I worry about our food supply; it’s another of the necessities of life brought to us by the for-profit industry. Humans have essential needs such as food, water, housing and medical care. When these are delivered through a system inherently and necessarily forced to seek the least expensive process to ensure the most profit, it’s likely there will be problems. One of these problems is contaminated food.
The last occurrence of contaminated spinach in Central California did not begin to identify the seriousness of the food contamination problem that exists in this country, nor the real cause. Based on information at www.cdc.gov it seems reasonable to conclude, food borne illness is a serious problem in the United States. According to this website food borne illness accounts for approximately 76,000,000 illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths per year. I don’t wish to minimize the awful tragedy which occurred because of the contamination of some spinach recently, I just want to bring out points I think should have been made.
The typical reports could have you believing no one should eat spinach again; that spinach is bad. In the various reports there were references to the possibility of the spinach market being devastated and there was speculation about whether it would fully recover in the near future. Some of the writers were careless enough to state ‘People had become ill from eating spinach’. The truth . . . the illness was caused by the contamination on the spinach. One of the things which didn’t seem to get any attention, is anything can be contaminated in the same way as the spinach, and it happens all the time.
The majority of these reports missed the point. Yes, it’s good to know how the contaminate got there. But, the contamination occurred for the same reasons it has before, and I suspect it is likely to occur again for the same reasons. What is most important; is what will be done to prevent this from happening again.
Those at greatest risk are pregnant women, infants, children and elderly. People are dying year after year from contaminated food. Is this something we should be tolerating? We put our health and our lives at risk every time we eat. Does this seem reasonable? We are an intelligent species and we are perfectly capable of making the changes necessary to guarantee a much safer food supply.
But, it may not be reasonable to expect any such thing in the foreseeable future; as a source of this problem is very deeply embedded in our culture and the lives of most people. Most people enjoy the very products, and the way of life, which contribute to the contamination of our food. To talk about the causes of food contamination in this situation, requires talking about a huge industry in this state; in fact a huge business throughout the nation. It also requires talking about tradition, culture and myth.
Specifically, I am referring to animal agriculture; the process of producing, distributing and using animal products and byproducts for human consumption and pleasure.
How can anyone suggest this huge, well supported, well paid industry share the blame for society’s most serious health problems? This article is not intended to be about all the negative aspects of the animal industry, and there are many, except to focus on one—the pollution of the environment by the animal industry as it pertains to contaminating the food supply. Should this be of concern to us? Should we care about the millions of people who get sick each year and the thousands who die? Are we concerned someone close to us may be next? The animal production industry contributes to the destruction and pollution of our land, air and water and contributes to the major diseases plaguing humans in the developed countries.
What happened? A contaminate got onto a vegetable crop, in this case, spinach. The contaminate was put there, not necessarily intentionally, but it was the result of human activity. It ended up in our food supply and people were hurt . . . and some people died.
What is this contaminate? It is a bacterium called E. coli. More specifically—E. coli O157:H7. Turns out there are many strains of E. coli and most of them are harmless; some even beneficial. But the strain of E. coli identified with the designation O157:H7 is dangerous. It produces a toxin, which causes the problems associated with the recent contaminated spinach.
Where does E. coli O157:H7 come from? Usually—cows; although it is also carried by chickens, pigs and deer. These bacteria live in the intestinal tract of animals and are spread many possible ways.
How does our food get contaminated with E. coli O157:H7? Fields may be fertilized with contaminated manure. The waterways may be and are contaminated by runoff from livestock operations, again contaminating the food supply. And people can be infected with this organism and spread it when handling produce. It is reported that ingesting 10 to 100 of the E. coli bacteria will infect a human, and one cow can dump billions of them into the environment, the land, water, air and our food on a daily basis. And it is not just E. coli O157:H7; there are many pathogens which are spread because of the animal industry. This is why you are instructed to handle animal flesh with such extreme caution. It is recommended you chlorinate any surface the flesh touches and cook the animal well. And, make sure you don’t cross contaminate any of your other foods or surfaces by letting them come in contact.
How does this organism affect humans? Once ingested the E. coli O157:H7 bacteria may cause symptoms of food borne illness in three to nine days. The bacteria produce a toxin that may cause severe diarrhea or even kidney damage, and is sometimes fatal.
Should this concern us? Absolutely! But, we are part of a culture which has and will risk a lot to fight for its right to consume alcohol, smoke cigarettes and eat products which are known to contribute to disease. At this time most people have accepted the fact that cigarettes and alcohol are dangerous and contribute to many deaths. Still, some realize an incorrect diet or a polluted environment will contribute to ill health also. But for the majority of the population to seriously consider the idea that the production of animals is bad for us and is damaging to our food supply, among other things, is contrary to what most people have been taught. And is therefore contrary to what most are willing to believe, regardless.
