E. coli in California. Why Sick in Indiana? (And Why Must Immigrants Pick Pears?)

Tumbledown thinks it only obvious that there must be a better way.

According to the FDA today (09/21/2006), "157 cases of illness due to E. coli infection have been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including 27 cases of Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS), 83 hospitalizations, and one death." Eight (8) of these illnesses were reported in Indiana. Though the FDA continues to investigate the source of the outbreak, this much is already clear: these eight (8) Indiana residents did not contract the illness from spinach grown in Indiana. In fact, the "fresh" spinach in question was grown, picked and packed in California. ("The FDA, in working closely with the CDC and the State of California, has determined that the spinach implicated in the outbreak was grown in the following California counties: Monterey, San Benito, and Santa Clara.")

Why does our spinach come from California? Is Indiana not suitable for growing spinach this time of year? Can Indiana not produce its own "fresh" spinach in sufficient quantities to feed its own population in mid- to late September? Of course it could. Tumbledown has mixed greens ready for picking in his own garden at this very moment, and none of it is infected with E. coli O157:H7.

According to the FDA, the "major source of microbial contamination with fresh produce is associated with human or animal feces." Worker hygiene is clearly a concern, as is any unsafe or malfunctioning septic system. But such human contamination is far less likely the culprit in this instance, especially direct contact with human or animal feces. More likely, the spinach (or other fruit, vegetable, or leafy green) has come into contact with contaminated water. And the source of that contaminated water may be "factory farms" and their "manure lagoons." (See Nina Planck's September 21 NYTimes Op-Ed, Leafy Green Sewage. Note: Tumbledown is not convinced [yet] about Planck's animal chemistry connection, acidic stomach and all that. The author of Real Food: What to Eat and Why may have her own axe to grind, but pasture farming on more, smaller, diversified, local farms is certainly an all around better--not more efficient, because efficiency is not the highest good--way of producing food.) The FDA urges the industry to "manage closely" the storage and use of animal manure and biosolid wastes, but accepts the status quo of animal finishing in humongous feedlots--and monstrously large dairies--and their concentrations of feces as a necessary price of food production. Meanwhile the local sale of raw milk is prohibited or overregulated beyond reason.

Is it really necessary to produce spinach (and beef and dairy) in California for sale 2281.7 miles away in Indiana? Tell that to eight (8) sick hoosiers, in a state that could produce its own, easily, safely. (BTW: Indiana has its own manure lagoons. And as long as they exist, they will overflow.) Or tell it to the people of Canada, Mexico, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Iceland, who also eat "fresh" Californian spinach.

A seemingly unrelated story also says a lot about what's wrong with "real farming" today. (Gene Logsdon, "I'm Glad I'm Not a 'Real' Farmer," in Living at Nature's Pace.) And in this case, a picture shouts a thousand words. Julia Preston's September 22, 2006, NYTimes article, "Pickers are Few, and Growers Blame Congress," is headed by a photo of a dejected farmer, Toni Sculli, standing in front of tons of perishing Northern California pears. Perishing for lack of pickers. Labor has always been the #1 problem faced by farmers, but that problem is now exacerbated by monocrop farming in huge quantities. Surplus fruit on a diversified farm--even unpicked, falling off the trees--can be eaten by sheep grazing below, or used to supplement a hog's diet. But on a farm that grows only pears, and in quantities too great for the community to pick, to send to Indiana (where pears grow just fine, thank you) and to India, and Japan, the surplus is catastrophic.

There must be a better way. And there is, if we will but take it. And to take it, we must teach the majority of our children to farm. The growing, picking, and packing cannot be left to those outside our local communities.