The year 1959 is one that the few surviving cranberry growers in Ocean County want to forget. Sales of their crop rested squarely on the traditional holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas. Just before the holidays in November Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Arthur Flemming, head of the Food and Drug Administration, announced the seizure of cranberries grown in Oregon and Washington that contained a cancer-causing pesticide.

During his press conference, Flemming told a reporter no one should buy any cranberries unless they knew where they had…