All of the big food producers came to them to make sure their food was good, and although they checked every part of the food, there was always something that slipped their sight.
Their most recent slip up involved a WHOLEEEE lot of cantaloupe, and ended in several deaths and many many sicknesses. In a hurry, quicker than the US Congress in filibuster mode, the "United States Department of Agriculture", lets call them the USDA, called back millions of tainted cantaloupe!
...But..the damage had been done :( The world would never be the same because of the deaths of those people who got sick because the USDA just..wasn't good at their job. D:
Nonetheless, people forgot about what happened within a week or so and went back to eating cantaloupe, and everyone lived happily ever after..until the next food scare.
Spinach Plant. You remember E.Coli, don't you? DON'T YOU?!?!
..................................
I agree, it doesn't make a very good bedtime story, does it?
On the flipside, it unfortunately isn't a fairy tale either.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/cdc-cantaloupe-listeria-outbreak-deadliest-decade/story?id=14622507#.TvivFdTOwyQ
In the US, moreso than many other first-world nations, there are a large number of food scares every year. This year was just a bad year for cantaloupe, as a large portion of the crop released into the market was tainted with a bacteria called Listeria, dangerous not only because it causes sickness in humans, but because it thrives in cold climates such as the ones found in our refrigerator. The illness caused, Listeriosis, killed thirteen people and seventy-two people had been infected according to CDC official reports.
At around the same time, the melons in my garden had been thriving. We grew three full sized watermelons, and two cantaloupe (all organic of course) that were a bit smaller than those you'd find at a supermarket. And as I was eating the fruit of my garden, I realized how fantastic and rewarding it was to grow one's own fruit and vegetables. Because we had our own cantaloupe at home, what need was there to go out and buy any anywhere else?
And just like that, my family became 'immune' to that food scare.
Now, I'm not saying everyone needs to immediately start a garden in your backyard or run to the nearest target and purchase Topsy Turvy tomato and strawberry planters, though I personally think they're adorable haha (never tried one myself, but I think I'm going to get to it eventually just for kicks). What I AM saying though, is that if you can, you should. Nothing was more rewarding to me this year than being able to make vegetable soup and ratatouille with our own tomatoes, beans, and zucchini, or slicing up watermelon in the summer and eating it after it cooled in the fridge. As a result my sister loves gardening, and eats her vegetables diligently (her favorite at the moment seem to be sugar snap peas, and it ain't hard to see why. THEY'RE DELICIOUS!)
I think one of the greatest rewards however, was realizing that in planting my own crops and the like during the summer, I took responsibility in part, for the food put on my plate and into my family and my stomach.
I was like...a gardening superhero, fighting back against the somewhat inept USDA and their repeated food scares with my shield of organic, homegrown crops.
Yeah. I went there.
<3
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(>^_^)>#
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