Almond sales unhurt by salmonella recall

The Sacramento Bee ^ | Tuesday, June 8, 2004 | Loretta Kalb

[hedgetrimmer]

Some raw nuts are pulled off market, but growers still foresee high demand.

Retailers and almond growers don't expect the public's appetite for the little brown nuts to be spoiled by reports that consumption of some raw almonds has been linked to 29 cases of salmonella poisoning.

Almonds rank as the state's leading agricultural export. The state's growers produce virtually all the almonds consumed in the United States and roughly 80 percent of the world's demand.

Last year, that amounted to 1.1 billion pounds. The salmonella poisoning has been linked to just a tiny sliver of that crop, 13 million pounds distributed by Kern County's Paramount Farms. The nuts have been recalled. The growers, numbering 6,000 in California, say they are working to ensure public trust in the safety of their product. The industry has marketed almonds as a healthy snack alternative that can lower cholesterol and provide significant amounts of vitamins and minerals such as magnesium, vitamin E and potassium.

"A problem with the health and safety of our product is far more important than other issues we confront farming," said Dan Cummings of Cummings-Violich Inc., growers based in Chico. "The integrity of our product has to be first and foremost.

"I think we're doing a good job," he added. "We now know we need to do more ... to prevent this from ever occurring again."

Historically, growers say, they have seen strong demand and expect that to continue with the harvest, which starts in August. Right now, they're awaiting detailed analysis of this summer's harvest before they seriously entertain price bids.

"The price of almonds has not much changed in the last three weeks," said Cummings, whose family has grown almonds since the 1920s. "Everybody is waiting for the (production) forecast (later this month). So they (growers) haven't responded to offers.

[hedgetrimmer]

They're still not saying how the almonds got contaminated. But it appears that they have isolated to a couple of hullers, and some soil in an orchard with the bacteria.

Could this outbreak be linked to the sustainable agriculture practice of grazing animals in orchards to put down weeds?

[hedgetrimmer]

The Sacramento Bee posted this article earlier today.

It states salmonella ususally comes from animal contamination and that salmonella bacteria, while not found on any of the almonds tested, was found in the soil of one orchard.

[cherry]

when we were kids, we used to go to this apple orchard, where my mom and we kids had done some work such as picking apples, and the farmer would let us pick up "drops" for our own use...

we picked up these apples that were already on the ground...and unless they were rotten or too far gone, they were all taken to the cider mill...

they were washed lightly, crushed, the jucie drained away to bottles, and whalla'....we had our cider...

. the apples were not scrubbed, were not decomtaminated, were not sterilized, and there was no pastuerization of the cider when we put them in the used milk jugs.....and these apples had been on the ground with all kinds of mice and insects all over them....

Anyone who knows how REAL apple cider tastes knows how wonderful it is...

but it wasn't exactly "safe" now was it...

yet, none of us ever got sick.... these days they would probably arrest my mom and dad for letting us have the stuff.....lol

[hedgetrimmer]

The farmer in your case was probably not allowing animals to graze in the orchard prior to the harvest. This technique of weed control, being promoted by the United Nations agricultural propgram, and assorted United States agencies pushing sustainable development, affects food safety and should be stopped.

Alarmingly, a university organic farming program has been going around farms around here with flocks of geese, telling farmers that if they put the geese in their lettuce fields, the geese will eat the weeds and not the lettuce. This is a United Nations sustainable development weed control technique. However, it puts the farmer and his customer at great risk in that having a large flock of geese walking around your fields eating and defecating can be a great way to infect your crop with e coli.

I have never heard of a case where the United Nations was sued for promoting farming techniques that can make people sick or die, but they should be.

[FairOpinion]

Thanks.

Does that mean I can go out and buy raw almonds now?

[hedgetrimmer]

Yes, I think so.