Enjoy fresh, organic greens grown by your favorite local farmer while you can. In an effort to prevent tragedies such as last year's E. Coli 0157 contamination of spinach in California, the United States Department of Agriculture is considering implementing a new set of rules that may put him-and thousands like him-out of business.
Last week, the USDA ended the public comment period on a national set of handling standards for greens. While no one wants potentially fatal E. Coli in their salad bowls, small-scale, sustainable growers fear that a nationwide, one-size-fits-all policy would inevitably be tailored for the so-called fresh-cut processing industry-the powerful agribusinesses responsible for those sealed bags of prechopped lettuce and spinach on supermarket shelves.
David Runsten of the Community Alliance with Family Farms (CAFF) said that such a policy "will unnecessarily drive traditional leafy green growers out of business. All farmers should follow safe practices, but traditional, whole leafy greens should not be in the same category as processed, bagged greens."
Indeed they shouldn't: CAFF research shows that big processors, not independent little guys, were responsible for 98.5 percent of E. Coli outbreaks in California vegetable patches.
Shrimply Marvelous
Last week, Oregon's pink shrimp fishery became the first shrimp fishery
anywhere to be deemed sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), generally recognized as the
most respected and strictest seafood certification organization.
Other wild shrimp fisheries are plagued by problems related to by-catch (unwanted aquatic animals that are tossed back into the water dead) and damage caused by their nets to the ocean floor. Farmed shrimp are responsible for coastal pollution, loss of vital mangrove habitat, and are often contaminated with pesticides and residual drugs.
Oregon pink shrimp are small (cocktail-sized) but sweet and tasty. The fishing season runs from April through October, but they are available frozen year round.
Next up: Oregon's dungeness crab industry is currently well into the process of being certified by the MSC.
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