The Contamination Of The Spinach Field Essay

For my seed experiment I had decided to see what the effect of sprinkling salt on a radish seed would be. So for my control group I had set six (6) cherry radish seeds in between a damp paper towel and then closed it within a Ziploc bag. For my experimental I had set it up the exact same way as the control group but I would sprinkle salt on top of seeds before I zipped up the baggie. I sprinkled the salt on the experimental seeds and dampened the paper towel once every day. Each bag was stored in the light and at room temperature (~70° F.)

The book Poisoned by Jeff Benedict was not only enjoyable but also has a lot of information concerned food safety. The author writes chronologically a story about the Escherichia coli O157:H7 outbreak that took place in Washington State on 1993 because that event change the way American eating habits. The outbreak was confirmed by Dr, Phil Tarr after he was receiving many patient who were children under 10 years old, and had the same symptoms. The number of patient and the brutality of the symptoms leaded to Dr, Tarr to contact an old friend that they used to work together particularly in E.coli. Tarr's friend was John Kobayashi who has the high position in the Department on the public heath Washington State Public Department (Benedict, 2011).

In the article America’s Food Crisis and how to fix it by Bryan Walsh it talks about how people are packing in animals into confined pens with a bunch of other animals of its kind. All the animals are dosed with antibiotics to keep from getting sick. The article explains that the waste that the animals produce on the factory farms gets disposed into open air lagoons and how it can contaminate nearby streams and creeks.

What naïve people cease to comprehend is that manure can also have serious consequences for humans that come into contact with contaminated water. Manure contains a wide array of pathogens from E.coli to Campylobacter that causes very serious harm, if not be fatal in certain cases. When manure is washed off a farm by rain into a body of water, the bacteria stay with it, and the more runoff that is flowing into a single lake or river, the stronger and more dangerous these bacteria can be. If the concentration reaches a high enough level, the bacteria can be unsafe for people to swim in the water or merely come in contact with the water, because they can be given the disease. Before anyone decides that these bacteria are no big deal and chose to go swimming anyway, they must realize that the symptoms of E.coli include, severe abdominal cramping as well as bloody diarrhea for a duration between 7-14 days. In severe cases, E.coli can be lethal and is responsible for almost 100 deaths annually in the United States alone. In Lake Winnebago, a warning sign is posted whenever there is greater than 235 colonies of E.coli in a sample of

Initially, the outbreak and recall was set for bagged spinach on September 14th, but the very next day the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recalled all spinach, both bagged and fresh. The outbreak was due to a suspected E. coli O157:H7. Because of the outbreak, 200 people were reported to the CDC from 26 states as having been infected with that particular outbreak strain; more than 100 of those cases were hospitalized, and 31 of them developed a form of kidney failure, which resulted in the deaths of three people. So why is a breakout that may only have affected 200 people so important and relevant to everyone? It’s important to make sure that our food is edible and not contaminated because in this situation with spinach—according to data collected through surveys— nearly half (48%) of Americans reported that they ate fresh spinach before the recall and did so frequently. There was no complete resolution on the exact cause of E. Coli on spinach, but it was believed to be from samples taken from a stream and from feces of cattle and wild pigs present on ranches, due to a genetic match from those who were infected. For some consumers, the spinach recall may be a type of “signal event” indicating a wider problem that they do not yet see as having been solved. Although spinach is something that is generally looked at as “healthy” to its consumers, it is apparent that there is still a problem with the safety and health concerning fresh produce for the public. This occurrence in 2006 was a turning point for many, realizing that even what should be our freshest food can be contaminated, and that more effort needs to be taken in order to protect the public from

The main reason for which corn is the main crop in America is because it can be easily used for the making of “processed food and hundreds of other products.” Corn has become so convenient, that many factories use it to feed their animals, in order to accelerate their growth. Since it benefits government subsidies, many farmers opt to make a greater profit by changing the way they raise cattle, which also means the amount of animal manure is much greater. Furthermore, since there is “no good way of disposing it,” the grounds are becoming ideal parameters for the breeding of “deadly bacteria,” which brings about the unethical and scientific issues in the industry for these bacteria have found “their way into our food.” Moreover, as confirmed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a corn-based diet can promote Escherichia coli within the “digestive tract of

Factory farming is the industrial production of raising animals such as cattle, poultry, swine, and sheep for meat. Many questions and concerns within the field are based on animal treatment and the cleanliness of the factory farm facilities. These questions and concerns are needed to guarantee the safety of both the animals and consumers. The unhealthy living environments combined with excessive antibiotic use in factory farms causes concern in the meat processing industry.

