Personal Injury Law

More on Compensation for Tomato Growers

By Kenneth Odza

I wrote recently about legislation introduced in Congress to compensate tomato growers for their losses during the recent and protracted Salmonella Saintpaul investigation.  While the legislation has not yet advanced, Cindy Skrzycki from Bloomberg.com is also covering this issue and wrote a great article "Tomato Growers Seek Payback on Samonella Scare."

According to the Bloomberg article, even Bill Marler, the leading plaintiffs' attorney in the area has sympathy for the growers and believes that compensation may be warranted (though he believes its premature).

The Bloomberg article explains well how tomato growers (many of whom are small businesses) have no where else to turn:

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture runs crop-insurance programs that cover disasters from floods and hurricanes, not crops ensnared in recalls. Some companies have recall insurance, but they're not likely to collect unless there is a recall -- not a warning or an advisory."

Full post as published by Food Liability Law Blog on August 21, 2008 (boomark / email).