Buyer letter

A mid-December letter from the cadre of powerful produce buyers to the Produce Marketing Association, the United Fresh Produce Association and Western Growers Association is found here. Relating to these food safety discussions, the most important task of the fresh produce industry is to settle on the "foundational food safety requirements." Importantly, buyers want a certification or verification process for suppliers who say they are implementing GAPs and GMPs. Nearly equally important, in my view is talking point #5 from the buyers, and I quote: "We intend to support suppliers throughout our supply chain, that meet the industry accepted foundational food safety requirements. "

A passing

The world of journalists working in agriculture is small, so I was saddened to hear of the passing of Sonja Hillgren after a long battle with cancer. Like The Packer's Larry Waterfield, Hillgren was a well-known personality in Washington, D.C. for many years, having served as Farm Journal's Washington D.C. editor and most recently as senior vice president/editorial for Farm Journal Media.

What you don't know

As a mid-life male who shuns visits to the doctor like cow tongue on a snack tray, I found this column refreshingly reassuring. In convincing style, the author warns that America has a "epidemic of diagnoses" that is making everyone into a patient. Why is it, he asks, are Americans living longer than ever when at the same time we are diagnosed with more maladies than we can shake a stick at? He notes the sliding scale of hypertension and obesity standards and says doctors "need to remember the value of reassuring people that they are not sick." If I could only be sure that's what the doctor would tell me....
All we need to know is...Fruits and veggies: More matters!

Chile's blues

The Packer's Angie Hanson provides an update of the Chilean blueberry deal in this report. While recent volume has come in under expectations, the year to year growth in the blueberry volume has been eye-popping. Here is a spreadsheet showing the strong f.o.b. market for Chilean blueberries in the U.S. market.

Better than Wal-Mart

As an Air Force brat, one of my childhood memories was making the trek to commissary stores with my mom at air bases in Oklahoma, Alabama and California. It was for good reason we shopped at the commissary, I see from a recent report. Average customer savings for a family of four have risen to nearly $3,000 annually; families who shop at military commissaries save an average of 32% over retail supermarkets, defense officials say. Considering the hardships military families endure, the benefit is well-deserved.

A study of the incidence of obesity among toddlers in the inner city are explored in this feature. Limited access and the high cost of fresh produce is cited in the study.

To the moon

The Arizona Republic has a fascinating story this morning about researchers who have already engineered a South Pole vegetable growth chamber and are pitching NASA on a similar concept for the agency's planned lunar station. Scientists at the University of Arizona's Controlled Environment and Agricultural Center in Tucson say that their South Pole "growth chamber" - operating since 2005 - produces enough lettuce, cucumbers and other vegetables to provide two salads a day for the 75 scientists living there. Researchers say the growth chamber is a social hub and good therapy for South Pole residents - and I'm sure a greenhouse on the moon would be even more treasured by space travelers.