About Harkin's legislation

What can we make of Sen. Harkin's produce safety legislation? In some senses, it seems to deliver what United, PMA and other elements of the industry have been asking for - strong, nationwide federal oversight of produce safety that also accounts for imports. On the other hand, industry leaders (note Tom Stenzel's earlier statement on the blog) are cautious that the legislation may be over prescriptive and inflexible. Some believe food safety regulations should come from FDA, not Congress.

Given the short time frame for enacting the farm bill, I don't think there is any way that this produce safety legislation will be attached to the farm bill - yet that seems to be a concern among some.

Here is an audio clip from the panel of industry leaders I moderated Tuesday at the FFVA convention. The question featured in this clip is the panel's reaction to Sen. Harkin's then pending produce safety legislation. I apologize the audio quality isn't that great. You will find the panel is concerned about potential legislation that represents a knee-jerk reaction by Capitol Hill, legislation that doesn't take into account what industry has already done and legislation that would be linked to the farm bill. The industry leaders on the panel are: Tom Nassif, president of Western Growers; Emanuel Lazopoulos, chairman of the United Fresh Produce Association; Mike Stuart, president of FFVA; and John McClung, president of the Texas Produce Association.