i thought it was so weird there were NO tomatos in the stores, then i saw this:

[www.chron.com]

how does salmonella get in things like tomatos?

Hmm makes me want to go back to Whole Foods and get one of those organic tomatoe plants they were selling..LOL

I bet the FDA injects salmonella into things just to create scares that way they can pasteurize everything and kill us all and take over the world.

Or maybe it was really a tomato from China.

Lock up your doors at night.

Killer tomatoes are on the loose.

LOL!

Someone beat me to starting this thread. I was in the heart of the tomato crisis yesterday.

Yesterday, I went to work. A coworker came up to me (seeing the melon I had brought in), "Oh! Be careful! There's a recall on kingfisher cantaloupes because of salmonella!"

Me: "Thank you," and thought about how happy I am not to have intestines full of CRAP so I don't have to worry about these things.

Not HOURS LATER (I work at a SAD restaurant), a manager comes out waving around all these fliers hot off the printer.

"OMG SALMONELLA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Like KING KONG himself had come to Oakville and someone had spotted him climbing the Walmart across the parking lot. Panic filled the air!

While the managers frantically ran to tables to inform people of their orders and telling them there won't be any fresh tomatoes (the nasty, processed salsa and sauces were perfectly "ok", everyone in the kitchen was dumping bins and bins of freshly chopped tomatoes. The PSYCHOTIC WASTAGE of the situation made my HEAD SPIN.

The bloody steaks are still coming! Don't worry! Your genetically modified grain sandwiches are still on the way! But god #($% those NASTY RAW TOMATOES!

It's literally a kind of terror invoked by living things on a subconscious level, I think. Our culture is so enmeshed with death, that sometimes a bin of live produce is so scary and such testament to the AWESOME LIFEFORCE of the planet, you just have to throw it out! Honestly, WHERE are the holes in the reality scheme that allows this kind of thinking to operate? Nothing is going to change until we fix this cultural denial/aversion, I don't know what--utter detachment from nature and the self?

And the madness didn't stop there. Sandwiches were still plated with raw tomatoes, so another manager had to stand behind the food expediter to remind her, "Oh! No tomatoes!" and ripped every tomato off a sandwich because it might have had salmonella.

Hold on. Tomatoes that could have already been contaminated were just getting ripped off sandwiches without replacing the sandwich... and food-born illness travels how...?

I asked, what about my tables that had already just eaten the salads (before the fliers printed). What about them? "Oh, too late for them." And they were ----> NOT JOKING. <----

What a senseless, wasteful, unconscious double standard. So many things were wrong at every level.

I discovered there is a nerve at the top of my stomach (near the, uh, yellow chakra?) that actually starts to twitch when there's too much BS in the air. I want to hug someone and cry. I've read about Codex and all the irradiation plans on the internet, of course--but I got to see the moronic, inevitable agenda up close and personal. I'm still pretty heavily disturbed by this. I have a ton of other job applications in the works, but things like this make it SO DIFFICULT to just breathe, focus, be mindful and gracious and get through the day.

I just got back from the produce store. There were tomatoes. I bought some not even thinking about the Salmonella scare.
I'd spent the whole weekend at a banjo camp held at a small college in Michigan. They had fresh tomatoes in the campus cafeteria salad bar everyday I was there, I might add.

Has it just been raw tomatoes in restaurants or what that are of question?

The longer food sits around the longer Salmonella is a factor. Even raw eggs and Salmonella content Alton Brown says is more a question of not giving Salmonella enough time for gestation. Eat food as fresh as possible.

Restaurants and lots of home cooks buy food in big quantities less frequently than daily and then prepare food hours if not days before consumption which gives bacteria lots more time to grow.

Then there's the factor of stomach acid. Stomach acid does more than trigger enzymes into action. It kills pathogens.
Some people who aren't eating lots of raw greens tend not to have much stomach acid.

got a deadbolt for my door

those no good red faced critters !!

tryin' to make it hard for them to invade my life

i'm a WINNIN YET!!

i'm chomping on some tomatoes right now
they are organic
wuz still in my fridge

juicy little things too ( i might add)
so far

i'm still alive

i reckon that is a good thing

The tomatoes are coming and I just ate 3 big ones from California...locally grown. I refuse to get caught up in this insanity.

Phantom, wow, regarding what happened in your place of employment. From your description I picked up pure, unadulterated fear. It's both disturbing and enlightening at the same time...to see the truth that is and how numb and oblivious people are to it. How easily they are led astray. I hope they wake up.

Last year it was spinach, this year it's tomatoes and my goodness if next year it's avocados well I'm going to have to hurt somebody. Seriously though salmonella is no joke and I think the blessing in these repeated scares is people may become aware of what's going on with mass production and harvesting of food. And get involved...start a community garden or one in their back yard. At least I hope they do.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/10/2008 12:59AM by rawangel.

