A new look

As you can see, I changed the template to a cleaner, less green look. What do you think?

Video roulette

Probably most Fresh Talk readers haven't explored the Google video bar at the bottom of this page. I've instructed Google to fetch videos related to news magazine shows (20/20, Dateline, etc.) and on topics such as E. coli and food safety.

There is not much rhyme or reason to what actually shows up. It is video roulette, with some spoofs on E. coli and spinach and some homemade video, and some straight news takes from network shows.

If you float the cursor over the video box, it will tell you what the topic is. Happy viewing.

Mainly in Spain

Andy Nelson of The Packer is off to Spain on Monday. I'm don't have his agenda handy, but I expect he will have the opportunity to visit with some citrus exporters there. I extended Andy a "guest blogger" invite on his travels, so we might be lucky and hear from him next week.


That reminds me to thank Rick Bella of America's Second Harvest for his continuing contributions to the blog. If you are considering being guest blogger on this site, remember you don't have to post everyday. Once or twice a week is fine - what is the expression, "as the Spirit moves."

Weekend rewind: Peterson reflects

I talked to Bruce Peterson on Feb. 2, the day he announced he was leaving Wal-Mart. In this audio excerpt of the interview, Peterson talks about the growth of Wal-Mart. Never before has an organization grown their grocery business like Wal-Mart did, and Peterson gives large credit to suppliers.

Piling on

Also testifying at the FDA hearing Friday on produce safety was Consumers Union. This link can give you their testimony in pdf form.

Here is how a Consumer Union press release summarized the testimony by CU senior counsel Sally Greenberg:

"Last week, the FDA published voluntary industry guidelines that are not “legally enforceable responsibilities.” According to the document, “[they] describe the Agency’s current thinking on a topic and should be viewed only as recommendations…The use of the word should in Agency guidance means that something is suggested or recommended, but not required.”
“Fruits and vegetables are among the healthiest foods we can consume. Leaving it up to the producer to decide which guidelines they choose to follow is unacceptable. The safety of our produce should not be an option,” said Greenberg.
Consumers Union is calling for mandatory regulations on produce production that includes:
Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) for all farms and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) programs for all processors;
written food safety plans showing how producers will comply with GAPs;
third-party audits;
trace-back systems that include package identifiers so that each item can be traced all the way back to the field in which it originated;
FDA inspections at least yearly, made possible by substantially increased funding by Congress;
FDA enforcement with stiff penalties.
Consumers Union also supports creation of a single food agency to ensure adequate, efficient, and effective oversight of our nation’s food supply

TK: Notice that Consumer Union and other advocates don't call for commodity specific guidelines. The nuances of such distinctions are lost in their hard line formula for food safety remedies. The industry - that apple grower in Washington or the citrus producer in California or thousands of other growers producing commodities never associated with foodborne illness - can only hope they won't be caught in the same net cast by groups like Consumers Union.