Why Is Salmonella Popping Up Everywhere?

Am I the only one freaked out by what seems to be an increase in salmonella outbreaks over the past, say, decade? Here's a short list of major outbreaks that happened just within the last few years: this week's egg recall, yesterday's alfalfa sprouts in Brooklyn, last year's alfalfa, a peanut butter alarm from 2009, and some tomato warnings in 2006.

It can be hard to determine what causes salmonella outbreaks. After all, the bacteria itself is naturally present in the intestines of humans, birds, and mammals. It's common in the feces of all of these groups, and it's especially dangerous because it can be transmitted onto crops by contaminated water. So, while salmonella outbreaks are inevitable in unclean environments, it seems odd that a nation obsessed with buying its food in pristine plastic packaging would so often fall prey to microbial sicknesses most commonly associated with poop. What gives?

If you've followed the factory farm debate at all, you know that the conditions in which chickens, pigs, and cows exist often involves plenty of fecal matter. As Eric Schlosser so brilliantly put it in Fast Food Nation, "there's shit in the meat." The current outbreak, which at recent count tallies 380 contaminated million eggs, is just further proof supporting a 2008 Soil Association report that caged eggs are five times more likely to contain salmonella than free-range or organic eggs. Large-scale production also often results in broader contamination: The aforementioned eggs from Wright County Egg are sold under 13 different brand names, including Lucerne, Albertson and, ahem, Farm Fresh.

But the size of the operation isn't the only culprit in recent salmonella outbreaks. As Mother Nature Network pointed out last year, certain strains are becoming more resistant to antibiotics, in part because large-scale farmers often treat their fauna with a heavy dose of antibiotics. Squirrelly microbes like salmonella can quickly adapt and evolve, producing a new generation that's more resistant to such treatments than the last. Last year's alfalfa contamination was the stuff of a sci-fi story: It wasn't contaminated water used in distribution (as was initially suspected) that caused an outbreak across 14 states. It was the actual seeds themselves, traced back by the CDC to a single seed grower.

If you aren't totally sold on keeping your purchases local and organic yet, bear in mind that some very real corruption exists among industrial farmers. In the peanut butter scare I referred to earlier, the Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) knowingly shipped salmonella-contaminated products for more than a year. The company's solution to positive salmonella tests? Send it to a different lab. While PCA adamantly denied Georgia Agriculture Minister Tommy Irvin's accusation that they were "lab shopping" for a result that would allow them to ship tainted wares, the underlying message is obvious. Local and organic farmers might not have the high-tech devices that supposedly ensure food safety, but they also don't have the capital to hire whoever they want to get favorable results. The peanut-based products sickened up to 20,000 Americans in 43 states.

If recent history shows us anything, it's that the potential for disaster at large-scale, under-regulated agricultural operations is pretty huge. In order to avoid salmonella scares, keep your purchases close to home from farmers you know and trust.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons