Can someone let me know who the Hudson Institute is. I first heard of
them and read their quote about the relative lack of safety in eating
organic food in a letter to the editor in Time magazine earlier this
fall. Was suprised (thought shouldn't have been) to see a major
publication print this kind of factoid without any backup. Was more
suprised to see it take on a life of its own and appear in other
publications.
My father sent it to me (his "organic" boy) wondering if their was any
truth to it. Since I actively read information about food, food safety,
and organic agriculture, I told him I knew of no food poisoning cases
that had been linked to organic food, although I did know the media
easily slipped into this link when talking about Odwalla (none of whose
products contain organic fruit or ingredients) or a salad mix producer in
California whose prepackaged salad mix was determined to be the source of
a fairly extensive food poisoning back east last winter--turns out in
that case that the producer was not organic certified (if I remember
rightly) and the actual contamination source was a beef feedlot next door
to the salad packing area.
So are there any cases anyone knows of that directly link organic produce
with food poisoning? I have some assumptions that people who eat organic
produce probably do eat more bacteria and fungi, and in so doing have a
more resistant digestive system and body. Is their any info out there
that this may be the case?
I do know that in California the state has started to inspect and shut
down farm who are growing and packaging salad mix or sprouts or other
"ready to eat" items and have promulgated new rules about the
"manufacture of salad mixes. Seems like this will enable the highly
capitalized farms to survive and thrive and shut down marginal
(economically speaking) operations that serve local markets (CSA, farmers
markets and the like) with a fresher product that may be less likely to
become contaminated in the fact that field to mouth time may be 10 or
more days shorter than with some other salad mixes. Anyone know what is
happening with this?
Thanks for your feedback
Michael Isensee * 316 E. 7th St. #28 * Vancouver, WA 98660
It is foolish to complain about big government if we do not do everything
we can
to support strong local communities and strong community economies.
Wendell Berry, Another Turn of the Crank
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