-----Original Message----- From: Michael Sherrell [mailto:mikeold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] Sent:
Thursday, September 21, 2006 10:47 AM To: Jean;
mike@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: FW: E coli in horse manure?
Dr.
Cliver,
I believe you are the professor quoted in Sunday's New York Times
on the contamination of greens with E. Coli via animal waste. Could you tell
me if horse manure is likely to be a dangerous carrier of E.
coli?
Mike, the outbreak of e. coli on spinach and other
plants more than likely didn't come from animal waste according to a man who
called into a radio show yesterday.
I didn't catch his name but he said he owned over
40 companies/plants worldwide and was in the agriculture business of growing
crops. He said that we do grow a lot of our own spinach here in the US and it is
pretty safe. If it is organic, he said chances are it is squeaky clean as
being able to get an "organic" label is a tedious process and must be approved
by the USDA.
He also said chances are that the vegetables that
are tainted more than likely came from *south of the boarder* and here is the
problem with that. It is not that they use chicken, cow or
horse manure for fertilizer, but rather water their crops using local
rivers and lakes which is where the majority of their raw sewage is dumped. That
makes more sense to me.
He sounded like a pretty smart guy so since you
were wondering I thought I would pass this tidbit of info along.
