No one should be surprised any more at the increasing frequency of outbreaks of salmonella and e coli. Factory farms which produce eggs and other animal products are cesspools of filth as the following post so amply illustrates. They produce mountains of manure which then leeches into our drinking water. The filthy conditions the animals are forced to live in make life miserable for them. Disease breeds and spreads. The mass production of animal products has replaced the family farm and it is insane with respect to the American food supply. Animals are fed antibiotics with their feed so that they mature faster and can be killed sooner.
What can be done about this situation? One thing is that consumers can wise up and stop buying their animal products from places like Costco, Wal-Mart and major super markets. Almost every town and city these days has a smaller store that specializes in locally grown and/or organic foods. Buy your eggs there. Sure they will cost you more, but is your health worth it? Farmers' markets are starting to take hold in towns and cities. Spend your money there. It's a little less convenient, but, if there is a widespread movement to buy local and to buy healthy and to stay away from corporate factory farm products, this could revolutionize American agriculture bringing us back to the era where pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics and preservatives were not used. It wasn't that long ago - just pre WW II. In those days all agricultural products were organic because chemicals to spray on them were not available. They only became available after the war when the manufacture of chemicals for use in war turned to civilian use for those same chemicals modified slightly.
Make no mistake. Unless you seek out and question your grocer as to his food products, you will probably end up using factory farmed animal products. You need to get away from processed foods which contain huge amounts of chemicals and especially preservatives. Just read the label to see all the unnatural stuff that goes into them. You need to be suspicious of restaurants which, unless they specifically maintain that they buy locally produced and organic foods, are going to be serving you the same factory farmed eggs and meat products you buy at the store. Especially is this true for fast food and cheaper restaurants. High class restaurants, which not a lot of people can afford, tend to use high quality ingredients lacking preservatives, pesticides and herbicides because their high quality clientele demands it. It's another example of the rich eating better and healthier than the poor. However, poor people can shop at farmers' markets and demand higher quality food products from their local store. However, demanding this of huge super market chains will get you nowhere.
The deregulation of government has produced a situation where food products are not adequately inspected at the point of production. Are you happy, libertarians and deregulators, that the foods you eat are produced in filth? The public should demand adequate inspection. I thought this problem was solved 100 years ago with the publication of Upton Sinclair's book, The Jungle, in which he deplored the filthy conditions in the meat packing industry. But we are right back in the same situation today because the philosophy of deregulation has held sway for the last 30 years. This is regression not progress.
Watch this trailer from the film, Food Inc.