Greenhouse growing has traditionally been used to produce products when local products were unavailable. More recently greenhouse-grown product has been a higher quality product due to the controlled growing conditions in a greenhouse. Thus these products often get premium prices.
The E. coli incident on spinach is raising public awareness of the danger of environmental exposure to food safety and security risks.
And the bottom line is that, try as we might, it seems unlikely we will be able to completely eliminate all outbreaks related to food safety.
Maybe some consumers would prefer to buy fresh produce marketed as being grown in a completely controlled condition? Or maybe a fresh-cut brand could make all its salads out of greenhouse product?
It might seem economically not feasible, but people pay a premium for organic and might pay a premium for this as well. And now, of course, we see the costs of being exposed to E. coli.
