Salmonella Outbreak Traced to Jalapenos Grown Organically

The salmonella outbreak that started with a scare over tomatoes has been finally traced to a dirty farm in Mexico that uses runoff water from livestock and chicken coops to irrigate jalapeno crops.

I told you so. I told you the Salmonella food scare of 2008 would be traced to organic farming methods. In a previous article here I said:

Organic farming uses “straight-up” poop as fertilizer with no other chemical added to kill the bad germs found in poop. … you get diseases that you normally find in cans of rotten potted meat.

To confirm my prediction, here is a story in the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

The outbreak of salmonella poisoning that sickened more than 1,300 people across the country and cost American tomato growers more than $300 million has been traced to irrigation water and peppers grown on a farm in Mexico.

David Acheson, the head of food safety at the Food and Drug Administration, said the strain of salmonella Saintpaul that caused the nationwide outbreak has been found in irrigation water and serrano peppers on a Mexican farm. Earlier, a single contaminated jalapeno pepper had been traced to the Mexican grower.

Salmonella originates from chicken poo, and if salmonella is in the irrigation water, it means that the water has been exposed to chicken poo, most likely as runoff into a stream, and has not been put through a filtration system. Organic farming also forgoes the use of any chemicals on their vegetables.

Right now there is hell to pay from the FDA and the CDC on their failure to contain this outbreak quickly. What will be needed is new rules which certify farms that produce American consumed goods as clean, both in the US and abroad.

You know, the ninnies that want to police our food and label menus with the calories and abolish ingredients like transfats should instead focus their efforts on labeling what is grown on FDA approved farms. I don’t want to eat veggies watered by chicken pee.