YUMA – Around the lettuce and spinach fields in Yuma, growers are chopping down trees, bulldozing abandoned houses and even digging out cactuses.
They are chasing away people who tromp through their fields: those who help themselves to produce, children who take a shortcut to school and especially those who walk their dogs.
Since a September 2006 E. coli outbreak tied to California spinach that killed three and sickened about 200 people in 26 states, produce growers and shippers, first in California and now in Arizona, have adopted strict standards designed to keep the fields as clean as they can.
“There is a lot more focus on food safety, especially in leafy greens,” said Paul Muthart, general manager of the 8,000-acre Pasquinelli Produce Co. in Yuma. “The market is definitely changing, and people want to know that the lettuce and spinach they buy is safely guarded.”
For about five months every year, the Yuma area produces an estimated 80 percent or more of the nation’s lettuce, spinach and other leafy produce because it has the acreage and the climate. In the summer, most of the nation’s leafy greens come from California. more….
January 11, 2008
US-AZ-Arizona Republic-Farmers ratchet up efforts to keep crops clean
YUMA – Around the lettuce and spinach fields in Yuma, growers are chopping down trees, bulldozing abandoned houses and even digging out cactuses.
They are chasing away people who tromp through their fields: those who help themselves to produce, children who take a shortcut to school and especially those who walk their dogs.
Since a September 2006 E. coli outbreak tied to California spinach that killed three and sickened about 200 people in 26 states, produce growers and shippers, first in California and now in Arizona, have adopted strict standards designed to keep the fields as clean as they can.
“There is a lot more focus on food safety, especially in leafy greens,” said Paul Muthart, general manager of the 8,000-acre Pasquinelli Produce Co. in Yuma. “The market is definitely changing, and people want to know that the lettuce and spinach they buy is safely guarded.”
For about five months every year, the Yuma area produces an estimated 80 percent or more of the nation’s lettuce, spinach and other leafy produce because it has the acreage and the climate. In the summer, most of the nation’s leafy greens come from California. more….
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