Growers Modify Practices to Prevent E. Coli Outbreaks

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• SPENCER MICHELS, NewsHour Correspondent:

  In California's Salinas Valley, spinach is being harvested again, after an outbreak of a virulent strain of E. coli bacteria that killed three people and made more than 200 sick across the country.

  But the impact of that scare on produce-growers in this lush valley, 100 miles south of San Francisco, remains, as they struggle to recover from economic loses and figure out ways to prevent more outbreaks. Their backs against the wall, growers also must convince consumers that spinach is safe to eat.

  The crop is a major component of 85 separate vegetables grown in what's called the nation's salad bowl, a $3-billion-a-year industry. Joseph Pezzini is chairman of the local Growers-Shippers Association and an executive at Ocean Mist Growers.

  JOSEPH PEZZINI, Grower-Shipper Association of Central California: We're down to 30 percent or 40 percent of what normally we'd be selling this time of year for spinach. But it's also had an effect on all the bagged products and some of the other lettuce products. I mean, it's rocked the produce industry. This is very serious.

• SPENCER MICHELS:

  Within a few days of the outbreak, state and federal investigators were in the field trying to track the source of the bacteria, checking processing plant records, fields, rivers and nearby cattle ranches.

  Samples were brought back to this California state lab in Richmond, where manure and other specimens were, and still are, being tested for E. coli. The bacteria is extremely prevalent in nature, especially in the intestines of mammals. Out of thousands of strains, about 100 are considered toxic.

  Kevin Riley ran the investigation for the state.

  KEVIN RILEY, California Department of Health Services: We actually had it narrowed down to nine farms or ranches that could have supplied this product within about a week to nine days time. That was very fast.