Avocado intercept

This story from San Diego looks at what could be an explosive issue - the interception of nearly a dozen shipments of Mexican avocados by California inspectors who say they found an invasive pest on hass from south of the border. Note the tension between state inspectors, who survey about 80% of imports, and federal inspectors, who handle only one port. The fact that the state considers the armored scale dangerous and the federal government apparently does not will only raise the suspicions of Mexican growers that the rejections are politically motivated.

From the story:

California pest-control inspectors consider scale a potentially dangerous agricultural pest and, Lyle said, would naturally reject any shipment found with the insect.State officials inspect about 80 percent of the commercial products entering California, representatives from the California Avocado Commission said.
But the federal government does not consider scale dangerous ---- which could mean that the invasive pest is already entering California. U.S. Agriculture Department inspectors currently inspect all shipments coming into the United States from Mexico through Otay Mesa, the only area inspection point still run by the federal agency. Steve Bellamore of the avocado commission said state officials petitioned the federal Department of Agriculture for help Friday. Helene Wright, the federal agency's plant health director for California, said Friday afternoon that a proposal to have federal inspectors at Otay adopt California's position to reject shipments with the bug was sent to the agency's top lawyers.Wright said the agency intended to act quickly on the request, but could not specify how long a decision might take.


TK: The California Avocado Commission is under mounting pressure by its growers to get federal inspectors on the same page as the state. We'll see how this plays out over the next few days, but growers in California are restless.

Ain't what it used to be

This AP story says Hawaiian pineapple output has reached a new low.

Since the state began keeping records, fresh pineapple production and sales have never been as low as 2006, and this year won't likely see a reversal.
The National Agricultural Statistics Service reports that production in 2006 was 188,000 tons, down 11% from 2005. That's about 13% of record 1955 production of 1.5 million tons.
From the story:

A total of 139,000 acres were being used to grow pineapples in Hawaii during 2006. But 100 acres fell out of pineapple production last year, the NASS reported.
The agency's numbers did not include 5,000 acres dropped by pineapple producer Del Monte in November, which will likely bring another drop to future local pineapple industry production numbers.
"It'll be down," said Mark Hudson, director of the NASS field office in Hawaii.

Another state that has concerns about dwindling agricultural output is Arizona, says this report from the Arizona Star. Don Butler, director of the state department of agriculture, sounded the alarm.

From the story:

Arizona lost 37 percent of its farmland between 1950 and 2000 to either residential, industrial or business uses, according to a 2003 report from Northern Arizona University's Center for Sustainable Environments. Asked what the state could do to keep agriculture strong in the long-run, Butler said, "I guess the easy answer would be to stop putting concrete down on good farmland." Butler said his department needs to do a better job of educating people about what agriculture adds to Arizona.
"People don't realize the effort, the capital and everything that goes into agriculture," he said. "It's much easier to go to Safeway or Bashas' or the rest."
The state is the nation's second-largest producer of head and leaf lettuce, spinach, cantaloupe, honeydew, broccoli and cauliflower.
He said another issue affecting Arizona growers is the availability of labor to work in the fields. Butler said he favors a program to bring in field workers from Mexico "because you don't have the work force in the United States that's willing to do it."

TK: The way it's going now, the couple celebrating their 25th anniversary will arrive in Hawaii, be greeted with a lei and a pineapple from Costa Rica. And retirees living in a new Arizona subdivision will go to a Safeway and not think twice about the field of carrots that used to be there.

Food deserts and Darth Tater

The Packer's Charlie Giddley recently wrote a column about "food deserts" in America's inner cities. He wrote:

For years, studies have indicated a higher incidence of heart disease and diabetes among racial minorities in the U.S. and the link between those diseases and diet, including insufficient consumption of produce. And racial minorities are more likely than whites to live in the inner city.

The produce industry can talk up the importance of eating fruits and vegetables all it wants, but unless it does a better job of spurring the government to address the lack of supermarket access to millions of urban residents, it is merely taunting the helpless and ignoring a huge untapped market.

TK: Here is a fairly recent news report I found on youtube about what is being done in New York City to address the issue.


As an aside, while I was on youtube, I found this blast from the past, the Store Wars Web commercial, which referenced the "organic rebellion" and the "dark side" of conventional farming. This 5 minute video is worth a few chuckles and hardly can be taken seriously as consumer messaging with its references to "darth tater" and "Organican Skywalker." It was panned by The Packer when it was released in 2005 by the Organic Trade Association.
May the farm be with you - always - but don't try to call conventional produce the dark side.