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October 5, 1999: Wisconsin Health and Agriculture departments issued a press release warning of a salmonella outbreak related to sprouts, which in the next mornings newspapers appeared under the headline "Throw Out Your Sprouts!". The entire Wisconsin sprout industry (4 in-state and 2 out of state growers) had their sprouts removed from stores and restaurants state wide. This was the first time in memory that an entire industry was punished for one (perhaps 2) companies failing.
October 6, 1999: We deliver our sprouts - which were already packed before the press release was issued - telling our customers to hold them in hopes that the situation will be resolved. It isn't - the week is a total loss.
October 7, 1999: A state food Investigator comes to our facility to gather paperwork (invoices for seed bought and sprout sold amongst other things), sprouting seed, partially grown and fully grown sprouts. We lay off our full-time production worker Carl.
October 11, 1999: The Sproutpeople are promised a press release which exonerates them. State agencies know that it is statistically impossible for our sprouts to be involved. NO press release is issued.
October 13, 1999: A Wisconsin Ag. Inspector comes to our facility and swabs several surfaces (including the drain in our sink). He returns the swabs to Madison for further testing. We deliver approximately 15% of our usual weekly orders for sprouts across Wisconsin (beans, grass and greens - no alfalfa or clover). We raise our price for the 1st time in over 6 years in hopes that it will help us survive.
October 15, 1999: All lab tests confirm that The Sproutpeople are in no way related to the salmonella outbreak.
None of the samples or swabs taken from us contain any pathogens - only the good bacteria we nurture and love.
We are once again (as has been the case every day this week) promised a press release which exonerates us.
October 20, 1999: Lori is told by the Wisconsin Secretary of Agriculture "It is not our policy to exonerate individual companies, there will be no press release until the results are final. I'm sorry if it is hurting your business." We deliver across the state, this time mustering almost 40% of our normal sales.
October 28, 1999: Wisconsin's departments of Health and of Agriculture issue a press release reporting the end of the outbreak. The 2 sprout growers who were implicated are mentioned casually. The innocent growers (The Sproutpeople for example) are not mentioned at all.
October 31, 1999: Carl quits - after almost 2 years he can no longer stand the angst and instability which we have been living with for well over a full year but which has seemingly reached a crescendo this month. We reach an agreement in principle to transfer ownership of our fresh sprout business to an awesome employee - Kathy - in a rent to own/no risk scheme. We also can take the angst no longer. Lori & Gil will devote all of their time to running the seed/supply business and fighting the forces which would make sprouts extinct. Lori and Gil will still grow sprouts at home and for the Dane County Farmer's Market.
November 1, 1999: Gil posts pages to the website, prints letters, talks on ABC Madison, seeks investigative reporters around the country and talks to 50 people on the phone in an effort to stop the FDA from killing the Certified Organic sprout industry (there are only a few of us) while increasing the US's annual pollution by bleach phenomenally.
There are no links here because you MUST proceed to the FDA vs. Sprouts page - PLEASE.
We are very fast to fill orders and answer e-mail, and though we wish we could make the time to talk, we just can't seem to get more minutes into a each hour. We are many years older than when we started and our days are too short and made up of too few hours to do everything. This limitation in our business has not kept us from pleasing our customers, nor from growing (as we have every year since 1993). We do what we do as well as we can, and we think we do it very well indeed.
We appreciate your business more than we can say. We ask that you use the phone for emergencies only and that you search our site for answers before e-mailing us. This site is bigger than any 4 sprout books put together, it is always available and it is free, and we know that almost all questions are answered here.Thanks again for your patronage and your many kind words.
Sproutpeople family
