Food safety communications
guru Dr. Doug Powell is warning that the popularity of roof-top gardens on
hospitals carries significant risks.
“There is an increasing
trend in hospital farms,” said Stacia Clinton, the national program director
for Health Care Without Harm’s Healthy Food in Health Care program, which
advises hospitals on ways to provide sustainable and nutritious food.
“There’s a greater demand
now for people to know where their food is coming from, and hospitals are looking
for ways to connect people to their food more directly.”
But Powell warns that “if it’s growing on rooves, birds
–Salmonella and Campylobacter factories – are crapping on the stuff, and
washing does almost nothing.”
He said hospitals should be extra cautious because
many of their patients have compromised immune systems.
