As reported last Friday by Larry Parsons – Monterey Herald Staff Writer – in “Taking on the spinach stigma – Officials gather to discuss how to restore vegetable’s image after deadly E. coli outbreak,” a  group of 60 people lunched Friday on fresh spinach, Congressman Sam Farr said with pride, which according to the FDA “is as safe as it was before the outbreak.”

Then the Salinas assemblage of public officials, scientists and farm industry representatives returned to the table to talk about how to restore spinach’s battered image after the September E. colioutbreak that killed three people and sickened 204 across the country.

You would think that one way the industry could get back on its feet is to reach out to the victims in a meaningful way – but hey, they do not vote in Farr’s district do they?