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The recent tomato scare cost Florida tomato farmers more than a 100 million dollars in lost crops. Tomatoes were never linked to the 1,200 Salmonella cases nationwide. As Whitney Ray tells us, tomato farmers say they got a raw deal.

Hear it Here: Raw Deal

Dustin Ford has lunch on his mind.

�You�ve got to have a tomato on a cheeseburger,� said Ford.

But not long ago Dustin was eating his burgers without tomatoes.

�I got scared of buying tomatoes from anywhere,� said Ford.

The Food and Drug Administration named tomatoes as a possible source of the salmonella outbreak. Days into the scare the FDA said Florida tomatoes were okay.

Despite being placed on the safe-to-eat list, people bought other produce instead, and millions of Florida tomatoes rotted on the vine. Florida�s Department of Agriculture says in some cases farmers were losing money by harvesting crops.

�It�s cost effective, as unbelievable as it sounds, to let them rot on the vine, instead to spend six or eight dollars a box to pick them, pack them, ship them, if you�re not going to have a buyer,� said Department of Agriculture Spokesman Terry McElroy.

Tomato farmer and packaging plant operator Graves Williams says farmers at his plant lost more than 12 million dollars.

�We couldn�t give them away,� said Williams.

Williams is calculating his losses. He�ll give his findings to US lawmakers who will ask Congress to compensate Florida�s farmers who says they got a raw deal.

�I�m used to hurricanes, I�m used to pests. I never thought the federal Government would be the pest that put me out of business,� Williams said.

Williams fears if something isn�t done, some farmers will have to sell their land. US Congressman Allen Boyd will meet with the Florida Commissioner of Agriculture and tomato farmers Monday.