Agribusiness likely cause of E. coli outbreak

The tragic outbreak of E. coli spinach that recently killed three people and hospitalized more than a hundred others mistakenly has been linked to the organic farming practice of using animal manure as fertilizer compost.

Over the years, agribusiness and biotech-funded think tanks such as the Hudson Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute have repeated the canard that composted fertilizer used as a non-chemical fertilizer on organic farms is dangerous when in fact there have been only a tiny number of reported cases of food poisoning caused by organic products.