EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — Lamppost Farm Owner Steve Montgomery said his products are safe to eat. He said it's because his animals are healthy, but he said some customers still need more convincing since the train derailment in East Palestine caused officials to release toxic chemicals into the air. 

“Probably the biggest testimony is I’m eating it," Montgomery said. "I’m feeding it to my kids. My wife, my kids, our community that lives together at the farm, we’re eating everything we produce.”

The air and water have been tested and deemed safe by officials.

The Ohio Department of Agriculture partnered with Ohio State to conduct plant tissue sampling on farms in the area and didn’t find any contamination connected to the derailment.  

Montgomery’s farm didn’t have any tissue sampling done, but the Director of the Agriculture Department Brian Baldridge said the plant tissue testing should still give farmers and their customers peace of mind.

“This was the last step to say everything that’s going into the livestock is safe," Baldridge said. "And the product going out is strongly safe."

Montgomery said his sales dipped by about 50% for the first two weeks after the derailment.

“All the questions came fast," Montgomery said. "I think people just hit the brakes on buying from around here.”

Now, he said customers are trickling back. He’s glad they did, because he said losing that much business wouldn’t have been sustainable.

“If we keep going on this trend, we’re not gonna be able to be here for very long," Montgomery said. "And people that knew us and knew the story of how this all went down came, and that’s been an awesome thing to be supported by our customer base.”

He’s still checking his products, even willing to feed an egg straight from the farm to one of his dogs.