ARIZONA AVENUE — The Center for Disease Control cleared spinach sold at the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market last month, but growers say sales still have not stabilized since the E. coli outbreak grabbed national headlines.
Grocers and restaurants across the country pulled the leafy stuff from shelves last month, when the federal government issued a warning of a possible outbreak of E. coli that is believed to have killed three people and infected a total of 199 people in 26 states.
The CDC announced on Sept. 26 that spinach sold at Santa Monica’s Farmers’ Markets is safe because it is grown outside the three infected regions — Monterey, San Benito and Santa Clara counties.
“We were never really the source or cause of the contamination,” said Laura Avery, the Farmers’ Market supervisor for the city of Santa Monica.
The Farmers’ Market on Arizona Avenue was bustling once again yesterday with shoppers eager to buy fresh greens and sweet fruit. Some growers, such as Jerry Rutiz of Rutiz Farms, said customers still seem uneasy with the thought of consuming spinach.
Rutiz said he never felt his crop was infected and continued to sell the leafy green even after the announcement of E. coli. The farm is located in San Luis Obispo County. Still, he admits spinach sales to restaurants and Farmers’ Market customers have dropped by 50 percent from pre-outbreak levels.
“It’s hard to sell spinach right now,” Rutiz said.
Pati La Pearl, a Farmers’ Market volunteer, took some time on Wednesday to grab a handful of spinach from Rutiz Farms. She said she has no concerns about the spinach.
“Every veggie I buy is here,” she said.
Jaime Farms reintroduced spinach during Tuesday’s market after halting sales for a month. Luis Jaime said he had to destroy the entire crop because there was no demand for spinach.
Jaime said he sold approximately 200 pounds on an average day before the outbreak.
“Today, we’ll hopefully sell at least half that,” said Jaime, adding that the drop in spinach sales has not impacted the business severely since it is a small portion of Jamie Farm’s produce stock.
Weiser Family Farms in Kern County narrowly avoided destroying its crop because the outbreak occurred two weeks before it harvested the spinach.
“It was kind of good timing for me,” said Alex Weiser on Tuesday.
Weiser said his customers seem to be comfortable with the spinach.
Santa Monica resident Daniel Bushnell purchased a bag of spinach and said he never had any concerns about the produce at the Farmers’ Market.
“I try to eat exclusively organically whenever possible,” Bushnell said.
One grower said he will not sell spinach until after the mid-term elections because the outbreak was concocted by the Republican administration as a political stunt.
“I call it the ‘War on Food,’” said Dennis Peitso of Maggie’s Farm.
Peitso said the federal government is attacking organic farming’s “$12 billion a year industry” because it is vulnerable, since it has no “Army or Air Force.”
GREEN GROCERS
Spinach has returned to the shelves of several grocery stores in Santa Monica, including Wild Oats Market and Pavilion’s on Montana Avenue.
Co-Opportunity on Broadway, Mrs. Winston’s Green Grocery on Colorado Avenue and The Farms on Montana Avenue have not reintroduced the item to their stores. Mrs. Winston’s plans to restock the item next week.
“We haven’t gotten the OK to sell it right now,” said Donovan Gordon, manager of Co-Opportunity.
Several restaurants such as Trastevere on the Promenade and Snug Harbor on Wilshire Boulevard still will not serve spinach to their customers.
Temaruata Moncuquet, the manager of Snug Harbor, said she received the safety clearance from the city’s Health Department yesterday and will reintroduce spinach as soon as she learns whether her produce vendor’s spinach comes from the safe regions.
World Cafe on Main Street began serving spinach last week.
Manager Chris Greg said customers had been requesting the spinach for some time.
“We felt it was time to release it back into the wild,” Greg said. “I just ate a bunch myself.”
