Bittman Blasts Beef

Sprouts have been identified as the food most likely contaminated with a new, drug-resistant strain of E.coli in Germany that has already claimed more than 30 lives. The New York Times writer and food journalist Mark Bittman reminds readers of the Opinionator blog that while the sprouts seem to be at the epicenter of this maelstrom, the pathogen itself actually comes from the intestinal tract of cows. He notes that sprouts are grown in a “gut-like environment” and that while the bacteria were certainly found on sprouts, greater problems of factory farming and animal production are actually to blame for the deadly outbreak.