Friday, June 10, 2011

Killer cucumbers?

E. Coli is the word on the streets these days (or more like EHEC).  There's been an outbreak in the north of Germany and close to 30 people are dead and some few thousand are infected.

Some say its the fault of the Spanish cucumber, others fault the German-grown bean sprout from the north, and still others say there is no one to blame but the consumer themselves. That we have become so far removed from where our food comes from that it was inevitable that something like this would happen and will continue to happen in the next few years if we don't start paying more attention to the food production industry.

Despite the fact that the warning was placed only on cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce, supermarkets shelves are loaded with all kinds of fresh produce going bad.  The purchase of vegetables are down by 40%. Farmers are up in arms and ready to sue, consumers aren't getting their daily servings of fruits and veg. In a country of  80 million plus people, 30 have died from the virus--is this another case where the media has over exaggerated or is the caution justified? 

What do you think?

**picture not my property

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