Packing with the sun

Most produce shippers wish their electricity bill was falling every month. At P-R Farms, Clovis, Calif., that's reality.

With 7,744 photovoltaic tiles atop the packing house, P-R Farms generates 1.1 megawatts of power, or enough to power 1,000 homes. More importantly, says P-R Farm's Vince Ricchuiti, is that the cells generate enough power that the average monthly electrical bill has dropped from $30,000 to $5,000.

P-R Farms bought its setup from PowerLight Corp., Berkeley, Calif.

Verifying our way to food insecurity

One of the Bush Administration initiatives that is drawing concern from industry leaders is described this way by the White House:

The Administration Will Commence a Rulemaking Process To Require All Federal Contractors And Vendors To Use E-Verify, The Federal Electronic Employment Verification System, To Ensure That Their Employees Are Authorized To Work In The United States. The Federal government ought to lead by example. As there are more than 200,000 companies doing Federal business, this will significantly expand use of E-Verify, and make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to obtain jobs through fraud.

TK: This means that every produce grower/shipper that sells to the USDA for fruit and vegetable programs (see fiscal year 2006 vendor list) will have to have E-Verify in place. What are the implications for vendors who sell fruits and vegetables to the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service? Sharon Hughes of the National Council of Agricultural Employers said this provision could have grave consequences, as those companies will apparently be forced to terminate workers with fraudulent documents or else lose government business.

California grape outlook

One California grape shipper said Flames were winding down rapidly in the Fresno region, with Thompsons priced at $11-12 per carton now but expected to firm before supplies wind down in about a month. Crimson seedless were rated at $14-16 per carton and were expected stable in the near term but rising in the longer; supply will extend into November and beyond, the shipper said.

The week of 99 cents per pound

Wal-Mart in Olathe was advertising black plums at 50 cents per pound on Sunday. The promotion must have been a special "opportunity buy." While the deal was hot, many of the plums were too mature and I would assume shrink was running high.

Overall, though, the food section for Aug. 15 through Aug. 21 was the week of 99 cents per pound.

Hen House
Black, red or white seedless grapes: 99 cents/lb

Price Chopper
Ripe N Ready: Yellow peaches or black plums: 99 cents/lb

Dillons
Tree ripe Colorado peaches: 99 cens/lb

HyVee
Columbine Thompson Seedless grapes: 99 cents/lb


Also featured this week:
HyVee, Australian minneola tangelos ($1.98/lb, sampling), Colorado peaches ($1.48/lb, Dole salad kits (2 for $4, More Matters logo), Grimmway Farms baby carrots ($2.68 for 3-lb package), Australian navel oranges ($1.48/lb), Oregon chester blackberries ($1.99/6 ounce package), Kandy label honeydew (2 for $4), Ripe N Ready red or black plums (1.38/pound(

Dillons
Olathe sweet corn (5 for $2) Tuscan style cantaloupe or honeydew (2 for $6), ripe cantaloupe 2 for $5 and whole seedless watermelon ($3.99 each), red delicious, granny smith or cameo apples $1.39/lb, red, green or black seedless grapes ($1.79/lb)


Hen House
Kingsburg Flavor Heart or Dinosaur Egg pluotts: $2.49/lb, Kingsburg crunchy, sweet Asian pears: 99 cents each

Killing us softly

Julia Havey has a blog, and the mission statement of the blog (note to self: come up with a mission statement) is "To bring about a decline in the obesity epidemic and empower people to improve their lives."

Here is a recent entry by Julia about Coke and McDonald's.

