• Piment [they/them]@hexbear.net
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    5 hours ago

    it is kind of astonishing that it’s always the lettuce or another vegetable that does it, usually farmed in Yuma, Arizona where they just refuse to move the cows that get ecoli into the water source for the lettuce

    https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/2024/01/e-coli-factory-farms-threatens-americas-leafy-greens

    A single enormous cattle feeding operation potentially threatens the safety of thousands of acres of leafy greens grown in the U.S. during the colder months, an EWG analysis shows.

    Irrigation water or dust contaminated with fecal matter from this giant feedlot, located in Yuma County, Ariz., could contaminate many acres of lettuce fields within 3 miles of the cattle farm, which produces 115,000 cows each year. This one feedlot is likely to be the source of contamination because of its size and proximity to the lettuce fields, compared to

    the other two animal feeding operations in Yuma County identified by the Food and Drug Administration in its investigations.

    In a canal near this feedlot, the FDA also found the exact strain of the bacteria E. coli that sickened people from lettuce during a recent outbreak.

    Farms in Yuma County that grow leafy vegetables produce 90 percent of the nation’s winter lettuce, between November and March.