This Can Make You VERY Sick

[00:00:00]This right here can make you very, very sick. In fact, thousands of people have already gotten sick from fresh produce just like this. But it's not the cabbage itself. It's what you can't see that's on it.

[00:00:18]So, what is it and how does it end up in our food?

[00:00:29]To answer that question, we have to look at something our eyes could never see on their own.

[00:00:37]Hidden from our sight is an entire microscopic world.

[00:00:44]Most of it's harmless.

[00:00:46]Some of it's even beneficial.

[00:00:49]But some microorganisms can make us seriously sick.

[00:00:59]One of those microorganisms is called cycllospora.

[00:01:03]Cycllospora is a microscopic parasite that can contaminate fresh produce and cause an illness known as cycllosporasis.

[00:01:12]It spreads when food or water becomes contaminated with human fecal waste carrying [music] the parasite.

[00:01:18]Because it's microscopic, you can't see it, smell it, or taste it. To us, a contaminated vegetable [music] can look exactly the same as one that isn't contaminated.

[00:01:29]So, if we can't see it, how does it end up on the food we eat?

[00:01:35]Once cycllospora is swallowed, it can infect the digestive tract. Symptoms often include severe diarrhea, stomach cramps, nausea, fatigue, loss of appetite, and dehydration.

[00:01:51]For some people, the illness lasts only a few days. For others, it can last for weeks if left untreated. Every [music] year, health officials investigate outbreaks linked to contaminated fresh [music] produce, which brings us back to the same question.

[00:02:09]How does something this small make it all the way onto the food that we eat?

[00:02:16]Let's follow the journey of this cabbage.

[00:02:19]This is where most of us first see it sitting on a grocery store shelf.

[00:02:25]It looks fresh. It looks clean. It looks healthy.

[00:02:31]But before it ever reached this shelf, [music] it had a long journey.

[00:02:38]Every stop along that journey depends on good farming practices, clean water, proper sanitation, [music] and careful handling.

[00:02:48]When those system work well, they greatly reduce the risk of [music] contamination.

[00:02:54]But when something goes wrong, harmful microorganisms can sometimes make their way onto the fresh produce that we eat.

[00:03:04]So, how does a microscopic parasite like cycllospora end up on fresh produce in the first place? The answer isn't simple. It can happen at several different points along the journey from the farm to your plate. Sometimes it's contaminated with irrigation water.

[00:03:23]Sometimes it's poor sanitation.

[00:03:26]Sometimes it's [music] contaminated wash water used after harvest.

[00:03:32]Sometimes flooding carries contamination into growing fields.

[00:03:38]And sometimes it comes [music] down to simple human error.

[00:03:43]Every farm works hard to reduce these risks. But when something slips through the cracks, thousands of people can be affected.

[00:03:53]Cycllospora isn't the only thing [music] we have to think about. Fresh produce has also been linked to organisms like E.coli, salmonila, [music] lististeria, and parasites such as gardia, cryptopidium.

[00:04:09]They're all different. They spread in different ways, [music] but they all remind us of the same thing.

[00:04:18]Food doesn't magically appear [music] on grocery store shelves. Every fruit, every vegetable, every leaf has a story.

[00:04:29]Most of us have become [music] disconnected from that story. We walk into a grocery store, grab what we need, pay, and go [music] home.

[00:04:39]We rarely stop to think where was this grown? What kind of water was used? How many people handled it? How many miles did it travel? How long has it been sitting [music] here?

[00:04:54]Understanding where our food comes from isn't about living in fear. It's about becoming more connected [music] to what keeps us alive.

[00:05:04]So, what can we actually do about it?

[00:05:07]First, wash fresh produce thoroughly under clean running water. Remove damaged outer leaves [music] from leafy vegetables when appropriate.

[00:05:18]Keep your cutting boards, knives, and hands clean while preparing food.

[00:05:24]Store produce properly and pay attention to food recalls and public health alerts.

[00:05:32]None of these steps eliminate every risk, but they can certainly help reduce it.

[00:05:38]Walk outside, harvest your cabbage.

[00:05:42]For me, one of the biggest [music] steps was learning to grow some of my own food. Not because I believe grocery stores are bad, but because I think homegrown [music] food is perfect, but because I wanted to understand my food's journey.

[00:06:00]I know my soil. I know my water source.

[00:06:05]I know when it was harvested. And I know how it was handled.

[00:06:10]And I still wash it before I eat it. The more I did research, one thing kept coming up over and over again, and that's water. Water used to irrigate crops. Water used to wash produce.

[00:06:26]Water used throughout our food system.

[00:06:30]It made me realize something.

[00:06:33]The safety of our food is closely connected to the quality of our water.

[00:06:39]And that raised a much bigger question in my mind. If contaminated water can affect our food, then where does our own water come from? What happens after we flush the toilet? Where does the waste water actually go? How is it clean before it's released back into rivers and streams or used again?

[00:07:02]And how much of that process do most of us really understand?

[00:07:08]I've been researching how our sanitation systems work, how waste water is treated, and how it all connects back to the water we drink and the food we grow.

[00:07:18]That's what we're diving into in the next video. Because the more I learn, the more I realize that everything is connected.