Handwringing Over E.coli: Where Is the FDA When We Need It?

It seems as if bacterial infections from vegetables are happening ever more frequently. There have been three major outbreaks in just the last few months–involving spinach, tomatoes, and onions–that have sickened hundreds of people.

What’s behing these outbreaks?

It’s interesting to monitor the handwringing reported by the media. A New York Times article Thursday quotes the Center for Science in the Public Interest as blaming a lack of enforcement by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA). An organization official says the number of FDA inspectors has been pared by budget cuts. "There is essentially no oversight by FDA," she says.

Now, I find that really interesting, because when it came to carrying out raids against Richard Hebron in Michigan and Gary Oaks in Ohio for illegally distributing raw milk earlier this year, there were FDA agents springing out of unmarked cars all over the place. How is it that the FDA has seemingly all the agents it wants to go after raw milk producers, and "essentially no oversight" of the mass vegetable-based infections.

So the New York Times in an editorial offers this analysis and a solution: "Now produce has become a bigger problem than meat or poultry. There have been three multistate outbreaks from produce in the past three months, including an E. coli outbreak linked to spinach and a salmonella outbreak linked to tomatoes. Surely it is time to give government regulators the power and resources they need to ensure the safety of fresh fruits and vegetables."

So the solution is more regulation. I wonder if the New York Times envisions the FDA going after vegetable producers the way the agency has gone after raw milk producers.

But what if the "problem" is actually the result of an accumulation of previous errors in our approach to agriculture and pharmaceutical usage? California raw milk producer Mark McAfee offers such an explanation of the E.coli breakouts. In an email, he explains, "The powerful paradigm in power must continue to blame farmers (currently strawberries at Jamba Juice and Taco Bell onions are being market assassinated ) because the true origins of pathogenic bacteria that are antibiotic resistant are the drug companies and doctors that are blind to what they are doing with powerful drugs…and the immune depression created by this carelessness and sick care program."

All those years of mass antibiotic usage in animals, and humans, may be catching up with us, by creating resistant strains that are now working their way into the food chain. I’m not sure which is more scary–additional FDA agents raiding farms or out-of-control pathogens created by our abuse of pharmaceuticals.