lettuce

The struggle to identify the origins of the E. coli outbreak, which has sickened people nationwide, highlights the difficulty of tracking a pathogen through a complex food supply chain.

“Outredgeous” lettuce grown 
for an organic baby-leaf salad
observation trial at WSU Mount
Vernon NWREC.

PULLMAN, Wash. – Instead of eating lettuce shipped thousands of miles from the Sun Belt, northerners might be munching more greens purchased at their local farmers market or harvested in their own backyards.

Lettuce is a cool-season crop, but typical commercial varieties won’t germinate if spring soil is too cold. Researchers are tapping a unique seed repository at Washington State University to develop varieties that growers could plant early with confidence.

» More …