No U.S. Aid for Tomato Growers

Florida tomato growers and packers like Billy Don Grant are going to have keep dreaming about any compensation from the federal government to offset the millions they lost due to this summer's salmonella outbreak.

While Congress was busy bailing out the financial services industry, efforts to seek compensation for the tomato growers died -- at least for this year and potentially for good — during the closing weeks of the session. Growers in Florida estimate they lost at least $60 million, and nationally that number is estimated at $140 million or more.

''This was outside of our control and we had nothing to do with it,'' said Grant, whose North Florida packing houses and farming operation lost about $12 million. ``It's just not fair. We were devastated because they made a mistake. What we're asking for is a minimal amount of money compared to the hundreds of millions that they've given other farming entities.''

Grant and others in North Florida were among the hardest hit of Florida's tomato growers because their June season coincided with the time tomatoes from Florida were scrutinized as a potential cause of the largest salmonella outbreak in the last decade. Ultimately, laboratory tests found links to Mexican peppers, but federal officials have refused to exonerate tomatoes from Florida or anywhere else.

U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney, D-Palm Beach Gardens, with the support of other Florida Democrats including Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Weston, introduced a bill seeking $100 million in emergency financial assistance for the tomato industry. But the bill never made it out of the House Agriculture Committee and never got a companion bill in the Senate.

Source: Miami Herald