S P E C I A L R E P O RT

NEWS SERVICE SUMMER 2012

SCRIPPS HOWARD

PICK WITH CARE

FARMERS MARKETS

About the Farmers Market special report

Through phone calls, emails, websites and hand-to-handcalls, emails, websites and strangers are collecting Through phone connections, friends hand-to-hand connections, friends strays, runaways and homeless dogs andstrays, runaways and homeless dogs andthe country. They them to caring cat, then shepherding small, across cat, then sometimes Scripps reporters visited farmers markets, big andthem to caring new homes shepherding in other parts of the country. other parts of the country.

Nathan Winograd callslike farmers Underground Railroad. Its the is fresher fleeing persecution, but not for peop Nathan because calls it not for people and more People say they it the modern markets Winograd the food modern Underground Railroad. Its for dogs and cats escaping extermination. dogs and cats escaping extermination. chain grocery for healthful, a little closer to the source and more natural than the big

stores. But that doesnt mean farmers markets are free of health risks.

Despite the efforts of people like Winograd head of the No people like Winograd Oakland, Calif. Kill Advocacy C While the number of farmers Despite the efforts of Kill Advocacy Center in head of the No 4 markets has nearly doubled in five years to more million dogs and cats are put down every year in U.S.and cats andput downIn the countryU.S. poundsa dogshelters. In t million dogs pounds are shelters. every year in as a whole, and than 7,000, health inspectors are not keeping up. Our spot check of 29 markets in or cat that goes into a shelter has a 50-50 chance of goes into a shelterlet alone finding a happy new home. or cat that getting out alive, has a 50-50 chance of getting out alive, let alone f

pulled health-inspection records and toured markets with trained inspectors.

10 states and Washington, D.C., found nearly two-thirds of the markets had not A been inspected in aNew Yorks Tompkins County, Upstate New for workers to the firsttheir decade ago in Upstate year, and a third lacked in Winograd helped start one of wash no-kill A decade ago even a place Yorks Tompkins County, Winograd helped star communities in the United States. Now, in several U.S. dozen communities, animalseveral U.S. dozen communities, an communities in the United States. Now, in lovers, shelters and hands. are held to a lower standard than other retailers. We found one farmer with a

government agencies collaborate to findgovernment agencies collaborate to find homes or just down have been abando homes for pets that have been abandoned, lost for pets that on Some communities dont inspect farmers animalsto save at leastin percent of the they their luck. The goal is to save at least 90 percent of themarkets at all, andin90 other places animals to be placed in n their luck. The goal is to be placed new homes.

The movementwink selling fresh The movement is growing, too, with dedicating of the effort to 6,700 shelters d nod and a is growing, too, with a majority of the nations 6,700 shelters a majority moreavoid chicken eggs as pet food. The reason? To nations adoption, spaying and neutering and training. Regardless of whether these shelters call Regardless of whether these she adoption, spaying and the health regulations governing food for humans. neutering and training. themselves no-kill, they want to ensure new owners and pets are want to match. Theyowners and in part by good match. They are funded in they a good ensure new are funded pets are a the $1.3 billion donated to more than 4,000 animal welfare organizations.the experience of shopping, donated to more Mostly, our reporters found people enjoying than 4,000 animal welfare organizations.

These are some of the fascinating, and encouraging, findings by Scripps Howard News Service reporter Lee These are some of the fascinating, and encouraging, findings by Scripps Howa to urge his investigation caution you would are changing for the any food have a long way to Bowman inusing the sameof how animal shelters his investigation of how animal for your family. go,for the better Bowman in before choosing better. We shelters are changing though. though. Farmers markets are growing in number because people are looking for fresh,

socializing and supporting local agriculture. We found enough problems, however, local and healthful fare. Lets work together with consumers, farmers, vendors, is as good and safe as it can be.

As Bowman discovered in his reporting,As Bowman discovered in his reporting, everybody loves Fido, but there isnt e everybody loves Fido, but there isnt enough energy, time, space health to rescue everyregulators toor money to rescue the foodin need. experts and pet in need. make sure that every pet at farmers markets really or money

Almost every week, another communityAlmost every week, anotherdo a better job caring forthat it and cats. do a better announces that it wants to community announces dogs wants to The death penalty for household pets has by death penalty for household pets has by no everywhere are The no means been abolished, but good people means been abolished, but goo showing what can happen when love meets determination,happen whenSincerely, determination, organization and m showing what can organization and money: Good animals find love meets good homes. good homes.