MSNBC: Americans are living longer than ever, but not as long as people in 41 other countries.
For decades, the United States has been slipping in international rankings of life expectancy, as other countries improve health care, nutrition and lifestyles.
Countries that surpass the U.S. include Japan and most of Europe, as well as Jordan, Guam and the Cayman Islands.
“Something’s wrong here when one of the richest countries in the world, the one that spends the most on health care, is not able to keep up with other countries,” said Dr. Christopher Murray, head of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.
Many factors
Researchers said several factors have contributed to the United States falling behind other industrialized nations. A major one is that 45 million Americans lack health insurance, while Canada and many European countries have universal health care, they say.
But “it’s not as simple as saying we don’t have national health insurance,” said Sam Harper, an epidemiologist at McGill University in Montreal. “It’s not that easy.”

Among the other factors:
Adults in the United States have one of the highest obesity rates in the world. Nearly a third of U.S. adults 20 years and older are obese, while about two-thirds are overweight, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.
“The U.S. has the resources that allow people to get fat and lazy,” said Paul Terry, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Emory University in Atlanta. “We have the luxury of choosing a bad lifestyle as opposed to having one imposed on us by hard times.------
The problem is huge and the solution is so simple yet we seem to keep our heads buried in the sand. What do I mean? Recently the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation burned through money to do a study on how to make us live longer only to advise us on getting flu shots, taking aspirin daily and checking for chlamydia! While those are certainly valid health tips, I was amazed that their study totally ignored the Obesity Pandemic, the biggest reason that we are the dying sooner than other humans around the world!
The Vice Busting Diet is the only "diet" book with the integrity to tell the truth and tell the reader that if they want to live healthfully and longer--they can't eat McDonald's and drink Coca-Cola and continue to lay on the couch hour upon hour watching TV at the expense of getting some physical activity!
We wonder why we are so fat and lazy? A recent study showed children prefered carrots out of a McDonald's bag rather than a generic carrot despite the fact that both carrots were exactly the same shape, size and taste! They have been brainwashed by this generation's Hilter--Ronald McDonald! Shocking statement? Not if you think about it. I think when it is said and done more lives will have been lost to McDonald's fat genocide than Hilter's murderous regime. I realize this is a stretch, but if we found out that Ronald McDonald hated fat people and was purposefully feeding them poisonous toxic food that would make them morbidly obese, contract illness and disease and die prematurely--we would be outraged.
The only difference is, he doesn't 'hate' them, but make no mistake about it, he is killing millions of human beings one bite at a time.
And you think the execs at Coca-Cola are any better? They come up with every way imaginable to have us suck down their sugar laced Coke or aspartame punch. They make it readily available in soft drink machines everywhere! They know that what they serve is unhealthy, they have the ability to make a great deal of money selling us bottled water yet they continue to push their poison despite the fact people drink enough of it to get big and fat. Do you think they care about your bottom line or theirs?
If we stopped eating fast food; McDonald's, Wendy's, Chick Filet, etc., stopped drinking soft drinks; Coke, diet Coke, Pepsi, Gatorade, Monster, etc and got up off the couch it is guaranteed that we would live longer and healthier lives.
Guaranteed.
Keep eating that crap, keep drinking the crap--keep feeling like crap and die young. Guaranteed


TK: Julia is bringing it strong..."They have been brainwashed by this generation's Hitler--Ronald McDonald!" As a frequent customer of the double cheeseburger, Julia goes too far for me. Wouldn't it be better to sell more produce through McDonald's than to vilify them? While we would all be better off if we drank orange juice and had carrot sticks instead of Coke and McDonald's, Julia's call for total abstinence of all quick serve restaurants casts her on the far fringe of foodies. Yet her message does resonate with a part of the public that is truly sick of their unbalanced eating habits and overweight bodies and want a scapegoat as a catalyst to change.

No match rule

It has been feared for months, and could cause growers to fire some of their most productive workers. Here is the link to the 56 page PDF file for the final rule for the no-match safe harbor provisions for employers.

