art form, some at least take it seriously, and some are just going through the motions.

I hope that these recent tragic events will raise the consciousness of salad bar wallahs everywhere.

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In an ideal world, snipping off your own sprouts, or pulling a bunch of bean sprouts from a large tub would be a healthful act, but what about people who don't wash their hands after going to the bathroom or coughing or sneezing?

Heck, half the time doctors still don't wash their hands between patients in hospitals.

I am perturbed because I eat a nice grocery store salad bar salad almost every day. Whole Foods, Giant, Harris Teeter, Safeway, Shoppers. Spring mix, shredded carrot, shredded red cabbage, chopped celery, sliced mushrooms, sliced peppers, sunflower seeds, and what have you, taken back to the office and eaten at my desk with organic virgin olive oil, wine vinegar, and a big sprinkle of Mrs. Dash. Slow sodium, no trans fats, gluten-free, lactose-free, eat-the-rainbow and all that.

But at least in a salad bar there are sneeze guards, there are serving spoons for every item, and at the base is a cooler.

As a salad bar aficionado, I have observed that some salad bar wallahs really take it to an art form, some at least take it seriously, and some are just going through the motions.

I hope that these recent tragic events will raise the consciousness of salad bar wallahs everywhere.

On a tangentially related note, I remember reading (about fifteen years ago) a quote from a Burgundy vigneron (in Burgundy, people often own only a few rows of vines, resulting in many owners within a single vineyard), 'it's hard to be organic when your neighbor isn't.'

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On a tangentially related note, I remember reading (about fifteen years ago) a quote from a Burgundy vigneron (in Burgundy, people often own only a few rows of vines, resulting in many owners within a single vineyard), 'it's hard to be organic when your neighbor isn't.'

http://www.thelocal.de/national/20110606-35477.html is a good source for following this along with http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15133753,00.html When this first appeared some of the comments to stories in these two German websites thought it was biological terrorism. At one point a restaurant in Lubeck (50 miles north of Hamburg) had been pinpointed as the source since there was something of a coincidence that a number of the 1,900 infected had eaten there. http://www.thelocal.de/national/20110604-35459.html Fortunately it was not named but I wonder what restaurant business has been like in this city of 50,000+ for the last week or so. Or in the 2,000,000+ Hamburg area?

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Don, your subtitle was prematurely composed and conjecture merely that. Here's The Cornucopia Institute on the prevalence (90%) of contamination due to sprouts tied to conventional vs. organic production: Click.

And JohnB., I don't know you, so I don't know how fully informed you are on food safety and farming practices. I know I wish I knew more. However, you might consider reserving a table at Dino on a night its owner is feeling energized and has a little time to spare to address food safety at small vs. large-scale producers which he feels is more to the point. Ditto (for me) to some degree. For Wendell Berry, the commodification of farming culture is to blame. The agrarian laments how food was safe back in the day, but in our contemporary world, everything the government wants to secure food safety involves expenditure. The farmer is made to buy this and that, pay more for this or that, and then the general public, year after year, complains his/her food costs way too much money at the farmers market.

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Don, your subtitle was prematurely composed and conjecture merely that.

[My subtitle reflected the news of the day, was not premature, and there's nothing wrong with conjecture in the early stages of reporting, especially when it merely echos an official source. (Your comment was perfectly appropriate for a PM, by the way.)]

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And JohnB., I don't know you, so I don't know how fully informed you are on food safety and farming practices. I know I wish I knew more. However, you might consider reserving a table at Dino on a night its owner is feeling energized and has a little time to spare to address food safety at small vs. large-scale producers which he feels is more to the point. Ditto (for me) to some degree. For Wendell Berry, the commodification of farming culture is to blame. The agrarian laments how food was safe back in the day, but in our contemporary world, everything the government wants to secure food safety involves expenditure. The farmer is made to buy this and that, pay more for this or that, and then the general public, year after year, complains his/her food costs way too much money at the farmers market.

Dean and I have sparred many times on these boards in the area of food safety and large vs. small agriculture. And his safety message has not been consistent--check out the thread on Sally Jackson

http://donrockwell.com/index.php?showtopic=15635&st=0&p=179363&fromsearch=1entry179363

Nevertheless, I respect his viewpoint regarding big agriculture, but see problems with trying to apply it universally. Specifically, I don't see any realistic prospect of feeding the world primarily from small farms and/or local sources, from the standpoint of either the quantity needed or reasonable prices for most people. I don't see corporations or big agriculture as an automatic evil, as he seems to and many do. Yes there are abuses. But there always have been and always will be problems with everything, whether large or small scale. I don't agree that the solution is to eliminate a mode of agriculture that has done a lot of good, and indeed we literally can't live without. Rather, my approach is to keep it and take advantage of its useful qualities, and do a better job of regulating and controlling it. Those who wish to patronize the little guy are certainly free to do so. And I absolutely disagree with the premise that when things were small they were safe. Far from it--e.g. Sally Jackson. The difference is the wide publicity that big outbreaks get in the modern era. I believe we are far safer and healthier today, with our current system, than we were "back in the day" when things happened but hardly anybody knew.

And by the way I grew up on a small egg farm. That does help with understanding farming practices.

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