You've probably all heard of the Salmonella outbreak related to tomatoes. Hopefully none of you were affected by it. According to the latest stats, there are over 380 confirmed cases of Salmonella poisoning from tomatoes. The FDA has yet to trace the source of the bacterium.

Here's a quote from an article in today's US News:

"The FDA is urging consumers nationwide to avoid raw red plum, red Roma or red round tomatoes unless they were grown in specific states or countries that FDA has cleared of suspicion. Check FDA's Web site -- www.fda.gov -- for an updated list. Also safe are grape tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and tomatoes sold with the vine still attached."

The list on the FDA website shows tomatoes grown in (currently) 40 states, including CA, are safe. But when's the last time you saw a tomato with a return address on it? The most I ever typically see is a "Grown in the U.S.A. label." That means that all those perfectly good tomatoes now have to sit and rot. Can you imagine how badly this is hurting farmers, especially in this day and age, when gas and fuel prices are at record highs?

This is horrific on so many levels! Nowhere in the news do we hear anyone questioning why Salmonella (a bacterium associated with raw poultry and eggs) is on *tomatoes* in the first place.

The bigger problem of course points to the fact that so many of us have virtually no idea about the life cycle of our food. We eat apples from places we've never traveled to without thinking. Conventional food production and distribution requires a tremendous amount of energy—one study conducted in 2000 estimated that ten percent of the energy used annually in the United States was consumed by the food industry (Heller, Martin C., and Gregory A. Keoleian. Life Cycle-Based Sustainability Indicators for Assessment of the U.S. Food System. Ann Arbor, MI: Center for Sustainable Systems, University of Michigan, 2000: 42). As a result, the average American foodstuff travels an estimated 1,500 miles before being consumed.

This especially chaps my hide because tomatoes are *in season* now. Everyone who has a yard space or space for a few buckets of soil could grow their own Salmonella-free, organic, local tomatoes. My sister currently has way more than she can eat, beautiful, sweet, and juicy red.

There's no reason that we have to be powerless in our consumption of food. Think before you buy! I guarantee you, those organic tomatoes at the 31 different farmer's markets around town will be Salmonella free, and taste WAY better than the conventional ones picked while they're still green, and shipped around the world.

www.sdfarmbureau.org/Pages/f...ket.html

We live in the state where 90% of the U.S.'s food comes from. Take advantage and shop locally!