Ehec highlights risky consumer habits

Several people in Bordeaux have been infected with E. coli, the bacteria that has recently claimed over 40 lives in Germany. In view of the epidemic we should put more thought into our eating and consumption habits, writes the left-liberal daily Le Monde: "Food has become a veritable industry in the past 50 years. Steaks are 'produced' like car parts. The situation is worrying from more than one perspective. Should we just sit back and accept it? Mass food production and its corollary mass consumption are the hallmark of societies dominated by the fear of never having enough at the risk of having too much. Inevitably, the cogs of our society are closely intermeshed with the conditions of production and consumption, the cornerstone of our system. Anyone who doesn't fit in with this schema deviates from the norm. And if too many people deviate, there is an imminent threat that the system could collapse altogether."

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