A local farmer says there is  no need for alarm over the recall of romaine lettuce; that is, once consumers purchase home grown organically produced greens.

“The recall refers to the imported lettuce, the lettuce produced in North America and I highly, strongly, encourage all consumers to follow the directions of discarding that product,” said Field to Fork Owner, Dr. Selima Hauber. 

“We do not want to take the risk of becoming ill by the E. coli bacteria,” she added.

“However, there are a number of farmers myself included, locally, who are growing romaine.

“Here at Field to Fork,  we use sustainable organic methods and I know for sure that BAIC is also marketing lettuce by farmers throughout the country, romaine that is.” 

As the horticulturist reminded, there are benefits of buying locally.

“The benefit of buying locally is being able to look at the producer eye to eye and ask direct questions as to how they are growing their product,” she said.  

“Being a nation depending heavily on imported food, over $500million dollars in imported food annually, we don’t have the direct access to the people who are growing this food, so we are in quite a vulnerable situation. 

“However, if you shift your shopping practices and choose to support local growers, you are able to talk to the farmer face to face, ask how they’re growing their product and definitely satisfy questions you may have as to how your food is being produced,” she said. 

Dr. Hauber encouraged consumers to shop locally. 

“Please support your local farmers, it’s very important that the consumer supports the farmer as often as they can to ensure that we can stay in business to provide better quality food.”

Field to Fork harvests romaine lettuce on a weekly basis –  75 to 100 heads per week.