First of all, I am neither a creationist or an evolutionist so I have no axe to grind. My small mind can't wrap around either concept to the exclusion of the other.
That said, this smells like the classic case of a contaminated petri dish. I would not be surprised at all if in six months or a year, the results are disproven or shown to be in error in some way. It's certainly happened before. Call me a cynical old bastard.
Cow, E. Coli, Sanitation Violations Alleged At Rubashkin Plant – Sewage on Kill Floor, Insect Infestation, Found
The UFCW Union press release and the AP report are posted after the jump in the extended post below. I'll have more details on this soon.
FOOD SAFETY INVESTIGATION UNCOVERS VIOLATIONS AT NATION’S LARGEST KOSHER MEATPACKING COMPANY
Government documents reveal failures at Agriprocessors’ Nebraska Plant to safeguard consumers from mad cow disease and E. coli, as well as more than 30 sanitation violations ranging from sewage to insect infestation
WASHINGTON – A new investigative report documenting food safety issues at the Agriprocessors, Inc., Local Pride Plant in Gordon, Neb., shows a pattern of food safety violations, including failures to properly implement bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or “mad cow” disease, and E. coli safeguards, as well as more than 30 sanitation violations, ranging from sewage on the kill floor to insect infestation.
This report comes on the heals of the Westland/Hallmark Meat Company recall, which was the largest recall in United States Department of Agriculture history. With more than 143 million pounds of meat being recalled because of increased risk of mad cow contamination, consumers are extremely concerned about the safety of the products they purchase.
The new report, which was released today by the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) International Union, analyzed government documents received through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
The documents revealed that Agriprocessors’ Gordon, Neb., plant had more than 115 Noncompliance Records (NR) from July 2005 to March 2007. These documents are issued when Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) personnel determine that a company has failed to meet certain safety or regulatory requirements.
In the case of Agriprocessors’ Local Pride Plant, food safety inspectors raised concerns regarding the company’s failure to implement mad cow and E. coli safeguards, as well as overall sanitation issues at the plant. Agriprocessors’ sells products under the Aaron’s Best and David’s labels and is a supplier for Nathan’s Famous Kosher Hot Dogs.
The new report states, “a critical aspect of any food safety system is sampling for E. coli. E. coli H157 is a bacteria found in the intestines of cattle.” According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), meat can become contaminated during the slaughter process. E. coli, the CDC states, “often causes severe bloody diarrhea and abdominal cramps” and could result in “acute kidney failure in children.” E. coli has been responsible for at least 20 recalls in 2007 alone.
This new report comes after a UFCW food safety investigation in August of 2007 of Agriprocessors’ Postville, Ia., plant uncovered serious issues including recalled products, mad cow related safety concerns and repeated fecal and bile contamination.
In addition, several Members of Congress sent a letter to the USDA in November inquiring about the state of food safety at Agriprocessors and what actions the agency plans to implement given the repeated nature of food safety problems at the plant.
There are many e-coli bacterium. Not all are bad. The one we all are most familiar with is the 0157:H7. Yes, we are familiar with it!! This strain is why we are to cook hamburger meat no less than a medium well or to an internal temperature of 165 degrees. Why? Because the part of the cow that we get "hamburger" meat from is next to the bowels of the bovine. If the butchers aren't careful they grind up fecal matter in the "hamburger" meat. Yum. Maybe, cow poopie is evolving.
How are we getting the bad e-coli on fruits and vegetables? HHHMMM... I have my own theories. If you can spread diseases from your hands and body parts by not washing after you go to the bathroom...what are workers doing in the fields that pick these fruits and vegetables. Like I said just some of my thinking. A worker is in the field and acres away from a Port-a-Johnny???? What and where is the worker to do??????
I would be amiss if I didn't tell you this. I instruct my students to never buy "hamburger" meat. Buy a roast and have the meat department grind it. If they say they do not have the means to do this (Wal-Mart is one) drop everything and run away quickly. The less fat in the roast the less tasty. So, choose a roast with some fat on it if you want it ground for a good ole juicy hamburger.
There are many e-coli bacterium. Not all are bad. The one we all are most familiar with is the 0157:H7. Yes, we are familiar with it!! This strain is why we are to cook hamburger meat no less than a medium well or to an internal temperature of 165 degrees. Why? Because the part of the cow that we get "hamburger" meat from is next to the bowels of the bovine. If the butchers aren't careful they grind up fecal matter in the "hamburger" meat. Yum. Maybe, cow poopie is evolving.
How are we getting the bad e-coli on fruits and vegetables? HHHMMM... I have my own theories. If you can spread diseases from your hands and body parts by not washing after you go to the bathroom...what are workers doing in the fields that pick these fruits and vegetables. Like I said just some of my thinking. A worker is in the field and acres away from a Port-a-Johnny???? What and where is the worker to do??????
