Where the food is fresh
In wake of food scares, farmers markets become more popular
By Dolly A. Butz Journal staff writer | Posted: Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Standing over several boxes brimming with potatoes, Wakefield, Neb., farmer Larry Sherer declared his produce was "fit to eat" Saturday at the Floyd Boulevard Local Foods Market, a unique market that includes a year-around farmers market, retail store and restaurant.
"We washed this stuff as good as we could yesterday," Sherer, an organic farmer, said. "It was muddy. You take it home, you wash it again."
Vendors like Sherer at farmers markets nationwide might be benefiting from food scares as surveys show customers have lost confidence in supermarkets.
According to an online poll conducted by the Food Marketing Institute, an Arlington, Va.-based outfit that does research and public relations for its 1,500 member food retailers and wholesalers, of the 2,307 shoppers surveyed, the number of consumers "completely confident" or "somewhat confident" in the safety of supermarket food has decreased from 82 percent last year to 66 percent.
In February, salmonella was detected in batches of peanut butter at a ConAgra Foods plant. The peanut butter, which was distributed under the Peter Pan and Wal-Mart's Great Value Brand labels, sickened hundreds of people across the country.
Last September, a deadly E. coli outbreak, linked to Dole brand bagged baby spinach, killed three women and sickened more than 100 other people.
Earlina Huffman and James Black of Sioux City visited the Floyd Boulevard Local Foods Market's farmers market for the first time on Saturday.
Huffman said freshness and foodborne illnesses are a concern for her and Black when shopping at the supermarket.
"He wouldn't let me get spinach for a while," she said of Black. "Here, you know where it's coming from."
Black said he frequents farmers markets because of the quality of the food.
"I've always been for farmers markets," he said. "I like it fresh. It tastes so much better. There's not near as much preservatives."
Janna Wesselius of Sioux Center been a market vendor for three years. During that time, she said, she has seen a change in consumer awareness.
"I think people are becoming more and more aware of thinking about where their food comes from," she said. "I think a lot of that is because of the scares that they hear."
Rena Hebda, a producer from Mission Hills, S.D., said her family gets a lot of questions from consumers about how their strawberries, raspberries, radishes, lettuce and asparagus are grown. Hebda's family sells to grocery stores as well as farmers markets. She said the produce they take to both supermarket and farmers market is the same.
"I have found, especially in the last two years, that people question it a lot more than in the past," she said.
Food safety
The Floyd Boulevard Local Foods Market's rules specify standards for the raising of fruit and vegetables and meat products. All products sold at the market are grown naturally, without the use of genetically modified organisms or toxic substances; animal products must be raised humanely.
Market coordinator Dennis Schuett said there is no 100 percent guarantee that you can't contract foodborne illnesses from a farmers market.
"I'm not saying someone couldn't get sick, because we can't keep the deer out of the garden and things like that, but it won't spread out through several states," he said. "It's going to be confined to just a few people, should it happen."
Last year the Iowa Department of Public Health reported 80 percent more cases of E. coli between May and September than other months of the year. According to the health department, there were also 68 percent more cases of shigellosis, 63 percent more cases of campylobacteriosis and 35 percent more cases of salmonellosis during that time. All of those illnesses can be caused by food that has been improperly handled or prepared.
Chuck Cipperley, director of environmental services for Siouxland District Health, said the county has a normal number of E. coli and salmonella cases each year. The cause of those cases, he said, can't always be determined.
"A lot of times you investigate that and you really can't pinpoint it," he said. "Especially if you get one case. Now when you get several cases like the spinach, where there's a lot of people sick, it's easier to track it back and find out what caused them."
To prevent foodborne illnesses, Cipperley said, any vegetable that comes into contact with the ground must be washed, ground beef should be cooked well done and steaks should be browned on the outside.
"Any type of cooking process will mostly kill these microorganisms," he said.
