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  • From: Garth & Kim Travis <gartht AT txcyber.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] manures/GAP training
  • Date: Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:04:28 -0600

Greetings,

My irrigation come directly from my well, no chance of contamination. Better not be contaminated, I drink from the same well. No run off that can be contaminated. Our beds are all raised, heaven help anyone who puts their weight on my beds, I do no till beds. I grow tomatoes, melons, cucumbers, peppers, eggplant and okra, all up in the air on trellises. The manure is carried in buckets directly to the beds from the collection trays, we don't let it get on the ground. My growing area is well removed from my livestock areas. I think that covers all worries. Now, if I carry through with my idea for growing greens, I will have to be very careful, but then I knew I would have to change my methods for them.

Thank you for the diligent research, it is appreciated. The new laws are not.

Bright Blessings,
Kim

KAKerby AT aol.com wrote:
I glossed over a lot of the detail from that class, because I wanted to keep the email short. But to provide a few more details:
1) only mammalian or avian-based manures are a risk. Earthworm castings are not a risk if they are dining on plant wastes.
2) There was a theory floating around for awhile that only intensively grain-fed ruminants could produce deadly variants of E coli, which would have been a nice reason (amongst many) to shut down feedlots. But recent findings amongst wild elk in the Rockies indicates that grain-fed versus not-grain-fed doesn't matter. Any warm-blooded creature (mammals or birds) can ingest, create and pass on E coli. Grass-fed cows have also been found to carry deadly variants of E coli. We use rabbits to build our beds here, and like you that seemed very reasonable to me until I learned that any mammal can produce those deadly strains. 3) While using mulch and landscape fabric would be sufficient to protect the crops immediately above them, any contact you may have with the soil downstream of a contamination source is sufficient to cause contamination. Any source of water-soil interaction (muddy spots in the driveway, disturbed soil while putting up fenceposts, etc) is sufficient to get it on your clothing and shoes which can then spread it around to the rest of your growing area. It can be spread much like a cold can be spread from person to person - any form of direct contact. But irrigation was listed as the #1 way that E coli can move around on the farm, and from one farm to another, because the water carries it along. Contaminated irrigation water is the suspected source of contamination in several recent E coli contamination cases which made the news.
I'm not a huge fan of these new suggestions either. I was just wondering what changes, if any, other growers might be making with these new research findings. I remember during the last big flood here, farmers were told they couldn't market crops touched by the floodwaters. The near-universal comment was "show me the research to back up your requirements and then I'll go along with it." Well, now we've got some of those research findings. Hence my question for what folks were going to do about it.
Kathryn Kerby
Frog Chorus Farm
Snohomish, WA




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