The Colorado cantaloupe crop that’s linked to 84 illnesses and as many as 17 deaths in 19 states has traveled so far and wide that producer Jensen Farms doesn’t even know exactly where their fruit ended up.
The company said last week that it can’t provide a list of retailers that sold the tainted fruit because the melons were sold and resold. It named the 28 states where the fruit was shipped, but people in other states have reported getting sick.
Seems to me that this story (and the organic strawberry story below) point to an uncomfortable truth in our work: We ALSO need to seriously address food safety in every market, in every town so that the chances of any food scare in our system is minimized. We can do it and we should do it.
Many cities are feeling the pressure from both the entrepreneurs who want to start new businesses and from the restaurants and coffeehouses that see these mobile vendors as competition that are allowed to live without the hassle of the rules of a storefront.
Interesting that Seattle is expanding the area for these trucks, not restricting them.
Today, The Humane Society of the United States and the United Egg Producers announced in a joint statement that they will work together to urge U.S. lawmakers to craft legislation overseeing the living conditions of the 280 million hens involved in U.S. egg production. This would mark the first federal law regulating the treatment of animals on farms.
Helping Farmers Markets Grow 