Food Safety
More Cases in Raw Milk-Suspected E. coli Outbreak
An outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 linked to raw milk has sickened 13 Missouri residents and led to the hospitalization of two children.
The Missouri Department of Health confirmed Saturday that the number of outbreak victims has expanded from the 5 victims previously reported, with cases now in Boone, Camden, Clark, Cooper, Howard, Jackson and Randolph counties. One of the two children hospitalized with HUS – a severe complication of an E. coli infection that leads to kidney failure – remains in the hospital, according to St. Louis Today.
Tuna Sushi Salmonella Outbreak: Tracking The Source
The months-long search for the origin of the multi-state Salmonella outbreak ended yesterday with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) announcement that frozen, raw, yellowfin tuna product from Moon Marine USA Corporation of Cupertino, Calif. is the source of the outbreak.
State and federal investigators have been working since January to identify the source of the Salmonella Bareilly outbreak that has sickened at least 116 people in 20 states and the District of Columbia. Food Poisoning Bulletin (FPB) asked Michael Batz, Head of Food Safety Programs at the University of Florida Emerging Pathogens Institute, if he was surprised at how long the investigation into the source of the outbreak took.
Millions Against Monsanto: The Food Fight of Our Lives
“If you put a label on genetically engineered food you might as well put a skull and crossbones on it.” — Norman Braksick, president of Asgrow Seed Co., a subsidiary of Monsanto, quoted in the Kansas City Star, March 7, 1994
“Monsanto should not have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food. Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the FDA’s job.” — Phil Angell, Monsanto’s director of corporate communications, quoted in the New York Times, October 25, 1998
For nearly two decades, Monsanto and corporate agribusiness have exercised near-dictatorial control over American agriculture, aided and abetted by indentured politicians and regulatory agencies, supermarket chains, giant food processors, and the so-called “natural” products industry.
Finally, public opinion around the biotech industry’s contamination of our food supply and destruction of our environment has reached the tipping point. We’re fighting back.
Just One of Monsanto’s Crimes, or Why We Can’t Trust the EPA
By Alexis Baden-Mayer
2,4-D and the dioxin pollution it creates are too dangerous to allow, period, but in the hands of bad actors like Monsanto and Dow Chemical the dangers increase exponentially. What’s the Environmental Protection Agency doing? Helping cover-up the chemical companies’ crimes!
In February, Monsanto agreed to pay up to $93 million in a class-action lawsuit brought by the residents of Nitro, West Virginia, for dioxin exposure from accidents and pollution at an herbicide plant that operated in their town from 1929 to 2004.
That may seem like justice, but it is actually the result of Monsanto’s extraordinary efforts to hide the truth, evade criminal prosecution and avoid legal responsibility.
A brief criminal fraud investigation conducted (and quickly aborted) by the EPA revealed that Monsanto used a disaster at their Nitro, WV, plant to manufacture “evidence” that dioxin exposure produced a skin condition called chloracne, but was not responsible for neurological health effects or cancers such as Non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
These conclusions were repeatedly utilized by EPA and the Veterans Administration to deny help to citizens exposed to dioxin, if these persons did not exhibit chloracne.
The EPA knew the truth about Monsanto’s dioxin crimes, but it decided to hide it. Why? It would have affected us all. EPA’s brief criminal investigation of Monsanto included evidence that Monsanto knowingly contaminated Lysol with dioxin, even as the product was being marketed for cleaning babies’ toys.
Here are the details of this jaw-dropping and heart-breaking case of corporate criminality and EPA collusion.
According to Natural News:
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Recalls
Lettuce Recalled for Potential Salmonella Contamination
Dole Fresh Vegetables is voluntarily recalling 756 cases of its DOLE Seven Lettuces salad because the product may be contaminated with Salmonella.
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Articles of Interest
On Raw Milk and Why We’re Seeing So Many Outbreaks
On Friday, the Oregon Public Health Division, Department of Agriculture and several local Oregon health departments announced that they were investigating an outbreak of Escherichia coli O157:H7 (E. coli) infections that at the time had left three Portland-area children hospitalized, two with hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a complication of E. coli infection that can lead to kidney failure. All of these children drank raw milk from the same small farm: Foundation Farm in Clackamas County. The farm has voluntarily ceased its milk distribution to customers in Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington counties. As many as 11 may be sickened.
According to news reports over the last week, Missouri state health officials have confirmed E. coli cases in Boone, Cooper, Howard, Camden and Jackson counties. Health officials say a 2-year-old girl and a 17-month-old child developed HUS, and while not all 13 E. coli cases have been clearly attributed to raw milk consumption, investigators say raw dairy products are a “possible” factor in some of the cases.
I’ve been asked lots of questions about raw milk consumption, E. coli outbreaks, and other topics in the nearly 20 years I’ve been litigating E. coli cases. Here are some of my favorite questions and answers about raw milk:
I think, too, that there’s an inherent distrust of government, so when the government or big agriculture tells people not to feed their kids raw milk–a natural food–it’s easy for people to ignore that advice. Especially when they can afford it.
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