Is anything safe to eat?

I listened to the news with mounting dismay this morning. Again.

How many times have we been there?

Mad Cow disease, salmonella from battery hen eggs, contaminants in other meat products.

And now we can't even treat cucumbers and other green salad crops as necessarily safe to eat.

And why? All because we have left behind the pleasures of growing our own crops, or raising our own chickens, or at least buying locally from good farms.

OK, ok, you all say. That's all very well but... It's the cost, the convenience, the time, the...

And yes, I agree. We, too, do shop at supermarkets with names I don't like to mention here, because we can't afford to buy organic all the time, or simply because it's easier. And of course I know, not everyone can live on a farm.

But the thought of contamination occurring 'somewhere between the grower in Spain and distributors in Germany and elsewhere' just appalls me. E-coli on cucumbers? E-coli that can prove fatal?

Isn't it time we did something?

And even one, little step would help.

Even if we all bought organic or locally-produced food once a week, the message would spread, prices would come down, and we'd all feel so much better.

I don't mean to sound self-righteous here, but the glow of pride that comes from tasting your own homegrown cucumbers as we did last week, tomatoes, salads, or even simple herbs does a lot to make you smile.

And it's not really that much more difficult than growing flowers to have a pot of herbs or dward tomatoes on a windowsill or on the patio.

I hope the news that it's not even safe to eat salads now has shocked you as much as it shocked me.

So while it's in our heads, let's take the first small step today to give ourselves and our environment a better chance by caring what we eat, even just for one shopping expedition a week.