I would be amiss if I didn't tell you this. I instruct my students to never buy "hamburger" meat. Buy a roast and have the meat department grind it. If they say they do not have the means to do this (Wal-Mart is one) drop everything and run away quickly. The less fat in the roast the less tasty. So, choose a roast with some fat on it if you want it ground for a good ole juicy hamburger.
Actually, it's been found that in many of the cases where the bad e. coli ends up on vegetables, it's because the vegetables are watered with raw sewage water.
Actually, it's been found that in many of the cases where the bad e. coli ends up on vegetables, it's because the vegetables are watered with raw sewage water.
The water does not even have to be raw sewage water to contain coliform bacteria. It's getting harder and harder to find water that doesn't have at least some level of contamination. A newly drilled well has to be tested for contamination before it can be used. The typical method of testing is to take a sample and have a reputable lab grow a culture.
Of course, if there is no bacteria, there will be no culture grown. It takes about 3 days for the process. If the water is deemed contaminated, the well must be disinfected and tested again. If that fails, too, your options are to drill another well( Which is costly and will likely yield the same results if the source of the coliform is the aquifer it draws from) or disinfect the water, post-well, with a variety of approved methods such as chlorination, ozone treatment, UV lights, etc.
Yep, that simple country living that is so desirable is not without its drawbacks.
Just finished "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser. This book is a couple of years old, and it serves as an incomplete but in depth study of the history and impact of the fast food industry on America. Very readable and interesting, and I plan to look for more by the same author.
Schlosser explores how beef is processed with a lot of detail on how the assembly line beef processing plants work. It goes without saying (doesn't it?) that governmental oversight has been bought off thanks to heavy donations to Republicans. Schlosser has a good time pointing out how free-spirited, independent and anti-government all the big beef businessmen are, despite the fact that every single one of them got huge help from governmental agencies like the Small Business Administration to get off the ground.
It goes without saying (doesn't it?) that Republicans have allowed beef industry executives to exchange huge campaign contributions for the right to write their own laws at the state and federal level. The result is that beef we buy at the grocery store is literally full of dang (including the dangerous strains of E. Coli, Salmonella, etc. in the fecal matter). About the only thing that has raised the standards for beef we get from fast food places is the E. Coli scare at Jack in the Box and other places. The resulting threat of lawsuits means that fast food companies place strict rules on the beef they get from processing plants, far more strict than the government imposes.
As for the working conditions, it goes without saying (doesn't it?) that Republicans have hamstrung governmental agencies like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the National Labor Relations Board, the US Dept. of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration by cutting funding or changing the rules by which they operate. The result is that beef processing plants can hire illegal aliens by the truckload, working conditions are horrible, and the health standards for the workplace and the output are essentially non-existant.
The frequency of injuries and deaths in the slaughterhouses is staggering from what little can be learned (because the government isn't allowed to keep meaningful statistics and the slaughterhouses routinely fake their reports anyway). The average worker lasts less than six weeks at one of these places, which is why they broadcast on Spanish language stations in the barrios of America and in Mexico trying to find warm bodies to fill spots. We organize against Nike sweatshops in Asia, but these places have far worse working conditions, and it seems like no one cares.
It's not that the whole book is filled with the kind of liberal screed that I've just written. It's just what I thought was the most interesting stuff. Schlosser also talks about the origins of the industry, telling the stories of the first McDonald's restaurant in California and how it grew, etc. He talks about where the fries come from, the flavor industry, how the whole franchise system works. I think the best quote about restaurant operations comes from a typical teenager who said, "I wouldn't eat anything from this place that I didn't prepare myself."
I guess the only advice the author really has other than becoming a vegetarian is that we have to look to buy beef from places that keep the processing humane, sanitary and under control. There are places like this, and they aren't very expensive compared to the normal price of beef. They are just really hard to find.
This is a very thrilling book, which takes a lot of interesting twists and turns. The medical enthused person would love reading this book!"
Meredith Twaites, Resident Scholar
"With all the publicity about the e-coli virus, this book will make you afraid to nibble on that fast-food buger! (I STILL can't even think of eating one without shivering after reading this little gem of Dr. Cook's.) It is a fun scary book for a rainy week-end!"
Sharon Berry, Resident Scholar
"After reading this book it was hard for me to eat any type of meat for awhile. Robin Cook has a way of unlocking the readers feelings about the subject to bring out the emotion. I was always aware of E. coli, but this book has definitely hieghtened my awareness. Great Job Dr. Cook!"
Scott Pickle, Ph.D., Resident Scholar
"TOXIN is an exciting and disturbing novel in which Robin Cook theorizes that the presence of the deadly "bug" "e-coli" in hamburger may be at least, partially caused by several factors, most of which can be chalked up to greed and the need to make things cheaper in a world of rising costs.
Descriptions of a slaughter house in TOXIN, are, by themselves, a convincing argument for vegetarianism.
