CNHI
RUSHVILLE —
Dear Editor: I was alarmed to see the Rushville Republican news article about so many people suffering from E. coli all of the sudden in Rush County! I wonder if they became ill from drinking well water from the same area or from eating the same meat product. Since E. coli can be deadly, this is scary news for the entire state. The Mayo Clinic Web sites states: You develop an E. coli infection when you accidentally ingest the bacteria. Potential sources of exposure include contaminated food or water, and person-to-person contact. Further Mayo says ground meat is especially risky since the ground products are made from parts of many different animals. We need to put the state meat inspectors the governor recently eliminated for “budget purposes” put back to work so we can have better access to local, high quality meat, from our local farmers and locker plants--instead of ground who-knows-what corporate meat shipped in from all over the globe and blended with who knows what, including pig skins or shoe leather! Yes, USDA label requirement rules state it is okay to use the pig skin they make footballs from as an ingredient in sausages eaten by people! And no, they do not have to put this on the label. Government intervention, Heaven forbid! The only thing the big corporations need the government for is a tax break or a research grant or an economic development incentive (cash handout). How on earth can we afford to spend money on what the citizens really need if the state is broke? Maybe the governor can cut out really unnecessary spending on things we don’t really need, like trips to Communist China for the Ag and/or so-called Economic Development Departments (to learn how to become a pork producing colony of China). The consumer citizen cannot afford to live without pure food and water—and better information as to who/what/when/where/why/how the E. coli is doing locally. Sincerely, Ann Miller