Wesselius said her family takes great care when harvesting and preparing produce for sale. They wash their hands before picking, don't go into the fields if they are sick and consistently wash all surfaces, utensils and containers that come into contact with their produce.
"We do it outside with a garden hose and a sprayer, but we do it on a clean surface," she said. "We use clean containers. When we come home from the market every week the containers get washed out."
Market patron Mike Jennings of Sioux City said he doubts whether the food sitting under the open air tents of the farmers market is safer than the food lining grocery store aisles.
"I don't know if it's safer," he said. "I wouldn't say that. To me, it's just more fresh."
A stake in their food
A metal piece fastened to Larry Sherer's neck marks the spot where a permanent tracheotomy tube was inserted many years ago.
When he was 19, Sherer, now 70, was doused with a chemical when an airplane flew over his father's cornfield.
"I didn't know it was going to hurt me," he said.
It took 10 years for the chemical to seep into Sherer's system. He ended up at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., where he was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, a chronic disorder characterized by weakness and rapid fatigue of voluntary muscles.
At that time, Sherer couldn't comb his hair, talk, swallow or hold his head up.
"It was terrible," he said.
Today, Sherer farms 30 acres with his wife, Karen. He does not use pesticides or chemicals on any crops.
"We're not certified organic, but we're organic as anyone else," Sherer said pointing to the metal piece. "I've got proof in my throat to show that."
On Saturday, Gayle Gill of Sioux City, carrying a bag filled with spinach and cabbage, said she planned on buying more at the farmers market. Gill said she wasn't worried about avoiding foodborne illnesses as much as avoiding chemicals.
"I don't really think about that," she said. "I'm more here for organic. I don't want chemicals and stuff."
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 76 million people get sick, more than 30,000 are hospitalized and 5,000 Americans die each year from foodborne illnesses.
What can consumers do to protect themselves from foodborne illnesses?
-- Cook meat, poultry and eggs thoroughly.
-- Separate. Don't cross-contaminate one food with another.
-- Chill. Refrigerate leftovers promptly.
-- Wash produce. Rinse fresh fruits and vegetables in running tap water to remove visible dirt and grime.
-- Report suspected foodborne illnesses to your local health Department.
Source: CDC
"We washed this stuff as good as we could yesterday," Sherer, an organic farmer, said. "It was muddy. You take it home, you wash it again."
Vendors like Sherer at farmers markets nationwide might be benefiting from food scares as surveys show customers have lost confidence in supermarkets.
According to an online poll conducted by the Food Marketing Institute, an Arlington, Va.-based outfit that does research and public relations for its 1,500 member food retailers and wholesalers, of the 2,307 shoppers surveyed, the number of consumers "completely confident" or "somewhat confident" in the safety of supermarket food has decreased from 82 percent last year to 66 percent.
In February, salmonella was detected in batches of peanut butter at a ConAgra Foods plant. The peanut butter, which was distributed under the Peter Pan and Wal-Mart's Great Value Brand labels, sickened hundreds of people across the country.
Last September, a deadly E. coli outbreak, linked to Dole brand bagged baby spinach, killed three women and sickened more than 100 other people.
Earlina Huffman and James Black of Sioux City visited the Floyd Boulevard Local Foods Market's farmers market for the first time on Saturday.
Huffman said freshness and foodborne illnesses are a concern for her and Black when shopping at the supermarket.
"He wouldn't let me get spinach for a while," she said of Black. "Here, you know where it's coming from."
Black said he frequents farmers markets because of the quality of the food.
"I've always been for farmers markets," he said. "I like it fresh. It tastes so much better. There's not near as much preservatives."
Janna Wesselius of Sioux Center been a market vendor for three years. During that time, she said, she has seen a change in consumer awareness.
"I think people are becoming more and more aware of thinking about where their food comes from," she said. "I think a lot of that is because of the scares that they hear."
