U.S and South Korea conclude trade deal

Chris Schlect, Northwest Horticultural Council

Can it be? Have the U.S. and South Korea worked through all the tough ag issues and hammered out a free trade pact? That's the news from the U.S. Trade Representative today.

Here is what the Administration is saying so far...


The KORUS-FTA represents the United States’ most commercially significant FTA in over a decade. The Republic of Korea is the world’s tenth largest economy, with a GDP of nearly $1 trillion.

Historically, Korea has been one of the most protected agricultural markets in the world. The KORUS FTA will create highly valuable new export opportunities for American farmers and ranchers by eliminating and phasing out tariffs and quotas on a broad range of products. Under the agreement, over $1 billion worth of U.S. farm exports to Korea will become duty-free immediately. Most remaining tariffs and quotas will be phased out over the first ten years the agreement is in force.
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TK: Farm Bureau has already issued a statement by AFBF president Bob Stallman stating that group's support for the deal depends on "commercially viable trade for U.S. beef based on World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) guidelines."
Chris Schlect of the Northwest Horticultural Council said today a general briefing about the pact will be held later today, but specifics are probably a few days away.

And another welcome to Elizabeth

I have also extended a guest blogger invite to Elizabeth Pivonka at PBH, so you may hear from her in the days and weeks ahead as well. There is no obligation for her, but the door is always open....

Welcome Rick

I am going to be out of the office tomorrow, doing time as a poll worker for the local elections. I thought it would be a great opportunity for a guest blogger to debut on Fresh Talk.

Rick Bella, director of purchasing & VAP for America's Second Harvest-The Nation's Food Bank Network, Chicago, Ill., has agreed to add his voice to Fresh Talk for the next couple of weeks. I look forward to his enthusiasm and insight.

Black and white issue

Above, Rep. Mary Bono of California (seated) with her staff in December 2005.

Perhaps if food safety wasn't such a big issue now, the industry might be more concerned about mandatory country of origin labeling. Clearly, some ag groups are sounding the alarm.

From a recent release:

The U.S. based National Pork Producers Council is expressing concern over renewed prospects for implementation of mandatory Country of Origin Labeling, writes Bruce Cochrane.
Although the introduction of mandatory Country of Origin Labeling, a provision of the 2002 U.S. Farm bill, has been delayed twice by Congress observers believe there will be no further delays beyond the legislation's current September 2008 implementation.


TK: Proponents of mandatory country of origin legislation have offered little wiggle room for a voluntary plan in the past and aren't likely to change.

Here is the link to a short excerpt of my interview from December 2005 with Rep. Mary Bono of California about the topic.

Fresh Express logic

Here is the link to the Fresh Express statement about their decision to participate in the California leafy greens marketing agreement.

This is a welcome decision of course, but we should be reminded the industry is far from where it wants to be. As Mike Stuart of the FFVA was telling me the other day, the industry's sometimes divergent approaches to food safety - marketing agreement, marketing order, federal oversight, etc. - must be melded. While a food safety marketing agreement may be considered a "building block," what will the finished architecture look like? That's the medium and long term challenge for industry leaders.

Statement of Tom Stenzel about Fresh Express

Amy Philpott passes on this statement by United Fresh president Tom Stenzel about the decision by Fresh Express to support the leafy greens marketing agreement....


Statement by United Fresh Produce Association President Tom Stenzel
April 2, 2007


The decision by Fresh Express to support the California leafy greens food safety agreement demonstrates the company’s ongoing support for strong food safety standards. The California agreement serves as an important first step and transition to federal adoption of rigorous food safety metrics for leafy greens that can apply uniformly to produce grown domestically or imported into the United States.

Fresh Express’ decision also reflects a commitment advocated by our association that food safety should not be a competitive issue. While the company’s own standards for its growers may already include all of the food safety steps called for in the agreement, Fresh Express nevertheless is committing its technical leadership and financial support to boost these industry-wide efforts. In our discussions with company leaders, it was clear that Fresh Express made this decision in the spirit of industry unity and a commitment to working together to help our entire industry deliver safe and healthy fresh produce to the public.

