Tracing tomatoes from field to fork - a new system

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR and LAURAN NEERGAARD - Associated Press Writers FoodLogiQ President Andrew Kennedy, left, talks with Eastern Carolina Organics Chief Executive Officer Sandi Kronick, Wednesday, July 23, 2008, in her warehouse in Pittsboro, N.C. FoodLogiQ is working with distributors like Kronick to incorporate a tracking system for produce and other foods that will identify the specific farm where the food was produced. Gerry Broome / AP Photo WASHINGTON -- When there's an urgent need to trace fruits and vegetables in a crisis like the salmonella outbreak, a lot of the pieces for a rapid-response system already exist. But nobody has quite figured out how to put them together to operate seamlessly in the vast American marketplace. The salmonella outbreak has set off a scramble among industry, regulators and lawmakers... [read full story]