Spinach E.Coli outbreak is over, but not forgotten
When you’re walking through the Fresh Produce aisle of a grocery store, you usually don’t wonder about how fresh the produce really is, and what sacrifices had to be made to get fruits and vegetables to your grocery store in prime condition. People tend to forget that all of the produce we consume is not grown and packaged in our own town. Food is shipped all over the world to end up in our local supermarket.
Wikimedia.org
Because of the huge market for fruits and vegetables, they are shipped quickly and over great expanses, meaning that there is a greater chance of tainted produce going unnoticed, and causing problems all over the world. These massive quantities sent out are usually from multiple fields growing the same product. This means if one field is contaminated, it spreads to the other product from other fields that it is mixed with before packaging.
This was the case in the recent E.Coli outbreak caused by infected spinach. While this was a shock to the nation, it is the 20th time that illness has been caused by lettuce or spinach in the United States since 1995. Obviously there is a problem. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) keeps telling companies to start monitoring their produce better, yet they have no strong restrictions, especially compared to the precautions taken for meat and poultry. The largest problem is that there is no centralized organization in charge of produce production. Illness rates have been slowly creeping up, and it’s about time that the government did something to prevent outbreaks like the recent one, from which two people died. It seems as if it was a wake-up call, and the FBI is beginning to investigate what caused this particular E.Coli outbreak, which is a small step towards safer fruits and vegetables.
The Ivory Trade is Still Flourishing
I remember in grade school when we began learning about other parts of the world, most classmates were so enthralled by Africa and its grand variety of wildlife. Every little third-grader was shocked when we heard that people kill some of these majestic animals for their fur, or in the case of the elephant, their ivory tusks. We hated these poachers for taking away these beautiful animals that we had never even had a chance to see.
Today the poachers still have a large market to work with. The southwestern African country of Angola carries the largest trade market for ivory. Out of all of the countries that contain elephants, Angola is the only one that has not signed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which is an organization that regulates the trade of endangered and threatened species. The countries number of wild elephants has gone from 12, 400 to 246 after their civil war, in which ivory was traded in order to make prophets to buy weapons. About 12,000 elephants are killed yearly in Africa, to make all sorts of ornamental pieces out of their tusks.
Creative Commons
The greatest demand for ivory comes from the United States, Europe, and especially China, who views ivory as an ancient symbol of wealth. This is all despite the ban on trade of elephant ivory. In Angola, ivory is sold openly on the street, ignored by the police, because of how ravaged the country was by war. People are desperate to bring back economic stability, at any cost. Angola is a country whos priorities are backwards. They are killing one of their most precious organisms so they can make some money in the present, instead of preserving these majestic creatures for the future.
Fence could keep out more than immigrants
For a while now the U.S. has been planning the construction of a huge fence along the Mexican-American border. The fence, spanning 700 miles, is meant to stop the flow of illegal immigrants into the United States. U.S. Congress recently passed a homeland security bill granting $1.2 billion for fence construction. There are many objections to this project for various reasons. One of the more obvious reasons being the message this barrier will send. It displays inhospitality towards our neighbor country. People reject the idea that we need a physical barrier to separate our country from Mexico simply because of illegal immigration. Another reason for not wanting the fence isn’t quite as obvious. The barrier would pass very close to, even through, protected wildlife areas. Environmentalists are very frustrated with the lack of response to their claims.
Wikimedia Commons
Cutting through a wildlife environment causes much more damage than people may imagine. It can separate predator from prey, or force a species to leave an area in which they most easily thrive. The barrier would cut of water supply to many locations, as well. The fence would also impair a lot of economic practices that occur between Mexico and America along the border. When it all comes down to it, the fence seems as if it will cause too many problems to really be worth keeping out illegal immigrants. I’m sure if the intelligent people of the world came together they could think of a way to stop this problem without harming wildlife and other aspects of American life.