"
Here is another good book
Slaughterhouse by Gail A. Eisnitz in Books
By Gail A. Eisnitz - Prometheus Books (1997) - Hardback - 310 pages - ISBN 1573921661
You may be getting more than just beef in that burger. This shocking book shows what "USDA Approved" really means."I'd been documenting and exposing animal abuse for nearly 15 years. But nothing -- not the grisly cockfights nor the pathetic puppy mills, not the ritual animal sacrifices nor horrific livestock auctions -- could have prepared me for what I'd encounter once I ventured behind the closed doors of America's slaughterhouses".So writes award-winning author Gail A. Eisnitz in Slaughterhouse, a highly critical and all-too-real tour through some of America's major livestock processors. With powerful descriptions, reminiscent of Upton Sinclair's masterpiece The Jungle, hers is a frightening look at where our beef, pork, and poultry are "mass-produced" on disassembly lines that run 24-hours a day. And where U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors -- who are supposed to be assuring the public a safe food supply and protecting the animals from inhumane treatment -- ignore federal regulations, take payola, and turn a blind eye to the horrors that occur each day.Often safety standards are simply ignored. As the speed of the "kill lines" that prepare thousands of animals for slaughter is increased to boost productivity, more and more semiconscious and frightened animals pass through -- their flailing limbs lashing out and injuring workers before being brutally hacked off. But the kill line keeps going because the pressure to mass produce is intensifying to the point that human life is placed on par with that of the animals.Eisnitz includes interviews with numerous slaughterhouse workers who speak candidly of their experiences on the front line of one of the nation's largestagribusinesses. While documenting many instances of worker cruelty toward live animals, Eisnitz sees these employees as victims of the system. The meat industry, she contends, is a giant, monolith that only rewards speed and productivity, while penalizing those who take time to do the right thing.Slaughterhouse will outrage, horrify, and disgust everyone concerned about animal welfare, human rights, consumer safety, and government regulatory practices. Ninety-one years ago, Upton Sinclair brought attention to slaughterhouse atrocities, and now Eisnitz is here to report that they've only gotten worse. « less… more »
Upton Sinclair's The Jungle is a vivid portrait of life and death in a turn-of-the-century American meat-packing factory. A grim indictment that led to government regulations of the food industry, The Jungle is Sinclair's extraordinary contribution to literature and social reform.
~
For those who think this book is not fit for high school reading because it's "gross, boring and hard to read," please take a moment to think. This is one of the most impactful books on American history after Appeal to Reason by Thomas Paine (for those who think that I forgot Uncle Tom's Cabin, that had no direct effect on the abolition of slavery. It, along with Bleeding Kansas, John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry, Senator Brook's attack on Sumner in Congress, the election of Abraham Lincoln, and numerous other events that led up to the secession of seven states and the form of the Confederacy ultimately leading to the Civil War.) This actually brought a direct reform on packing industries. Also you must remember that you did not have a piece of contaminated meat before you opened this book and started reading. I'd bet you would be somewhat more interested in the book if you did. And of course it's going to be gross, how else are you supposed to rouse the public to action? Bottom line, it is a vital piece of history that needs to be appreciated and understood.--Submitted by John Kean.
With his 1994 sensation The Hot Zone, science writer Richard Preston terrified millions by describing how the Ebola virus left victims hemorrhaging from every orifice. In his new book, Panic in Level 4: Cannibals, Killer Viruses, and Other Journeys to the Edge of Science (, he continues to probe nature's stranger side, including what DNA tastes like and a disease that compels people to chew their own flesh. He talks with USA TODAY.
Q: In Panic, you quote an Ebola expert: "In the battle between the doctors and the bugs, in the long run, I'd put my money on the bugs." Does this mean we're all doomed to die from some horrible virus?
A: I don't believe in a biological apocalypse, but I think there is stormy biological weather ahead as the human population continues to grow. We're creating these massive urban areas in the Third World. It's like you take the entire population of California and put it in one city. Then you remove basic sanitation and medical services, and you have a ticking biological time bomb. I think we're going to see an emergency that could really challenge the global medical system and cost a lot of human lives.
Q:What should we do?
A: On the individual level, make sure people are properly vaccinated. The standard flu vaccine may well protect against avian flu or be at least partly effective. Give kids their shots. We should also demand that our local and federal governments spend more money on public health. And third, we need to continue to invest in biotechnology.
Q:Any updates on Ebola?
A: It continues to smolder in Africa. There has been a very recent outbreak of a new Ebola type in Uganda. It was causing symptoms that didn't look like classic Ebola, so doctors didn't know what they were dealing with.
The good thing about ebola is that it's so bad, it's self-limiting.
It strikes so fast and so gruesomely that it's victims seldom have time to spread the disease. As a result outbreaks generally are contained to a small area and no more than one or two dozen victims.
Now for a really scary disease, check out smallpox.
The good thing about ebola is that it's so bad, it's self-limiting.
It strikes so fast and so gruesomely that it's victims seldom have time to spread the disease. As a result outbreaks generally are contained to a small area and no more than one or two dozen victims.
Now for a really scary disease, check out smallpox.
