Eager to capitalize on news of the day, Mary Forstbauer, an organic farmer in Chilliwack, B.C. who sells beef at farmer’s markets across Metro Vancouver, told News1130 E. coli is not as common in organically-raised cattle.

"Cows are meant to eat grass, not grains. Quite often, when they have a diet of grain, that causes their intestine to produce bacteria that’s not natural — which is the E. coli — and that would then contaminate some of the meat products.”

Just because this nugget has been repeated and amplified amongst foodies and on the Internet since 1998 doesn’t make it true.

E. coli happens. In ruminants. Like cattle.