Jay Martini - How to recoup losses?

Here is the the letter from Jay Martini to David Mitchell of The Packer - lead writer on the salmonella coverage - and copied to me. Jay said it was fine to publish on the blog, save one passage dealing with a rumor. Here is the letter, save that one paragraph:

8:00 AM, Sunday, June 8, 2008

David---

As a tomato broker for the last 28 years, I've seen a handful of food safety scares regarding produce come & go. But this instance hits home, and hits it hard. The difference with this one, other than it involves the commodity in which I make my living, is that the process this time smacks of politics, without any regard for the U.S. farmers or distributors with domestic tomatoes presently in the pipeline.

The headline of your online article below said that Mexican tomatoes were implicated in this outbreak. A more accurate headline should have been that any tomato-producing area not listed by the FDA (a ridiculous, self-serving list of areas that aren't even in season) is suspect. And that includes Florida, whose tomato shippers are left twisting in the wind at this point, along with all of us down the line with Florida product. David Gombas of the UFPA telling industry people 'not to read too much into the list' is an idiotic statement. Of course, everyone's looking at the list---it's our business!

Why doesn't the FDA state in their press release that no grower/shipper in Florida, to my knowledge, has to date been contacted by the FDA? (deleted passage)

The spokesperson for the New Mexico Department of Health has herself said that that time of year (beginning April 23), most if not all tomatoes in New Mexico are sourced from Mexico. If this is the case, why is the Florida tomato industry publicly being held hostage?

I was at a graduation party last night when I got a text message with the sickening news that the FDA had gone nationwide with their release, and also that Subway had had an emergency meeting, eventually deciding pull all tomatoes from their sandwiches.

If it is found, as I imagine it will, that Mexican tomatoes are the one and only source of this rare strain of salmonella, how do the shippers, distributors & handlers of Florida tomatoes recoup their losses? Multiple millions of dollars are being lost with every day that this farce continues.

Jay Martini
Sales
Art Kramer's Produce Buying Service, Inc.
Skokie, IL