"Less meat consumed = less production = less groundwater pollution."

Remember this?

Just in case you weren't informed (I certainly wasn't), VeganBits.com schools us a little:

After feeling all smug and superior about eating vegan these last few months (meat recall here, meat recall there), wham! tomatoes are infected with Salmonella. I wasn't planning on writing a post on this topic because it's all over the place, but today, instead of more stories about who's not carrying tomatoes, and what variety is infected, I read an explanation as to why this is happening. So here is the executive summary of the article I read in New Scientist Magazine.

Bottom line, it appears our groundwater is contaminated with animal feces. The water is used to propagate the tomatoes which then act as an "incubator" for the Salmonella.

• A recent census of produce outbreaks between 1996 and 2007 counted no fewer than 33 epidemics from Salmonella-contaminated fruits and vegetables. In five of them, tomatoes were the culprit. Cantaloupe melons and sprouted seeds, such as clover and alfalfa, were also common victims. Animal pathogens tend to infect only a limited range of plants.

Yikes! And yet another reason not to eat meat! (Less meat consumed = less production = less groundwater pollution.)

Scientists postulate that since fresh vegetables are increasingly packaged and shipped in centralized locations, nationwide epidemics are becoming more prevalent. 

So, our groundwater is contaminated by animal feces, and our crops are being propagated with this polluted water. Well, if we're processing ten billion animals annually for food here in the US, that's a lot of poop to process! It certainly stands to reason that not all of that poop is being processed effectively.