The Spanish Cucumbers are Innocent (Probably)

Organic grown veg tends to be grown in soil that's been fertilised using real manure (cattle, sheep, human etc.) Certainly in the pre-Victorian eras (and possibly in the Victorian era too - but I'd have to check that), "night soil" would be collected from houses and open sewers in London and the suburbs and taken down the Thames in barges, then the barge would sail out of the estuary and round to the south-easterly part of the coast of Britain, ultimately ending up being spread on the vegetable and fruit growing fields of Kent - the Garden of England.

E coli lives within us all - in a benign way generally. It is commonly spread by people not washing their hands thoroughly after wiping their bum after doing a "number two" in the bathroom rather than a "number one". ;) Because of that method of transmission, it also tends to occur because people don't wash salad stuff carefully and thoroughly as part of the food preparation process (I have an intermediate level Food Hygiene certificate by the way, so I'm qualified to pontificate on these things :) )

I did a lot of extremely careful research during the writing of my killer cucumber article (including spending hours using different translators to ensure I had the right gist from foreign websites) and deliberately included the fact that a Dutch cucumber had also been tested positive for E coli - the Dutch influence seems to have been surpressed, ignored or not even looked at, by most of the international press. Given that it appears that only people visiting the Hamburg and Bremen areas of northern Germany that have fallen sick, methinks the cucumbers are innocent and the contamination is due to Something Else.

Perhaps they were sprayed with water to keep them fresher on their journey which happened to be contaminated. Perhaps they were moved about in trucks and trains that had previously carried carcasses or live cattle and which hadn't been cleaned thoroughly. Perhaps a bio-terrorist attack has taken place and the water supply is contaminated. Who knows?

But I'll lay a safe (but prudently small!) bet that the contamination did NOT originate in the fields of Spain and I really feel for the Spanish farmers and their financial plight right now. Particularly as the Dutch seem to have escaped censure.

OK, Sod the No-smoking Stuff, Let's Focus on E coli and Killer Cucumbers....

No, I won't light them up as a substitute to the tobacco based fags I've just given up, but I will highlight the seeming bias by the international press over the outbreak of a deadly form of E coli strain O104 in the northern area of Germany - particularly in the Hamburg and Bremen areas.

I wrote this article on Suite101 over the weekend:

Fatal E coli Outbreak in Germany Linked to Imported Cucumbers

Never once did I point the finger at Spain unlike other press outlets. This statement which I posted on a (relatively) private forum elsewhere sums up exactly what I feel about the Curious Case of the Killer Cucumbers:

A Dozen Days of Not Smoking Achieved

I am pleased with myself. So are my lungs.... and my bank account...