Re: what's going on at ARS?

**C* U* <c*@sbcglobal.net>**

Hi Margaret,
Do you recall where you read about the wild boar running through a  
feedlot and then a spinach field? I hadn't heard that and I'm  
curious. Did they really find the boar with contaminated feet?  I'm  
wondering if this has  been verified? There was a lot of contaminated  
spinach, wasn't there? More than one field's worth I would think.  
Contaminated groundwater makes more sense to me as an explanation,  
but that's me. In any case, we should all read (and promote) Michael  
Pollan's two latest books and Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable,  
Miracle.

Carolyn Ulrich

On Jul 7, 2008, at 8:25 AM, margaret lauterbach wrote:

> A few days ago, i received a post from ARS-USDA saying "In
> experiments, the scientists exposed romaine lettuce leaves to E. coli
> O157:H7 and found that, after 24 hours, populations of the microbe
> were 10 times higher on young leaves than on middle ones....One
> explanation: The young leaves offer more nutrition for E. coli. They
> exude about three times more nitrogen and about 1.5 times more carbon
> than do the middle leaves...."  I wrote to them complaining that in
> my experience, the old leaves are the outside ones, the young leaves
> ARE the middle ones.  I've not received a response, but I think
> they're dead wrong.
>
> Now this morning, another ARS report, on testing "combining the use
> of several sanitizers, including the new formulation, with ultrasound
> as a means to enhance the efficiency of sanitization (of leafy
> produce) prior to bagging. They conducted a study to determine the
> effects of selected sanitizer ingredients, with or without
> ultrasound, on the reduction of Escherichia coli populations on
> spinach. ...The highest E. coli reduction was 4.5 logs--meaning the
> bacteria decreased from about 300,000 colony-forming units to less
> than 10. This reduction was achieved through combining the newly
> formulated wash solution treatment with ultrasound treatment."
>
> Do these people not know where the deadly e.coli bacteria come
> from?  It comes from the gut of grain-fed large animals, cattle,
> especially.  Are we to expect our leafy greens to be so regularly
> contaminated by e.coli that they have to be cleaned in a special
> way?  I read the spinach outbreak was eventually chalked up to a wild
> boar's having run through a feedlot then a spinach patch.  Does that
> happen a lot?
>
> I think, as garden writers, it is incumbent on us to critique these
> reports for the public.  The public has a right to know what these
> government institutions are doing with tax money.  Moreover, "less
> than" 10?  What happened to "fewer"?  Margaret Lauterbach
>
>
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Carolyn Ulrich, Editor
Chicagoland Gardening

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