California Tomato Farmers

There is a new standard for how tomatoes are grown: a cooperative owned by California tomato farmers. All members come from a family owned business, which produce the highest quality of tomato. These farmers produce 8 out of 10 tomatoes grown in the state of California. This fills the needs of every food service in North America during the growing season.

The fresh standard is where a consumer picks a California farmers tomato and they can be assured that that tomato was produced under the strictest food safety standards.
There are over 10,000 known varieties of tomatoes; of that, about 3,000 varieties of heirloom or heritage tomatoes are grown in cultivation worldwide. The beefsteak, big beef, big zac, and black cherry are some examples.

The tomato recall in the United States this spring sparked a scare in the consumer, and brought California’s tomato farmer into a state of crisis. Even when the FDA cleared the California tomato crop, the agriculture officials and the farmers alike still worried that the consumer would be reluctant to purchase the tomatoes. The tomato industry was preparing to harvest a bumper crop.

California is the second leading fresh tomato producer after Florida. California’s tomato crop is valued at approximately 400 million dollars. This does not take into account the contribution to California’s economy, which, if the harvest is disrupted, would have a major impact on that economy.

The current tomato crisis is the largest produce scare since the E.Coli-infected spinach grown in California killed three people, and made more then 200 people sick in September of 2006.

As of yet, the source of the tomatoes responsible for 23 people being hospitalized across 16 states has not been identified, though there have been no deaths due to this current situation.