this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2024
328 points (100.0% liked)

News

23320 readers
3091 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Summary

An E. coli outbreak linked to bagged organic carrots from Grimmway Farms has infected 39 people across 18 states, with 15 hospitalized and one death reported.

The recalled carrots, sold under brands like Trader Joe’s, Wegmans, and 365, are no longer in stores, but the CDC urges consumers to check for and discard any remaining stock.

E. coli infections, which cause severe stomach cramps, bloody diarrhea, and vomiting, can be life-threatening for vulnerable groups.

Recent outbreaks have also been tied to onions, lettuce, and walnuts.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I'm going to take a minute to respond to the argument I think you're trying to imply here, that organic food leads to e-coli outbreaks in humans.

While there is some validity to this, it's an oversimplification. The vast majority of e-coli is not problematic. The stuff that's actually a threat comes from sick animals. So when you have AFOs with tons of animals in close proximity, the manure tends to be more likely to be contaminated. And when that contaminated manure gets used as fertiliser, it makes contaminated vegetables.

This doesn't necessarily only affect organic vegetables, btw, as the runoff from AFOs can also be a contaminant, so it can affect neighbouring farms as well, organic or otherwise. This is how you can get e-coli contaminated lettuce because it was washed with contaminated water.

Personally, the reason I'd buy organic produce would be a) generally better quality produce and b) avoiding glyphosate and PFAS in pesticides. I think that Monsanto has played out billions in settlements related to roundup speaks volumes.

That said, I'm not nearly crunchy enough to think that artificial fertilisers are problematic. Heck, I use them in my own garden. Stuff that kills stuff tends to be more dangerous than stuff that makes stuff grow, but ofc dosage is everything.

All that is to say, I'd posit that the real problem here is intensified animal agriculture, and corner cutting (both in fertiliser production and sourcing), not organic farming per se.