Dodd Harris links to a series of 20 questions for people dreadfully frightened of “frankenfood.” My favorite:

Q19 – Anyone for eating a food product that is the most likely to be contaminated with E. coli 0157:H7 and salmonella? The Emerging Infections Program of the Centers for Disease Control estimated that 20,000 people in North America contracted salmonella from consuming this food product in 1995 (JAMA 1999, Van Beneden et al 1999, Beuchat and Ryu 1997, and Tauxe 1997).

A19 – Hold those raw alfalfa sprouts, as there is no certain way of eliminating contaminants except by irradiation, which is unacceptable to the purists. In addition, alfalfa sprouts contain a highly toxic substance called canavine.

There’s always water, but I suppose there’ll be something objectionable to speak up against about it as well.

Natural selection in action, dear friends.