Little Malice wrote:
> One time on Usenet, Bob > said:
> >
> > Excerpts from http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2006/1016/048a.html
>
> <snip>
>
> > Another approach is to try to displace O157:H7 in farm
> > animals, whose manure can be spread to nearby farmland.
>
> Well, DUH! (That's not aimed at you, Bob.) That may not
> be the easiest way to go, but it makes more sense than
> trying to clean up after the fact.
>
> > Many cows are already fed bacteria much like those in
> > yogurt that reduce the amount of O157:H7 in manure.
>
> Hmmm, would that make the beef from said cows easier to
> digest? No, no, I'm just being silly...
>

http://www.enviroblog.org/2006/09/sp...victims_of.htm

Spinach growers are victims of E. coli, not culprits

While sensationalists and those fond of chemical-intensive farming were
ready to hang the organic industry at the first mention of an E coli
outbreak, NYT farm and food columnist Nina Planck says the culprit is
not spinach growers at all, but rather industrial beef and dairy
farmers.

E. coli O157:H7, the virus strain responsible for making humans ill, is
not found in the intestines of cattle fed a natural diet of grass and
hay. The virus thrives in the acidic stomachs of cattle fed on grain,
the typical feed on industrial farms.

In 2003, The Journal of Dairy Science noted that up to 80 percent of
dairy cattle carry O157. (Fortunately, food safety measures prevent
contaminated fecal matter from getting into most of our food most of
the time.) Happily, the journal also provided a remedy based on a
simple experiment. When cows were switched from a grain diet to hay for
only five days, O157 declined 1,000-fold.
This means that even if beef cattle were switched to a natural grass
diet several days before slaughter, cross-contamination by manure in
meat packing plants would be drastically reduced. It would take a lot
longer to reduce contamination of groundwater and rivers, used to
irrigate spinach farms. But Planck has an idea: Instead of USDA paying
75 percent of the cost for manure containment ponds and only treating
the symptoms, how about they try treating the disease by switching
cattle over to a natural diet.