What is causing all of the recent e.coli outbreaks in our food sources?

Is contaminated sewage used to fertilize? If so, do the harvested food items receive some sort of washing or other treatment that to ensures the end-consumer's safety?

It's mainly caused by nasty people who don't wash their hands after a poo-poo and before touching the food. This can happen in the fields, packaging line or in the restaurant.

Shiba, it's all in our hands (quite literally!). Wash your stuff before you eat it! Rinse your meats and fish when you get them home as well! Don't worry, they're waterproof! By the way, I'm not yelling. Merry Christmas!

my guess is some dumbo touched a whole bunch of schit forgot to wear thier gloves and eneded up touching meat......by the way e.coli replicates exponetially within 6 hours..if there are 500,000 ecoli cells on your finger now, in the next 6 hours they will be 1 millinon. and this is just the finger...imagine touching it with your hand

(slaps forehead) I wonder where people obtain their information (rolls eyes).

The original cause of the E coli outbreak was due to two factors.

1. Raw sewage was being used to rinse vegetation out in the field;
2. The farmhand were afar into the fields and away from a restroom. Therefore, many of them urinated or deficated out in the fields near the vegetation or near water source which ran into the vegetation.

This is what happens when you hire cheap labor.

I recently took a health class and my teacher said e. coli is used because it is more efficient and it is a fertilizer that prevents bugs from eating our crops. It saves money for the owner of huge crop companys like Monsanto, but makes us consumers sick.

Shiba : found ecoli in untreated soil were it cross tamnated
our "Spinach crop" few months ago ! yes they wash the dirt
off before processing at local place . Also they'd use anti bacteria
solution too see http://www.cropsafety.com