Spinach Recall

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With its quick spread across the country (the first case was reported August 2), this outbreak brings home the fact that our centralized food system makes us all more vulnerable to food-borne illness. Bob Scowcroft, executive director of the Organic Farming Research Foundation, notes that even small organic farms could conceivably suffer from water runoff from the septic lagoons of nearby concentrated animal feeding operations. "Organic is using every bit of knowledge that it has to address the impact of the agro-industrial system over the last 50 years," Scowcroft says, "but in this transitional time, it's clear that we're not farming in isolation and there's more work to be done."

Nina Planck, author of Real Food: What to Eat and Why (2006, Bloomsbury, $23.95) writes in the September 21 New York Times that the real culprit may ultimately prove to be conventional cattle farming. Noting E. coli 0157 thrives in the stomachs of cattle that are fed grain-based diets rather than pastured on grass, Planck points out that simply switching cows to their natural grass diet can decrease 0157 levels by a thousand-fold within five days. "California's spinach industry is now the financial victim of an outbreak it probably did not cause," Planck says, "and meanwhile, thousands of acres of other produce are still downstream from these lakes of E. coli-ridden cattle manure."

What You Can Do

Support your local farmers instead of large agribusiness. To find a nearby farmer's market, see www.ams.usda.gov/farmersmarkets. To join a community supported agriculture farm, see www.thegreenguide.com.

If you have eaten spinach and experience diarrhea, the CDC recommends that you see your doctor and ask that a stool sample be tested for E. coli 0157. If you've eaten spinach, but do not feel ill, the CDC states that you do not need to see a health care provider. www.cdc.gov

Support the grassfed cattle industry; for local options, see www.eatwellguide.org and www.eatwild.com.

The CDC warns that washing leaves will not eliminate E. coli bacteria and that only boiling it at 160 degrees F. for 15 seconds will kill them. However, since surfaces and hands can become contaminated while handling uncooked spinach, it is safest to avoid eating it at all. If you have recently cooked with spinach, be sure to wash with hot water and soap all surfaces and utensils that could have come in contact with it.

Lastly, if there's any good news from this, it's that the FDA will now be monitoring spinach more closely under its Lettuce Safety Initiative, created due to the large number of outbreaks of E. coli in lettuce.

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