I heard they are from Mexico, originally. I like to grow my own, then I am sure. What a shame so many fresh tomatoes had to be tossed! Always some kind of scare in our midst. It is so hard to know what is for real, and what is fabricated. Janice

Hi Phantom,
<hugs>

Being with what IS (including all the BS and deception at high levels of government and industry, the uncertainty about the future of our food and many other things in our world in this 21st century time of enormous societal transition and global change) can be really unsettling. Especially at the beginning. Gradually it gets a little easier. Just take one step at a time, and try to stay in the moment as you learn what's going on. Most of us project too much into the future, imagining frightening scenarios, many of which will never come close to materializing. Breathe, meditate, relax, spend time in nature. If you feel really stressed out from time to time, a juice fast can help immendsely to release the 'weight of the world.'

Don't despair. We're with you in this. I'm trying to get a wider group of people in New England interested in dealing with Codex and have been trying to initiate a Codex action group. Perhaps you can find a similar group in your local area. And people are beginning more and more to 'think local,' which is a really, really good thing, and there is tremendous power in this. People are growing their own food in gardens, buying from co-ops and local farmers, and getting involved for the first time in how food gets to their tables.

Feel free to send me a PM if you want to talk about it.

Above all, remember: Even if you can't trust the news or those who govern, you can trust your heart.

Love,
Sharrhan

Sharrhan:


[www.facebook.com]

I wash my tomatoes with a veggie wash. Doesn't that solve the problem? Is the salmonella on the inside?? What gives?

I am a little confused also. On the news last night, they said that washing the tomatoes wasn't enough, that the salmonella was still a problem.

But it doesn't make sense to me - this should only be a surface contamination which can be washed off, even if you do get a bad one. (shouldn't it ???)

Something else I don't understand - if they are able to narrow this supposedly huge problem down to tomatoes, why can't they track it down to the source - ie, tomatoes from a particular area or whatever. Why are all tomatoes supposed to be suspect? What a waste! I be 90% of the tomatoes are fine.

Very strange....

Sapphire

OMG I am cracking up -- I just read this, and I'm sorry, but I'm behind on the news. Guess what I had for lunch folks? a big bowl of tomatoes and avos! And I'm with Raw Angel -- I'm gonna hurt someone too if avos are next!
I guess this isn't really funny, but with my warped sense of humor, I couldn't resist. I agree with knowing where your food comes from and love that there is a local farm that grows organic tomatoes on New England 10 months out of the year. Now if I could only get an avocado tree to produce in Massachusetts! (I have a couple growing in the living room.)
So I've read a little about the whole Codex thing, but I guess I need to read more and/or get involved. Kwan, I think you're kind of near me; maybe we could exchange info.
Sundancer

Salmonella is a tiny thing, about 1 nm (10**=9 m). The pores in tomato skin are probably bigger, or puncture wounds, things like that. So it can get in. But generally there will be a lot more on the skin than inside.

I suspect this problem is probably related to one geographic area, or maybe even only a few fields. But it takes time to figure out which fields--they have to test every acre from every commercial field to find it, and that is impossible if the tomatoes are from other countries where regulations and records are not so strict.

I worked at a temporary job once trying to track down a potato virus, we tested leaves from every acre of every single field in my state. And we found the source, it was a seed grower in Canada!!

i feel like this is just a scare. some people may think i am being paranoid, but i feel like it is just propaganda. like someone with a connection could have sent an infected batch of tomatos to certain stores, or worse yet cross polinated someone's tomato crop with another genetically modified strand of tomatos that were infected with salmonella. do you think this is possible? the world is getting a little bit scary with all the scares in lies they are trying to shove down our throats. perhaps... true "terrorism" at its best only it's from the inside out.

i have a hard time buying this salmonella scare. it sounds like a bunch of propaganda...

It doesn' t have anything to do with cross pollination or GMOs. Any vegetable or annual fruit could be affected.

I would not rule out deliberate human contamination, but it seems to me more likely that there was accidental contamination from animal wastes from nearby fields.

You are probably not at any risk if you have a healthy immune system and good flora in your bowels already. I personally would not stop eating them if they were still on the shelves (I got grape tomatoes today, which are not part of the scare, but they were 1/2 price). But that is not the case for most SAD eaters, especially the very young or the very old.

i went to applebees tonight and ordered a salad.....it had 1 lonely cherry mater in it

Isn't is amazing how much the news about raw vegetable contamination spreads mass hysteria, but the contamination of meats is rarely even discussed in the news?

I'm not giving up my tomatoes. I've been raw almost two years, so I think I should be able to handle them if there is contamination. I hope there's a huge sale on them, too! :-)

XOXOXO

There were giant "TOMATO ADVISORY" signs posted on the doors today...

(I guess the REAL challenge is to find what I have to give to society without shortchanging myself...?)

Glad I am not in the US right now... I had lots of tomatoes on my salad today.



My website: The Coconut Chronicles