FRESNO -- Expect fewer slices of red, ripe tomatoes next to the grill this holiday weekend. Since a salmonella scare has caused many customers to shun what's normally a summer favorite, tomato farmers across the nation have had to plow under their fields and leave their crop to rot in packinghouses.

As losses across the supply chain top $100 million, industry leaders are calling for a congressional investigation into the government's handling of the as-yet unsolved outbreak.

McDonald's Corp., Wendy's International Inc. and Yum Brands Inc. resumed offering some tomatoes on their menus in the last few weeks.

But now, one of biggest barbecue weekends of the year, tomato farmers said their summer season has already withered despite U.S. authorities' recent announcement that some other type of fresh produce might have caused the country's largest salmonella outbreak.

The outbreak has sickened 922 people in 40 states.

"Now the government has a doubt as to whether it was tomatoes after they've already blackened our eye?" said Paul DiMare, president of The DiMare Companies in Johns Island, S.C. "June and July are the best time of the year for tomatoes, but our movement has completely stopped in the United States."

Farmers, packers and shippers fear it could take months to rebuild the $1.3 billion market for fresh tomatoes.

In Fresno County, one grower chose to lose $225,000 by letting his tomatoes rot in the fields this weekend because he would have taken a bigger hit hiring crews to harvest them, said Ed Beckman, president of the statewide cooperative California Tomato Farmers.

"This is normally a huge week for the industry because everyone barbecues, but we're just not seeing that demand materialize," Beckman said. "We are slowly starting to see consumers recognize that California tomatoes are, in fact, safe. But for a grower to walk away from a $225,000 investment, there's a lot of pain."

As farmers' frustration grows, Western Growers, which represents 3,000 growers in California and Arizona, is urging the House Committee on Agriculture to hold hearings on the outbreak.

(July 4, 2008)