Following the 2011 listeria outbreak, the Colorado Department of Agriculture and the families in the Rocky Ford growing region developed a quick, proactive and collaborative response. With the help of private local marketing and branding companiesMulligan&Co., LLC and BrandWerks Group, the public relations campaign addressed the crisis and provided the public with accurate reliable information about Rocky Ford cantaloupes. The Colorado Department of Agriculture stepped up to help with the revitalization campaign in 2012, which in return they were awarded for helping to maintain the stability of the business that was over 126 years old.
Farmers near the town of Rocky Ford are going on the offensive to restore the fruit's reputation a year after melons from one of the area's farms caused a nationwide listeria outbreak. They have banded together to trademark Rocky Ford melons and fund $800,000 worth of safety upgrades to prevent future outbreaks, but they must convince buyers that the melons are safe.
The farmers overhauled their production practices to restore public confidence. They hired a full-time food safety manager to monitor melon-picking and started paying the seasonal pickers by the hour, not by the amount of cantaloupes picked. The farmers also built a new central packing shed where all Rocky Ford-labeled melons will be washed with soap and a chlorine oxide, then rinsed with well water tested for contamination.
After being washed, the melons will be cooled to reduce condensation and then packed into boxes labeled with codes traceable to the fields where the melons were grown. The boxes will be packed with slips that interested shoppers can scan using a smartphone to read about where their melons originated.
The Food and Drug Administration said last year that melons at Jensen Farms likely were contaminated in the operation's packing house. The FDA concluded that dirty water on a floor, and old, hard-to-clean equipment probably were to blame.
It seems even with the disaster the melon business in Rocky Ford continues to be surviving. With the weather really determining the crop, i think the worst has fallen past them. Knapp farms and the half dozen other growers in Rocky Ford ship thousands of tons of melons to grocery stores over the next couple of weeks. Hundreds of other people like the tradition of a road trip to roadside produce markets in Rocky Ford for fresh off the vine melons. "It would really surprise you. There are people traveling from five to six hundred miles away just to come through Rocky Ford to get some of the fresh produce."
Aug 07, 2013: http://www.koaa.com/news/sweet-rocky-ford-cantaloupe-harvest-strong-this-year/#_
Aug 15, 2013: http://theprowersjournal.com/2013/08/15/colorado-department-of-agriculture-receives-marketing-award-for-2012-rocky-ford-cantaloupe-revitalization-campaign/
Jul 13, 2012: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/13/colorado-cantaloupes-retu_0_n_1670660.html
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