The Salinas Californian and the Vegetable Industrial Complex

Published: September 2, 2007, 9:55 am

By Frank Pecarich Retired Soil Scientist In a recent editorial the Salinas Californian called California Senator Dean Florez "a born publicity hound". The editor was apparently trying to use the editorial bully pulpit to, well, bully Senator Florez. Florez has been in hot pursuit of the vegetable growing industry and their weak efforts to provide for our national health and safety. It has been widely observed that the local Salinas newspaper did nothing extraordinary in the past year in reporting the necessary and substantial facts surrounding the recent E. Coli 0157:H7 spinach outbreak which killed at least 3 individuals. But this recent Editorial blast was simply "beyond the pale". One of the rather humorous defenses offered by the editorial writer seems to be a version of "we're no worse than everybody else" when he/she compares the weak consumer protection efforts of the vegetable industry to the meat industry vis a vis pathogen contamination. As I think about it,

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