New rules and links

The USDA had a flurry of grades and standards related rule making this week. Here is a new notice about greenhouse tomato grades, another about tomatoes on the vine, another in kiwifruit packaging, another about Idaho-eastern Oregon onions and yet another on winter pear grades. Whew!

One intriguing notice about avocados came across on Feb. 15. Find it here.
From the notice:

The Administrator, Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), today accepted a petition filed by the California Avocado Commission representing California avocado producers for trade adjustment assistance. The Administrator will determine within 40 days whether or not increasing imports of avocados contributed importantly to a decline in domestic producer prices of 20 percent or more during the marketing period beginning November 1, 2005, and ending October 31, 2006. If the determination is positive, all producers who produce and market their avocados in California will be eligible to apply to the Farm Service Agency for no cost technical assistance and for adjustment assistance payments.

TK: It can't hurt to apply for TAA, but my impression is that it doesn't deliver much assistance. At some future date, I think California growers may look to apply for a heaping measure of help if Mexico's new found access to the California market weights heavy on hass prices in California. Will California growers chafe at Mexican imports and demand some kind of anti-dumping action if prices plummet? I've heard nothing of the kind and it would certainly run counter to the feel good avocado story of smart promotions and expanding demand, so it's unlikely. But Mexican access to California is uncharted territory, so it will be interesting to watch.



By the way, Fred Webber and Pat Hanemann of the DRC were in the office yesterday to meet with Lance and others, and they alerted me to another worthy link for my blog. Find a searchable database of motor carrier safety records here. I have also added this link that is a searchable database of U.S.-approved biotech crops.

I hope you all take at least one lazy afternoon, one idle lunch hour, to explore the links. I think you will find a lot of utility out of them.