Paper, plastic or bacteria for your groceries?

Since America seems to be following the path to socialism, our way wouldn’t be complete without another contradictory law from the emotional and irrational left.

 

For many years paper grocery bags were used with regularity and preferred by consumers and shopkeepers. Trees are a renewable resource, so there was no guilt assigned to paper bag use. Most people have reused paper bags over the years for many purposes; trash and recyclables, book covers, sturdy wrapping for mailing packages, back-of-the-closet-storage for out-of-season shoes, garden cuttings, and even for fruit and vegetable ripening.

 

When the guilt-inducing tree-huggers invaded the political scene, paper products fell out of political favor and the use of plastic bags was ushered in. In the ensuing years, environmentalists have screamed loudly (again) now that plastic bags are killing aquatic life and filling landfills.

 

So the eco-cool people flooded farmers markets and grocery stores using the new, chic, cheap, reusable, enviro-friendly shopping bags, made in Asia and transported all the way to the US of cloth, nylon or synthetic fiber.

 

But wait! The eco-friendly bags may not be so human-hygiene friendly. There are disturbing reports coming out of Canada that the eco-friendly shopping bags are Petri dishes of disgusting bacteria.

 

A study done In November 2008 in Toronto by Dr. Richard Summerbell, Ph. D. who served as the Chief of Medical Mycology for Ontario Ministry of Health,using swab testing of reusable shopping bags was undertaken.

 

It found that there was considerable bacterial build-up, mold and yeast on the reusable bags, as were significant levels of fecal bacteria. Concluding that the millions of reported cases each year of food poisoning could be from contaminated eco-friendly grocery bags, the use of such bags is at issue.

 

As many local governments are proposing a five-cent per plastic bag tax, this data suggests that the left hand does not know (or care) what the right hand is doing – and acting politically correctly instead of intelligently. The test findings clearly support concerns that reusable grocery bags can become a gross active microbial habitat and a breeding ground for bacteria, yeast, mold and fecal bacteria.

 

This study provides strong evidence that reusable bags could and in many cases do pose a significant risk to the safety of the food supply. The possible cross contamination of food placed in bags contaminated by previous use in successive trips, as well as transfer of contaminants in the check-out packing process from one bag to another including the potential contamination of the more sanitary single-use plastic shopping bags and other first-use carry bag options.

 

This could also be a cause for concern for grocery checkout clerks, who may, without realizing it, be transferring bacteria from one shopper’s bag to the next, as well as contaminating themselves.

 

Before you throw out your cool eco-friendly bags, you may want to relegate them to just one use – after a good bleaching. Or, you could support the continued use of the sensible plastic bags, sans five-cent tax per bag, and reuse them for household and garden trash, as most people already sensibly do.

 

It doesn’t take a politically correct politician to figure out that the Lefties are again conflicted in their thinking over the reusable bag issue.

 

What would the granola-crunchers at the Food-Coop say if they knew that their chic, cool, eco-friendly bags are contaminating their heirloom tomatoes, vegan sandwiches, and tofu?

 

Katy Grimes is a long-time political activist and columnist, a “Crunchy Conservative” and a member of her local food coop.