Tennessee : Local tomatoes safe, but growers worry

Area tomato farmers said there is increased demand for their locally grown fruit since reports of illnesses from salmonella-tainted tomatoes first started two months ago.

Some growers with much at stake, however, worry the public scare could mean financial disaster as more cases continue to be reported.

Agriculture officials stress, though, that Tennessee and Georgia tomatoes are safe to eat — or will be.

Most farmers in Southeast Tennessee and North Georgia have just started picking tomatoes or will start in the next couple of weeks, local farmers said. That fact alone, state officials said, ruled both states out as possibilities of being a source of contaminated fruit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports has sickened 383 people nationally.

“This outbreak started before Georgia tomatoes were even on the market,” said Arty Schronce, spokesman for the Georgia Department of Agriculture. “Our tomatoes are safe and delicious to eat.”

Tennessee Department of Agriculture spokesman Tom Womack said the same is true for Tennessee tomatoes, which should begin to ripe and be ready for harvest early next month.

“With some of these cases coming in April, that certainly eliminated Tennessee,” Mr. Womack said.

And the U.S. Food & Drug Administration Web site lists both Tennessee and Georgia as “safe” states from which to eat tomatoes.

Still, consumers have been leery as media reports of the illnesses first surfaced.

“We have to make sure they are aware they have a safe product in the state,” Mr. Womack said.

BUSINESS BOOMING FOR SOME

Restaurant chains like McDonald’s, Subway and Taco Bell temporarily removed tomatoes from their food after the initial alerts, according to news reports.

Wal-Mart and Winn Dixie — also temporarily — pulled tomatoes from their stores, reports said.

Ken Durham, owner of Durham Farms in Tunnel Hill, Ga., said he was one of the first local farmers to start selling when the first of his crop came in a month ago.

“I’ve sold every one out there,” Mr. Durham said about his crop, which he’s still harvesting.

He said customers know he grows a safe, natural product and he hangs a sign in his food store saying Georgia is a “safe” state.

“They have no concerns,” he said about his buyers.

Paul Gravett, owner of Paul’s Produce in Dayton, Tenn., said when some stores stopped selling tomatoes, he saw many new customers thrilled he had the fresh fruit for sale.

“They’re just tickled to death I have them,” he said. “Our sales haven’t slowed up none.”

The tomatoes he sells now come from safe sources in southern Georgia and Alabama and north Florida, Mr. Gravett said.

People looking for tomatoes will have even less to worry about in a few weeks after his own crop comes in, he said. He grows tomatoes atop Evensville Mountain north of Dayton and said he has 50,000 plants in the ground.

Rock Spring, Ga., farmer Fred Garland sells his tomatoes at farmer’s markets in Walker County, Ga., every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, and said he’s seen demand increase.

“I’m getting covered up because they can’t find them in the grocery stores,” Mr. Garland said. “We’re beginning to get more and more people.”

FEARING FEAR ITSELF

Tomatoes are big business in Tennessee, Mr. Womack said.

Tennessee farmers last year produced more than 116 million pounds of fresh market tomatoes, valued at more than $39.4 million. Some of the largest tomato farms in Southeast Tennessee lie atop Walden’s Ridge near Dayton, Tenn.

Becky Hale and her husband, Frank, have been farming tomatoes on the mountain almost 18 years.

They set out 150,000 plants this year, she said.

Even though their tomatoes will be safe, they fear the scare might hurt their ability to sell to some distributors, which sell to restaurants and grocery stores, Mrs. Hale said.

“This will probably ruin us,” she said. “It’s going to hit us hard. It’s going to slow us down.”

Johnny Jackson, another Dayton Mountain farmer, said the perception the public has might be enough to keep people from buying and doom the big operators.

And the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has still not named a source of the Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak. If people hear someone in Tennessee got sick, Mr. Jackson said, someone might think it was from Tennessee tomatoes.

He knows locally grown fruits and vegetables are safe, and said farmers work hard to keep it that way.

“Our local produce has a good name,” he said. “That’s what we try to maintain.”