Try the book The Speckled Monster
No one on earth has ever seen “the speckled monster” (smallpox) at full force, yet it was once "far and away the most vicious killer ever to stalk the human species." More deadly than the Black Plague, because it was no respecter of seasons. While the plague would die back for years at a time, smallpox was perennial. Unlike tuberculosis, a murderous monster of more recent times, it was no respecter of social class - it entered the hovels of the poor and the palaces of royalty, striking down kings, beggars, and little princes in their beds.
Jennifer Lee Carrell has researched her book in tireless, sometimes harrowing detail, so that we who never witnessed it - the last known case of smallpox anywhere was reported in 1977 - are brought within inches of the insidious machinations of the tireless killer doing its worst. It was called "the speckled monster" because variola in its early phase mockingly resembles measles, but as the infection rapidly spreads through the body, it shows its true hideous character: "The queen's face swelled as her mouth, nose and throat filled with so many blisters that they ran together into one raw sore...blood seeped from around her eyes and through her gums...the slightest touch against her, peeled her skin away in strips, leaving her shivering like a creature flayed alive." This was hemorrhagic smallpox, invariably fatal, taking its course in six days or less.
Survivors of the less surely fatal variations of the disease would be scarred, grotesquely, for life. Such was the fate of Lady Mary Montagu, the heroine of Carrell's account. A great beauty, favored companion of noblemen and the king of England, Lady Mary was attacked by smallpox in her youthful prime, and rarely afterwards ever appeared publicly without a veil. A woman of letters, a poet and unusually forthright for a female of the early 1700s, she accompanied her husband to Turkey and there learned of a technique known as variolation, known to the modern world as inoculation. Turkish women and others throughout the "less civilized" world, had for centuries immunized family and friends with the pox itself, in a brutal but brief surgery. Those so immunized had about an 80% chance of never getting smallpox. Was that chance enough to convince the English establishment that everyone should submit to the procedure? When questioned whether it was worth the risk, Lady Mary would uncover her disfigured face, as a single, simple, poignant reason.
Lady Mary had her own children inoculated, inviting the scorn and suspicion of her peers. But she was visited frequently, clandestinely, by desperate parents who sought knowledge of the process that could save their little ones. She became an outspoken campaigner in the fight against the disease.
Simultaneously, in an intriguing historical parallel, Zabdiel Boyleston, an American physician, also survived the disease and inoculated his children, inspired by a handful of believers. Among them was the renowned Cotton Mather, who learned of the treatment from his African slaves. While such a process could have been seen as tantamount to witchcraft in eighteenth-century Boston, Zabdiel championed the procedure despite the pressures against him, including attempts on his life. This led eventually to general acceptance of variolation and, by 1790, to the discovery of the benign virus, cowpox, a gentler weapon against this most savage of killers.
Carrell links the two unlikely heroes - Boyleston, a practical, pioneering American of no distinguished lineage, and Lady Mary who consorted with the fabled poets and intellectuals of her day - through their similar agonies with the disease and their conviction, despite fears, threats and misgivings, that their children should be inoculated. Careful to cite her sources, Jennifer Lee Carrell creates a rich, novelistic chronicle - combination science, history and a well-told human-scale story that will satisfy readers on several levels.
The good thing about ebola is that it's so bad, it's self-limiting.
It strikes so fast and so gruesomely that it's victims seldom have time to spread the disease. As a result outbreaks generally are contained to a small area and no more than one or two dozen victims.
Now for a really scary disease, check out smallpox.
The Demon in the Freezer: A True StoryRichard Preston does it again in yet another non-fiction book that is centered around a virus. This time it is the smallpox virus, with a bit of anthrax mixed in. "The Demon in the Freezer" provides the reader with shockingly true stories behind the smallpox virus, as well as startling facts.
Over the course of the book you will learn about certain outbreaks, and the people that eradicated the smallpox virus. A history of the virus, and the role it has played in nature. This book does not read like a medical book by any means. Think of it as a intriguing biography, but in this case, it is of a virus.
There is also a lot of information concerning the anthrax attacks that occurred in the US in 2001. How the government approached it, and what they feared might happen. You as the reader follow the paper trail, as the officials did. While not as in-depth as the sections on smallpox, it still satisfies your interest.
"The Demon in the Freezer" also contains information which are current headlines. Such as nations that may possess smallpox as well as other potential biological weapons. The possible effects bioengineering of smallpox may hold, and how the vaccine would hold up. Background information, the type which either are not reported, or just completely missed.
The most shocking thing about this book is that it is non-fiction, yet it reads as amazing as fiction. "The Demon in the Freezer" is by far one of the finest books written on smallpox and doesn't bore you with terminology. One of the best books I've read in a long time!
Anyone that has read Richard Preston's previous award winning book "The Hot Zone" will be greatly pleased with this piece as well. Not for the squeamish though! If you are unfamiliar with Preston's work, he is a "Centers for Disease Control's Champion of Prevention Award" winner, the only non-physician ever to receive that award. His reporting is highly credible and often quoted by others in the medical field. "The Demon in the Freezer" is his fourth bestseller.
