The US news stories have been focused on the number of cases and the ties to the green onions but this report out of the UK is much more interesting and addresses the heart of this and other e.coli cases in the US. I hope that in the near term farmers can find a better balance between mass production and quality because at the moment, they are failing miserably. Food safety should be taken much more seriously by both the farmers and by the government:
Michael Pollan, a journalism professor who has written extensively about food safety, said all the recent problems stemmed from the intensive, industrial-style agriculture increasingly practised in the United States.
The 0157:H7 strain of E.coli was unknown until cattle were taken from their traditional grazing grounds, pushed into industrial feedlots and fed grain and corn instead.
Faeces from those animals, in turn, can sometimes enter the water supply on big farms and find its way into irrigation canals in vegetable fields.