Editor & General Manager For more information on this and other For more information on this visit other Scripps investigations, please visit ww Scripps investigations, please and www.scrippsnews.com.
Thank you. Thank you.

Peter Copeland

2 SUMMER 2012 Peter Copeland

Editor & General Manager

Peter Copeland Editor & General Manager

SPECIAL REPORT: FARMERS MARKETS

Scripps reporters investigated conditions at 29 markets in 10 states and Washington, D.C., and found a hodgepodge of regulations, spotty inspection records and questionable sanitation practices.
Shutterstock

CONTENTS
Regulation lags as farmers markets sprout across U.S.
As the number of farmers markets has surged to 7,175 last year, up from 4,385 five years earlier, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports questions arise about whether foodPAGE 4 safety oversight has kept pace.

CONTRIBUTORS
Reporter Carol Guensburg Lead editor Carolyn Cerbin Editorial writer Dale McFeatters Other editors Lisa Hoffman Bob Jones David Nielsen Photo editor Sheila Person Multimedia editor Danielle Alberti

Tips for shopping safely

Consumers should bring a healthy sense of skepticism when PAGE 12 purchasing food.

More markets equals more competition, lower profits

While consumers welcome the surge in the number of farmers markets, the heightened competition has left some vendors with bigger inventories. PAGE 13

Q&A: Food policy is food politics in election year

From farming to marketing, heres what Washington lawmakers PAGE 15 and rule-makers are considering.

Making news across America EDITORIAL: Farmers markets require clean hands, common sense

PAGE 18 PAGE 20

CONTACTS
202-408-1484 www.scrippsnews.com
Scripps Howard News Service is part of The E.W. Scripps Co.

On the cover: A worker arranges summer squash at the Market Square Farmers Market in Alexandria, Va. Gloves reduce the risk of contamination between produce and workers. (SHNS photo by Kris Connor.)

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SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE

Regulation lags as farmers markets sprout across U.S.

BY CAROL GUENSBURG

Scripps Howard News Service

ts peak summer, and across the nation farmers markets sprout in parking lots, bringing together a bounty of worthy interests under many small tents: support for local agriculture, improved nutrition and food access, and community-building in a festive environment.
Yet as the number of farmers markets has surged to 7,175 last year, up from 4,385 five years earlier, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports questions arise about whether food-safety oversight has kept pace. The USDA and the Food and Drug Administration set federal guidelines, with states holding most responsibility for food safety. But jurisdiction over farmers markets and decisions about how frequently to inspect them, if at all falls to a dizzying welter of state or local health or agriculture departments. Overall, there are fewer controls over foods sold at farmers markets than in supermarkets. And a bucolic venue doesnt diminish the risk that pathogens might lurk in those farm-fresh eggs, leafy greens and homemade pickles. In a spot check of 29 markets scattered among 10 states and Washington, D.C., reporters for The E.W. Scripps Co. found that nearly twothirds (18) had not been inspected within a year. And a third (10) lacked hand-washing facilities, a sanitation basic. (The states included Florida, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma,

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SHNS photo by Kris Connor

James Smith (left) weighs a bag of produce at his stand, part of the weekly Tuesday market outside a U.S. Department of Transportation office in Washington, D.C. The federal government encourages setting up markets on its properties throughout the country to promote healthful eating among its employees and the general public.

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Last summer, strawberries sold at some farmers markets in Oregon were contaminated with E. coli, killing one woman and sickening 16 other people.

