The Associated Press is reporting that the Salinas-based company Fresh Express is recalling some of its bagged lettuce because of a positive test for E. Coli.
What the AP and others continue to ignore is any possible connection between the use of treated sewage sludge and municipal waste water on farms in the Salinas Valley. Certainly consumers would want to know if the food they are buying is being poisoned by cities looking for a cheap way to dispose of their sewage sludge.
Kudos to those who have banned the use of sewage sludge on farmland in other parts of California. With much of the nation’s salad coming out of the Salinas Valley it would be prudent at best to thoroughly investigate all sources of E. Coli in the Salinas Valley. It’s doubtful though that any connection to sludge will be determined given the politics behind the use of sewage sludge on farmland by cities, and the explicit suggestion by the EPA that this is safe, in spite of evidence to the contrary.
