E. coli epidemic shows system failure
08 June 2011
Mass production and overuse of antibiotics may be to blame for Europe's food disasters, claims Sabine Wils MEP
The E. coli epidemic once again shows the system failure of the liberalised food production sector in the European Union. If profits take precedence over healthcare, food security and quality suffer.
We need to radically rethink the Common Agricultural Policy. The policy must involve the decentralisation of food production and market structures. Lengthy transportation routes and anonymous production conditions often impede the traceability of products, when consumers have the right to know where their food comes from and how it is produced. Regional food production allows for faster containment of the threats from food scandals and detection of contamination sources.
More than two weeks after the outbreak of the epidemic, the source of the infection remains unknown. The longer the investigation lasts, the more unlikely it is that the source will ever be discovered. Food production from regional agricultural structures would simplify such an investigation and contain the spread of such an epidemic.
The outbreak raises the issue of industrial livestock farming and the problems associated with it. The deadly strain of the E. coli bacterium, which leads to kidney failure, is evolved and mutated in the digestive tract of cattle. A study conducted by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture has shown that cattle fed with weed, hay or other crude fibres have less E. coli bacteria in their intestine than those being fed with concentrated feed.
Furthermore, antibiotics are used extensively in the mass production industry to prevent livestock disease and to reduce breeding costs. This creates resistance, enabling bacteria to adapt to the antibiotics and mutate uncontrollably. Some scientists explain the aggressiveness of the infections with reference to the mutations of the E. coli bacteria. Immunity to certain antibiotics also hinders treatment.
The epidemic is yet another food scandal with severe consequences for the people affected by it. One death from contaminated food is one too many. This scandal must lead to a drastic rethink of the CAP, which is currently heading for further production intensification. Only the decentralisation of production and market structures can prevent the next food scandal and potentially even more tragic events from happening.
Sabine Wils MEP is a member of the Confederal Group of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left in the European Parliament
The E. coli epidemic once again shows the system failure of the liberalised food production sector in the European Union. If profits take precedence over healthcare, food security and quality suffer.
We need to radically rethink the Common Agricultural Policy. The policy must involve the decentralisation of food production and market structures. Lengthy transportation routes and anonymous production conditions often impede the traceability of products, when consumers have the right to know where their food comes from and how it is produced. Regional food production allows for faster containment of the threats from food scandals and detection of contamination sources.
More than two weeks after the outbreak of the epidemic, the source of the infection remains unknown. The longer the investigation lasts, the more unlikely it is that the source will ever be discovered. Food production from regional agricultural structures would simplify such an investigation and contain the spread of such an epidemic.
The outbreak raises the issue of industrial livestock farming and the problems associated with it. The deadly strain of the E. coli bacterium, which leads to kidney failure, is evolved and mutated in the digestive tract of cattle. A study conducted by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture has shown that cattle fed with weed, hay or other crude fibres have less E. coli bacteria in their intestine than those being fed with concentrated feed.
Furthermore, antibiotics are used extensively in the mass production industry to prevent livestock disease and to reduce breeding costs. This creates resistance, enabling bacteria to adapt to the antibiotics and mutate uncontrollably. Some scientists explain the aggressiveness of the infections with reference to the mutations of the E. coli bacteria. Immunity to certain antibiotics also hinders treatment.
The epidemic is yet another food scandal with severe consequences for the people affected by it. One death from contaminated food is one too many. This scandal must lead to a drastic rethink of the CAP, which is currently heading for further production intensification. Only the decentralisation of production and market structures can prevent the next food scandal and potentially even more tragic events from happening.
Sabine Wils MEP is a member of the Confederal Group of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left in the European Parliament
COMMENTS
Key factors in the increasing incidence of food-borne illness were reviewed by AC Baird Parker in 1993. Among other things he says that "intensive farming and associated practices intended to improve production efficiency, increase the potential for infection of our food animals with zoonotic micro-organisms". Some 18 years later we can clearly understand the consequences of intensive farming.
Lina Koufokotsiou - Thessaloniki, Greece
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