Eco Uh Oh Alert!

Chinese gearing up for SUVs:

When Chairman Mao Tse-tung, author of the little "Red Book" of goofy socialist platitudes, was running Communist China, he could look out contentedly on tens of millions of his countrymen clad in identical gray suits, pedaling silently and docilely to work on identical black bicycles.

For utopian socialists, it didn't get any better than that — and it was environmentally friendly. Nobody bothered to ask what the people thought, but we know now. Freed from the restraints of socialism, guess what the Chinese want? They want SUVs. Big, clunky SUVs.

That'll get the ecoweenies' knickers in a twist.

But they better get 'em untwisted fast because they may need to do the Aztec Two Step - Organic Food Has 'Significantly Higher' Contamination, Study Finds:

A new study on food safety reveals that organic produce may contain a significantly higher risk of fecal contamination than conventionally grown produce.

A recent comparative analysis of organic produce versus conventional produce from the University of Minnesota shows that the organically grown produce had 9.7 percent positive samples for the presence of generic E. coli bacteria versus only 1.6 percent for conventional produce on farms in Minnesota.

The study, which was published in May in the Journal of Food Protection, concluded, "the observation that the prevalence of E. coli was significantly higher in organic produce supports the idea that organic produce is more susceptible to fecal contamination."

In addition, the study found the food-borne disease pathogen salmonella only on the organic produce samples.

Bound to happen when you fertilize with manure. But you can just wash it off, right?

The study found organic lettuce had the highest rate of fecal contamination, with a rate of over 22 percent. And Avery says consumers can't assume they can simply "wash off" the fecal matter from the lettuce.

"Past research shows that E. coli 0157 can enter into the lettuce through the roots and be inside the lettuce, meaning you can't wash it off," Avery said.

Stand by for the incoming from the usual suspects. I suspect the poor professor who did the study will regret it.