Broken record

A new report from the Environmental Working Group discloses farm payments topped $21 billion in 2005 - the most since 2001 - despite the fact that 66% of farmers didn't receive any payments. Over 90% of farm payments are reserved for growers of wheat, corn, rice, cotton and soybeans. The EWG said $16 billion of federal farm payments were commodity subsidies in 2005, with $1.9 billion for conservation and $3 billion for disaster aid. This is yet more evidence that Congress needs to make the next farm bill more equitable to fruit and vegetable growers, who receive next to nothing now and yet face the biggest challenges of any agricultural producers. Same song, repeat verse.

Ouch

"Yes, fresh veggies are good for you. These days, however, it seems they can also paralyze or kill you." That's from the author of this article from CBC in Canada. The piece plows familiar ground, talking about recent food safety outbreaks, citing expert Doug Powell, scientific director of the Food Safety Network at K-State. "You are only as good as your worst grower," Powell said. We are at the point that either buyers or the government need to create barriers to deal with that "worst grower."

Free market v. Government mandate

The age old debate between the sufficiency of the free market and the necessity of government regulation is reset in this column about food safety passed on by The Packer's Susie Cable. The libertine position that the market will create its own safeguards seems to run counter to common sense, but economist Edward Lotterman points out that marketers are hiring their own third party inspectors irregardless of assumed government oversight. Theory aside, the government is going to be more involved in fresh produce safety, and soon.

Organic noncompliance

The USDA said in a notice today that it will soon release records of noncompliance of producers and handlers certified to the National Organic Program. The notice is in response to a Freedom of Information Act request on April 12 of this year for access to the records of noncompliance, and the identity of each firm which as been suspended or revoked, plus the reason for the actions. However, the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service did not say precisely when the records would be released and indicated they were reviewing the records to determine what confidential business information will be withheld. Both the farmer receiving a crop subsidy and the organic grower certified by USDA must know that some of their privacy has been surrendered because of their relationship to Uncle Sam.