Cantaloupe Crisis Coverage

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Final Project Report

I.    Title of the project and URL
Cantaloupe Crisis
cantaloupecrisis.coloradodjlabs.org

II.    Members, classifications and emails
Dana Palmie dana.palmie@colorado.edu | lead coder, consumer insights
Liz Roland elizabeth.m.roland@gmail.com | grocery & restaurants
Laura Kirby laurajaynekirby@gmail.com | farming, statistics
Mackenzie Carroll mackenzie.a.carroll@gmail.com | victim perspective
Daniel Arinello daniel.ariniello@colorado.edu | medical information

III.    Division of Labor (who did what?)
Dana built the website from scratch using dreamweaver and is responsible for all design and function throughout the site. She is also responsible for the About Us page design and concept as well as the Consumer Guide section of the site.
Liz responsible for the grocery and restaurant section of the site. I conducted interviews, wrote an article, and fast facts on what specific restaurants and grocery stores did for consumers. I also created a video slideshow presented on the grocery section.
Laura is responsible for the map on the front page of the site, and the “Studying the sources” portion of the site including interviews, filming, writing, photography. I received help from Dana with coding and video editing, and provided input into layout design for the website overall.
Mackenzie is responsible for all of the content in the victims section. I contacted an attorney who has represented several listeria victims and was able to get in touch with one of the victim’s daughters. I conducted an interview, made a video slideshow from the interview recording and pictures, and wrote an article on her father’s experience with listeria. I also researched and compiled content from the CDC about victims and statistics.
Daniel responsible for the Medical Information page and all content.  Wrote articles, conducted interviews with medical professionals, and designed diagrams of the human body to illustrate the effects of listeria.  

IV.    Resources (a list of sources with contact information, research materials, major electronic resources used, etc.)

Jeni Exley
Administrative Coordinator
CNS Medical Group
Craig Hospital
Englewood, CO 80113
303-789-8432
JExley@craighospital.org

Pat Kendall, PhD, RD
Associate Dean for Research
College of Applied Human Sciences
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523-1501
970-491-0799
pkendall@cahs.colostate.edu

John Salazar
Commissioner of Colorado Department of Agriculture
Assistant: Jenifer Gurr
303-239-4104
jenifer.gurr@ag.state.co.us

Mary Carol Ferrera
Former Director of Nursing for Tri-County Department of Health, CO
303-880-8389

Sandra Sonoda RN, BSN, PhD.
Wardenburg Health Center, Infection Control
UCB 119, University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309
303-492-3435
sandra.sonoda@colorado.edu

Matt Close
Owner of Le Peep Restaurant
(303) 444-5119

Livda Letton
Whole Foods Market National Office Representative and Spokesperson
512-542-3031
Libba.Letton@wholefoods.com

Jacquelyn Sproul
The Buff Restaurant Co-owner
303-442-9150

Alicia Cronquist, RN, MPH
Foodborne and Enteric Disease Epidemiologist
Disease Control and Environmental Epidemiology Division
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
4300 Cherry Creek Dr S
Denver, CO 80246
303-692-2629

Dr. Lawrence D. Goodridge, PhD
Associate Professor of Food Microbiology
Center for Meat Safety and Quality, Department of Animal Sciences
Colorado State University350 West Pitkin StreetFort Collins, CO, 80523Phone: 970-491-6271

Background information on food recalls and basic tips from the FDA
http://www.fda.gov/Food/default.htm

Listeria statistics and general information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
http://www.cdc.gov/listeria/index.html

Updated news and information on listeria published by Marler Clark, a Seattle-based lawfirm dedicated to foodborne illness
http://www.foodsafetynews.com/

V. Strengths of the Project
The site is designed well, and it is easy to tell which category of information you will get when you click a link. The site is divided by subject, so all multimedia is presented in the place where it will be most relevant to telling the story. The information categories provide an extensive overview of what an average Coloradan would need to know in order to be safe and knowledgeable about cantaloupe. Since our topic is timely, the site is a useful tool beyond the scape of the class. There is social media set up on Twitter, Vimeo , Facebook and our blog to promote the site across several platforms and raise awareness of our cause.

VI.    Weaknesses of the Project
Because of the nature of a student project, all team members were working fairly independently.  As a result, the whole team was rarely on exactly the same page and it became possible for overlaps to form in our content.

VII.    Lessons Learned (positive and negative)
It is very different to design a site for a group cause than it is for a personal site. It takes much longer since the designer has to depend on content producers to submit all of the information, which is rarely when the designer would want to work on the project. It is also important to make sure that the initial design idea is able to be flexible to unexpected directions the project may take. Coding too early in the process may lead to having to backtrack as certain things prove ineffective.

