TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Almost overnight,
9/19/2006

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Almost overnight, the market for spinach has evaporated amid a national health scare, leaving growers nervous as the fall harvest is about to begin.

Associated Press
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FARM_SCENE?SITE=WIMIL&SECTION=BUSINESS&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2006-09-18-02-02-06

At supermarkets, convenience stores and farm markets across the Garden State, one of the nation's largest spinach producers, it has been pulled from shelves thanks to an E. coli outbreak that involves 21 states and has been linked to two deaths.

At restaurants, spinach is off the menu - even frozen spinach, on the advice of the New Jersey Restaurant Association, which wants to avoid confusing diners. In addition to New Jersey, states that produce spinach include California, Arizona, Texas, Colorado and Maryland.

There's been no suggestion that any of the tainted spinach came from New Jersey farmers or processors. Still, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's warning that people avoid eating any fresh spinach products has led to a purge of the iron-rich vegetable here.

Spinach growers, brokers and distributors are worried about the financial impact if the FDA doesn't soon pinpoint the source of the contamination and give an "all clear" to other spinach products.

"I think that spinach is going to suffer for some time," whether it's sold in a bag, a bunch or loose," said Bill Nardelli, president of Nardelli Brothers Inc. of Cedarville and Vineland, which grows and distributes spinach and dozens of other fruits and vegetables. "We're concerned that people are going to shy away from a lot of the bagged products" as well, he added.

Nardelli said his farm will begin harvesting the fall crop meant for sale as fresh spinach toward the end of next week; depending on when they planted, some farmers will start a bit sooner.

But for those who grow tender baby spinach, harvesting started a couple weeks ago. Now they have nowhere to sell it.

"Our sales are zero right now," said Dan Graiff of Dan Graiff Farms of Newfield, Gloucester County, where about one-sixth of the 250 acres are planted in baby spinach.

Graiff normally would be selling about 14,000 pounds, worth about $30,000, each week at this time of year, but none of the brokers he works with have taken any since Saturday.

"Today, they don't even want to talk spinach," said Graiff, who's had to just leave spinach in the fields. "There's nothing wrong with the spinach here."

The state's agriculture secretary, Charles Kuperus, likewise said there has been no hint of contamination in New Jersey nor any cases of E. coli, but the Agriculture Department has to support the FDA's dictate to ensure a safe food supply.

"The word we're getting from our producers is that the market stopped," Kuperus said.

Vegetable growers really need the spinach harvest, he added, given that weather extremes throughout the growing season already have limited yields of some crops.

As of 2004, about 1,800 acres in New Jersey were planted with spinach; it brought sales of about $3.8 million that year. New Jersey is the nation's No. 4 spinach producer.

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