Those with organic gardens...

I've wanted to grow my own garden for some time, but then I read an article like this: http://hawaiifreepress.com:80/Main/Article...s-reported.aspx

... and I wonder what precautions can be taken? Is it just leafy vegetables at risk? I remember organic spinach being a source of e-coli last year.

Hmm, I wonder what precautions they want you to take as well. Confuses me. We grow leafy veggies in our organic garden and never encountered that and my MIL has been doing it for ages that way and never an issue. I'd have to know more about the issue and how it happens before I could even guess.

I know that you've raised concern about organic foods and ecoli in the past, Dee Dee, but if you look at the vast majority of ecoli cases that happen each year they are NOT of organic foods. People just pay more attention to the organic ones for either 1) because it gives them a reason to say why people shouldn't do organic or 2) because it's different. People tend to think those who go for organic are "strange". I tend to think that going for pesticide and chemical foods is strange. So while you are scared to grow your own garden due to the very few articles you read about organics and ecoli - the chances of ecoli or much greater in the foods you buy in the store that aren't organic.

You also need to take into account the amount of long-term damage pesticides/chemicals in our foods do to us, compared to the minor cases of ecoli in organic foods that also happen in non-organic foods. One might die quickly from ecoli, but do you know you (not you in particular, just generalizing here) are slowing harming your body (may even be giving it a death sentence, slowly) by eating those foods with all the chemicals/pesticides in it. I know it sounds silly, because you don't see full proof of it right in your face at this very minute, and it's a huge reason why people roll their eyes to comments like the ones I make, but it's true. Dealing with the female problems I've been dealing with, do you know how many times I've heard from medical professionals and pharmacists, etc (as well research) that I've been told many of the problems I have is due to genetics, environment, foods you eat, etc, etc, etc. ????? Even medical professionals are realizing that the environment and the foods we eat (those with chemicals, etc) are harmful to us and causing all sorts of problems.

Ok, I got off on a tangent here and lost my place, but I guess what I'm saying is yes, the article you presented is serious and should be addressed, but the number of cases of ecoli in non-organic foods is MUCH higher AND the harm to ones health with chemicals/pesticides in our food is MUCH MORE DANGEROUS. I know that is not what you were asking, but I really can't answer it being that I've never had a problem with our organic gardens and leafy veggies. I wonder how people in the old days who didn't use pesticides and such, dealt with these issues, or if they were even there. ?

Again, I got off on a tangent, but I'm just as interested in the precautions one would take with organic gardens. My parents raised us growing gardens, not organic, but I really don't see the difference here with this article.

This post has been edited by coasterqueen on Mar 27 2009, 07:32 AM

Ok, after reading 2 more articles on the subject, I really think this has NOTHING to do with the fact that the food is organic. It has everything to do with the fact that the food is not washed before ingested. Or a person dealing with the crops aren't washing their hands before putting them near their mouths. Slugs and snails are common, doesn't have to be in an organic garden, but I guess if you were pouring pesticides/chemicals on your gardens then maybe you wouldn't have snails/slugs. Who knows. I just think it gets the attention of people more because of the word "organic". I won't worry about this in my own garden because we thoroughly wash our vegetables before eating them and wear gloves when working in the garden. When the off chance we don't wear gloves, we wash our hands, anyways.

http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/puna/20090110lungworm.htm

ETA: That we don't have rats out in our yard either. I'd be worried about rats being that much near crops, in the first place. ICK!

ETA: Here's another article that clearly tells you the precautions to take (at the end of the article - which IMO are all things that SHOULD be done anyways, no matter what kind of garden one has! http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-scienc...rbor-2009-01-08

This post has been edited by coasterqueen on Mar 27 2009, 07:42 AM

I always thought that E-coli had to do with not properly washing the veggies before eating, not how they were grown.

I always thought that the Ecoli came from the manure some people used as fertilizer in their gardens. I dunno.

We have a small garden behind our garage. I don't spray fertilizer or any pesticide on or near it. I don't see the need to actually. My garden is armed with rat traps in case the little rodents get inside, that's about it. I saw organic garden feed last year in the store. I didn't buy it but I may look into further this year. I often wonder how "organic" it is though.