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To the Point

Are America's Vegetables as Safe as They Should Be?

To the Point

KCRW

News

4.4583 Ratings

🗓️ 21 September 2006

⏱️ 51 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the latest E.coli outbreak, a bag of contaminated spinach has been traced to California’s Salinas Valley. It’s the ninth such incident in the past 11 years.  Why do such outbreaks occur?  Who’s in charge of protecting consumers?  Would changes in farming and distribution make for greater food safety?  Plus, political fireworks in the General Assembly and the future of the UN.

Transcript

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0:00.0

From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

0:07.6

Are America's vegetables as safe as they should be?

0:14.5

Hello again, I'm Arminolny, and this is To the Point from Public Radio International, a daily look at the issues.

0:19.3

Americans care about most.

0:20.9

The smoking gun of the latest E. coli outbreak is a bag of contaminated spinach found in the

0:25.8

refrigerator of a sick patient in New Mexico. It came from somewhere in California's Salinas

0:31.1

Valley, but officials may never know from which farm or how the contamination occurred.

0:36.7

They do know this is the ninth time in 11 years

0:39.4

that a dangerous strain of ecoli has been traced to Salinas Valley spinach or lettuce.

0:45.0

On to the point, who's in charge of protecting consumers from poisoned food? How stringently

0:50.0

are standards enforced? Is it time to change the way food is grown and distributed?

0:55.4

On reporter's notebook later on, political fireworks at the UN, first the news.

1:00.1

Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica and from the Public Radio

1:05.8

International Program Fund, whose contributors include the Ford Foundation and the John

1:10.4

D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

1:12.7

Hello again, Mormon. I'll only back with To the Point. In the latest E. coli outbreak, a bag of contaminated spinach has been traced to California's Salinas Valley. It is the ninth such incident in 11 years. On To the Point, why do such outbreaks occur? Who's in charge of protecting consumers?

1:28.5

Would changes in farming and distribution make for greater food safety?

1:32.5

On reporter's notebook, it's been Bash America Week at the UN. What will that mean for the Security Council and choosing a new Secretary General?

1:39.7

First is news update. In Baghdad during July and August, 5,106 people died from violence.

1:46.5

Torture by sectarian militias is out of control.

1:49.5

The generalized breakdown of law and order is a serious challenge to Iraq's institutions.

1:55.3

That's from a report by the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq's Human Rights Office, Richard Opel, is in Baghdad for the New York Times.

...

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