#789 X-Pired Tomatoes

It sounds like a bad science fiction movie. Beware the Killer Tomatoes!
Because the most recent threat to public health is tomatoes. The latest outbreak is from a rare strain of salmonella called Salmonella Saintpaul.
I didn’t even know you could grow tomatoes in Minnesota.
Actually, as of this writing, the FDA hasn't been able to track the source of the contaminated tomatoes to a single grower or packer, or even a specific geographic area. It is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, state health departments and the food industry to track the cause of the outbreak.
Before this, it was raw spinach. Before that, it was raw green onions, and raw lettuce. Do you see a pattern emerging? Someone, somewhere, doesn’t wasn’t us to buy raw veggies. It looks to me like the work of the anti-vegans. Carne-nistas.
Remember a while back when the only foodborne illness outbreaks were related to meat and dairy products? Under-cooked hamburger, restaurant hepatitis, and the dread disease of lukewarm lattés at internet cafés—E-coli.
But now it’s tainted veggies wherever we turn. For years, the health mavens have been admonishing us to eat our vegetables. And the rawer the better. Don’t cook them, you’ll cook out all the vitamins.
Just rinse off the pesticide residue and chomp away like a rabbit. Do like we used to shout at high school games—Eat It Raw.
Now, all of a sudden, it isn’t healthy to eat raw vegetables. We’re being told to cook everything again. Or better yet, buy canned. The high heat of canning may kill vitamins but it kills most gut bugs too.
Looks like a conspiracy to me. I wonder. Healthy-eating earth muffin types are also usually on the front lines as anti-war protestors, global warming warning warriors and administration detractors.
Maybe the good old boys of Texas BBQ, whose only exposure to a tomato is when it’s thrown at them on stage, have decided this is quick way to thin the numbers of the opposition.
And when everyone else has to cook everything, they’ll use a lot more energy.
And a lot more oil...
America, ya gotta love it.