Am I Missing Something?

During the recent outbreak of E. coli that was traced to some contaminated spinach, I kept waiting to hear someone say ” be sure and wash any spinach thoroughly before you eat it.” I never heard that in any broadcast nor did I read it in any article. Instead I heard of a FDA ban on all spinach. Now I don't know much about biology and I don't keep up with medicine, but I thought that E. coli was a bacteria and that bacteria could be removed with sufficient washing. I was also under the impression that if you are cooking something, bringing the temperature to over 140 degrees kills bacteria. Has that changed? Is there some new strain of E. coli that can no longer be washed off or killed?

Eventually it was determined that the spinach in question had been contaminated by cow manure from a pasture near the field where the spinach was grown. What that tells me is that the spinach in question had cow manure on its surface. If it had been thoroughly washed would that not have removed the cow manure and the E. coli?

I remember when I was growing up my grandfather Kelley had one of the best gardens in Pentonville. My father always said it was because my grandfather put lots of cow manure in his garden. I realize that the manure he was using had been composted and that composting kills a lot of the bacteria. Also he plowed it into the garden so it was covered by soil and was not as likely to come in contact with the plant leaves. But, I also remember that anything he brought in from the garden was triple washed at the faucet in the yard and then washed again in the kitchen. I'm guessing that all that washing was the reason none of us got ill from eating vegetables from his garden.

Why has no one from the media or the FDA brought up the importance of washing, or am I missing something?