EVERETT – Don’t give up on spinach just yet.
That’s a message Washington growers hope consumers will take to heart amid an E. coli outbreak linked to the leafy green. Preliminary investigations point to California-based farms, providing state residents another reason to shop locally. If the scare continues, however, the state’s spinach seed producers could be impacted.
“It could have a tremendous impact on growers,” said Lindsey du Toit, a plant pathologist with Washington State University.
Since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration began looking into the outbreak on Sept. 13, the world’s largest organic produce company, Natural Selection Foods LLC, of San Juan Bautista, Calif., recalled its fresh spinach products, frequently bagged greens. Another California company, River Ranch, also recalled its spinach products.
Although the problem seems to have sprung up in California, some Washington growers, like Brett Blair, are feeling the pinch. Blair manages Willie Green’s Organic Farm in Monroe.
“We’re selling out of spinach at the farmers’ markets,” Blair said.
But that isn’t enough to bolster the farm’s lagging wholesale orders, which make up about 90 percent of its overall spinach sales. Since the E. coli scare began, Willie Green’s has seen its wholesale orders drop off almost completely.
Fellow organic spinach grower Nash Huber has heard stories like Blair’s from others in the industry. Huber, who farms on the Olympic Peninsula and distributes in Seattle, hasn’t suffered a similar fate, at least in part because the farm doesn’t bag its spinach, like many of the recalled products.
At least 21 states, including Washington, have reported a total of 131 E. coli cases connected with the tainted spinach. Two new cases of E. coli in Eastern Washington’s Benton County have been confirmed with laboratory tests, the Benton-Franklin Health District reported.
A prolonged spinach scare could carry over from growers of the leafy variety to spinach seed producers, said WSU’s du Toit. Fifty percent of the nation’s spinach seed supply comes from four Washington counties: Whatcom, Skagit, Snohomish and Island. Typically seed is not susceptible to E-coli, and growers treat the seed, further reducing the likelihood of contamination, du Toit said.
Growers of spinach can prevent E-coli contamination by following simple sanitation practices like providing plants with a good, clean source of water, du Toit said. Field workers picking spinach need to wash their hands with soap and water before handling the produce. Finally, du Toit suggested that growers use only thoroughly composted manure to fertilize fields.
“If it’s only partially composted, it can still have live bacteria in it,” she said.
Organic growers like Huber and Blair don’t use cow manure as fertilizer. In light of the E. coli outbreak, both growers emphasized the benefit of buying produce from small, local farms.
“I’m optimistic that people are going to come around and buy locally,” Blair said.
Reporter Michelle Dunlop: 425-339-3454 or mdunlop@heraldnet.com.
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