This thread seems to have turned into a disease forum rather than a food hygiene/safety one.
Coming back to food hygiene, try this book: "Not on the Label" by Felicity Lawrence (ISBN: 0-141-01566-7). She is a consumer affairs correspondent for a major reputable newspaper and as an undercover reporter got jobs in various food prep businesses. And other places.
It also talks about the cost to others - the conditions the worker-gangs have to endure just so that cheap products are available in the shops.
This thread seems to have turned into a disease forum rather than a food hygiene/safety one.
Coming back to food hygiene, try this book: "Not on the Label" by Felicity Lawrence (ISBN: 0-141-01566-7). She is a consumer affairs correspondent for a major reputable newspaper and as an undercover reporter got jobs in various food prep businesses. And other places.
It also talks about the cost to others - the conditions the worker-gangs have to endure just so that cheap products are available in the shops.
thanks twinky,that is a good read too.
Sorry I get carried away about germs and germ warfare(Ft Dettrrick is close by ,its like the CDC)
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Jim
First of all, I am neither a creationist or an evolutionist so I have no axe to grind. My small mind can't wrap around either concept to the exclusion of the other.
That said, this smells like the classic case of a contaminated petri dish. I would not be surprised at all if in six months or a year, the results are disproven or shown to be in error in some way. It's certainly happened before. Call me a cynical old bastard.
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excathedra
(please forgive me) but i wanted to tell jim i liked what you said about "attack" somewhere, but now i can't find it
love,ex
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Jim
I remember.
Thanks and love,
-jim
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cheranne
Cow, E. Coli, Sanitation Violations Alleged At Rubashkin Plant – Sewage on Kill Floor, Insect Infestation, Found
The UFCW Union press release and the AP report are posted after the jump in the extended post below. I'll have more details on this soon.
FOOD SAFETY INVESTIGATION UNCOVERS VIOLATIONS AT NATION’S LARGEST KOSHER MEATPACKING COMPANY
Government documents reveal failures at Agriprocessors’ Nebraska Plant to safeguard consumers from mad cow disease and E. coli, as well as more than 30 sanitation violations ranging from sewage to insect infestation
WASHINGTON – A new investigative report documenting food safety issues at the Agriprocessors, Inc., Local Pride Plant in Gordon, Neb., shows a pattern of food safety violations, including failures to properly implement bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or “mad cow” disease, and E. coli safeguards, as well as more than 30 sanitation violations, ranging from sewage on the kill floor to insect infestation.
This report comes on the heals of the Westland/Hallmark Meat Company recall, which was the largest recall in United States Department of Agriculture history. With more than 143 million pounds of meat being recalled because of increased risk of mad cow contamination, consumers are extremely concerned about the safety of the products they purchase.
The new report, which was released today by the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) International Union, analyzed government documents received through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
The documents revealed that Agriprocessors’ Gordon, Neb., plant had more than 115 Noncompliance Records (NR) from July 2005 to March 2007. These documents are issued when Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) personnel determine that a company has failed to meet certain safety or regulatory requirements.
In the case of Agriprocessors’ Local Pride Plant, food safety inspectors raised concerns regarding the company’s failure to implement mad cow and E. coli safeguards, as well as overall sanitation issues at the plant. Agriprocessors’ sells products under the Aaron’s Best and David’s labels and is a supplier for Nathan’s Famous Kosher Hot Dogs.
The new report states, “a critical aspect of any food safety system is sampling for E. coli. E. coli H157 is a bacteria found in the intestines of cattle.” According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), meat can become contaminated during the slaughter process. E. coli, the CDC states, “often causes severe bloody diarrhea and abdominal cramps” and could result in “acute kidney failure in children.” E. coli has been responsible for at least 20 recalls in 2007 alone.
This new report comes after a UFCW food safety investigation in August of 2007 of Agriprocessors’ Postville, Ia., plant uncovered serious issues including recalled products, mad cow related safety concerns and repeated fecal and bile contamination.
In addition, several Members of Congress sent a letter to the USDA in November inquiring about the state of food safety at Agriprocessors and what actions the agency plans to implement given the repeated nature of food safety problems at the plant.
Download:
I found this intresting.
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kimberly
There are many e-coli bacterium. Not all are bad. The one we all are most familiar with is the 0157:H7. Yes, we are familiar with it!! This strain is why we are to cook hamburger meat no less than a medium well or to an internal temperature of 165 degrees. Why? Because the part of the cow that we get "hamburger" meat from is next to the bowels of the bovine. If the butchers aren't careful they grind up fecal matter in the "hamburger" meat. Yum. Maybe, cow poopie is evolving.
How are we getting the bad e-coli on fruits and vegetables? HHHMMM... I have my own theories. If you can spread diseases from your hands and body parts by not washing after you go to the bathroom...what are workers doing in the fields that pick these fruits and vegetables. Like I said just some of my thinking. A worker is in the field and acres away from a Port-a-Johnny???? What and where is the worker to do??????
