Agricultural Products

California hopes it can carve out an upscale market for such goodies as pistachios, figs, kiwi fruit and wine in Cuba, the land of ration cards and rice and beans at nearly every meal. America's top food-producing state sent its first official agricultural trade mission to Havana last month to show its powdered milk and dairy products, as well as a wide array of fruits, vegetables, nuts, dates, rice and cotton, to the communist government.

Before bagged leafy greens wind up on your plate, they are washed, often three times, in a potent chlorine bath. But new research shows the steps that California companies rely on to protect consumers do not kill dangerous bacteria inside the leaves, whereas zapping them with radiation wipes them out. The debate over how to protect consumers from E.

OUT WHERE Ventura Boulevard is just a country road, near Central Avenue in Camarillo, Phil McGrath farms 40 acres of Ventura County land his family has owned for generations. He sells his organic produce to restaurants and at farmers markets, but here beside the road he also has a farm stand -- a sophisticated, modern farm stand with a sturdy gable roof and handsome landscaping. Is the farm stand making a comeback?

For many of California's upscale hotels and restaurants, green is the new black. Prompted by trendy, taste-making guests, California's chicest resorts, spas and eateries are integrating local ingredients into their decor, amenities and menus. And high quality may be why local products are now associated with status at many upscale retreats. Celebrity chefs such as Neal Fraser of Grace strive to "reduce our carbon footprint."

Federal health officials now blame raw jalapenos for some of the illnesses in the 3-month-old salmonella outbreak and Wednesday advised the elderly, infants and people with compromised immune systems to avoid them. Investigators still think tomatoes -- the original suspect in the outbreak -- have made people sick and are considering the possibility that the same rare strain of salmonella has contaminated both tomatoes and peppers.

Tastiota, Mexico A few miles inland from the Sea of Cortez, amid cracked earth and mesquite and sun-bleached cactus, neat rows of emerald plants are sprouting from the desert floor. The crop is salicornia. It is nourished by seawater flowing from a man-made canal. And if you believe the American who is farming it, this incongruous swath of green has the potential to feed the world, fuel our vehicles and slow global warming.

Ventura County farmers lost a record $281 million in crops and nursery stock during a recent cold snap, while the state's overall losses could top $1 billion, officials said Tuesday.

Near a cluster of purple petunias in a Thousand Oaks greenhouse sprouts a key weapon in the nation's ambitious push into biofuels. The plants don't look like much. They're just tall, spiky shoots of prairie grass. But these stalks are souped-up samples of switch grass, part of an urgent drive toward a new kind of ethanol using plant fibers instead of corn kernels or sugar cane. Ceres Inc.

In an effort to prevent more illnesses from bacteria-tainted produce, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday announced voluntary guidelines for processors of packaged fruits and vegetables, the produce industry's fastest-growing sector. The list of steps to minimize the spread of bacteria includes recommendations for multiple washings of produce, cold storage, regular water testing and monitoring employees for signs of infectious disease.

Eat your spinach? Mom's advice is falling prey to food safety fears as many consumers continue to steer clear of the leafy green, months after last year's recall and \o7E. coli \f7outbreak. The advisory by the Food and Drug Administration not to eat fresh spinach because of suspected contamination by \o7E. coli\f7 bacteria lasted less than two weeks in September, but the spinach industry has yet to recover. "We are struggling to get back on our feet.