Then there are the more sober headlines, like "Congress voices frustration as Salmonella toll rises" and "Few answers in tomato scare."

Nonsense. There are plenty of answers.

There are only three groups of people who need to be overly concerned about Salmonella-contaminated tomatoes: those who have already become sick from eating them; those whose livelihoods depend on tomatoes; and those charged with responsibility for protecting the public's health. For everyone else, there are easy answers.

Abstinence vs. Education

For consumers, the obvious way to avoid tomato trouble is to avoid eating them. As luscious as a ripe, red, juicy tomato may be, tomatoes are not an essential ingredient of anyone's diet, and it shouldn't be an overwhelming hardship to pass them up until the crops are safe again.

For tomato lovers who are willing to do the slightest bit of research, though, total abstinence isn't necessary. The US Food and Drug Administration has made it really easy to figure out which tomatoes are safe to eat.

Cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes and tomatoes with the vine still attached have not been implicated in the outbreak -- no matter where they were grown. Home-grown tomatoes are also safe.

Tomatoes processed in commercial facilities -- e.g., canned tomatoes, tomato sauces, etc., can be consumed with confidence.

Raw red plum, red Roma, or raw red round tomatoes are the ones to steer clear of, unless you know for sure where they were grown. The FDA provides a list of countries and states whose tomato crops have not been linked to the outbreak.

This is where things get a little trickier. Some tomatoes are packaged with labels indicating where they were grown, but a great many are stacked in pretty displays in produce departments -- sometimes with tiny little stickers indicating their birthplace, but not always. Restaurant menus don't tell you where anything came from.

Personally, I wouldn't go to the trouble of asking. Having some grocery store or restaurant employee tell me the tomatoes were locally grown wouldn't be assurance enough. I'm too uncomfortably aware of the way food is often shipped thousands of miles from its source to the consumer's plate.

The Solution That Isn't

A farmers' market in one of the safe zones ought to be the answer, but as the FDA warns, "Farmers' markets get their tomatoes from a variety of sources that are not necessarily limited to local farms. These other sources may include the same ones that provided the tomatoes implicated in the Salmonella outbreak."

Now that's sad. In light of rising food and gas prices, as well as the undeniable advance of global warming, many consumers want to buy locally grown food as one sensible and responsible lifestyle change that could make a difference.

Farmers' markets are lovely places to shop, with their open-air stalls and casual, friendly ambience. But if the tomatoes -- and other suspiciously non-seasonal produce -- are actually being trucked in from all over the country and beyond (and often they are), then we consumers are being hoodwinked into thinking we're being smart and socially conscious, when we're really just falling prey to a marketing scheme -- and possibly getting sick from Salmonella.

While most cases of Salmonella infection are not life-threatening, it is not to be taken lightly. Most victims develop diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps 12 to 72 hours after infection. The illness usually lasts 4 to 7 days, and recovery generally takes place without treatment, according to the FDA.

However, some people do require hospitalization. The Salmonella infection may spread from the intestines to the blood stream, and then to other parts of the body. It can be fatal if not treated promptly with antibiotics. The elderly, infants, and those with impaired immune systems are more likely to have a severe illness.

I sympathize with those who have fallen ill during this outbreak. I also sympathize with the growers, restaurants and all the people associated with them who are losing lots of money because of it. I'm glad we have public health agencies charged with tracking down the source of the problem and keeping us informed as to what's safe to eat and what's not.

In the meantime, I wish I had a reliable source of locally grown produce -- not only to avoid the current problem of tainted tomatoes, but also to make eating local a rule to live by. If farmers' markets want to be at the heart of a new food revolution, then they should not sell anything that isn't locally grown. They should not try to offer the variety of a supermarket produce department -- they should be true to their name.

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