Semmelweis.
Have you ever heard of Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis? Neither have most people, so I included a link. No need to follow it though, cause I’m going to tell you about him anyway. 😊
Dr. Semmelweis was a doctor in the mid-1800s. The mortality rate in the maternity clinic where he practiced was 1 in 10. At the time, conventional medicine called for separate treatment of each symptom. So rather than treating a fever, a headache, and trouble breathing with one method, they would use three separate methods. But still, nothing seemed to work. The women who contracted the disease which came to be known as ‘childbed fever’ died within days.
Dr. Semmelweis became obsessed with discovering why the mortality rate in his clinic was so much higher than the other. The only difference between the two clinics is that Dr. Semmelweis’ was attended by doctors, and the other was attended by midwives. So he standardized everything in the effort to minimize outstanding variables.
After Dr. Semmelweis took a 4-month leave to visit another hospital, upon his return, he discovered the death rate had dropped significantly in his absence. At the time, Vienna General was a research hospital, so many of the doctors split their time between tending to patients and researching on cadavers. Dr. Semmelweis himself spent far more time doing research on the cadavers than the other doctors, and he realized this was the only significant difference between himself and the doctors that worked for him in his absence. From these observations, he developed a theory of childbed fever that became the precursor to germ theory.
Dr. Semmelweis concluded that ‘particles’ from the cadavers and other diseased patients were being transferred to healthy patients on the hands of the physicians. He immediately instituted a policy of hand washing with a chlorine/lime solution before examining a patient. The death rate fell to 1 in 100.
Upon his discovery, Dr. Semmelweis told the rest of the medical community about his science. But his hypothesis that cleanliness is what mattered most was considered extreme, and he was ridiculed by the medical community. He was so outraged by the indifference to his discovery that he sent angry letters to prominent European doctors calling them irresponsible murderers.
Here’s the thing though:
The doctors were doing the best of what they knew with the science they had at the time. They weren’t acting with malicious intent. And Dr. Semmelweis’ science wasn’t proven to the extent that these doctors had been educated and trained.
So, why am I telling you this story?
Because, surprisingly, it has a lot to do with farming leafy greens. 🥬
Leafy greens farmers are highly regulated under both FSMA (the Food Safety Modernization Act) and the CA/AZ LGMAs (Leafy Greens Marketing Agreements). Additionally, most farms are GFSI (Global Food Safety Initiative) certified. All of these regulatory compliance agencies base their standards on the best science available, at this time.
Leafy greens farmers aren’t acting with malicious intent. They are not adulterating your food. Most are just following guidance laid out by science and academic experts. But there are some farmers who go above and beyond the regulation. They take regulation comprised by science and academia and cater it to their specific farms. They are the Dr. Semmelweis’ of farming.
And who is to say who is wrong? Dr. Semmelweis and the doctors of the medical community were all doing what they believed was best based on their education, their beliefs, their experience, and all sorts of other things. Just as farmers today are all doing what they believe is best based on their education, their beliefs, their experience, and all sorts of other things, including the best available science at this time.
Dr. Semmelweis made his discovery in 1847, but it wasn’t until the 1980s when (coincidentally) a string of foodborne outbreaks and healthcare-associated infections led the U.S. CDC to identify handwashing as an important step to stop the spread of infection.
Leafy greens production in California (especially) is probably the most highly regulated crop in the world. We’ve been actively improving our regulation to make leafy greens safer since 2006. Additionally, the CDC didn’t start using whole genome sequencing for foodborne pathogen detection until 2013. So before you make assumptions that industry is not responding to these outbreaks fast enough, I urge you to consider that it took over 100 years for Dr. Semmelweis’ handwashing theory to make it into mainstream medicine.
Lack of science or insufficient regulation is not an excuse for these outbreaks. I’m just simply trying to point out that scientific discoveries take time and so does improving regulation.
But like Dr. Semmelweis trying to convince the medical community, know that there are many farmers out there doing all that they can to prevent contamination from happening. They are going above and beyond the regulation. They are catering the best available science to their specific farms. And they are trying to get the rest of the industry on board.