E. coli outbreak renews skirmishes along old war front
The recent E. coli outbreak renewed the fighting between supporters of the chemical fertilizer industry and advocates of organic farming; the former point to the outbreak as proof of the dangers inherent in relying on manure as fertilizer; the latter said that if manure is the culprit, then it is because of the rapid growth of animal feedlots which generate huge quantities of tainted manure — and that tainted manure is the result of feeding feedlot cattle grain, instead of their natural food — pasture grass; the digestive system and acid balance of ruminants evolved over thousands of years to break down grass, not high-production, refined rations; organic livestock, raised on pasture, have a healthy digestive system which kills the E. coli 0157 pathogen
Remember those Japanese soldiers emerging from the jungles of Asia decades after the Second World War was over, believing the war was still going on? The recent outbreak of spinach contamination by E. coli has caused some aging soldiers from an old war to come out of the jungle, brandishing old arguments.
During the past decade and a half, philosophically conservative, free-market-leaning think tanks such as the Hudson Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, both enjoying generous funding from agribusiness and the biotechnology industry, have published studies arguing that composted fertilizer used as a non-chemical fertilizer on organic farms was dangerous. With the E. coli outbreak, some of the same arguments against organic farming and for chemical fertilizers are being made again. The pro-organic farmers are not sitting on their hands, and are responding in kind. They point out the following:
—The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that 78 million U.S. consumers suffer from food poisoning every year — almost none of these cases associated with organic meat, dairy, and produce
—Earlier this month, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the latest E. coli outbreak had definitely been linked to a conventional Salinas Valley beef cattle ranch. Although no final conclusive source of the current E. coli outbreak in spinach has yet been determined, conventional factory farm feedlots and agricultural runoff are likely culprits. Some eighteen similar cases of conventional lettuce contamination occurred in the same area of California’s Salinas Valley, where most of the nation’s bagged spinach and lettuce are grown.
—Organic farming is safe. Unlike conventional farms, where raw manure from factory farms and municipal sewage sludge are regularly applied to their fields with no oversight, both the USDA and independent third-party certifiers strictly regulate organic farms. Composted fertilizer on organic farms is produced in a manner that kills harmful bacteria, unlike the raw manure and sludge routinely spread on conventional farms. Organic vegetable farms located near conventional factory farms run the risk, though, of having being contaminated by run-off waters from their larger rivals
—Pathogens such E. coli 0157 are becoming increasingly common in the U.S. food supply due to the rapid growth of massive animal feedlots which generate huge quantities of tainted manure. A major factor is the profitable, but unhealthy, practice of feeding animals a steady diet of grains instead of their natural food — pasture grass and forage — and the routine dosing of conventional farm animals with antibiotics
—E. coli is a byproduct of grain-based feeding dairy and beef cattle in an attempt to fatten them up quicker and at a lower cost. The digestive system and acid balance of such ruminants evolved over thousands of years to break down grass, not high-production, refined rations
—Organic farming is pasture based and explicitly prohibits the use of dangerous antibiotics, hormones, sewage sludge, and chemical pesticides. Organic livestock, raised on pasture, have a healthy digestive system which kills the E. coli 0157 pathogen, resulting in animal manure which is safe to use in compost, and manure which will not contaminate surface water and farm irrigation ditches
-read more in Ronnie Cummins’s Salt Lake Tribune report
