For those that don't follow the news very closely (like us - we don't own a TV) there has been an E. coli outbreak in Germany and the public have been told not to eat cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce! However an organic farm in Germany, which produces a variety of sprouted foods (e.g. bean sprouts) has been identified as the likely source of the E. coli outbreak after much speculation. The farm has since been shut down.
Humans are infected with E. coli through contaminated food or water; if from food, either from watering plants with contaminated water, or from faecal material in the soil. Organic farms fell under suspicion in the investigation because they do not use chemical fertilisers and put crops at greater risk of contamination from bacteria in manure.
Yet another incentive to grown our own, it's the only way to know exactly what the veggies have been exposed to! And no, the risk of chemical fertilisers don't out weight the risk of E. coli contamination. Click on this link and especially this one if you're wondering what the problems with chemical fertilisers are... We simply need to know what is in our compost and only use well rotted compost to fertilise our plants. Compost needs nitrogen to break down and manure contains this vital element, the key however is that it be very well rotted. And I'm sure you know that you shouldn't throw doggy doo & kitty poo on the compost heap - it is not considered manure!
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