Tomatoes: the latest casualty for farmers offered little support following a

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Gumshoeing by the Food and Drug Administration pinpointedjalapeño peppers imported from Mexico as a likely culprit.
This would seem to be good news for farmers like Greg Murray, ofBainbridge, Ga., who grows tomatoes near the Florida border.
But with tomatoes sporting a scarlet letter of sorts, Murray'sbusiness has yet to recover from the scare - even though the FDAsaid within days of the onset that Georgia-grown tomatoes weresalmonella-free.
Murray equated the situation to a "hurricane hitting tomatofarms everywhere."
The lifelong Georgia farmer testified at a hearing before a HouseAgriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug AdministrationAppropriations Subcommittee this week in which representatives tookthe FDA and Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control andPrevention to task, in part, for contributing to massive lossesamong farmers.
"No one is in charge," said the chairwoman, Rep. RosaDeLauro, D-Conn., in an aggressive opening statement directed atthe FDA's David Acheson, associate commissioner for foods.
The FDA investigated potential outbreaks after reports of severalcases of salmonella around the country. The agency conductedstatistical surveys to determine foods, restaurants and grocerystores that may have been shared by infected people.
Acheson contended that the first salmonella infections could havebeen linked to tomatoes - he said no one will ever know - beforethe later infections were connected to peppers.
"I don't think there is any evidence that FDA made anyerrors," he said, explaining that the agency will always erron the side of safety.
Ed Beckman, president of California Tomato Farmers, said thestate's $400 million-a-year industry, second nationally to Florida,might bring in only half that this year.
"There wasn't any conclusive evidence that tomatoes wereinvolved," he said. "We have to have a change of mindset.We need to remove this dark cloud so they can begin to be marketedagain."
Beckman, like Murray, said he was looking into restitution optionssimilar to what a farmer would receive for a natural disaster.
No such restitution has made it through Congress this session.
More than 1,400 people nationwide came down with salmonella, withmost suffering from diarrhea, fever and cramping.
According to the CDC, children and the elderly are most at risk because they are most likely to have the infection spread beyondthe intestines into areas such as the blood or bones. It is inthose stages when the disease can become perilous, although it'srarely fatal.
Tomatoes are just the latest casualty for farmers offered little support following a national health crisis.
The California Department of Agriculture pegs spinach production inthe state at $60 million less than it was before an E. colioutbreak two years ago.
DeLauro called for an overhaul to the federal food regulationsystem. As a preliminary reform, she said she will introducelegislation next week that would split the FDA's food and drugoversight into two independent agencies.
Georgia Rep. Jack Kingston, the senior Republican on the committee,said he was wary of pouring more money into such a project untilconcrete oversight plans are unveiled. He also said the solutionwas in the hands of the farmers.
"The market has served well for food safety," he said,touting the 76 million food-related illnesses per year as ratherlow.
The subcommittee was in consensus that any new approach mustinclude mandatory prevention and traceability of foodcontamination. It took the FDA six weeks to find the link topeppers.
In the meantime, Murray's business - not consumers - ate enoughtomatoes to feed 90,000 people for a year.
In the beginning of June, his workers started picking the new cropof tomatoes, earning the farm $16.63, per 25-pound box.
Murray said the federal government issued a warning the next day,and by the end of the month, he was pulling down $4.35 for the sameamount.
"Right now, there's not much we can do," he said."The tomato market crumbled overnight."
Source: Scripps Howard Foundation Wire