Saturday, September 16, 2006

Yes we have no spinach

Why isn't every bag of spinach, lettuce and salad mix labeled with its field of origin? In today's ABJ, Mary Beth Breckenridge reported that the source of the toxic spinach is from a "natural foods company Natural Selection Foods, based in San Juan Bautista, CA."

What is really odd is how many brand names got their product from this company:

"The brands include: Dole, Natural Selection Foods, Pride of San Juan, Earthbound Farm, Bellissima, Rave Spinach, Emeril, Sysco, O Organic, Fresh Point, River Ranch, Superior, Nature's Basket, Pro-Mark, Compliments, Trader Joe's, Ready Pac, Jansal Valley, Cheney Bros., Coastline, D'Arrigo Bros., Green Harvest, Mann, Mills Family Farm, Pro*Act, Premium Fresh, Snoboy, The Farmer's Market, Tanimura & Antle, President's Choice, Cross Valley and Riverside Farms."

You'd think that if you purchased some Earthbound Spinach or O Organic brand that it would be really good stuff -- no E coli, no petroleum-based pesticides etc. But it turns out that the brand name has nothing to do with where and how the spinach grew from seed to harvest.

I want to know what else is growing at Natural Selection Foods and what was used as fertilizer in each field. How difficult would it be to have that on the packaging? Probably not very difficult at all. I'm betting that Big AgroBiz would not be keen on the idea somehow. Meanwhile, millions of bags of spinach have been thrown away. Does composting kill the E coli bacteria?

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