‘I’m not liking the way we’re trending’: Hosts debate growing their own food amid safety fears

Following the widespread outbreak of Cyclosporiasis, a gastrointestinal disease that causes “explosive” diarrhea, Ursula Reutin, host of “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio, wondered whether it’s time people start growing their own food to avoid foodborne illnesses.

“I went to my husband last night, and I was like, ‘We have to do this,’ and he looked at me like I was crazy,” fill-in host Angela Poe Russell said. “I got some kind of gastrointestinal illness, been going on for several days. The issue for me isn’t the illness itself, but this trend in food safety, and the predictions from experts that our problems could get worse.”

Angela lays out why she believes food safety risks are growing

Angela noted that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) lost roughly 20% of its staff, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is also down 25%.

For years, agencies have been tracking eight pathogens, but now they only track two: Salmonella and E. coli. One of the six that is no longer tracked includes Cyclospora, a pathogen recently tied to an “explosive” diarrhea outbreak impacting more than 4,000 people across nine states.

“I guess the bottom line for me is I’m not liking the way we’re trending, and because we’ve made all of these changes, that doesn’t seem to have made us safer,” Angela said. “Is it time that we take matters into our own hands?”

“What would that look like?” Ursula asked. “Because I am at the mercy of different restaurants and stores where I buy things. I won’t grow a tomato in my backyard; I am not a green thumb. I envy those who have a pea patch somewhere; that’s just not me. I will say that it seems like more and more people are dealing with stomach issues. I don’t know what it is.”

KIRO producer Andrew Lanier noted that he is intrigued by the idea of growing his own food, but growing enough produce to feed a full family is not effective.

“I love the idea of growing our own food, but I’ll tell you, like, I garden, and I grow great flowers,” Andrew said. “But to grow a meaningful amount of food that can effectively feed your family is incredibly difficult, even if you have a little bit of land, like even growing enough peas so that I have an excess to freeze for my family, and I had peas going in like six locations. It’s difficult. It is difficult to do on your own land. I think what we can do, though, is demand effective governance.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.