Bob wrote:
> On Thu, 19 Oct 2006 18:12:19 -0700, (Jason Johnson)
> wrote:
>
>
> >Based upon what I heard on a local call in radio show, illegal immigrants
> >that harvest crops (in America) do not walk several hundred yards to use
> >the stinking porti potties but instead deposit fecal material in the
> >middle of the fields and cover it with soil so the bosses don't see it.
>
> What a sad reflection of how American business exploits workers!
Oh hell! American farm workers do this too. I detassled corn as a kid
and the boys shit in the fields all the time. The girls, at least,
were more couth.
>
> >Some of that fecal material may end up on various fruits and vegatables
> >that you may buy from grocery stores. That's the reason we wash all fruits
> >and vegetables. Whether or not that was the cause of the E coli--I don't
> >know.
>
> I have not heard of any cases of the disease among farm workers in the
> area. So it "unlikely" that they are the source. Does anyone know of
> any evidence to the contrary??
They will never come out and say so, but it is far more likely that the
virulent E. coli *is* from other humans. What makes me sick won't
necessarily make *you* sick if it is an endemic strain in your system.
The media will never report it as so, because A.) There is no way to
track which workers worked in which fields and shit there and B.) It
would be "politically incorrect" to do so, since the government (and
those who contribute to their re-election funds) has interest in
keeping cheap, foreign labor. It's much easier to blame cows.
>
> >The rich people that own those large farms are blaming the E coli on
> >cow fecal material. I have yet to see a field of vegetables that had cows
> >wandering in it. The cows would eat the vegetables.
>
> The cows are on the nearby hillsides. The problem is run-off.
>
> Cows can carry the toxin-producing strain of E coli without having
> symptoms; they are good carriers.
>
> (There are other animals that can carry it, but cows are the most
> common source. Infected beef is the major food problem.)
Nearly all mammals carry it. It's naturally in soil, too.
>
>
> The authorities are close to tracking this down, so we may know soon.
> One of the problems is that such events are "uncommon". Of course, as
> consumers, we think it is too often. But given all the fields, a
> couple such events per year is not many, and makes it hard to track
> them down, and to design better procedures.
It's such a small problem I suspect all the talk of "tracking it down"
is smoke and mirrors to appease the public. The government fails to
fund research on diseases which kill far more people, and they aren't
going to be too concerned about the few that died from E. coli in
spinach. If they were really concerned about food safety and public
heath they would better regulate the slaughterhouses which were
deregulated in the 80's during the Reagan admin.
-L.