I would be amiss if I didn't tell you this. I instruct my students to never buy "hamburger" meat. Buy a roast and have the meat department grind it. If they say they do not have the means to do this (Wal-Mart is one) drop everything and run away quickly. The less fat in the roast the less tasty. So, choose a roast with some fat on it if you want it ground for a good ole juicy hamburger.
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Mister P-Mosh
Actually, it's been found that in many of the cases where the bad e. coli ends up on vegetables, it's because the vegetables are watered with raw sewage water.
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waysider
The water does not even have to be raw sewage water to contain coliform bacteria. It's getting harder and harder to find water that doesn't have at least some level of contamination. A newly drilled well has to be tested for contamination before it can be used. The typical method of testing is to take a sample and have a reputable lab grow a culture.
Of course, if there is no bacteria, there will be no culture grown. It takes about 3 days for the process. If the water is deemed contaminated, the well must be disinfected and tested again. If that fails, too, your options are to drill another well( Which is costly and will likely yield the same results if the source of the coliform is the aquifer it draws from) or disinfect the water, post-well, with a variety of approved methods such as chlorination, ozone treatment, UV lights, etc.
Yep, that simple country living that is so desirable is not without its drawbacks.
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cheranne
McNation
Just finished "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser. This book is a couple of years old, and it serves as an incomplete but in depth study of the history and impact of the fast food industry on America. Very readable and interesting, and I plan to look for more by the same author.
Schlosser explores how beef is processed with a lot of detail on how the assembly line beef processing plants work. It goes without saying (doesn't it?) that governmental oversight has been bought off thanks to heavy donations to Republicans. Schlosser has a good time pointing out how free-spirited, independent and anti-government all the big beef businessmen are, despite the fact that every single one of them got huge help from governmental agencies like the Small Business Administration to get off the ground.
It goes without saying (doesn't it?) that Republicans have allowed beef industry executives to exchange huge campaign contributions for the right to write their own laws at the state and federal level. The result is that beef we buy at the grocery store is literally full of dang (including the dangerous strains of E. Coli, Salmonella, etc. in the fecal matter). About the only thing that has raised the standards for beef we get from fast food places is the E. Coli scare at Jack in the Box and other places. The resulting threat of lawsuits means that fast food companies place strict rules on the beef they get from processing plants, far more strict than the government imposes.
As for the working conditions, it goes without saying (doesn't it?) that Republicans have hamstrung governmental agencies like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the National Labor Relations Board, the US Dept. of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration by cutting funding or changing the rules by which they operate. The result is that beef processing plants can hire illegal aliens by the truckload, working conditions are horrible, and the health standards for the workplace and the output are essentially non-existant.
The frequency of injuries and deaths in the slaughterhouses is staggering from what little can be learned (because the government isn't allowed to keep meaningful statistics and the slaughterhouses routinely fake their reports anyway). The average worker lasts less than six weeks at one of these places, which is why they broadcast on Spanish language stations in the barrios of America and in Mexico trying to find warm bodies to fill spots. We organize against Nike sweatshops in Asia, but these places have far worse working conditions, and it seems like no one cares.
It's not that the whole book is filled with the kind of liberal screed that I've just written. It's just what I thought was the most interesting stuff. Schlosser also talks about the origins of the industry, telling the stories of the first McDonald's restaurant in California and how it grew, etc. He talks about where the fries come from, the flavor industry, how the whole franchise system works. I think the best quote about restaurant operations comes from a typical teenager who said, "I wouldn't eat anything from this place that I didn't prepare myself."
I guess the only advice the author really has other than becoming a vegetarian is that we have to look to buy beef from places that keep the processing humane, sanitary and under control. There are places like this, and they aren't very expensive compared to the normal price of beef. They are just really hard to find.
Posted by Observer at July 24, 2003 08:59 AM
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cheranne
Here is a good read by Robin Cook.
This is a very thrilling book, which takes a lot of interesting twists and turns. The medical enthused person would love reading this book!"
Meredith Twaites, Resident Scholar
"With all the publicity about the e-coli virus, this book will make you afraid to nibble on that fast-food buger! (I STILL can't even think of eating one without shivering after reading this little gem of Dr. Cook's.) It is a fun scary book for a rainy week-end!"
Sharon Berry, Resident Scholar
"After reading this book it was hard for me to eat any type of meat for awhile. Robin Cook has a way of unlocking the readers feelings about the subject to bring out the emotion. I was always aware of E. coli, but this book has definitely hieghtened my awareness. Great Job Dr. Cook!"
Scott Pickle, Ph.D., Resident Scholar
"TOXIN is an exciting and disturbing novel in which Robin Cook theorizes that the presence of the deadly "bug" "e-coli" in hamburger may be at least, partially caused by several factors, most of which can be chalked up to greed and the need to make things cheaper in a world of rising costs.