SHNS photo by Kris Connor

Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Washington.) While Scripps reporters observed mostly well-run markets in which vendors followed food-safety protocols wearing gloves when handling items other than fresh produce, or offering samples with toothpicks they noted some questionable practices. At the Anderson Township (Ohio) Farmers Market near Cincinnati, a vendor stored containers of cream-based pasta sauce in an iceless cooler. A health inspector, accompanied by a reporter, forbade the sauces sale when it exceeded the 41-degree limit by 7 degrees. At the Fort Pierce Farmers Market on Floridas Treasure Coast, a poultry farmer sold fresh eggs labeled as pet food. Linda Hart, owner of Crazy Hart Ranch, later acknowledged doing so to get around a more costly, cumbersome

process for washing, rinsing and sanitizing eggs than the one she uses. I have a feed license to sell pet food, and thats what I sell eggs under, Hart said. The practice is all over the state. Word has spread through farmers: Do this and theyll leave you alone.

Not necessarily better for you

Experts warn that farmers markets wholesome image can lull consumers into complacency. We hear often that the food you get at the farmers market is so safe and better for you ... because youre looking into the eyes of the person who grew it or made it, said Vance Bybee, a food-safety expert with Oregons department of agriculture.

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A vendor reduces food-safety risks at a farmers market with cheese samples in clearly labeled containers set on ice.

SHNS photo by Kris Connor

Hes learned thats no guarantee. Last summer, strawberries sold at farmers markets and roadside stands in northwest Oregon were contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, killing one woman and sickening 16 other people. Investigators traced the outbreak to deer feces at Jaquith Strawberry Farm in Newberg. Though the state requires such vendors to sell only foods theyve produced, we learned that some of those strawberries were purchased and resold four times before they made it to the actual consumer, Bybee said. Every year, foodborne illness sickens one in six Americans, sends 128,000 to the hospital and kills 3,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Few outbreaks are officially linked to farmers markets. But foodborne illness tends to be underreported, es-

pecially when its mild and when the food isnt consumed in one place at one time, said Michael B. Batz, head of food-safety programs at the University of Floridas Emerging Pathogens Institute and co-author of the 2011 report, Keeping Americas Food Supply Safe.

Producer protections
Reducing risk is the stated goal of the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010, which emphasizes prevention over reaction. It gives the federal Food and Drug Administration new power to demand commercial food-safety plans and to recall hazardous foods. Draft regulations are expected later this summer. An amendment to the law exempts small farmers and producers the ones most likely to sell at farmers markets on the premise
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To reduce the risk of spreading disease while cutting produce, vendors should wear gloves but not fabric ones, unless theyre washed after each use.

SHNS photo by Kris Connor

that broad federal regulations might be too expensive or inhibit certain types of farming. The Tester Amendment named for Sen. Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat and organic farmer exempts those who gross less than $500,000 a year, earn at least half their income through direct sales and sell within a 275-mile radius. Included in that category are small-scale, homebased processors of so-called cottage foods, who use local ingredients in products such as baked goods and jams sold directly to customers at farmers markets. Since the laws passage, at least 20 states have enacted their own cottage food laws. Its the one area that states are trying to exempt from food-safety requirements, mostly to promote entrepreneurs, said Doug Farquhar, who directs the National Conference of State Legis-

latures agriculture/environmental health program. Farquhar said theres potential conflict between the new federal law and the cottage food rules of a dozen states: Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Texas, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Most states have approved the home production of items that carry little risk of spoiling without refrigeration, such as preserves, candies and dried fruits. Some states laws are broader. Wisconsins so-called pickle bill lets home canners sell pickles, salsa and other acidified foods direct to customers. Such foods pose a threat if improperly prepared; they must be labeled as made in a private home not subject to licensing or inspection, the law says. Many

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A vendor warns customers not to double dip but ignores the potential risks of reaching into a common container.

SHNS photo by Carol Guensburg

states require similar labeling, as well as training in safe food handling. Those measures arent enough for skeptics like David Plunkett, a senior staff attorney for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a watchdog organization in Washington, D.C. The idea is if youre a cottage producer, you produce very little food, so very few people are going to get sick. Im not sure thats how you want your safety system to operate, Plunkett said. He repeated, with relish, what someone told him: This is whats known as faith-based food safety. Exempting small farmers from the foodsafety law puzzles some in the California-based Alliance for Food and Farming, which represents farms of all sizes. Executive Director Marilyn Dolan said shes spoken with members

who support inspections, just as with a small restaurant: You still get inspected by the health department, and you want to put that sign up. Theyre a bit confused why a small farmer wouldnt want that same assurance to give to consumers.

