New labeling system should ID issues faster

Blanket statement condemning romaine wasn’t the right move

Finally, some good news for Yuma County farmers! On Monday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration lifted an embargo on romaine lettuce, allowing crops from our region to be shipped and sold.

Under the FDA’s newest directive, all products containing romaine must be labeled with the harvest date and the growing region.

Last week, the agency issued a blanket warning, telling people they shouldn’t consume any romaine because of an E.coli outbreak, which appears to have originated in California’s Central Coast region.

That blanket warning came at a terrible time for Yuma’s growers, who were just beginning to kick it into gear on local romaine crops.

According to the Yuma Fresh Vegetable Association, local growers laid off crews pending the FDA’s next move, which meant 4,000-5,000 people who weren’t working.

It also meant local crops were sitting in the fields, ready for harvest. That’s essentially money left sitting in a field, a situation no one wants to see. Fresh produce is a $2 billion industry for Yuma County, and warnings such as this one can cripple our growers.

With the FDA’s move on Monday, Yuma growers are back in business, as long as they comply with the newest labeling directive.

The situation is a challenging one. The health and safety of the consumer is the top priority for any grower.

However, a blanket statement warning consumers away from an entire crop is a harsh move as well. Local growers note that these new cases were reported between Oct. 8-31, a week or two before the first harvests from local fields began.

The FDA didn’t distinguish between the dominant growing region at the time and any other regions, which left Yuma growers hanging. Instead of warning people not to eat romaine from a specific region, the FDA chose to condemn the entire industry. And that will leave growers facing an uphill battle to convince consumers that romaine is, in fact, safe to eat.

Our local growers take food safety seriously, but the FDA needs to find a better way to handle fresh produce concerns.

Hopefully, the new labeling system helps remedy that, allowing the FDA to hone in faster when issues arise, thus protecting the industry as a whole moving forward.