I'm excited that more people garden and farm at home and community gardens. It's fulling to grow and harvest at least some of the food you eat. Whether you buy food at a large supermarket, a food coop, a farmers' market, or grow it in your backyard, the principles of food safety still apply. Food safety matters from the farm, garden, or backyard to the table. It is a responsibility we all share to keep ourselves, families, friends and neighbors healthy and fed.
Organic farmers fertilize with manure instead of chemicals. Eating organic reduces your exposure to chemicals like pesticides. That's great, but it is not without risk. There are microorganisms in fertilizer that can cause foodborne illnesses if foods are not handled properly (check out FightBac! for more info on food safety).
Chickens raised in your backyard are free-range, you know what they eat (as much as you can), and are involved in caring for them. However, chickens carry and transmit microorganisms. Chickens raised in backyards and on small farms carry microorganisms on their feet, in their bodies, and on the egg shells and in the eggs.
The following article was published in Poultry Times. It describes a research study done by agricultural scientists at Penn State to find out if backyard chicken eggs and small farm chicken eggs test positive for Salmonella (the type associated with foodborne illnesses) more often, less often, or as often as chickens from large farms. The result might surprise you.
Eggs from small flocks more likely to contain Salmonella enteritidis - Poultry Today