Growth overwhelms enforcement

Among farmers-market managers surveyed for a 2006 USDA report, only 14 percent reported state-government enforcement of food-safety requirements and just 20 percent reported city, county or municipal involvement, Governing magazine noted in March 2011. Results from an updated survey are expected later this year. Many vendors are concerned and sometimes confused by the myriad and sometimes

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SHNS photo by Kris Connor

Thomas Pearson of Dunhams Produce offers fresh peach samples at the Market Square Farmers Market in Alexandria, Va., reportedly the nations oldest continuously operating market. Pearson also demonstrates proper handling by keeping samples in a covered container, served with toothpicks.

duplicative licensing requirements at city, county and state levels, said Stacy Miller, executive director of the Farmers Market Coalition, based in Charlottesville, Va. Its 561 members represent 3,500 markets in 48 states. The growth in farmers markets can be overwhelming. Ohios experience is emblematic. Theres over 400 markets in Ohio. We dont have the staff to inspect every one annually, said Terri Gerhardt, assistant chief of the state Department of Agricultures food-safety

division and its 15 inspectors. Its just logistics, so we pick and choose. And what we didnt get to last year, were going to try to get to this year. And where weve had issues, were going to try to return. No state inspections were done in four of the eight counties in and around Cleveland from January 2011 through May 31, 2012. Officials in various jurisdictions say they work with farmers and market managers to support agriculture and safeguard consumers.

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mented new safety training for all farms, no In Florida, where eggs sometimes pass matter what size. It sounds kind of corny, but as pet food, the state is working with poulwe say regulation through education, said try producers on a rule change that would acBybee, the state agriculture departments foodknowledge the federal exemptions for small safety specialist. growers while still protecting consumers, said And in southeastern Colorado, where poor Lee Cornman, acting director of the state agsanitation in one cantaloupe growers packriculture departments food-safety division. ing shed led to a Listeria outbreak last summer It would apply to farmers with 1,000 or fewer that killed at least 30 people laying hens. And, instead and sickened 46 others in 28 of requiring small producContributors include: Sarah Buduson states, melon growers recenters to go to the states only of WEWS-TV in Cleveland; Marla ly organized into the Rocky USDA-approved poultry Carter of KJRH-TV in Tulsa, Okla.; Ford Growers Association. Its processing plant, in Ocala, Molly Cassidy and Devon Fasbinder 20-plus members who priit would adjust the equipof WXYZ-TV in Detroit; Mary Conmarily sell at farmers marment requirements to give stantine of the Knoxville (Tenn.) News kets and roadside stands them more, and more afSentinel; Chris Henry of the Kitsap must establish safety policies fordable, options. Sun in Bremerton, Wash.; Hagit and pass twice-yearly state Limor of WCPO-TV in Cincinnati; More markets Eric Pfahler of Scripps Treasure Coast audits and inspections. police themselves (Fla.) Newspapers; Michelle Villarreal As they harvest, theyll of the Corpus Christi (Texas) CallerFarmers markets and attach tracking codes to crates Times; Lynn Walsh of WPTV-TV in industry groups, mindful in the field so they can quickWest Palm Beach, Fla..; and Melissa of rising food-safety conly pinpoint any problems. Yeager of KSHB-TV in Kansas City, cerns, are taking steps to Were going to be able Mo.) educate their members and to trace that cantaloupe to reassure consumers. where it was growing in the For instance, the Farmfield, within a row or two, ers Market Federation of New York this year said Michael Hirakata, the associations presirolled out voluntary food-safety guidelines, dent and a fourth-generation melon grower. calling for measures ranging from increased At his 900-acre farm, hes hired a food-safety hand-washing to restrictions on pets in marmanager as an extra pair of eyes. kets. Also, California growers in May established Last years E. coli outbreak in Oregon, Miller the states first mandatory food-safety program said, heightened awareness among producers directed by a commodity group, the Califorand market managers about the need to really nia Cantaloupe Advisory Board, reported The bolster market policies about the traceability Packer, a produce-industry newsletter. and transparency of products sold at farmers Farmers and producers want to do things markets. right, said Gerhardt in Ohio. They dont think, In Oregon, berry growers this year impleHow can I mess this up and still sell food?

