It is generally thought-of that a healthy diet is harmless amongst the echelons of environmental health, but following an epidemic of E.coli found at a spinach farm in California in 2006, a label of discomfort has found itself amongst its consumers. With 15 other cases of E.coli following the outbreak, farmers have taken to using anti-bacterial methods in order to combat this strain.
Although these have good intentions, there are concerns that by taking action against bacteria may have negative effects more than positive. The attempts to prevent bacteria have supposedly damaged habitats, the degraded soil and polluted rivers and streams.
It is no surprise that this has led many environmentalists into believing that the attempts to prevent bacterial infection are overzealous.
“There is this pressure from consumers and buyers to go above and beyond what’s necessary for clean food,” says ecologist Sasha Gennet, a researcher at The Nature Conservancy.
With more than half of the E.coli cases occurring in California, there are evident problems when trying to balance out the safety of consumers with the safety of the environment. For farmers however, it is not about the latter, with growers insisting that their methods are necessary to protect their buyers.
“If these practices continue,” says landscape ecologist Lisa Schulte Moore of Iowa State University, “other states could begin implementing farming regulations that harm the environment. As someone who lives in one of the biggest farming states in the country, what I’m worried about is, what is this going to mean for other farmers?”
The epidemic brings across many questions into the ecological ethics between taking care of the individual and taking care of the land that he or she lives on. The considerable “zeal” that is placed in protecting foods and their consumers is apparent, but not impossible to maintain as farmers and developers assure that they are looking for alternate methods in the fight against ecological destruction.
The question perhaps, is the nature of how these methods will take root.