Is The Truth Behind the Spinach Scare: Cheap Beef?

When in Mexico, the saying goes, don't drink the water. You shouldn't eat the spinach either because it could be contaminated with the E. coli strain that has sickened close to 200 people in the United States and killed at least one, likely more. The problem is our food production system is so complex that most of us cannot be certain where our food comes from. Even the U.S. government, after two weeks on the case of the spinach E. coli outbreak, has narrowed the source to, oh, somewhere in central California. Gee, you think? California produces about three-fourths of the nation's fresh spinach, and Salinas Valley accounts for about three-fourths of that. These guys are sharp. But they aren't looking closely enough.  » original news