Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Don Bowen" <don.bowen@earthlink.net>]

The reason for the buffer zone is that no one wants to come to grips with industrialized meat production.

 

Remember the tainted spinach a couple of years ago.  No one could find the source of contamination or at least did not want to admit it.  The FDA came up with an explanation they could all agree on, the source was feral hogs carrying feces into the field.  So the recommendation was a buffer zone around organic fields.  No trace of such a thing was found and the field in question had no hog tracks.  Also there was no comment on how the contamination spread.

 

I spent several months repairing tractors on an organic vegetable farm near Hollister, Ca, very near the supposed contaminated field and had several conversations with the owner.  He was still open on the source of the contamination but on the spreading he had several thoughts.  His was a small operation where everything was picked by hand.  Large organic operations use a bandsaw like device to cut off the product.  As it cuts any contamination is spread by the blade as it continues to cut.  The individual leaves are bent in the process and small cracks can form.  As the leaves are washed water can carry contamination into the cracks.  The industrial food processing industry does not want anyone understanding the problem is with the process.

 

Don Bowen  KI6DIU

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