For people are dying.
Rather, it\’s enraging:
An E coli outbreak that has killed 14 people and made more than 300 seriously ill in Germany has spread to other north European countries and is expected to worsen in the coming week.
\”We hope that the number of cases will go down but we fear that it will worsen,\” said Oliver Grieve, spokesman for the University Medical Centre Schleswig-Holstein in north Germany, where many of those afflicted are being treated.
The source of the virulent strain of the bacteria is unknown, German authorities said on Monday ahead of a meeting of federal and state officials in Berlin.
I saw yesterday (where, sorry, forgotten) that the source is known.
Imperfectly cooked manure used by the Spanish organic producer.
This back to Nature movement has something to answer for: for everyone seems to forget that Nature, Mother though she is, has a habit of devouring her children.
There\’s more bugs out there trying to kill us than you can shake a stick at: making nice pure fertiliser from the air and a bit of natural gas is much safer.
It’s not like this is the first time it’s happened, either. Remember the 2006 spinach incident in the US?
“The outbreak was traced to organic bagged fresh spinach—sold as conventional produce—grown on a 50-acre (200,000 m2) farm in San Benito County, California.”
Or, if you must grow “organic”, at least make the food safe by irradiating it. Especially in Germany.
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/health/article-1391526/Cucumber-E-coli-2-people-Britain-diagnosed-5-killed-Germany.html mentions the organic bit.
I don’t think “manure” (connoting cows or horses) is what’s the case. More likely “night soil,” which was the source of an outbreak some 6 or 7 years ago–traced to Spain.
In one U.S. city–Milwaukee–they’ve been using the cooked solid waste from their sewage system for about 70 years–offered commercially as “Milorganite.”
It likely will turn out to be linked to organic farming, but the latest news I’ve seen is that the link to Spain has been debunked…so whatever it was, it apparently wasn’t a SPANISH organic farm…
Remember : “Organic” = “Grown in shit!”
> I saw yesterday (where, sorry, forgotten) that the source is known.
> Imperfectly cooked manure used by the Spanish organic producer.
Bit of a shame to see this blog indulging in fear mongering to support the prejudices of the owner. And still no retraction on this post, as there should be. For the use of anyone who happens to stumble across this uncorrected article: see https://www.timworstall.com/2011/06/06/so-it-wasnt-spanish-cucumbers/