Organic food has long been a concern for food safety proponents - while from a safety perspective toxic organic pesticides are not all that much different from toxic synthetic pesticides, on the fertilizer side organic methods are far more prone to health problems. The toxic E. coli strain that sickened hundreds of Americans in 2011 and almost 4,000 in Europe was due to contaminated organic food. We are not biologically supposed to eat manure.
But researchers alarmed by the 700 percent increase in organic food recalls since 2013 note it may not be simply poor control methods. There is no surprise spot testing of organic food the way their is conventional food, it is true, and organic food lobbyists don't want there to be lest it raise the prices of organic food even more - but it may be due to the success of marketing as well. Marketers have created a $100 billion Big Organic machine and that has led to Organic Super Farms with all of the same distribution and reach of conventional, but lacking in the safety.
And then there is the product itself. Organic food is twice as likely to be susceptible to bacterial contamination, found a study in California.
But the popularity may be the biggest culprit. Due to consumer demand - that is the price for manufacturing a health halo around a process - organic farmers are turning production around a lot faster, even when it comes to manure. Manure that was aged under a year is 19X more likely to be contaminated with E. coli.
