Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Aliza" <realfood@wonderfulfarm.com>]

One thing to remember is that even the H-157 ecoli isnt particularly lethal 
though it can make folks ill if their gut bacteria are out of whack.  All 
the folks that died in that outbreak died because of the subsequent 
antibiotics given that caused the body to shut down. Not that I am 
advocating contact with contaminated food LOL.

I think it is interesting that the starlings can carry that in their systems 
and transfer it.  Of course if the cows were all on pasture or hay it would 
be a non issue anyway as that particular ecoli cannot survive in the 
rumen/digestive tract of a pasture/hay fed cow.  The ph is wrong.

There is some research suggesting that levels of hormones that are naturally 
occurring in milk may cause some increase in cancers that are hormonally 
triggered - such as breast cancer - but I would sure be much more concerned 
with the phytoestrogens in soy then I ever would in raw milk from healthy 
pasture/grass fed cows/goats/sheep/camels/yaks - but then again I am biased 
as I have a small dairy:o).  There is also some evidence that clean raw 
dairy will go a long way to take care of many of the bacterial imbalances 
that people can have.  Campylobacter is generally eliminated by the enzymes 
in raw dairy - labs wont even culture raw milk for it after about 4 hours. 
There are reductions in ecoli, listeria, salmonella as well though it may 
not completely eliminate them.  Of course like all bacteria they only point 
out weakness in body - they are not inherently bad - just like the "pests" 
in Harvey's garden.  They all serve a good purpose.  We are ill when we let 
our bodies be out of balance - just like the soil.

While I dont like to engage in those discussions either the fact remains 
that without the animal based foods those vegan women who are breastfeeding 
are shortchanging their babies mental capabilities by eating a vegan diet 
while breastfeeding even if they are supplementing themselves with vitamins 
and minerals.  There are components in animal products that are vital for 
our health - even though some folks metabolically can go with a largely 
vegetable based diet and stay healthy.  Most folks cannot and some folks - 
like me - require large amount of animal protein and fats to stay healthy. 
I have 3 ex vegan women who buy raw dairy from me.  Of course it wasnt until 
their thyroids crashed and they looked like skeletons that they started to 
realize that their particular bodies require lots of fats and animal 
protein.  they are all healthy now but the learning curve was steep and 
dangerous.

Aliza
who truely believes that people are supposed to consume animal products - as 
unpopular as that can be sometimes.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "elderberryjam" <elderberryjam@zippytech.com>
To: <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2007 9:46 AM
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] e-coli and starlings


> The following is a post I recently posted to the yahoo group,
> "crunchyearthmommies," where I am having a somewhat heated debate with 
> some
> vegan breastfeeding women. It originated from a discussion on milk causing
> breast cancer; and when I posted that there was no breast cancer in my
> family, and we grew up on raw milk, and my perceptions of the implications
> of this; the vegan onslaught began. I am trying very hard to stick to the
> facts, sound research, and to dispel responses changing my slant to mean
> other things. I had not intended it to be a discussion on veganism vs.
> eating meat; and have stuck to that - I only disagreed with the idea that
> all milk causes breast cancer. But some angry people just don't want to
> argue fair. This post was an attempt to address some misconceptions
> regarding e-coli, and I thought some of you here might be interested in 
> it.
> My intent is to educate some women who breastfeed (as I do) regarding 
> their
> misconceptions about e-coli; whether or not they are vegans. I thought it
> pertained to soil health because it is focused on a couple of very recent
> studies (from Cornell and from OSU) about how e-coli makes it into our 
> food.
>
> ---------------------------------
>
> While we're talking e-coli here, I have done some extensive reading
> on it and other pathogens over the past 2 years, particularly in
> relationship to raw milk. I have an insatiable curiosity about the
> bugs in food that make us ill; and the bugs that make us well. I'm a
> nurse, and I like to make cheese, so bacteria interests me intensely.
>
> There are many strains of e-coli. Only a few make people sick. The
> ones that most commonly make people sick are found in the feces of
> grain-fed cows. The grain increases the bacterial resistance to
> stomach acids, causing it to thrive while healthier e-coli's die off.
> (There is a lot to be said for keeping a healthy diet and healthy
> rumen). According to a recent article published by Cornell
> University, when cows are changed to a grass-fed diet, within 2
> weeks, the infectious e-coli strain disappears from their feces.
>
> Another post mentioned that spinach in California was contaminated
> with e-coli from a nearby farm. But when I looked up the information,
> the researchers never did figure out how the manure from the cow farm
> got into the spinach field, which was over a mile away and not in the
> run-off from the farm. There was no evidence to suggest the cows had
> made it into the field. They suspected wild hogs of transferring the
> e-coli to the spinach field from the farm.
>
> Following is an article published in Ohio Farmer this month:
>
> Scientists Link Wild Birds to E-Coli Contamination
> Sept. 26, 2007
>
> In order to help minimize foodborne illnesses throughout the country,
> scientists at Ohio State University are gathering data about the role
> wild birds play in E. coli contamination on farms. The goal is to
> design effective pre-harvest control strategies.
>
> Jeff LeJeune, a microbiologist and veterinary scientist with the
> university's Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center
> (OARDC) in Wooster, leads the groundbreaking study, which
> concentrates on an invasive nuisance bird whose impact on the
> propagation of disease-causing pathogens has not been determined:
> European starlings.
>
> There's strong evidence that these birds harbor E. coli and other
> dangerous organisms such as Salmonella and Campylobacter, and that
> they contribute to the spread of pathogens between farms. Studies
> have found that E. coli O157-H7 strains isolated from European
> starlings are the same as strains found on dairy farms in close
> geographical proximity.
>
> "This is the first study about the relationship between European
> starlings and food safety," says LeJeune. "We need to know how much
> these birds are contributing to infection on farms to see if
> management strategies to reduce their numbers or restrict access to
> livestock-feeding areas are warranted. If you can prevent infection
> on the farm, you'll positively impact food safety downstream."
>
> Cattle are an important foodborne route of human infection with E.
> coli via contaminated ground beef and raw milk, and manure is an
> important environmental source of contamination, which is why we are
> concentrating our study on dairy farms. This research will also be
> important to find out whether starlings are contributing to the
> spread of E. coli on vegetable fields as they fly between dairy
> farms.
>
> According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
> (CDC), E. coli O157:H7 (one of hundreds of strains of the bacterium
> Escherichia coli) causes an estimated 73,000 cases of infection and
> 61 deaths in the United States each year. Most of these cases are
> associated with eating undercooked ground beef, but a growing number
> of recent E. coli-related outbreaks and recalls have involved fresh
> vegetables - including the California spinach outbreak that sickened
> 199 people and killed three last year.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Livingontheland mailing list
> Livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/livingontheland