I was driving on the freeway with “Maintenance Mommy” the other day, seeing all of the billboards along the side of the road, and we started talking about how the media affects people’s beliefs in nutrition. We pretty much came to the conclusion (and this is a conclusion that can be made about most of the issues in the world) IT ALL HAS TO DO WITH MONEY.
The dairy industry wants to make money just as much as anybody else…so I guess they have the right to use their money to endorse their product in the media. As we were driving that day, we both thought- wouldn’t it be cool if when we drove on the freeway we saws billboards like this one:
SPINACH- it does a body good!
Why doesn’t the spinach industry advertize as much as the dairy industry? That’s a good question- and again…I’m sure the answer has to do with MONEY. Unfortunately, there is probably not enough DEMAND for spinach today, thus not enough money in SPINACH either.
While we are on the subject of SPINACH and DAIRY PRODUCTS– I can’t help but think back to 2006 when E. coli was found in our bagged spinach, which triggered a nationwide fear of fresh vegetables.
FACT: A joint trace back by FDA and the State of California revealed that four spinach fields were the source of the E. coli contamination. The outbreak strain of E. coli O157:H7 was isolated from cattle fields nearby the implicated spinach fields.
The hardy breed of E. coli, dubbed O157:H7, normally lives by the billions at the rear end of a cow’s gut. But in this case, the bacteria found its way into our spinach- which caused hundreds of people to become ill, 31 people developed severe kidney disease, and three people died. (www.about-ecoli.com)
I have two questions:
1. Is there a reason why our cows have these extremely harmful bacteria in their guts?
2. How do these extremely harmful bacteria get into our spinach?
The answers are very easy to find:
Cattle are given feed that their bodies are not biologically designed to digest (CORN)
resulting in new strains of E. coli bacteria, which sicken roughly 73,000 Americans annually. (www.foodincmovie.com)
One obvious way E. coli gets into our spinach is through the spreading of animal manure on produce fields. Also, contaminated runoff from dairies can seep into adjacent fields and in the summer, dust from cattle stalls can drift onto nearby crops. (www.about-ecoli.com)
I don’t know about you, but I don’t remember hearing in the news back in 2006 how E. coli got into the spinach…but isn’t it interesting that it came from COWS. Shouldn’t we be more worried about these animals…then SPINACH?
Source: WFM Blog – 2