All about spinach

Here is a roundup of some the coverage about spinach and the leafy greens marketing agreement.
First the Monterey County Herald offers this perspective about the state marketing agreement.

The main point of tension seems to be between the state marketing agreement, with oversight by the state department of agriculture, or the plan put forward by state Sen. Dean Florez, who wants mandatory regulation of leafy green growers, enforced by the state's Department of Heath Services.
From the story:

Sen. Dean Florez, D- Shafter, who proposed legislation last week that would make many of the voluntary agreement's provisions mandatory, said the "smoke and mirrors" plan is insufficient to protect the public. Only 24 of 170 leafy green processors signed up for it, he said. That may account for handlers who process and ship 70 percent of the state's leafy greens, but he's "not too impressed either way."

TK: Florez calls the state department of agriculture a "tool of the industry." Such rhetoric can only hurt his standing and only politicizes an issue that all Californians should be together on.

More from the story:

Second-generation Salinas Valley grower Bobby Martin said he wasn't sure the marketing agreement would change the way 90 percent to 95 percent of the farming community currently operates. They're already meeting or surpassing the food safety practices the board is likely to pass, he said. Many companies, like Tanimura and Antle, have already given their growers a stricter set of practices they must follow in order to sell their produce to them, he said.
What the marketing agreement will do in the long run, he said, is create a set of standards for everyone in the industry. "When the metrics are finalized in two or three weeks," Martin said, "hopefully most of these companies will come down to those metrics and say, 'This is what we want from you.' Right now, it's all pie in the sky."

TK; There will be much more to dissect when in a few weeks when the GAP/GHP standards will be officially unveiled. When all the dust settles, buyers simply need to choose growers and processors in the marketing agreement.