Manure is widely used as a fertiliser for non-organic food as well. And there's no need for the scare quotes, because using manure is perfectly congruent with organic farming.
The manure is also applied before seeding, months before harvest. Together with rinsing, and sometimes peeling or boiling, there's really no need for the scaremongering.
If you want to be afraid of faeces, manure is the least of your problems. Foxes and other wild animals shit on every field, and they often carry parasites.
"Foxes and other wild animals shit on every field, and they often carry parasites."
I've wondered about this. Fox tapeworm is very common (30% of all foxes in many areas in North-West Europe carry it last time I checked) and (the scary part) for humans, it can cause lethal liver failure 10 years after infection. Not 'lethal' is in 'flu lethal' - like 'might cause you to die in specific circumstances, when untreated, and when you were unhealthy already anyway' - but rather 'will certainly kill you in a painful way, very difficult to diagnose, no known effective treatment'.
So the advise is 'don't eat berries or mushrooms that grow in the wild below waist height'.
However, many/most fruit farms have fruit growing at that height, and the standard cleaning procedures don't remove worms (e.g. vaccinium isn't washed at all, too fragile). I know for a fact foxes (sometimes) enter these farms, I've seen some with my own eyes. How does this work from an epidemiological point of view? When devising health warnings, are there separate measurements for incidents caused by fruit picked in the wild, and from farms? Or is this just one of those things where everybody shrugs and says 'we don't have a better solution' and hope for the best?
On the off chance anyone doing epidemiology research is reading this, this sort of situation must be common; how is that dealt with?
Very large-scale modern farming is done with manure.
I used the scare quotes because "organic" food is basically just a giant scam. Plants don't actually care if their nitrogen comes from manure or from anhydrous ammonia. Really.
Missing word above. I meant to say "very LITTLE large-scale modern farming is done with manure", but did not notice until after the editing time had expired.
The manure is also applied before seeding, months before harvest. Together with rinsing, and sometimes peeling or boiling, there's really no need for the scaremongering.
If you want to be afraid of faeces, manure is the least of your problems. Foxes and other wild animals shit on every field, and they often carry parasites.