Descriptions of a slaughter house in TOXIN, are, by themselves, a convincing argument for vegetarianism.
"
Here is another good book
Slaughterhouse by Gail A. Eisnitz in Books
By Gail A. Eisnitz - Prometheus Books (1997) - Hardback - 310 pages - ISBN 1573921661
You may be getting more than just beef in that burger. This shocking book shows what "USDA Approved" really means."I'd been documenting and exposing animal abuse for nearly 15 years. But nothing -- not the grisly cockfights nor the pathetic puppy mills, not the ritual animal sacrifices nor horrific livestock auctions -- could have prepared me for what I'd encounter once I ventured behind the closed doors of America's slaughterhouses".So writes award-winning author Gail A. Eisnitz in Slaughterhouse, a highly critical and all-too-real tour through some of America's major livestock processors. With powerful descriptions, reminiscent of Upton Sinclair's masterpiece The Jungle, hers is a frightening look at where our beef, pork, and poultry are "mass-produced" on disassembly lines that run 24-hours a day. And where U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors -- who are supposed to be assuring the public a safe food supply and protecting the animals from inhumane treatment -- ignore federal regulations, take payola, and turn a blind eye to the horrors that occur each day.Often safety standards are simply ignored. As the speed of the "kill lines" that prepare thousands of animals for slaughter is increased to boost productivity, more and more semiconscious and frightened animals pass through -- their flailing limbs lashing out and injuring workers before being brutally hacked off. But the kill line keeps going because the pressure to mass produce is intensifying to the point that human life is placed on par with that of the animals.Eisnitz includes interviews with numerous slaughterhouse workers who speak candidly of their experiences on the front line of one of the nation's largestagribusinesses. While documenting many instances of worker cruelty toward live animals, Eisnitz sees these employees as victims of the system. The meat industry, she contends, is a giant, monolith that only rewards speed and productivity, while penalizing those who take time to do the right thing.Slaughterhouse will outrage, horrify, and disgust everyone concerned about animal welfare, human rights, consumer safety, and government regulatory practices. Ninety-one years ago, Upton Sinclair brought attention to slaughterhouse atrocities, and now Eisnitz is here to report that they've only gotten worse. « less… more »
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cheranne
and ofcourse Upton Sinclairs "The Jungle"
Upton Sinclair's The Jungle is a vivid portrait of life and death in a turn-of-the-century American meat-packing factory. A grim indictment that led to government regulations of the food industry, The Jungle is Sinclair's extraordinary contribution to literature and social reform.
~
For those who think this book is not fit for high school reading because it's "gross, boring and hard to read," please take a moment to think. This is one of the most impactful books on American history after Appeal to Reason by Thomas Paine (for those who think that I forgot Uncle Tom's Cabin, that had no direct effect on the abolition of slavery. It, along with Bleeding Kansas, John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry, Senator Brook's attack on Sumner in Congress, the election of Abraham Lincoln, and numerous other events that led up to the secession of seven states and the form of the Confederacy ultimately leading to the Civil War.) This actually brought a direct reform on packing industries. Also you must remember that you did not have a piece of contaminated meat before you opened this book and started reading. I'd bet you would be somewhat more interested in the book if you did. And of course it's going to be gross, how else are you supposed to rouse the public to action? Bottom line, it is a vital piece of history that needs to be appreciated and understood.--Submitted by John Kean.
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cheranne
there is also an out of print book called Spoiled byNicols Fox and Meat Market by Marcus
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cheranne
With his 1994 sensation The Hot Zone, science writer Richard Preston terrified millions by describing how the Ebola virus left victims hemorrhaging from every orifice. In his new book, Panic in Level 4: Cannibals, Killer Viruses, and Other Journeys to the Edge of Science (, he continues to probe nature's stranger side, including what DNA tastes like and a disease that compels people to chew their own flesh. He talks with USA TODAY.
Q: In Panic, you quote an Ebola expert: "In the battle between the doctors and the bugs, in the long run, I'd put my money on the bugs." Does this mean we're all doomed to die from some horrible virus?
A: I don't believe in a biological apocalypse, but I think there is stormy biological weather ahead as the human population continues to grow. We're creating these massive urban areas in the Third World. It's like you take the entire population of California and put it in one city. Then you remove basic sanitation and medical services, and you have a ticking biological time bomb. I think we're going to see an emergency that could really challenge the global medical system and cost a lot of human lives.
Q: What should we do?
A: On the individual level, make sure people are properly vaccinated. The standard flu vaccine may well protect against avian flu or be at least partly effective. Give kids their shots. We should also demand that our local and federal governments spend more money on public health. And third, we need to continue to invest in biotechnology.
Q: Any updates on Ebola?
A: It continues to smolder in Africa. There has been a very recent outbreak of a new Ebola type in Uganda. It was causing symptoms that didn't look like classic Ebola, so doctors didn't know what they were dealing with.
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Jim
The good thing about ebola is that it's so bad, it's self-limiting.
