Dole signs leafy greens marketing agreement

This Feb. 6 release from Dole says the marketer of fruits and vegetables has signed the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement.
From the release:

Dole has always used GAP in all its growing operations and the Company has been a strong supporter of the Agreement as a standard for the industry. Dole has taken food safety one step further by applying the California standards in all states where its leafy greens are grown.

Tk: Applying the California standards to all states is a move that should be followed by other marketers as well.

More from the release:

The California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement will set mandatory and specific standards for leafy greens supply; the California Department of Health Services will monitor compliance with the new standards. Facilitated by the Western Growers Association, Dole worked collaboratively with a group that consisted of growers, processors, regulators and members of academia to formulate the Agreement.
Eric Schwartz, President of Dole Fresh Vegetables, said: “Dole is in full support of a uniform, national, leafy greens food safety standard that will set mandatory and explicit guidelines in the produce industry. We strongly encourage our retail and food service customers to support the Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement by requiring their produce suppliers to sign this Agreement.” Mr. Schwartz also commented that “Food safety is our top priority. This is another example of our commitment to work with government, industry leaders, trade organizations and food safety experts to continuously seek ways to improve and enhance food safety for consumers.”

Tk: We will wait for more news of participation among California growers but I would anticipate the Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement will have overwhelming support.

Making the grade

How does the public perceive government agencies? Harris has been conducting a poll since 2000 on that very issue, and here are the latest results.

It is interesting to note that CDC, the government agency charged with administering 5 a Day and the Fruit and veggies: More Matters campaign, thankfully has the highest ratings. 90% of Americans think they know what CDC does, and 84% approve.

While you might think the IRS is the lowest rated agency, think again. At 40%, the Social Security Administration was far below the tax agency's 55% approval rating. The USDA slides in at 73% approval and the FDA was 62% positive; in my mind, both agencies could take PR hits this year with elevated awareness of big farm subsidies during the farm bill debate at USDA and food safety failings with FDA.

Speaking of FDA, here is a link to a news release about the FDA 2008 budget, which notes increased funding for faster tracking of pathogens.

Farm to fork tracking

This release talks about new farm to fork traceback software from eProduce. The release said Carzalia Valley Produce and Griffin Holder Company contributed to the architectural design of this version eProduce, which was three years in development. Let's hope these traceback solutions can reduce the need for FDA blanket recalls and warnings that sock it to the entire industry.

Don Dressler, a familiar face and name from his days with Western Growers, was featured in this article about deal with workers' compensation/injury issues.
From the piece.

Almost 1.3 million injured employees missed some work and 5,700 died because of work-related injuries or illnesses in 2005. An injured employee who returns the next day costs a company, on average, $700. If that employee loses some work days, the average claim rises to$8,000. If he is permanently disabled, the average is $43,000.


Dressler appears to have a valuable business niche in helping employers buy an ounce of prevention, which is always better than the alternative.

Whoa nellie

The greater the miles food travels to market, the worse it is for environment. That, in a nugget, is the basis for the hot social responsibility trend of food miles. This article from Scotland carries a strong retort to the concept from an African vegetable exporter. I think this guy makes a strong point:

"With the deepest respect, the farmers in the villages where I come from don't have televisions, they don't have refrigerators, they don't have even one car, let alone two, they don't have motorbikes, they've never even been to our country's capital let alone flown all over the world on holiday -- so don't ask those farmers to pick up the cost of environmental problems you in the industrialised West."

U-pick new school

If you are too old to bend down and pick green beans, the green beans can come to you. Here's a story about a u-pick technology utilized in Florida that may take away some of the charm picking your own produce but adds to the ease.
From the story:

At Hydro-Fresh U-Pick Farms in western St. Lucie County, an innovative tower-style growing system has made the experience dirt-free and taken the bending and kneeling out of picking the berries, beans, tomatoes and herbs.

TK: No soil is used in the hydroponic process, and you know what a new selling point is?

"You cannot get E. coli from Perlite," Bullock said.

Century club: I owe it all to fresh produce

I think the industry has found its spokeswoman. This article celebrates the 100th birthday of a local and the revelation that Patricia Spinelli Mancuso says one the secrets to long life is fresh fruits and vegetables.

Note to other commodity organizations: Ice cream, sausage links and Pepsi products strangely lacking among Patricia's secrets.

Take my vegetables please!

The produce industry was given a poke in this blog entry from a copy editor in Philly.
From the blog by Peter Rozovsky:

I edited a story at work tonight about the continuing fallout from last year’s tainted-spinach scare in the United States. It seems consumers are still wary of leafy green vegetables months after spinach contaminated with E. coli bacteria killed three people and sickened nearly 200.According to the article, “Plummeting spinach sales have also prompted the produce industry to seek federal oversight to assure buyers that fresh produce is safe.”The italics in the paragraph above are mine. When was the last time an American industry cried to the federal government: “Regulate me! Regulate me!”? Business, it seems, wants government off its back except when a government seal of approval can boost the bottom line.


Well, Peter, we are all trying to get our arms around this new reality. And indeed, consumer confidence should increase if strong federal oversight is in place.

The case for potatoes

One of the less loved and more controversial aspects of the proposed rule to add fruit and vegetable vouches to WIC food packages is the provision that would exclude white potatoes from the list of approved fruits and vegetables. The USDA said they will try to issue a interim final rule by September. Here is the argument for potatoes submitted to the USDA last fall by industry leaders.



I think the WIC proposal is stronger if potatoes are included. How the USDA handles the WIC fruit and vegetable voucher proposal will be fascinating, and not the least watched will be their treatment of potatoes in the final rule.