Marge wrote:

> I've gotten food poisoning from eating at NYC restaurants several
> times. No, they weren't dives either.

It's no fun to get food poisoning. I have never been as sick as the time I
caught a dose of it and puked by guts out for 5 hours. That's an experience
you have to go through to understand how horrible it is.

> Also, I know in NY there are some shady dealings that go on with some
> stores sometimes with expiration dates being altered. And if you
> aren't one to check expiration dates, there are stores that don't
> routinely remove older products.

I am not sure if that is as much a danger as unhygienic practices. While
the nasty germs are in the are they thrive in certain environments and
cross contamination becomes more of a risk.

> I think the prevalence of pre-prepared foods makes it easier for people
> to become distanced from what really is safe and not safe to eat. I
> remember watching a show of one of those historical re-enactments of a
> medieval village. The group pit roasted some type of animal, and they all
> got food poisoning because it was too raw. It just struck me that if it
> was so raw they all got sick, they couldn't tell that by looking at the
> meat?
>

You would think that they could have taken a look at the meat and known it
was undercooked, but but just being undercooked is not a guarantee of
problems. Lots of people eat beef so rare that it is basically uncooked.
Sushi is raw, and it does not lead to food poisoning if they follow safety
guidelines.

> My dad had a garden in the backyard when we were growing up. We had
> mostly tomatoes and zucchini, etc. We kids thought it was gross to eat
> food that had been in the dirt! ha ha. I can't believe that when I think
> about it now. I guess the grocery store produce section looked so clean
> and neat, we didn't think about where *that* came from.

I know a guy who will only eat mushrooms if they have been peeled. He knows
that they are grown in manure and is convinced that simply washing them is
not adequate.

Being removed from the source does cause misconceptions. A lot of people
consider hunting to be exceptionally cruel to animals. When I think about
a wild animal meeting a quick death after a life of freedom (along with
disease, predation and possible starvation) it doesn't look so bad compared
to a life in captivity. When you see truck loads of caged chickens
traveling down the highway it doesn't do much for your appreciation of
chicken dishes.