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Experts recommend that markets, growers and producers ...

... Cover up. Shield food from direct sun, rain and other elements with an awning or tent. ... Chill out. Keep meats, seafood, cheeses, eggs and other potentially hazardous foods at appropriate temperatures, in a cooler, fridge or tray with ice. Extra points for a thermometer.

... Protect and serve. Avoid bare-hand contact with most foods other than produce; instead, use gloves, tongs or deli tissue. Keep goodies under plastic wrap, a lid or in a display case. Ditto for samples.

... Keep it clean. Wash or change utensils or cutting boards frequently. Wash hands with soap and water.

... Show and tell. Display the vendors name and address. Processed foods need labels with ingredients.

... Doggone it. Keep Fido away from people food. Some markets ban all animals except service dogs.

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More markets create choices for consumers, challenges for vendors

BY CAROL GUENSBURG

Scripps Howard News Service

he burgeoning popularity of farmers markets nationwide coincides with a push from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and some high-level lobbying. USDA officials will spend roughly $10 million on its Farmers Market Promotion Program this fiscal year, up from $9.2 million last year and $4.3 million in 2010. Launched in 2002 during the administration of President George W. Bush, the program has an advocate in current White House occupant Michelle Obama. Farmers markets further the first ladys efforts to encourage healthful eating and the widespread availability of nutritious, affordable food. While she has specifically called for improved food access in poor neighborhoods, Obama endorsed and helped christen a weekly farmers market near the White House in 2009. Sam Kass, assistant White House chef and a senior policy adviser for the administrations Healthy Food Initiatives, calls farmers markets a beautiful way to connect farmers to consumers. Weve seen time and time again in taking kids to farmers markets that it really opens up

SHNS photo by Kris Connor

At a farmers market near the White House, Stephanie Roseman prepares a sandwich.

their eyes to where their food comes from, he said. They get curious and more open to trying new foods. So I think theyre just absolutely essential. The number of markets has grown from 1,755 in 1994 to 7,175 at the USDAs last count in 2011. But that growth can have its downside for vendors: more competition and lower profits. So says Chris Hoge, who owns Chris Marketplace and sells his seafood products including crab cakes praised by Gourmet and Saveur magazines at the farmers market near

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SHNS photo by Emmanuel Tambakakis

Sam Kass, White House assistant chef and adviser for the Obama administrations Healthy Food Initiatives, often takes school groups to farmers markets or on tours of the White House kitchen garden.

the White House and at several others in Maryland and Virginia. Now farmers markets are in every neighborhood in and near the District of Columbia, he said. You can go to one tomorrow or the next day, all within three or four miles. Its kind of like having a grocery store. With more vendors competing on more days, and consumers limiting their spending, Hoge said other farmers or producers wind up taking inventory home. All my markets are down, Hoge added. Everybodys saying the same thing. Stacy Miller acknowledged she has heard on a limited basis, stories along those lines. Miller heads the Farmers Market Coalition, a Virginia-based national organization with members in 48 states. Such complaints tend to arise in heavily populated metropolitan areas, Miller said, where growth in the number and frequency of

markets can create strain. With new markets opening, and an inconsistent customer base, farmers and producers feel compelled to sell at four or five markets instead of two to earn the same amount of money. That takes time away from production. Success depends on standing out, she added. Certainly, markets and producers that are proactive in terms of quality and food safety are going to have a competitive edge, Miller said, suggesting steps such as informing customers of a safety plan or certification in good agricultural practices. As for USDA spending, a new online program (http://www.usda.gov/maps/maps/kyfcompassmap.htm) offers data on various programs, including farmers markets. Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Compass is a great tool for all kinds of transparency in the departments programs, Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan said.

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Food policy = Food politics

Scripps Howard News Service

Q&A

BY BARTHOLOMEW SULLIVAN

ood policy is food politics in an election year. The future of food is even on the ballot in California in November, when voters will be asked whether producers should be required to label genetically modified food. Its also the stuff of major lobbying campaigns in Washington, where the rules per-

taining to the Food Safety Modernization Act, passed in 2010, are about to be released. And then theres the behemoth farm bill, the legislation that comes along every five years to govern everything from school nutrition and food stamps to crop subsidies and genetically modified crop research.

