Lettuce Scare Spurs Sales At Superior's Bay Produce
Written By: Peter Passi | Dec 21st, 2019
Greenhouse with a mission delivers safe greens to the local market.
Rich Fisher, Bay Produce's head grower, checks the pH level of the water in flats growing butterhead lettuce at Bay Produce in Superior. (Clint Austin / caustin@duluthnews.com)
Recent outbreaks of foodborne illnesses have generally been bad news for lettuce growers nationwide, but one greenhouse operation in snowy Superior reports its sales actually have been bolstered as consumers search for healthy alternatives to field-grown greens.
Bay Produce, located next door to the Mariner Retail and Business Center, has found a strong market for the red and green butterhead lettuces it grows in the wake of a national lettuce scare.
"It seems like any time there's a lettuce recall, our sales go up," said Don Gitz, a specialist for Bay Produce.
Most recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned consumers to avoid eating romaine lettuce harvested in California's Salinas Valley — a prolific agricultural region often referred to as the nation's salad bowl. This latest E. coli outbreak resulted in more than 100 reported cases of illness in 23 states. But regulators advised people that there was no reason to avoid hydroponic and greenhouse-grown lettuce.
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The silver tube at the center of the photo houses a high-intensity ultraviolet light used to kill pathogens in the water at Bay Produce in Superior. (Clint Austin / caustin@duluthnews.com)
Bay Produce fits that bill to a T. It grows lettuce, basil, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and eggplant inside a 1 1/2-acre greenhouse equipped with hydroponics.
Rich Fisher, Bay Produce's head grower, said the greenhouse uses Superior city water that has been treated with ultraviolet light, rendering it "99.9% microbe-free."
He contrasted the sterile greenhouse setting at Bay Produce to farm fields where lettuce is often grown on plots adjacent to livestock "where they really have almost no control over runoff."
In addition to producing a consistently safe and tasty product, Bay Produce also has a story to sell. The greenhouse is operated by Challenge Center Inc., an organization established by Catholic Charities 50 years ago to serve children and adults with developmental disabilities. The greenhouse is staffed with 10 Challenge Center staff members and up to about 40 clients at any given time.
Challenge Center Director Mark Kroll said the greenhouse provides a sheltered work setting that can accommodate clients' unique needs, whether that's a short two-hour shift or one accompanied by a job coach.
"We provide sheltered employment for folks with disabilities," Kroll said. "It's an amazing program we have here. So, we already have a lot of local folks looking for our projects anyway, because they support our mission. But this provides a little extra push for us. It's one more reason for folks to look for Bay Produce products."
Bay Produce has enjoyed a safety edge over larger growers in regard to other products, too. For instance, earlier this summer people across the nation were sickened with cyclosporiasis from contaminated basil grown in Mexico. Again, Bay Produce offered a safe alternative.
"It's amazing how things that happen on a national scale that make the national news can really affect local growers," Kroll said.
Bay Produce distributes its products exclusively in the Northland through grocers and restaurants as far north as Grand Marais and as far east as Ashland. Because its produce isn't traveling great distances, Kroll said they are able to deliver a product that's ripe and ready to eat the moment it hits the shelves or lands on a restaurant's sandwich.