This is an unfortunate incident. In addition to the human life lost, it's already having a significant impact on businesses and families in the region.
Farmers in the self-proclaimed “Salad Bowl to the World” started plowing their spinach crops under and laying off workers as government inspectors examined fields and packing houses Tuesday for the source of the deadly E. coli outbreak.
And the stigma could remain for an unfortunately long time.
Like so many things in life, you want to believe there's a concrete reason for something. But that's not always true.
After poring over water quality reports, worker hygiene tests and other food safety measures, the inspectors were unable to pinpoint immediately how the bacteria made it into locally grown bagged spinach....it is increasingly likely they will never zero in on the source, said Robert Brackett, director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Sciences.
So in one sense, it's good that there was no obvious irresponsibility to blame. But that doesn't offer much solace to the victims. But the economic impact is also significant.
The absence of any immediate evidence of widespread contamination is good news for the industry, but growers and processors say the scare has already done damage to their products’ reputation, and they are wondering when how long it will take for consumers to feel safe eating spinach again.
Guilt by association is a danger as well.
“If it stays focused on the spinach, it’s still bad,” said Jim Bogart, president of the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California. “Worse-case scenario, where consumers don’t get the message this doesn’t mean all vegetables are tainted, it would be devastating.”
For multi-crop growers though, the work continues.
Spinach was a $325 million industry in the U.S. in 2005, and California produced 74 percent of the nation’s fresh crop and 67 percent of the spinach that gets frozen or canned.
With that market disappearing in a matter of days, some valley farmers were already writing off their spinach crops, plowing the fields under and preparing to plant broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage.
But there is ongoing concern.
The current E. coli outbreak is at least the eighth food-poisoning episode traced to the Salinas Valley since 1995. Local growers were already working with the Food and Drug Administration to improve produce-handling procedures before the multistate outbreak occurred, Bogart said.
This has officials concerned and likely to keep the FDA's nationwide consumer warning in place until satisfactory steps are taken.
The FDA’s Brackett said California growers need to do more to eliminate contamination.
“What we would like them to do is take ownership of the problem,” Brackett said. “The fact that this keeps coming up suggests that whatever has been done is not good enough.”
Losing about a million dollars a day should provide significant motivation.
One thing's for sure. Many folks won't look at their salad the same way for a while.
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