From the summary:

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is amending the regulations relating to the unlawful hiring or continued employment of unauthorized aliens. The amended regulation describes the legal obligations of an employer. under current immigration law. when the employer receives a no-match letter from the Social Security Administration or receives a letter regarding employment verification forms from the Department of Homeland Security. It also describes "safe-harbor" procedures that the employer can follow in response to such a letter and thereby be certain that the Department of Homeland Security will not use the letter as any part of an allegation that the employer had constructive knowledge that the employee referred to in the letter was an alien not authorized to work in the United States. The proposed rule adds two more examples to the current regulation's definition of "knowing" to illustrate situations that
may lead to a finding that an employer had such constructive knowledge. These additional examples involix an employer's failure to take reasonable steps in response to either of two events: ( I ) the employcr receives a written notice from the Social Security Administration (such as an "Employer Correction Request" commonly knomn as an employer 'ho match letter") that the combination of name and social security account number submitted to the Social Security Administration for an employee does not match agency records: or (2) the employer receives written notice from the Department of Homeland Security that the immigration status or employment-authorization documentation presented or referenced by the employee in completing Form 1-9 was not assigned to the employee according to Department of Homeland Security records. (Form 1-9 is retained by the employer and made available to DHS investigators on request, such as during an audit.) The rule also states that DHS will continue to review the totality of relevant circumstances in determining if an employer had constructive knowledge that an employee was an unauthorized alien in a situation described in any of the regulation's examples. The "safe-harbor" procedures include attempting to resolve the no-match and, if it cannot be resolved ~within a certain period of time, verifying again the employee's identity and employment authorization through a specified process.

Headline roundup 8/15

A few headlines this morning.....



Apple dispute on the brink of WTO New Zealand's 45 year quest to get apples into Australia is still being held up, and kiwis are looking to the WTO for a solution.

To get this financial carrot, eat your vegetables A health care insurer offers to lower deductibles in return for a healthy lifestyle. Sounds like a natural fit for a More Matters tie-in. From the story:
Vital Measures, the new program offered by UnitedHealthcare, lets participating employees earn credits to "buy down" the amount of their annual health plan deductible. Dollar amounts vary by employer, but in a typical case an employee whose health plan has a $2,500 deductible could earn up to four credits worth $500 each by maintaining a healthy weight, keeping blood pressure and LDL ("bad") cholesterol levels within target ranges, and not smoking. If the employee meets all four benchmarks, his or her out-of-pocket deductible cost could drop to just $500.


Best antioxidants in the produce aisle, nutritionists say Great coverage informing consumers of anti-oxidant benefits of f/v. A question - why don't we see more advertising of this benefit in the produce department? Arizona Republic story states:

Take a stroll down the aisles of your local grocery store and the word "antioxidant" pops out at you everywhere - teas, juices, chocolates, energy bars. All bill themselves as providing large doses of these entities that - if you believe the hype - might do everything from cure cancer to make you 10 times smarter.But what's the reality?Nutritionists and dietitians say you shouldn't try to buy your antioxidants in a bottle or box. Instead, you should embrace antioxidants in their natural state.
Experts recommend that you head over to the produce aisle and stock up on the original antioxidant heavy hitters, which include fresh berries, spinach, red peppers and a host of other fruits and vegetables. Some teas, such as green, red and white, also can deliver powerful antioxidant punches.Rather than worrying about swallowing a supplement each day or gobbling down that power bar with antioxidants, concentrate on getting those nine servings of fruits and vegetables that government guidelines recommend. Even clocking in at the previous recommendation of five servings a day would likely suffice, experts say.


Discovery tries to limit junk food marketing Discovery Communications announced that it would not allow the characters of its popular Discovery Kids channel to be associated with junk food. The decision is part of the network's battle against childhood obesity, according to to a press release. The characters of the kid-friendly programming can only be used in connection with healthy food. Birthday cake and other special-occasion sweets are the only exceptions.

Spotlight shifts to U.S. Senate Jerry Hagstrom reviews the dynamics of the farm bill debate in the Senate, with farm program states uneasy with the lack of clarity from Sen. Tom Harkin so far on the commodity title of the farm bill.