Rena Hebda, a producer from Mission Hills, S.D., said her family gets a lot of questions from consumers about how their strawberries, raspberries, radishes, lettuce and asparagus are grown. Hebda's family sells to grocery stores as well as farmers markets. She said the produce they take to both supermarket and farmers market is the same.
"I have found, especially in the last two years, that people question it a lot more than in the past," she said.
Food safety
The Floyd Boulevard Local Foods Market's rules specify standards for the raising of fruit and vegetables and meat products. All products sold at the market are grown naturally, without the use of genetically modified organisms or toxic substances; animal products must be raised humanely.
Market coordinator Dennis Schuett said there is no 100 percent guarantee that you can't contract foodborne illnesses from a farmers market.
"I'm not saying someone couldn't get sick, because we can't keep the deer out of the garden and things like that, but it won't spread out through several states," he said. "It's going to be confined to just a few people, should it happen."
Last year the Iowa Department of Public Health reported 80 percent more cases of E. coli between May and September than other months of the year. According to the health department, there were also 68 percent more cases of shigellosis, 63 percent more cases of campylobacteriosis and 35 percent more cases of salmonellosis during that time. All of those illnesses can be caused by food that has been improperly handled or prepared.
Chuck Cipperley, director of environmental services for Siouxland District Health, said the county has a normal number of E. coli and salmonella cases each year. The cause of those cases, he said, can't always be determined.
"A lot of times you investigate that and you really can't pinpoint it," he said. "Especially if you get one case. Now when you get several cases like the spinach, where there's a lot of people sick, it's easier to track it back and find out what caused them."
To prevent foodborne illnesses, Cipperley said, any vegetable that comes into contact with the ground must be washed, ground beef should be cooked well done and steaks should be browned on the outside.
"Any type of cooking process will mostly kill these microorganisms," he said.
Wesselius said her family takes great care when harvesting and preparing produce for sale. They wash their hands before picking, don't go into the fields if they are sick and consistently wash all surfaces, utensils and containers that come into contact with their produce.
"We do it outside with a garden hose and a sprayer, but we do it on a clean surface," she said. "We use clean containers. When we come home from the market every week the containers get washed out."
Market patron Mike Jennings of Sioux City said he doubts whether the food sitting under the open air tents of the farmers market is safer than the food lining grocery store aisles.
"I don't know if it's safer," he said. "I wouldn't say that. To me, it's just more fresh."
A stake in their food
A metal piece fastened to Larry Sherer's neck marks the spot where a permanent tracheotomy tube was inserted many years ago.
When he was 19, Sherer, now 70, was doused with a chemical when an airplane flew over his father's cornfield.
"I didn't know it was going to hurt me," he said.
It took 10 years for the chemical to seep into Sherer's system. He ended up at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., where he was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, a chronic disorder characterized by weakness and rapid fatigue of voluntary muscles.
At that time, Sherer couldn't comb his hair, talk, swallow or hold his head up.
"It was terrible," he said.
Today, Sherer farms 30 acres with his wife, Karen. He does not use pesticides or chemicals on any crops.
"We're not certified organic, but we're organic as anyone else," Sherer said pointing to the metal piece. "I've got proof in my throat to show that."
On Saturday, Gayle Gill of Sioux City, carrying a bag filled with spinach and cabbage, said she planned on buying more at the farmers market. Gill said she wasn't worried about avoiding foodborne illnesses as much as avoiding chemicals.
"I don't really think about that," she said. "I'm more here for organic. I don't want chemicals and stuff."
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 76 million people get sick, more than 30,000 are hospitalized and 5,000 Americans die each year from foodborne illnesses.
What can consumers do to protect themselves from foodborne illnesses?
-- Cook meat, poultry and eggs thoroughly.
-- Separate. Don't cross-contaminate one food with another.
-- Chill. Refrigerate leftovers promptly.
-- Wash produce. Rinse fresh fruits and vegetables in running tap water to remove visible dirt and grime.
-- Report suspected foodborne illnesses to your local health Department.
Source: CDC
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