Plan B Forum

Recall of tainted eggs expands

By MARY CLARE JALONICK, Associated Press Writer Mary Clare Jalonick, Associated Press Writer – Fri Aug 20, 5:38 pm ET

WASHINGTON – The nationwide recall of tainted eggs expanded Friday as a second Iowa egg farm was linked to the ongoing investigation of a salmonella outbreak that has already sickened more than 1,000 people.

Iowa's Hillandale Farms said Friday it was recalling its eggs after laboratory tests confirmed illnesses associated with them. The company did not say how many eggs were being recalled or if it is connected to Wright County Egg, another Iowa farm that recalled 380 million eggs earlier this week.

An FDA spokeswoman said the two recalls are related. The strain of salmonella poisoning is the same strain linked to Wright County Egg.

The eggs recalled Friday were distributed under the brand names Hillandale Farms, Sunny Farms, Sunny Meadow, Wholesome Farms and West Creek. The new recall applies to eggs sold between April and August.

Hillandale said the eggs were distributed to grocery distribution centers, retail groceries and food service companies which service or are located in fourteen states, including Arkansas, California, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas, and Wisconsin.

CDC officials said Thursday that the number of illnesses related to the outbreak is expected to grow. That's because illnesses occurring after mid-July may not be reported yet, said Dr. Christopher Braden, an epidemiologist with the federal Centers for Disease Control.

Almost 2,000 illnesses from the strain of salmonella linked to both recalls were reported between May and July, almost 1,300 more than usual, Braden said. No deaths have been reported. The CDC is continuing to receive information from state health departments as people report their illnesses.

The most common symptoms of salmonella are diarrhea, abdominal cramps and fever within eight hours to 72 hours of eating a contaminated product. It can be life-threatening, especially to those with weakened immune systems.

The form of salmonella tied to the outbreak can be passed from chickens that appear healthy. And it grows inside eggs, not just on the shell, Braden noted.

Thoroughly cooking eggs can kill the bacteria. But health officials are recommending people throw away or return the recalled eggs.

Hillandale Farms, Sunny Farms, Sunny Meadow, Wholesome Farms and West Creek.

Our Vision: To be a model of restorative natural agriculture, growing bio-diversity and building environmental capital; to be shared for the benefit of future generations.

Mulloon Creek Natural Farms is a grazing, cropping and carbon building enterprise covering two farms in close proximity to each other on the Mulloon Creek, east of Canberra, towards the coast and approximately 280 km south of Sydney. The total holding is 2300 hectares or 5700 acres, with one property, “The Home Farm” covering 4300 acres and the other, “Duralla”, covering 1450 acres. The former occupies all of a small valley adjacent to and straddling the Great Dividing Range and the other is in more open country. On “The Home Farm” there is approximately 1800 acres of native forest.

Both properties are organic using the biodynamic system of agriculture and MCNF is a member of the Biological Farmers of Australia (BFA). Our purpose is to be a diverse, sustainable working role model of excellence for profitable biodynamic production and landscape restoration together with outstanding research and education programmes.

Our farms are certified ‘A’ grade biodynamic. Everything starts with the biological dynamism of the soil itself where we respect and encourage through our methods the dynamic inter-relationship of the flora and fauna within the soil and the connections and influence of the unseen but measurable cosmic forces. The founder of biodynamic agriculture, Rudolph Steiner, 80 years ago said, “The knowledge and working together of the cosmic and the terrestrial factors is the first objective of agricultural science.” The biodynamic practitioner balances these two realms through knowledge of how the terrestrial and cosmic forces work. This “life force” in the soil, plants and animals is what the peasant farmers of old and the ancients understood, and is what we believe is lacking today - “lifeforce” is the goal that goes beyond just “nutrition”.

Lord Jim wrote:What the hell is a "carbon building enterprise"?

loCAtek wrote:Uh-oooooooooooooh, I was wondering why I felt so bad Thursday. See, I sometimes get a coulpa hard-boiled eggs from the Quik-E-Mart at break.