People urged to avoid peanut butter products
 

Now this? :wall:
People urged to avoid peanut butter products
WASHINGTON – Federal health authorities on Saturday urged consumers to avoid eating cookies,
cakes, ice cream and other foods that contain peanut butter until authorities can learn
more about a deadly outbreak of salmonella contamination.

Most peanut butter sold in jars at supermarkets appears to be safe, said Stephen Sundlof,
head of the Food and Drug Administration's food safety center.

read more;
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090117/...nella_outbreak

Re: People urged to avoid peanut butter products
 

Hi giovonni,

There's a big background story about peanuts (and raisins too in California). I've heard about it peripherally through friends and have been trying to sort it out. This is what I've heard.

1. The severe peanut allergies we've seen in the last decade, with deaths and anaphylactic shock, are related to the mother's ingestion of bad peanuts during pregnancy. By 'bad peanuts' I'm not sure if it's GMO, pesticides, fungus, or some other rejection of the food source in gestation, which then affects a developing child.

2. Peanut crops are commonly farmed in Africa, where they're known as 'groundnuts.' [And Burma]

http://cache.gettyimages.com/xc/2665...5A1E4F32AD3138 http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thum...groundnuts.jpg

---- examples of localities: senegal, tanganyika '51 ------

E.g. Senegal's Trade in Groundnuts
http://www.american.edu/TED/senegal-groundnut.htm
http://www.american.edu/TED/images4/senegal_map.gif http://farm1.static.flickr.com/136/3...e5a452.jpg?v=0

3. There's biotech jibber-jabber like this: "GM ‘vital’ to meeting the world’s food needs Published by GMO Africa | Filed under Biotech NewsSource: Independent Date: August 26, 2008 Biotechnologies such as GM crops are necessary to double global food production by 2050, a major biotechnology conference has been told."

4. Current efforts in research to remove the 'allergen'/protein for consumer health reasons:

"Tackling the worst offenders first, her team has made and tested peanuts that do not produce two proteins that are among the most intense allergens. The research appears in The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

"The biologists shot a customized DNA sequence into the plants with a gene gun, causing the legumes to produce hairpin-shaped RNA molecules, which halt the production of the two proteins.

"Messing with the genetic code of a plant could potentially cause the seeds to develop improperly, change the taste of the crop, or render it more susceptible to fungal infections. But Ozias-Akins' team found that they grow normally and can resist a common mold without any problems."
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2...s-with-le.html

5. Here's a 2006 peanut crop estimate for the USA by state.
http://admin.peanutsusa.com/document...on%2008-06.pdf

Commercial peanuts have an intricate story, also tied with farming practises, soil quality, trade routes, local politics, international corporations, biotechnology, fertilizers, pesticides... and now salmonella at the consumer warning level.

Thanks for passing along the info. A person could forget white rabbits and follow peanuts!

http://www.biologie.uni-freiburg.de/...nt_Drawing.jpg

Re: People urged to avoid peanut butter products
 

Re: People urged to avoid peanut butter products
 

Oh, it's fun to dig up peanuts! :original:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8Cke2JGD4q..._mr_peanut.jpg

Re: People urged to avoid peanut butter products