Don’t we have free choice in this matter? The concept of producing animals to provide raw materials for anything we want; including food, entertainment, clothing, research, medicine, cosmetics, etc. is taught to us from infancy and has been for a long time. We learn it at home, at school and through every media that can be used on us. We don’t choose–it is taught to us–before we are able to choose anything; and it doesn’t stop here. For our entire lives we are constantly bombarded with the notion we must have animal products every day from all of those who prosper from the animal related industries. It even comes at us from the nutrition and medicine industries. It’s in our culture, it’s in our lives, it’s business and it’s thought by most to be okay. Consequently, by the time we are old enough to think for ourselves it is part of us. So do we have free choice?
How is this relevant to the contaminated food crop? It is relevant because it is wrong. It’s relevant because everything about it is damaging; and we accept it. It’s relevant because it is foisted on a culture that is almost powerless to do anything about it. And it is relevant to the solution because without a real look at what is happening, without real, individual decision making, without dramatic change it will not get better. People will continue to die unnecessarily. The statistics that tell us how many suffer and die because of food borne illness is just an unnecessary fact of life that we continue to see year after year. Just as we continue to see the same dreadful statistics on death from drunk drivers and coronary and cancer related deaths. Even though we know what accounts for the majority of these deaths and we know the remedies are easy and inexpensive, we continue down the same destructive path; the same path we teach our children to follow.
My research leads me to the conclusion that the animal production industry is to blame for much of the problems confronting the human and animal population of the planet. From food borne illness to cancer, from polluted water to polluted air, to antibiotic resistant bacteria and massive destruction of rainforests; the animal industry is a major factor. But this industry wouldn’t exist; it couldn’t exist if there was no demand for its products. So the blame must be shared by the very society which is sickened and killed by these products, because we want them, and would no doubt fight, if necessary, to have them. The very people that suffer and die and watch their loved ones suffer and die from diseases that are known to be related to this industry are the ones who support it and make it thrive.
Our society can continue to waste time and money looking for things to feed the cows to minimize the gas problem and can spend more money trying to figure out what to do with all the waste products. And surely many millions of dollars can be spent searching for ‘magic bullet’ vaccines to put on the market to inoculate everyone for each of the various bacteria one may encounter because of this industry. People can continue the endless research and expense of trying to figure out how to avoid contaminating the food supply, the water, the ground and the air. But this will not solve the problem anymore in the future than it has in the past. Or—we could eliminate the problem at its source.
If just one person was caught running their household sewage on to the ground it would be front-page news—we would deem that person disgusting and deserving of punishment. But dump the bodily waste of billions of animals on the ground, into streams and rivers as well as the air and ultimately onto our food and what happens. Nothing! Nobody seems too concerned, except for the poor souls who are downwind or are sick and diseased from it. And if anyone has convinced you animal waste on the ground isn’t as dangerous as human waste on the ground, you may want to reconsider that idea. Ask those who have contaminated wells or have homes which stink of animal waste because of neighboring feedlot operations. Ask those that have lived through or lost someone to an illness that was produced by the animal industry. Animal waste carries many pathogens which are dangerous as well as many chemicals the animals ingest daily as food and medicine, including antibiotics. It seems as though we remember our ancestors being so foolish as to allow their water to be contaminated by their own sewage. They suffered many diseases and deaths from this stupidity. I probably shouldn’t call it stupidity because I don’t think they knew better . . . we do!
I read a brief report stating the source of the bacterial contamination of the spinach had been determined and verified by matching DNA. It was reported to be cows in a particular area in the Central Valley. A week later I read an article stating it was ‘wild’ pigs, wild pigs broke down fences to get to the spinach crops and contaminated them. In my entire life I haven’t noticed fences around large vegetable crops. Why is the story changing? Does our attention need to be deflected from the real cause again?
There have been comments about the animal industry being more careful and some official sounding statements have been made about the State requiring more stringent guidelines, but I think this is a battle which cannot be won in this way. We need to stop doing the wrong things and stop looking for ways to do the wrong things better. According to Thomas Paine,
A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong will give it a superficial appearance of being right.’
My appeal is to those who have pride in trying to make the right choices. To those who want to do what is right regardless of what everyone else is doing; regardless of what they have been taught. My appeal is to those who know ‘pride’ is not a concept to be associated with money, color, gender, nationality or looks. Pride belongs to those who earn it by doing more than is expected; by doing more than is easily done. Being born white or male, owning a Corvette, or living in the same town as the winning sports team are not things to be proud of. Making the right decisions, especially the difficult ones, even when it doesn’t conform to tradition in one’s culture or family—is something to be proud of. We are destroying our lives and our environment; we are destroying our children’s future. We need to make the right choices if we want any hope for their future and perhaps our own. And if you have children and grandchildren you probably want them to have a chance, you probably want them to have a future worth living in.
If you do any research to discover for yourself what is going on you will be amazed at the unbelievable levels of waste, pollution, damage and hurt that comes from this way of life. It has been amazing to me to learn what I have learned, knowing that earlier in my life none of this was reality to me, none of it mattered. The question I have is:
How is it hid from us so well?