Today I ran an errand with my campaign co-chair from PHS and while we were out and about we decided to grab lunch together. He's leaving for vacation on Thursday afterall and I'm gonna miss him. As much as he hates to hear it, he is my best friend...but I digress...
We grabbed lunch at Red Robin, a fine little burger joint on the way home from the errand running, and while sitting there waiting to order our fare, the waitress behind us went into this whole speech about not having tomatoes for the sandwiches of the day. Chemguy overhears the conversation and mentions it to me asking if I had heard about the tomato/salmonella issue.
I had not.
Just as I had not heard of the rice rationing that was mentioned at lunch last week. I really need to work on paying more attention to the news and expanding beyond the newest entry on Snopes.com. But honestly folks, this is scary stuff...
Let's think about it: We've known for a long time that our species exceeded the carrying capacity of this planet as far as actual resources are concerned. We've changed our environment to suit our needs and fixed things so that we can live on every continent and in every ecosystem. We've drained aquifers, leached soil, slashed and burned...and now our food source is becoming increasingly contaminated. We've got so many of us walking around we can't keep track of things so that we can keep the bacteria out of tomatoes, spinach, green onions...what's next? Corn contamination? The eradication of grains? Feed for livestock?
If our food supply is being contaminated despite all the rules, regulations and recommendations of the FDA and we can't get a handle on it, we're doomed. We're less two years from the E. coli scares in our spinach and green onions. In my opinion, if we can't prevent this contamination or figure out a way to keep E. coli and salmonella out of our food, it's going to keep happening again and again.
No food? No nutrition, none of the raw materials we need to grow strong, fight off disease, move, think, invent...we die.
2 comments:
I'm really enjoying the tomato ban. It is almost like the irate customers at Bob's would rather get salmonella then eat a bacon cheeseburger withou a tomato and somehow its my fault.
I would LOVE to serve some of them some tomatoes.
...And blogging claims another soul: http://katydidcity.blogspot.com/
watch this: The World According to Monsanto
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6262083407501596844&hl=en
This is THE most important 90 minutes of "TV" I have watched in my life.
you'll never have the same thought about food again.
BTW we're screwed
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