Could the E. coli outbreak be linked to irrigation practices?
When the U.S. government responded to the raw spinach-induced E.coli outbreak last September by ordering all raw spinach pulled from shelves, most saw it as an overreaction. Logic tells us that the spinach was either grown in an E. coli-contaminated environment or was contaminated with E.coli during harvest or processing. So which was it? The government agencies who so militantly (quickly and efficiently) removed all traces of raw spinach from the marketplace have yet to provide us with a satisfactory answeror even an intelligent guessas to how its level of contamination would justify such extreme measures. That seems to happen most commonly when government is attempting to maintain the appearance of serving in the public interest while protecting special corporate interests. So why the overreaction in the case of E. coli spinach? While government publicly maintains the position that the use of “recycled” water from sewage treatment plants is safe, government documents indicate that sa
