My Week Without Tomatoes

Last week we traveled to visit my sister in Rochester, NY. Along our journey on I-90, we stopped for breaks, really expensive gas, and something to eat. Almost all of the fast food chains in the service plazas had signs posted stating they were not serving tomatoes. This included McDonald's, the king of the I-90 service plazas. Tomatoes were pulled in response to recent cases of salmonella in about 200 people in 16 states. The tomato scare is just another example of one of the many problems in our industrial food system. The tainted tomatoes were likely from one farm in Florida, and yet, restaurants and grocery stores across the country pulled tomatoes out of fear for customer safety. The FDA still has not been able to identify the source. It is scary, but not unbelievable, that tainted fruit from one farm can almost completely shut down consumption of tomatoes in this country. The scare highlights yet another reason to buy locally and support your local farmers. I'm off to the farmers market!