Tomato biz squashed; Congress should help

| The New Mexican

7/14/2008 - 7/14/08

We've had the summers of hamburger-wariness and spinach botulism; this one will go down in the annals of consumerism as the season of the tomato scare, even as feckless American officialdom broadens its concerns into jalapeño peppers, or maybe serranos. Or is it cilantro, the stuff that, to some tongues, gives tacos a tinny taste? How 'bout certain salsas?

Could it have been where the produce was stored?

Something has made a thousand people sick during the last few months; salmonella of a rare strain seems to be what did it. Tomatoes, fresh ones, from who-knows-where took most of the blame, and government agencies who are tax-paid to spare us from bad food have been ducking it. It's all just too complex, comes the hand-wringing from the bureaucracy, while produce growers wonder aloud which — if any — of their stuff did or is doing the damage.

Little by little, the round red fruit is coming back — but darn little of it showed up on burgers last weekend, and here our country is in the middle of salad season ...

Growers in some states lessened their losses by letting tomatoes rot in the fields, grumbling all the while about the government letting them down.

Congress, with most of its seats up for election in November, proclaims itself on the job — mainly by way of a measure allowing the Food and Drug Administration to order recalls of contaminated food.

But that's an after-the-tummyache provision unlikely to make the food-poisoned folks in 40 states feel much better, or their fellow Americans to take much confidence in what they partake of. That lack of confidence can be bad for business.

There's a way to rebuild that confidence: Technology exists that tracks produce from the fields where it's picked all the way to the family fridge — mainly through use of information-loaded stickers. A few companies already do it. Many others are dragging their feet. They need a nudge from the FDA, but that isn't likely, for now, anyway.

So Congress must act.

Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette, who was able to get the recall provision adopted, wants traceability as well.

We think she's onto a politically popular notion — one her colleagues, Democratic and Republican alike, should recognize as the vote-getter it would be.

Northern New Mexico Democrat Tom Udall, we can guess, is behind the proposal, but it shouldn't be a partisan issue. Consumer confidence should be of great interest to Republicans — even those who, in the face of the tomato scare, brag about our nation's food supply being the world's safest, or something jingoistic like that.

A lot of safe growers have taken a beating — one that could have been avoided. The whole industry should be climbing the backs of their senators and representatives, getting traceable produce onto the statute books.