empty the store shelves of everything from milk to toilet paper. Soon the supply chain couldn’t get basic foodstuffs to the stores to refill the shelves.

Some people thought this whole COVID-19 panic was a hoax just to shut down the economy. Gradually, after travel, schools, universities, some giant meat packing plants and even prisons released some lower risk prisoners and more than 170,000 deaths in the U.S. alone were caused by the virus, those non-believers are having second thoughts.

Just when most of our grocery shelves have been restocked, on the morning of Aug. 17 another food recall was announced. Just like the last several food recalls over the last few years, a virulent strain of salmonella is to blame.

Last year it was lettuce, two years ago a giant meat packing plant was shut down and thousands of tons of meat sent to a landfill. This time it’s onions from the U.S.

Many vegetable growers in the U.S. use irrigation to keep the fields from drying out and some also add liquid manure to the irrigation water to fertilize the crops.

The most widely used herbicide is also registered as a bactericide, but it does not kill this very tough strain of salmonella. Even the organic growers in some areas of the U.S. have trouble with this strain of salmonella contaminating the water used for irrigation.

Although other countries in the world have not had the salmonella contamination problem that the U.S. has had, the produce from your own garden is still probably the safest food that you can eat.

Farmers markets have continued to grow in popularity. An increasing amount of consumers are concerned about where their food comes from. They like to look the farmer in the eye and ask how the food is raised. It’s for your family that you are being so very cautious and concerned. It is about protecting them and yourself from contracting this invisible COVID-19 killer virus.

You also have the right to know how safe the food is that you give them. Whether you are buying onions, meat or wine you have the right to ask how is it grown? Farmers are proud and anxious to explain it to you.

Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon on land that has been in his family for generations.

gladcrest@gmail.com

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