The main reason for which corn is the main crop in America is because it can be easily used for the making of “processed food and hundreds of other products.” Corn has become so convenient, that many factories use it to feed their animals, in order to accelerate their growth. Since it also benefitted government subsidies, many farmers have opted to make a greater profit by changing the way they raise cattle, which also means the amount of animal manure is much greater. Furthermore, since there is “no good way of disposing of it,” the grounds are becoming ideal parameters for the breeding of “deadly bacteria,” which brings about the ethical and scientific issues in the industry for these bacteria have found “their way into our food.” Moreover, as confirmed by the American Association For The Advancement Of Science, a corn-based diet can promote Escherichia coli within the “digestive tract of

That summer, there was an E. coli advisory. The town added chlorine to try to insure adequate

Escherichia coli are gram negative, rod shaped bacteria that are often used in laboratory studies and are usually harmless, residing in the human digestive tract as part of the normal flora. E. coli 0157:H7 is a pathogenic strain of E. coli that was first identified as a cause of disease in the United States in 1982, during an investigation into an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness. The organism is also called enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) because it causes abdominal pain with diarrhea that may contain blood. It lives in the intestines of healthy cattle and can contaminate meat during slaughter. It is believed that the widespread use of antibiotics by American farmers has

•Objective 4.4: Protect agricultural health by minimizing major diseases and pests to ensure access to safe, plentiful, and nutritious food

Our food should not be treated like sweat shops; I am talking about CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations). Allen Trenkle, Ruminant Nutrition Expert Iowa State University said, “Animals evolved consuming grass and some research found that a high corn diet results in e coli that are acid resisted and that are the more harmful e coli” (qtd. in “Food Inc.”) The cow’s diet and living conditions in these CAFO’s are really bad; “Their fed corn because it’s cheap and the cows get fatter on a corn diet. They stand ankle deep in their own manure all day long if one cow has e coli the other cows will get it, and when they get to the slaughter house their hide is caked with manure. When they slaughter four-hundred cows an hour they don’t take precaution of how to get the manure off the cows and that’s how e coli end up in our meat.” Michael Pollan (qtd. in “Food Inc.”) “To date, mad cow disease is not a crisis in public health; but it’s becoming a crisis in public trust.” (qtd. in Food-Borne Illnesses.) Our food-safety system is failing and we need to be concerned about this issue.

coli, another undisclosed truth comes to light in this documentary. To get rid of the E. coli, our meat products are thoroughly cleansed with ammonia. Ammonia is a chemical that most Americans recognize as a household cleaning item, and now this chemical is in our meat. We are being secretly exposed to this chemical and it is not even guaranteed to work 100% of the time. However, this is not the only chemical used in our food. When eating an out of season fruit, Americans run the risk of eating a fruit that is artificially ripened. Since tomatoes cannot grow in America in the winter, they are picked while green from overseas. Once they arrive in America and are ready to go to market, they are ripened with ethylene gas. Ethylene gas “contains traces of arsenic and phosphorus hydride” (Siddiqui). These traces can cause chronic health defects such as “vomiting, diarrhea with or without blood, burning sensation of the chest and abdomen, thirst, weakness, permanent eye damage, etc.” (Siddiqui). As we can see, the major food companies hide very serious issues from the public, because if they knew the truth, many consumers would be appalled and possibly stop buying their products.

Industrial or commercial farming places a large amount of pressure on our natural resources, and us as humans. Animals in these factories produce an extreme amount of fecal wastes, which leads in pollution of our air, land, and water. The residents who live in areas where industrial farming takes place have already seen and personally lived through the outcomes of such horrendous form of food production. It is known that industrial farming effects our health, but there is more to this. Residents who live near these kinds of areas face lower property values because of how close they live to these factories and the contamination that has spread into their homes and possibly in their bodies. In addition, the natural cycle of renewal is interrupted when

According to Ronnie Cummings of In Motion Magazine, after several dozen consumers in Colorado were poisoned by E-coli feces in their burgers, 25 million pounds of hamburger meat had to be recalled from the Hudson Foods Corporation. Much of the E. coli found in meat appears to be a product of feedlot life of cattle getting a feedlot diet and living in their own manure. The feedlot lifestyle is a common practice of corporate manufactured meat.