Me and the computer

The computer and I have had issues since the days of 1982, when I worked for Harris Electronic News in Hutchinson, Kansas. Back then, the TRS-80 computers we worked on had huge 8 inch floppy disks, and I managed to destory a floppy disk drive or two and shred a half a dozen disks in my time at HEN.
Today, I'm working at the Johnson County Public Library as the Vance IT staff is working on my recently balky laptop. I'm off this week but can't stay away from the blog, of course. I need to update some great TK headline picks, Packer headlines and Fresh Produce Industry Discussion topics. Despite the fact that Congress is out, there is a ton of stuff going on, particularly in the realm of food safety.

It was good to talk with Donna Garren of the NRA last week. She pointed out that in the absence of federal regulation of produce safety, the implementation of on farm food safety standards by foodservice and retail buyers shouldn't be a surprise to anybody. What's more, she said even if there was strong federal oversight of produce safety, foodservice and retail operators may be interested in providing their own food safety specs to their suppliers. Indeed, she said some buyers have food safety specs for meat products, which are closely regulated (that's subject to interpretation) by the USDA.

Whatever the justification of food safety standards - scientific, legal or commercial - the industry needs to hear from the Food Safety Leadership Council in a big way. If you are grouping together some of the largest buying groups and dictating on-farm standards to a myriad of suppliers, there is a level of accountability that is reciprocal with that power.