Contaminated Spinich Leads to Huge Questions: Where in Salinas Valley Did E. Coli Bacteria Start, and Are Other Vegetables Contaminated?

Perhaps I'm over-reacting, but I bought a package of Classic Iceberg vegetables (not mixed with spinich) the other day and noticed later that it was from Salinas, California, where health experts suspect that E. coli-contaminated spinich came from.

I decided not to open it, just to play it safe.

Then the news came that the E. coli bacteria was found in a processing plant, plus in five rivers in the Salinas Valley watershed, back on June 30th. Blame was cast on factory farms in the region, where liquid waste made it into the water table.

I've subsequently thrown the bag of Iceberg out and am looking for vegetables that do not come from the area.

So far people are sick or dying from the spinich that came out of there, but if E. coli IS present in the water, then it may be spread into the crops by the factory farms, which draw water out of the river system to irrigate the crops. I'm told that using river water to irrigate is a very common practice, and not just in this part of the country.

The questions that need to be answered and soon:

Is E. coli present in the watershed as is being reported by the media? If it is, has the contaminated water been used to irrigate the crops?

How widespread is the E. coli contamination in the watershed?

Is there a connection between the contaminated water and the bad spinich, or is it a mere coincidence?

Is the processing plant currently being examined by investigators used to process other vegetables? And if so, which ones?

Should we be buying any fruits or vegetables from the Salinas Valley for now?

How worried should we be?

The local supermarket only carries bagged vegetables from Salinas, so for the moment, bagged salads from Salinas are off my menu, until they nail down the problem and fix it.