New York Times investigative reporter Michael Moss, who wrote the piece on unsafe hamburger meat in Sunday’s Times and was our guest in today’s first hour, sends us a followup note.
Since 2002, E. coli outbreaks in the U.S. were on the decline, but since 2007, the number of incidents has begun to rise again. The reasons aren’t entirely clear, but Moss says there are four main theories food experts and manufacturers are considering:
There have been 16 outbreaks of the virulent strain of E. coli known as 0157:H7 in hamburger since 2007 — nearly triple the rate of outbreaks in the previous three years.
Just what has caused this apparent surge remains unclear. Public health officials say they are getting better at tracing individual cases of illness to the responsible product, and so some of the increase may be due to their better tracking. Note that these 16 outbreaks are only the known cases, traced back to hamburger makers. Most of the estimated 70,000 people who fall ill from E. coli each year are not traced back to their source, while at the same time E. coli has also had outbreaks in spinach and processed foods.
There are several other possible explanations for the surge in hamburger related outbreaks, industry and government officials say. One, that global warming may somehow be creating a better environment for E. coli to grow and spread. Two, that a change in the type of corn fed to cattle may increase the presence of E. coli in their digestive tracks. And three, that immigration raids in the meat industry have caused talented workers to return to Mexico or seek other work, causing a drain of talent in slaughtering, where it can take a worker a year or more to learn the safest techniques for removing a hide to avoid contaminating the meat.
–Michael Moss
Interesting that you say that it is a change in the type of corn fed to the cattle. Isn’t it true that the cause is that they are corn fed at all? Feedlot grain (corn) based feed makes the animals more acidic which in turn makes the E. coli more acid resistant so that the acids in our stomachs can’t combat it. If you want to have safer meat, you need to eat grassfed meat.
Have you seen this study and what do you think of it?
Russell, J. B., F. Diez-Gonzalez, and G. N. Jarvis. “Potential Effect of Cattle Diets on the Transmission of Pathogenic Escherichia Coli to Humans” Microbes Infect 2, no. 1 (2000): 45-53.
Posted by Devora Kimelman-Block, on October 7th, 2009 at 10:14 pm EDTI am a vegetarian and animal advocate. I have read many articles and books on the damage cattle raising in particular has caused to the planet and our health. While I listened to this show, I found myself shouting at the radio a few times. When are Americans going to wake up?
What frightens me the most is that you can tell Americans until you are blue in the face about all the dangers they face eating meat and as if in a trance, they continue with this toxic and dangerous practice.
Meat from cloned cows in the market place does not sway them, neither does mad cow disease, e-coli, feces in hamburger or the death of loved ones from eating animals. Treating animals inhumanely does not even move most Americans.
I also felt outraged when one of the guests on this show referred to cows as “raw material” and another statement that reflects ignorance was “transforming animals into food.” What is this the era of cavemen?
While I am not writing this to tout the virtues of a vegetarian diet, having been a longtime vegetarian, I can say that I have not sacrificed taste or pleasure from the food that I eat. Tofu and beans taste delicious if you know how to cook.
Oh, and by the way, the grassfed cow argument does not bode well either. With the amount of meat consumed in the U.S., there is not enough land to feed Americans with grassfed cattle, unless of course, you want to destroy all the forests we have left.
Patricia
Posted by Patricia, on October 9th, 2009 at 11:25 am EDTWashington State