Q: What is the Food Safety Modernization Act? Who backed it? And will it achieve its mission?

A:

The FSMA was introduced by U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton, D-Ohio, with the intended purpose of shifting the Food and Drug Administration from responding to illnesses caused by contamination to preventing contamination. By the time the bill made it through the Senate, the final House vote was 215 to 144. Just 10 House Republicans voted for it. Curtis Allen, an FDA spokesman, said four large, complex and groundbreaking rules for implementing the measure are under review

but he had no timetable for when they would be final. The law will for the first time give the agency mandatory-recall authority. It will be paid for largely through new user fees paid by the companies now required to register and be inspected by the FDA. Food-industry groups ranging from frozen-food manufacturers to pet-food makers have commended the Obama administration for increasing the FDAs foodsafety budget to implement the new law but
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oppose the user fees that are likely to be passed on to consumers as added costs. Improving consumer-safety laws is critical to ensuring that our families are kept safe from tainted food and products, Sutton said in a statement to SHNS. I look forward to seeing these new rules implemented quickly so that our families will have the peace of mind of knowing that the food they provide their children is safe.

Q: Agricultural subsidies are hotly debated in Washington, with supporters saying

theyre essential to ensure an adequate food supply at stable prices and critics contending theyre a wasteful gift to already-wealthy farmers, sometimes for not growing anything at all. What is different about the approach being taken this

A:

The new farm bill is still a work in progress, but the Senates version, which passed 64-35 in June, eliminates direct payments to farm operations and, instead, subsidizes crop-insurance companies to the tune of $9 billion a year, making insurance the major safety net covering poor yields or falling prices. The Senate bill also cuts the food-stamp program. An amendment that would have allowed states to require labels on genetically modified food was defeated. The House Agriculture Committee approved, 35-11, a five-year bill last week, which included savings of $3.5 billion, including $1.6 billion from tighter food-stamp rules. The bill moves to the full House. As its currently written in both the House and Senate, its basically a pork-barrel giveaway to the agribusiness and crop-insurance industries, said David Murphy, a fifth-generation Iowan and founder of Food Democracy Now, a group opposed to industrial agriculture. He said it doesnt make sense to cut food stamps at a time of record unemployment. On the food-labeling initiative, which the biotech industry strongly opposes as unnecessarily costly but polls show most Americans favor, Murphy says simply: Why have we not

been allowed to find out whats in our food? Any thinking and rational person would want to look at the long-term ramifications that any technology has, especially when that technology is being fed to humans. Recent Reuters and MSNBC polling indicates more than nine in 10 people support food labeling of genetically modified foods, which is required in Europe and most developed countries. Supporters say it is the one means of knowing and therefore rejecting such products as the now-almost-universal genetically modified corn whose DNA has been engineered to produce an insecticide, Bacillus thuringiensis, better known as BT. Labeling would also permit scientists to track the long-term health consequences of consuming such products. Opponents say labeling is a federal issue and should not be left to individual states. Most major processed-food manufacturers use genetically modified plant products and oppose labeling because of its anticipated effect on their brands and sales. There is no clear partisan divide on the issue. On the Senate vote to permit states to pass labeling laws, 27 Democrats voted it down. One Republican, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, voted to permit states to require labeling.

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Q: What should be the role of government in food safety and nutrition?

A:

The federal government has been involved in food safety since at least 1862, when President Abraham Lincoln appointed the first chemist to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In 1906, the Pure Food and Drugs Act passed in Congress. The FDA came into being in 1927. Infant formula nutrition standards took effect in 1980. In 2004, Congress passed the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act requiring that ingredients from allergy-producing foods be listed on product labels. A Pew Charitable Trusts Health Group survey last year asked if the federal government

should be responsible for ensuring that food is safe to eat. It found that 85 percent of all those asked said it should and 11 percent said it should not. But among those identifying themselves as Democrats, 94 percent backed a government role, compared to 77 percent of Republicans and 67 percent of those associated with the Tea Party movement. The same survey of 1,015 likely voters also asked how respondents felt about a 1 to 3 percent increase in food prices to implement new food-safety measures. Seventy-four percent said it would be worth it, while 18 percent said it would not.