Get to your sources early. I (Laura) had challenges in that I had planned to focus on agricultural practice and reaction to the outbreak but because of potential negative PR (I assume) I couldn’t get any actual local farmers to talk to me. In the end I’m glad I started to look toward other sources and focus on studies and epidemiology, but that change made things a little more time intensive toward the end.
posted by Dana Palmie at 8:28 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Updated listeria outbreak numbers due this week by the CDC

As of November 1, 2011, the CDC reported a total of 139 infections nationwide of Listeria monocytogenes. 
Of the 28 states infected, the number of infections in each state is as follows: Alabama (1), Arkansas (1), California (2), Colorado (39), Idaho (2), Illinois (3), Indiana (3), Iowa (1), Kansas (10), Louisiana (2), Maryland (1), Missouri (6), Montana (1), Nebraska (6), Nevada (1), New Mexico (15), New York (2), North Dakota (2), Oklahoma (11), Oregon (1), Pennsylvania (1), South Dakota (1), Texas (18), Utah (1), Virginia (1), West Virginia (1), Wisconsin (2), and Wyoming (4).

                                                                                                         Photo: Foodsafetynews.com
Twenty-nine deaths have been reported: Colorado (8), Indiana (1), Kansas (3), Louisiana (2), Maryland (1), Missouri (2), Nebraska (1), New Mexico (5), New York (2), Oklahoma (1), Texas (2), and Wyoming (1). 
New numbers are due this week, stay tuned!
posted by Mackenzie at 10:58 AM 0 comments

Listeria can be knocked out with a few simple kitchen steps

Last week I spoke to Pat Kendall, the associate dean for research at the college of applied sciences at CSU. She has dealt with a lot of food crises in her career, but she did not hesitate to call this Listeria outbreak "the worst outbreak we've ever had in Colorado, for sure."

It is surprising, then, how simple her advice was for getting rid of this harmful bacteria. That's right, folks: all you have to do to minimize the risk of Listeria poisoning is store and wash the cantaloupe properly. The process is easy, so try to get in the habit of doing it with all of your food. Kendall says that the tips she offers on cantaloupe carries over to all foods, though there are nuances for each.

Find out exactly how to prepare a cantaloupe for safe eating on our freshly launched Consumer Guide page and in this video:
posted by Dana Palmie at 12:23 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Cantaloupe prices down 33.6 percent since outbreak

Today I met with Jeni Exley, daughter of listeria victim Herbert Stevens, for an interview in Englewood. Before meeting with her, I stopped at a King Soopers in the area to purchase a cantaloupe (don't worry...I didn't eat it, though it would probably be safer to eat one now). Her father ate a contaminated cantaloupe that her mother bought at a Littleton King Soopers in August so I figured I would also check out the prices of cantaloupes now compared to the start of the breakout.


Jeni's family have hired Bill Marler, a attorney based in Seattle who specializes in food safety to file suit against Jensen Farms. Marler has a website for food safety news where I was able to find a story on cantaloupe prices now compared to the beginning of the outbreak. According to the USDA, prices are down 33.6 percent since the outbreak caught media attention. Prices typically drop anyways once demand goes down after summer, but obviously they have dropped much more because of the outbreak. Colorado only produces 2 percent of the nation's cantaloupes but clearly has been a major factor in the price decrease. 

You can read the story here.
posted by Mackenzie at 5:37 PM 3 comments

Sunday, November 27, 2011

How Breakfast Was Rediscovered

Conducting research and interviews on a subject about food seems to be a lost cause without the food itself. But when was the last time I (or others for that matter) had a big slice of juicy cantaloupe? Well that is something I can't seem to remember for myself. So, while going about this process I rediscovered something important about the researching process: in order to understand and write about a subject, a writer has to understand (or at least understand the taste of) the subject. The fruit itself seems to be something that has been lost throughout the whole listeria ordeal. So, while first going about my interviews I did the most natural form of research, I rediscovered the delicious taste of the cantaloupe itself.

While conducting interviews and visiting the restaurants I began to build up an appetite and so I decided to have a quick snack while on the job. At the Buff Restaurant I made sure to order a dish with the most cantaloupe, which happened to be a parfait in a cantaloupe bowl The bowl was cut with large chunks of cantaloupe left inside, topped with strawberries, grapes, yogurt and granola. And may I say it was one of the best parfaits I have ever tried!


People always say breakfast is the most important meal to jump start the day. In this case my rediscovered love for cantaloupe will be my jump start for the continued research on this project, so stay tuned for my next update on how restaurants and grocery stores operate in times of crisis!
posted by Liz Roland at 7:52 PM 0 comments

Website progress

It has been a month (to the day) since the Cantaloupe Crisis group met for the first time to discuss the direction of our project, and we have already come a long way. During the first week of brainstorming, we came up with this idea of how we hoped the site would look:
Needless to say, our idea left something to be desired and plenty of work to be done.  After a number of prototypes and group discussions, we are getting closer to our final vision.
There are still plenty of photos to be taken, map infographics to create and probably a handful of late coding nights ahead, but our vision is finally taking form. We have a temporary page up on the site now which can guide you to the many ways to keep up with our project (including this blog!). The listeria scare may be winding down, but we're just getting started telling the stories that make it matter. We hope you'll join us!
posted by Dana Palmie at 5:56 PM 0 comments

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Smashing Cantaloupes

Not that we hate these melons just because they carried a formidable amount of listeria this year, but I opted to peer inside this fruit the fun way today. That's right, I smashed one to smithereens.
The photos will show up on the consumer insights page of our site when the time comes, but get your fix now on our shiny new splash page.
 Check out the rest of the album on Facebook.
posted by Dana Palmie at 6:57 PM 0 comments