Early deadline and Stenzel visit

Tom Stenzel of United will be in town tomorrow for The Packer's annual editorial meeting. The meeting has also scooted up our deadlines this week and will take us out of the office, albeit across the street at a venerable Holiday Inn. No doubt we will be wireless, tho.

I note that both Chairman Peterson and Bob Goodlatte will have media briefings tomorrow. Given the animated talk coming from Ag Secretary Johanns about the farm bill commodity title extension - not to mention industry criticism - it should be an interesting few weeks. It will be a real test of Peterson if he can somehow find a way to keep the specialty crop industry from moving their efforts for funding to the House floor.

This AP story about the recall of onions seems to indicate the listeria found on diced yellow onions was limited to one day's output of fresh cut onions.

Here is another type of action against blackberries of the digital world. Big Apple from our discussion board passes along tihs AP story:

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Posted Wednesday, June 20th 2007, 2:22 PM
PARIS - BlackBerry handhelds have been called addictive, invasive, wonderful - and now, a threat to French state secrets.
French government security experts have reportedly banned - with mixed success - the use of BlackBerries in ministries and in the presidential palace, for fear that they are vulnerable to snooping by U.S. intelligence.
"The risks of interception are real. It is economic war," daily Le Monde quoted Alain Juillet, in charge of economic intelligence for the government, as saying. With BlackBerries, there is "a problem with the protection of information," he said. Juillet's office confirmed that he spoke to Le Monde but said he would not talk to other reporters. Officials at the presidential Elysee Palace and the prime minister's office were not immediately available for comment. Le Monde said information sent from BlackBerries goes through servers in the United States and Britain, and that France fears that the U.S. National Security Agency can snoop. France's General Secretariat for National Defense issued a circular on BlackBerries 18 months ago and later renewed it, the newspaper said.

COOL hand

News of the USDA reopening the comment period for the mandatory country of origin law was met with muted enthusiasm by industry leaders I talked with today. They say the process may be helpful, but the USDA rulemaking on the mandatory law have been insufficient. Everyone seems to agree that the the current mandatory labeling law needs to be repealed, replaced with a compromise voluntary plan with mandatory triggers that the industry coalesced around last year.

What remains to be seen if the House Agriculture Committee will advance the idea of the industry compromise. As one industry leader pointed out, such a plan has no strong attraction for either opponents or proponents of country of origin labeling. Like ties in sports or kissing your sister, the industry's compromise plan lacks basic appeal.

On June 5, House Ag Committee chairman Collin Peterson, ranking member Rep. Bob Goodlatte and Ag Committee ranking member Sen. Saxby Chambliss sent a letter to meat industry officals with "an official request for your participation and commitment to an industry stakeholder process to address country of origin labeling for meat sold at retail."

"We believe there is an opportunity to refine the current law prior to its scheduled enactment on Sept. 30, 2008."

Will such a letter be sent to the produce industry leaders? Not likely, since the industry already has a solution in hand. Given the shots they are sure to take from consumer advocates, the question for lawmakers is how hard they will work to advance the hybrid approach.

Lettuce study

Here is a link to a story about research looking at how pathogens in soil are possibly passed on to lettuce through the roots. The article was passed on by Doug Powell of K-State's Food Safety Network.
From the piece:

Can lettuce grown on soil infected by Salmonella bacteria itself be infected? Michel Klerks, scientist at Plant Research International, part of Wageningen UR, discovered that Salmonella bacteria spread on the plant as well as within the plant. Internal reproduction and spreading increase the risk of food poisoning through lettuce consumption. Prevention of Salmonella infection in lettuce plants and the application of molecular detection methods during routine screening for pathogens in the food production chain can reduce the risk of food poisoning by eating contaminated fresh leafy vegetables. This is the subject on which Michel Klerks will take his doctoral degree at Wageningen University.

TK: As science gets more and more refined, deciding how to quantify and mitigate risk seems to be getting harder, not easier.