SO WHILE EUROPEANS ARE PROTESTING GENETICALLY-MODIFIED FOOD, they’re dying from old-fashioned contamination. “The food-poisoning outbreak in Germany, which has so far sickened more than 1500 people and killed 18, involves a novel kind of Escherichia coli bacterium never seen before. Researchers in Münster, Germany, announced yesterday that the new E. coli is a hybrid of two other disease-causing types.” One that’s being addressed by, ironically enough, genetic-engineering techniques: “The rapid whole-genome sequencing results enabled us to discover within days a unique combination of virulence traits.”

UPDATE: Several readers email that food irradiation — banned in Europe — could have prevented this. Can you irradiate fresh vegetables?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Multiple emails say that you can, indeed, irradiate fresh vegetables.