Getting psyched

I got a call from a cherry shipper in California today. She mentioned that the bloom has been unbelievable and they are anticipating a strong crop of cherries come May. She wondered if I was doing the California cherry section. While I did it last year, Jim Offner is handling that section this year, I told her.

Packer writers - notably Jim, I think - do an amazing job of covering week to week news stories in addition to handling travel and writing duty for special sections.

Another trip I won't be on - I'm noticing a trend here - is United's FreshTech event. United sent out this notice about what promises to be a strong food safety program there.
From the United release:

One of Time magazine’s 2006 “most influential people to shape the world,” FDA Chief Andrew von Eschenbach, M.D., will keynote the opening session at the all-new Produce Safety Summit in Palms Springs. The summit, which will take place April 25 & 26th, immediately precedes the United FreshTech Expo & Conference.
Dr. von Eschebach's keynote presentation, which kicks off the summit, will take place at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, April 25. The Produce Safety Summit will focus on discussing food safety challenges and developing solutions to address produce safety concerns. Produce business leaders, researchers, academia, food safety experts, foodservice and retail quality assurance staff, government officials and suppliers of food safety services will come together for this first-of-its-kind event.




TK: Here is the CDFA news release about approval of the GAPs for the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement. This type of news is reassuring to the public, just what they wanted to hear - until another outbreak occurs.
From the release:

The metrics, which are guidelines for good agricultural practices (GAP) to be followed by marketing agreement signatories, were proposed by a coalition of leafy greens industry members, and were reviewed and endorsed by food science experts in academia and government. A link to the metrics may be found at www.cdfa.ca.gov
"We recognize and appreciate the numerous GAP initiatives coming forward from trade organizations and private companies," said marketing agreement board chairman Joe Pezzini. "However, the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement program is the only initiative that will incorporate on-site field inspections that are conducted by a government inspection and verification entity. The California Department of Food and Agriculture will be using state and federal inspectors trained by the USDA.
The Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement's role is to verify and certify that signatories are following industry's guidelines, using a USDA-designed inspection program in use across the country, and CDFA inspectors. The fiscal year for the marketing agreement will begin on April 1. At that time, signatory handlers will be assessed two cents per carton for operation of the agreement, which is administered by CDFA. Handlers must sign-up by March 31 to participate. To date, 54 handlers representing 98 percent of leafy greens produced in California have signed up for the marketing agreement.