Californian farmers committing agricultural suicide

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=2709899

By GARANCE BURKE

FRESNO, Calif. Dec 8, 2006 (AP)- An E. coli outbreak that has
sickened nearly five dozen people in the Northeast is prompting concern
among West Coast farmers after officials announced that scallions
suspected as carriers of the bacteria came from a Southern California
farm.

The green onion link to the infections mostly of customers at Taco Bell
restaurants in the New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia areas hasn't
been confirmed. But some experts say the questions already have cast a
shadow on an industry still recovering from a similar bacterial
outbreak traced to locally grown spinach.

"Even if it turns out that the implication to green onions doesn't hold
up, a lot of damage is done," said Trevor Suslow, a vegetable
specialist at the University of California, Davis. "It certainly
heightens concern and undermines confidence among consumers and buyers
about the safety of products coming from the state."

Testing by an independent lab found three samples of green onions that
appeared to have a harsh strain of E. coli.

But FDA spokesman Michael L. Herndon cautioned: "All we have been given
is presumptive evidence only from a contract lab whose results we can't
confirm."

Federal authorities said Thursday there were no plans to issue warnings
about scallions.

Taco Bell, an Irvine-based unit of Yum Brands Inc., told customers that
in addition to getting rid of its green onions from all 5,800 of its
restaurants, it sanitized the affected restaurants and set up a
toll-free number for people to call with concerns.

Ready Pac Produce, the sole supplier of green onions to Taco Bell
restaurants, stopped scallion production at its Florence, N.J., plant,
where the vegetable is washed, chopped and packed.

"As soon as we heard news from Taco Bell about the positive yet
inconclusive results, we took immediate action to do everything we
could," said Steve Dickstein, marketing vice president for
Irwindale-based Ready Pac, one of the nation's leading produce packers.


The suspect scallions were grown by Boskovich Farms Inc. of Oxnard,
Dickstein said.

etc.

*****

How many e. coli outbreaks do these people need to see before they
clean up their operations? The farm owners should be chanrged and
jailed and lose their land. Maybe that'll send a message to the rest of
them to clean up their operations. Or test their produce for e. coli on
site. How hard would that be to do?

TC

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