Q: Are any of the presidential candidates making food safety an issue this year?

A:

In a word: no. The presumptive Republican nominee, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, has addressed food safety only tangentially, opposing regulations effects on Americans, including what food they buy and how they cook it, according to a campaign policy statement. President Barack Obama signed the Food Safety Modernization Act in 2011. But shortly after taking office, in March 2009, he also created the Food Safety Working Group chaired by

the secretaries of Health and Human Services and Agriculture. In his weekly radio address at the time, he said contaminated spinach in 2006, salmonella in peppers in 2008 and bad peanuts earlier that year reflected a troubling trend he intended to reverse. However, foodsafety issues continue to be a concern. Last summer, poor sanitation in a Colorado cantaloupe growers packing shed led to a listeria outbreak that killed at least 30 people and sickened 46 others in 28 states.
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Making news across America

INDEPENDENT MAIL ANDERSON, S.C.

STANDARD-TIMES SAN ANGELO, TEXAS

NEWS SENTINEL KNOXVILLE, TENN.

TIMES RECORD NEWS WICHITA FALLS, TEXAS

COURIER & PRESS EVANSVILLE, IND.

THE STUART NEWS STUART, FLA. THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL MEMPHIS, TENN.

RECORD SEARCHLIGHT REDDING, CALIF.

CALLER-TIMES CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS

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ABILENE REPORTER-NEWS ABILENE, TEXAS THE GLEANER HENDERSON, KY.

WCPO CINCINNATI WPTV WEST PALM BEACH

KSHB KANSAS CITY, MO.

WRTV INDIANAPOLIS

WMAR BALTIMORE

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EDITORIAL

Farmers markets require clean hands, common sense

With dedicated foodies hounding the public to be locavores, consumers of locally grown farm products, and the health watchdogs urging increasingly obese Americans to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, it is no wonder that the number of farmers markets has soared to 7,175 nationwide, up 17 percent from a year earlier. Even first lady and nutrition advocate Michelle Obama endorsed and christened a weekly farmers market across the park from the White House. The markets range from a farmer selling fresh corn and tomatoes roadside from the back of a truck to summer-long tent encampments at the county fairgrounds. Americans enjoy the markets and the vendors enjoy the interaction with their customers, who tend to become regulars. But just because the fruits and vegetables look good and the person selling them looks like a farmer doesnt make the produce any safer than whats available at a bricks-and-mortar supermarket. Last summer in Oregon, strawberries tainted with E. coli killed one person and sickened 16 others. Natural doesnt equate with hygienic. Mother Nature had contaminated these strawberries naturally, by deer feces. Oregon requires vendors to sell only what they grow, but some of these strawberries were purchased and resold four times before they reached the consumer. As Carol Guensburg of Scripps Howard News Service reports in her look at food safety in farmers markets, an even worse outbreak followed that summer. Cantaloupes tainted with listeria bacteria some of which were sold at farmers markets killed at least 30 people and sickened 46 others in 28 states last summer. The outbreak was traced to poor sanitation in a single Colorado farm. Foodborne illnesses are not just a Third World problem. In the U.S., they kill 3,000 and send 128,000 to the hospital each year. The federal government doesnt have the staff or the funds to do exhaustive monitoring, and its recently tightened food-safety laws exempt small farmers and producers. In the last few years, at least 20 states have introduced or passed legislation that lets individuals sell homemade foods direct to customers yes, at farmers markets often without inspection or oversight. Some states permit the sale of salsas, pickles and other higher-risk items. In other words, government isnt always looking out for you. State and local governments decide whether to inspect farmers markets, how extensively and how often. Farmers-market industry groups are introducing voluntary standards, guidelines and best practices to protect their customers and their businesses. Farmers markets are a welcome, and healthy, supplement to the American diet. But dont be shy about asking questions at your local farmers market. If theyre any kind of farmers, theyll be happy to talk your ear off. And do what your mother told you: Scrub those raw fruits and vegetables, and wash your hands!
DALE McFEATTERS Scripps Howard News Service

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