Agriculture victim of the killer cucumbers

“The boycott of Spanish vegetables is spreading throughout Europe despite the lack of scientific evidence,” writes Spanish daily El Mundo following a food safety alert caused by the arrival of the E.coli bacteria into Germany. There, it has been responsible for 14 deaths and has infected over 1200 people – to date. As a result, “Spanish vegetable exports have plummeted following unfounded accusations,” the paper says pointing to comments on May 27 by Cornelia Prüfer-Storcks, Health Minister for the Land (Federal State) of Hamburg, who singled out cucumbers from Spain as the source of the spread of the infection. The boycott takes the form of “a European psychosis,” El Mundo says, and claims that five other countries – Austria, Belgium, Finland, the Czech Republic and Russia – “have put a brake on Spanish [vegetable] imports,” although “the EU says this blockade is not justified”. The Madrid paper explains that the Spanish government has already requested compensation from Brussels, “but the damage has been done and it is growing daily”. In the hope of being reassuring, El Mundo publishes a front page photo of Clara Aguilera, Agriculture Minister of the Andalusia regional government, eating a locally-grown cucumber while affirming that “our cucumbers are safe”.