It strikes so fast and so gruesomely that it's victims seldom have time to spread the disease. As a result outbreaks generally are contained to a small area and no more than one or two dozen victims.
Now for a really scary disease, check out smallpox.
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cheranne
Try the book The Speckled Monster
No one on earth has ever seen “the speckled monster” (smallpox) at full force, yet it was once "far and away the most vicious killer ever to stalk the human species." More deadly than the Black Plague, because it was no respecter of seasons. While the plague would die back for years at a time, smallpox was perennial. Unlike tuberculosis, a murderous monster of more recent times, it was no respecter of social class - it entered the hovels of the poor and the palaces of royalty, striking down kings, beggars, and little princes in their beds.
Survivors of the less surely fatal variations of the disease would be scarred, grotesquely, for life. Such was the fate of Lady Mary Montagu, the heroine of Carrell's account. A great beauty, favored companion of noblemen and the king of England, Lady Mary was attacked by smallpox in her youthful prime, and rarely afterwards ever appeared publicly without a veil. A woman of letters, a poet and unusually forthright for a female of the early 1700s, she accompanied her husband to Turkey and there learned of a technique known as variolation, known to the modern world as inoculation. Turkish women and others throughout the "less civilized" world, had for centuries immunized family and friends with the pox itself, in a brutal but brief surgery. Those so immunized had about an 80% chance of never getting smallpox. Was that chance enough to convince the English establishment that everyone should submit to the procedure? When questioned whether it was worth the risk, Lady Mary would uncover her disfigured face, as a single, simple, poignant reason.
Lady Mary had her own children inoculated, inviting the scorn and suspicion of her peers. But she was visited frequently, clandestinely, by desperate parents who sought knowledge of the process that could save their little ones. She became an outspoken campaigner in the fight against the disease.
Simultaneously, in an intriguing historical parallel, Zabdiel Boyleston, an American physician, also survived the disease and inoculated his children, inspired by a handful of believers. Among them was the renowned Cotton Mather, who learned of the treatment from his African slaves. While such a process could have been seen as tantamount to witchcraft in eighteenth-century Boston, Zabdiel championed the procedure despite the pressures against him, including attempts on his life. This led eventually to general acceptance of variolation and, by 1790, to the discovery of the benign virus, cowpox, a gentler weapon against this most savage of killers.
Carrell links the two unlikely heroes - Boyleston, a practical, pioneering American of no distinguished lineage, and Lady Mary who consorted with the fabled poets and intellectuals of her day - through their similar agonies with the disease and their conviction, despite fears, threats and misgivings, that their children should be inoculated. Careful to cite her sources, Jennifer Lee Carrell creates a rich, novelistic chronicle - combination science, history and a well-told human-scale story that will satisfy readers on several levels.
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cheranne
The Demon in the Freezer: A True StoryRichard Preston does it again in yet another non-fiction book that is centered around a virus. This time it is the smallpox virus, with a bit of anthrax mixed in. "The Demon in the Freezer" provides the reader with shockingly true stories behind the smallpox virus, as well as startling facts.
Over the course of the book you will learn about certain outbreaks, and the people that eradicated the smallpox virus. A history of the virus, and the role it has played in nature. This book does not read like a medical book by any means. Think of it as a intriguing biography, but in this case, it is of a virus.
There is also a lot of information concerning the anthrax attacks that occurred in the US in 2001. How the government approached it, and what they feared might happen. You as the reader follow the paper trail, as the officials did. While not as in-depth as the sections on smallpox, it still satisfies your interest.
"The Demon in the Freezer" also contains information which are current headlines. Such as nations that may possess smallpox as well as other potential biological weapons. The possible effects bioengineering of smallpox may hold, and how the vaccine would hold up. Background information, the type which either are not reported, or just completely missed.
The most shocking thing about this book is that it is non-fiction, yet it reads as amazing as fiction. "The Demon in the Freezer" is by far one of the finest books written on smallpox and doesn't bore you with terminology. One of the best books I've read in a long time!
Anyone that has read Richard Preston's previous award winning book "The Hot Zone" will be greatly pleased with this piece as well. Not for the squeamish though! If you are unfamiliar with Preston's work, he is a "Centers for Disease Control's Champion of Prevention Award" winner, the only non-physician ever to receive that award. His reporting is highly credible and often quoted by others in the medical field. "The Demon in the Freezer" is his fourth bestseller.
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Twinky
This thread seems to have turned into a disease forum rather than a food hygiene/safety one.
Coming back to food hygiene, try this book: "Not on the Label" by Felicity Lawrence (ISBN: 0-141-01566-7). She is a consumer affairs correspondent for a major reputable newspaper and as an undercover reporter got jobs in various food prep businesses. And other places.
It also talks about the cost to others - the conditions the worker-gangs have to endure just so that cheap products are available in the shops.
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cheranne
thanks twinky,that is a good read too.
Sorry I get carried away about germs and germ warfare(Ft Dettrrick is close by ,its like the CDC)
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