Lettuce Liability

Programs to keep salads germfree raise wildlife and conservation concerns

Little more than a year ago, supermarkets from coast to coast stripped fresh spinach from produce aisles as a food-poisoning outbreak swept the nation. From mid-August through September 2006, virulent bacterial infections sickened at least 204 spinach consumers. Five died and 30 others suffered acute kidney failure.

Last year’s spinach-borne food poisoning outbreak has led to dramatic—and some would say environmentally unfriendly—changes in farm practices.