Kyle Algood, Age 2 - E. Coli Victim

Back in the 60s, when Alice Waters started Chez Panisse in Berkeley, if you got a bunch of bad lemons or radishes, you could pinpoint the source. It was usually from a local resident’s backyard. That’s how small the organic movement was in those days.

Now that organics are taking on the scale of traditional farm markets with companies like Earthbound Farms and Whole Foods, it becomes more important than ever to have the ability to track food back to it source.

The sophistication of computers over that same time period should have made that job easier.

How is it that something like the E. coli spinach scare can happen, weeks having gone by without definitive information? Why do we have to settle for a statement from the California Department of Health that says, “the tainted spinach has most likely worked its way out of the food supply”?