There's Salon, always peddling some new version of command and control. The solution is to get food producers' incentives in line. Create some tradeable contamination credits that careless producers can purchase from safer ones. This much for rodent turds, this much for each percentage of fecal coliforms. Let the marketplace work its magic.

EconCEconCCX- Can you explain to me how a system of "tradeable contamination credits" is not more regulation? Interesting idea, but it is, indeed, regulation.

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From a consumer standpoint, I am not nearly as worried about the bacteria in meat as I am in the recent vegetable outbreaks. I usually am roasting/grilling/broiling whole birds or larger pieces of meat (steaks included) which are hugely less likely to get you sick than ground meat. Larger pieces of meat may have bacteria on the outside of meat (via the slaughtering process) but those bacteria are easily killed during cooking.

Ground meats present a larger problem because you have now mixed the bacteria into the middle. Grinding your own, rinsing and trimming the meat first, should cut your risk. Or gt it from a decent market that is grinding its own. Do I cook my burgers as much as the USDA says? No. But I am 33 and healthy and am taking a calculated risk, with the risk being pretty darn small. Do I cook my chicken to 165F? Absolutely. And I'd bet that everyone out here does at least that (have you ever seen what a chicken thigh looks like at 165 degrees? I have to convince people it is safe to eat...it is pink!) Are these two ideas a bit contradictory? Sure, but I don't think the chicken cooked to 165F (final temp) is being damaged too much as far as quality goes. But a well done hamburger? Why bother?

But there are so many veges that we do not cook at all, as can be expressed by the spinach/green onion issues. I am very concerned about this and have no great solutions.

There is a fragile equilibrium of life on this planet. “Life” is what makes the composition of this planet unique. As with all equilibriums, if one agent is changed, all other agents are affected in some manner. What most fail to see is that life can not be treated as a non-living commodity, for example it can not be treated in the same manner as the proliferation of printed circuits. If we change the patterns of life by creating huge, unnatural single crop agricultural farms and raise huge numbers of similar animals in contiguous areas we are destroying this equilibrium, at a local if not macroscopic level.

When an equilibrium is altered, there are efforts to adjust the equilibrium to its initial state by introducing new agents into the equilibrium. But this further skews the balance, forcing other changes, and so on.

These damages to the balance of life have been seen in the recent past as “pollution” which is sometimes thought of as damaging the environment that supports life. We have now moved on to pollute life itself. Fools are rushing in, searching for a fool’s gold. (Keep in mind, this may be "Life's" way of eliminating the fools and balancing Life's equilibrium.)

Reading this article I was reminded of the situation in the UK before BSE happened, where the Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food was responsible both for promoting farmers' interests and protecting food consumers.

Long story short, it just didn't work, producer interests were prioritised, and when BSE came along the problems were made very plain. The incoming Blair government commissioned a report (the James Report) on the situation, and on the back of that created an independent Food Standards Agency, incorporating the consumer protection functions of MAFF, including inspection of slaughterhouses.

Worth looking at the UK experience now, rather than waiting for your wake-up call.

And it'll be vat-grown protein. Sure, there'll be problems with ramping up production, but from a cost standpoint, there's no comparison. We as a society love cheap meat, and we can't really push living animals much further. Vat-grown protein needs no feedlots, produces no fecal matter, doesn't waste nutrients on eyes, horns or feathers. The process could possibly be sterile from one end to the other. Vat-grown protein will spawn its own set of problems, contaminants and health issues, surely, but for factory food production, this is the wave of the future.

I realize that lots of people react horrifically to the idea of fake chicken and ersatz beef, but if it makes Taco Bell cheaper and safer, most people aren't going to care.

I think I understand why our ancestors cooked everything until it fell apart and ate very little raw veg...

I would hate to go back to grey canned spinach. Fresh spinach is seasonal. Getting it in pre-washed bags all year is a recent development. Ah well, at least it is easy to grow...I just need to wait until May.

There is a reason that most of these "eat local food" people are from California. Easy for YOU to say. I would be eating Venison and rutabaga for half the year. How many people really know what a truly seasonal diet in their region would be? In my area, almost all of the small farmers have quit because they can't compete nationally. Creating local food systems will be a huge project in many areas. Worthwhile, but difficult.

I recently moved to North Carolina, and there are months when our farmer's market has no fruit except peaches. That gets old fast.

A suggestion to those who live in areas with substantial Jewish populations: the Kosher meat production process precludes fast production lines, due to ritual requirements. For those who still want to eat meat, it is a way to ameliorate one of the risks associated with industrial meat production.

As part of the ritual requirements, there is also a modest check of the animal to ensure that it was healthy at the time of slaughter.

If corporate food continues in this downward spiral, a cooperative system could become more attractive, where local farms are supported by subscribers' fees. This is a mutually supportive model, where family farms are assured a good price, consumers get fresh produce and meats, distribution is local and therefore cheaper and the middlemen are left out of the equation.

Asheville, NC is a good model of local family farms practicing sustainable agriculture, though not everybody can live there. But there IS a model, and it can be replicated in most areas. Huge urban areas will always be problematic, though. Community gardens are a positive choice, and they have been successful in big cities and low-income areas.

At the very least, we can revive the Victory Garden in our own backyards and patios - victory over corporate waste and assembly line methods. Green onions are amazingly easy to grow, not to mention tomatoes and lettuce!