Elon Musk Says He Is Going To Mars; FDA Says Do Not Eat Romaine Lettuce.
CABRERA: Welcome back. Elon Musk says he is going to Mars. Well, a 70 percent chance anyway. The Tesla and Space-X founder told "Axios" he thinks he will take a rocket to the red planet. And in as soon as the next seven years possibly even move there. Meanwhile, NASA is headed there tomorrow. It's the first space mission to study seismic waves on another planet and found out what mars is made of. A NASA sideways craft plans to blaze through the Martian atmosphere and land on the red planet's surface, that's if it can land in one piece. It won't be easy. More than half of all missions to mars don't make it safely to the surface. It was one of the biggest headlines during the thanksgiving holidays, do not eat romaine lettuce, and we found out earlier this week that an outbreak of e-Coli across the country now seems to be linked specifically to lettuce in California, this according to the FDA. More than 30 people were sickened in this outbreak. The FDA says it is hoping to create a new labeling system that would require companies to state where lettuce is from and where it's harvested. Vani Hari better known as the food babe and joins me now. Vani, you have studied where our food comes from quite a bit. So how does an outbreak like this happen?</s>VANI HARI, CREATOR, FOODBABE.COM: You know, it's a really serious situation, especially when someone like the CDC comes out and says throw away your romaine lettuce. Do not eat it. And there are so many ingredients in the food supply that harm Americans every single day, but when you when the CDC comes out with a recommendation like this, we want to take it seriously. And unfortunately, lettuce, anything that is raw, unfortunately, cannot be washed off and cannot wash off e-Coli. E-Coli is presented on lettuce and other raw fruits and vegetables by either contaminated soil. You know, E-coli is actually found in animal intestines so it comes through, you know, manure or some type of sewage sludge that gets into the factory farm where the lettuce is being grown, or it can happen with a bird just simply dropping poop on lettuce and it somehow, you know, is contaminated. And then, what's the worst part of this situation is that we do not have a supply chain check and balance in place. Once your romaine is grown and harvested, it has so many different touch points of contamination possible. You know, that romaine is taken to one factory to get washed. Then another factory to get banged put into different bags of lettuce and then combined with other kinds of lettuce. And every single time it gets cut or washed it touches different machinery so there's so many different points of contamination that can happen. And if we don't know where our food is coming from, we can't really trust it. And so that's why when I go out and I buy romaine lettuce or any type of lettuce, I avoid the bag and box lettuces and I really go for like the whole head of lettuce. Now, that's not going to always eliminate the entire risk because, again, e-Coli stays present and alive on raw fruits and vegetables.</s>CABRERA: So you go for the head versus bagged, and that's because it's less processed?</s>HARI: Absolutely, and the touch points are definitely less. You know, one of the things that we have a problem with in this country is we have things grown in one place and processed in another. So we really can't found -- that's why it takes so long for the CDC and other government officials to figure out where these contaminations are coming from and how to contain it without sickening more people.</s>CABRERA: What do you see as the solution in order to prevent the contamination in the first place?</s>HARI: Well, one of the things that we have to just become entrenched with other in America is we need to know where our food comes from, right? We need to make sure that we get it from a source that we can trust. And, you know, that's not going to always prevent 100 percent of disease, but it will prevent some. We also need to reduce the use of growth-promoting antibiotics in our food supply, the things that are given to livestock like chickens and cattle to make them fatter. And what's happening is the overuse of antibiotics is creating superbugs that can't be treated with antibiotics. And so that's another point of contention in our food supply that we real very to pay attention to, so when you are out there choosing to buy meat, make sure it's not raised with antibiotics. Make sure you are going to a fast food chain that has actually decided, you know what, we are not going to sell meat that is raised with these antibiotics.</s>CABRERA: OK. Thank you so much, Vani Hari. Good information. We appreciate it.