The Good Agricultural Practices adopted for leafy greens under the California agreement were developed with strong leadership from United Fresh Produce Association, Western Growers and the California Farm Bureau. The 50-member United Fresh Food Safety and Technology Council, consisting of food safety experts from every produce business sector, provided extensive work in developing the metrics, which were also reviewed with government and academic experts.

We now look forward to working closely with all leafy greens producers, processors and the government and to see these uniform food safety standards put in place for the current growing season in California and then across the leafy greens industry.

Organic = Safer?

One story does not a trend make, but consider this feature about how shoppers are looking to organic food and produce as a safe haven from recent FDA recalls.

From the Myrtle Beach Online story:

Helen Shuler wasn't exactly sure how she could justify paying a couple dollars extra for organic pasta or soup. Usually, the 63-year-old snowbird is on a tight budget and picks her groceries based on cost.
But Shuler estimates she spent 20 minutes on the organic and health food aisle on a shopping trip this week at Bi-Lo "to see what the organic craze was all about."
Her motivation? "I don't know what they're going to recall next," she said. "It seems like organic food might be safer."
In the past eight months, consumers have been inundated with warnings about contamination of some of their most basic foods, starting with spinach on Aug. 30

The fear of getting E. coli is what has increased business for Vicki Hunt, owner of Nature's Health in Loris.
"I've had people switch to more organic foods," she said. "But other people, now they're not eating salads and not eating greens, and that's just terrible. They're still scared of the spinach."

Later in the story....

The extensive publicity and the back-to-back timing of the contaminations could paint a misleading picture, said Jim Rushing, a Clemson University horticulture professor who works to maintain the safety of food from South Carolina's fruit-and-vegetable industry.
About 90 percent of consumers were aware of the spinach recall, according to a study by the Food Policy Institute at Rutgers University that was released in March. Of 1,200 consumers surveyed in November, a fifth said they had stopped buying bagged produce and half said the recall caused them to wash food more thoroughly.
But consumers should be no more worried about the threat of food contamination now than they were a year ago, Rushing said.
"It's important to try to keep the risk aspect into perspective," Rushing said. "I think it's important for consumers to be reminded that we have the safest and most abundant food supply of anyone in the world. We also have a better health care system, ... and we have a better way of tracking where these [contaminations] come from."

TK: I agree the U.S. has the safest and most abundant food supply in the world. But if consumers should be "no more worried than a year ago," the industry does not have that luxury.

Kiwi or not

Native New Zealanders are mourning the ongoing loss of shelf space that is hitting some of their most familiar ag products. From the April 2 story:



So you thought "Kiwi Bacon" was - well, Kiwi bacon. In fact, a packet of Kiwi Bacon may contain as much New Zealand pig as Ribena contains Vitamin C. The packets stacked high at the supermarket feature a little brown kiwi. The label says this is "the taste of New Zealand". In a world of global brands and faceless multinationals, here is something that belongs to us. Our bacon, from our pigs. What the packet does not say is that the bacon may have come from a giant hog farm in Quebec or a piggery in Iowa. chronicles how growing unease about the "industrial revolution come to agriculture" and the growing presence of imported food sparked the move to country of origin labeling.

Chef Peter Gordon, currently visiting New Zealand, says Wattie's peaches were part of his childhood. "They were velvety, really delicious," says Gordon. "Especially in summer, you'd open a can of peaches and pour on some runny cream from the milkman. It was really just the best dessert in the whole world." For Gordon, the industrialisation of the food chain is throwing up thorny questions for consumers who could once unthinkingly place goods in their basket. He is torn, because he knows New Zealand is a country that makes its money by putting its food on other people's shelves. Back in London, he is constantly badgered by people who say he should not be promoting New Zealand lamb or New Zealand kiwifruit.


TK: It is demonstrative that even New Zealand, which relies so heavily on exports for its own ag production, also feels the pressure for country of origin labelling on some products - notably pork, wheat and canned and frozen produce. While Australia will have country of origin labeling by the end of the year, the story notes the New Zealand government vetoed legislation a year ago that would have required country of origin labelling on most food, including fresh produce.


Meanwhile, this story talks about how some U.S. food marketers are using the Web to enhance information they provide to consumers about the origin of their food.