12/18/06 Cowboys and Ecoli

This last week, as over 30,000 people on Tuesday night at the National Finals Rodeo in Vegas night cheered for what I consider the most athletic event of rodeo, calf roping, (oops that's not politically correct) tie down roping I sat in my seat thinking about e-coli. That's right, I know I am weird but when I watched Cody Ohl's amazing run or rooted for Fred Whitfieled I thought of where that little piggin string held so gingerly between their teeth had been, around little calves feet and little calves feet tread in an awful lot of ripe manure. The thought occurred to me that I have never heard of a tie down roper, bull rider or even a cattleman getting sick with e-coli from manure exposure despite the fact they practically wallow in the stuff. Yet whenever there is an e-coli outbreak even in organic produce the first thing the media does is point their finger at the beef industry to triangulate responsibility. . Pristine organic spinach must be have been tainted by run off from a filthy cattle ranch! Well when they can show me a cowboy with e-coli from cow pies, I might begin to believe the biased reporting against beef.