it is a trade off, but organically produced food is safer according to this
report......

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31766160...h-food_safety/

"Avoiding MRSA
Follow these tips to help reduce your risk of exposure to MRSA in meats:
Shop smarter
Look for the USDA organic seal. Organic meat might be less likely to have
antibiotic-resistant or disease-causing organisms, as the animal hasn't been fed
antibiotics, hormones to promote growth, or animal by-products. Other labels, such as
no antibiotics added, are not verified by independent testing.
Log on to eatwellguide.org to search for listings of stores and restaurants that
offer no-antibiotic-use, grass-fed, or organic meats.
Stock up on nonmeat protein sources such as beans, lentils, and tofu and swap them in
for meat now and then. Visit prevention.com/veggies for recipe ideas. "

"You may not have the same close contact with meat that a processing plant worker
has, but scientists warn there is reason for concern: Most of us handle meat daily,
as we bread chicken cutlets, trim fat from pork, or form chopped beef into burgers.
Cooking does kill the microbe, but MRSA thrives on skin, so you can contract it by
touching infected raw meat when you have a cut on your hand, explains Stuart Levy,
MD, a Tufts University professor of microbiology and medicine. MRSA also flourishes
in nasal passages, so touching your nose after touching meat gives the bug another
way into your body, adds Smith.

Tainted meat exposed
Extensive research in Europe and Asia has found MRSA in many food animal species, and
in the past year, US researchers have begun testing meat sold here. Scientists at
Louisiana State University Agricultural Center tested 120 cuts of locally purchased
meat and found MRSA in 4 percent of the pork and 1 percent of the beef. A University
of Maryland scientist found it in 1 out of 300 pork samples from the Washington, DC,
area. And a study in Canada (from which we import thousands of tons of meat annually)
found MRSA in 9 percent of 212 pork samples. The percentages may be small, but
according to the USDA, Americans eat more than 180 million pounds of meat every day.
"When you consider the tiny size of the meat studies, the fact that they found any
contamination at all is amazing," says Steven Roach, public health program director
for Food Animal Concerns Trust.

In some cases, the tainted meat probably came from infected animals; in others,
already infected humans could have passed on MRSA to the meat during processing.
Regardless of where it originated, even a small proportion of contaminated meat could
mean a tremendous amount of MRSA out there. "We need more US research to figure out
what's going on," says Roach."

Somewhere between zone 5 and 6 tucked along the shore of Lake Michigan
on the council grounds of the Fox, Mascouten, Potawatomi, and Winnebago