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King Soopers, Safeway and Whole Foods markets are voluntarily pulling Rocky Ford cantaloupe from their shelves today in response to the first ever reported listeria outbreak in melons.
Yesterday the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment released a statement advising those at high-risk of contracting listeria — the elderly, pregnant women and those with compromised immune systems — not to eat Rocky Ford-grown cantaloupe.
Too bad. Rocky Ford cantaloupes are really good and heavily advertised here. They're not as good as Pecos cantaloupes from Texas, but those are really hard to come by.
And...just some damage control for the unfortunate set of circumstances that have befallen the immediate Rocky Ford area cantaloupe farmers......
Many of the National media reports (MSN yesterday) still imply that the suspect cantaloupe causing the recent listeria outbtreak came from Rocky Ford/Swink/La Junta area. IT DID NOT .... it came from Jensen Farms in Holly which is in the lower Arkansas Valley, but some 84 miles (more like 94 miles) east of the home of this famous and SAFE cantaloupe growing region.
National media (Today Show, Fox, MSN etc.) were quick to jump on it, but have been slow to clarify that the suspect cantaloupe was not grown in the immediate immediate Rocky Ford area. Saying the Rocky Ford region covers Holly is like saying that the New York City region includes Philadelphia (93 or so miles)....not according to Eagles and Giants fans! This has been a devasting blow to the Rocky Ford area farmers who have grown this famous cantaloupe for generations.
Haven't seen an updated County list in Colorado since this one from Dept. of Health, but as of Sept. 12 the list of Counties reporting cases of listeria (according to Channel 7 Denver) included Larimer, Boulder, Adams, Douglas, Arapahoe, Denver, El Paso, Jefferson and Weld. None in Otero County (Rocky Ford/La Junta) or Prowers County(Holly/Granada).
Does it seem odd that if it the soil on which the suspect cantaloupe were grown was the problem, (Jensen Farms in Holly/Granada...some 84 miles east of Rocky Ford)....that the local counties of Prowers and Baca do not have a disproportionate number of cases rather than zero?
Instead...none at all. To me, this points to the fact that the source of infection may very well be in the shipping, not from the the actual growing.
Otherwise, the locals who either purchase or "night pick" the cantaloupe from the fields would begin to show up in the count. I would imagine there are some 60 year olds in that region that frequent a field at night....I know there are some in this area that still do..old habits are hard to break.
There is a thread (Suspect cantaloupe grown 84 miles from Rocky Ford) on the Colorado forum that speaks to this and this post has combined some of those, but it does give you a different perspective from some Colorado folks who know that the "Rocky Ford" variety is not trademarked and that actual growing area is getting a very bad rap by the National media. There are some very intuitive posts by "livecontent" on that thread that are worth the read.
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In defense of the immediate Rocky Ford, CO growing area.....
