An appeal to the industry

Here is an important letter from Bruce McEvoy of Seald Sweet LLC. The search for an effective industry response to the disaster in Peru is brought before us, and Bruce is seeking for input on how we can make a difference. Bruce stressed in a phone interview that he is open to ideas about what can work to extend coordinated aid in this situation and others.

From Bruce:


AN APPEAL TO THE INDUSTRY

What is the extent of our social responsibility as an industry?

Last weekend I was dining with friends and someone asked where the delicious asparagus came from. I proudly stated my knowledge, Peru, and there was an immediate silence in the room.

Instant reflections of what we had seen over the past few days could not be ignored. Images of crushed adobe cottages in the region of Ica; a church collapsing on its congregation during prayer in Pisco; a complete breakdown of the infrastructure with parts of the Pan American highway no longer in place. The devastating power of an earthquake brought terror to farming villages 160 miles south of Lima; farm communities that grow and ship asparagus, sweet onions and now citrus to the United States.

While humanitarian aid is flowing in from around the world, when the headlines fade in a few weeks those who will suffer the most are the farm workers and their families who have lost their homes and are now displaced. Similar to the conditions created after the 2004 Florida hurricanes these critical workers within the global produce industry deserve not only our compassion but also our financial support.

Seald Sweet launched a fundraising effort following the hurricanes in 2004 and soon recognized the generosity within our industry, but we also recognized that one company does not have the capabilities to mobilize the industry’s resources for relief efforts. Is this perhaps a role for United Fresh and the PMA where they can provide the industry with the disaster facts, publish the message and provide a registered foundation for the collection, oversight and distribution of relief funds?

It may be inappropriate for me to speculate on the charter of those associations, particularly their foundations, but I’m trying to stimulate your thinking; I’m searching for ideas! Many of our retail partners, produce companies and suppliers to the industry have foundations that can make contributions to disaster relief efforts. As we learned from our Florida experience many retailers were willing to join with the suppliers to conduct fundraising promotion features that also involved the consumer. The desire to help others in distress is part of our culture we just need to find a mechanism to make it happen.

I’m open to your suggestions and no idea is off the radar screen. I don’t expect that a solution will be simple but it deserves our attention. In Peru we’ve witnessed another natural disaster and this time it is not only a neighbor but a neighbor who is part of our industry. We need to try our best to support them as produce colleagues!

Again, what is the extent of our social responsibility?

Thank you,

E. Bruce McEvoy,

Seald Sweet LLC
772-569-2244

August 21, 2007

USDA and E.coli/fresh produce research

This is significant backing from the USDA on produce-related food safety research:

USDA AWARDS $5.5 MILLION FOR RISK AND PREVENTION RESEARCH OF E. COLI O157:H7 IN FRESH PRODUCE
WASHINGTON, Aug. 21, 2007 - Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns announced today that USDA is furthering its research on the safety of fresh produce. Nearly $5.5 million will support collaborative research to identify risk factors and preventive measures for E. coli O157:H7 contamination in fresh produce.
"This research will help producers identify the sources of E. coli O157:H7 and ways to avoid contamination," Johanns said. "Developing new research and prevention tactics for the grower will contribute to assuring produce safety for consumers."
USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSRES) are providing the funding to ARS researcher Rob Mandrell and his collaborators at the University of California to continue their research in the Central Valley of California. Over the next three years ARS will contribute $5 million and CSREES will contribute $470,999. In 2006, CSREES awarded Mandrell and colleague Robert Atwill at University of California-Davis $1.2 million to do research in the Salinas Valley.
Mandrell will address where E. coli O157:H7 originates, how it survives on the plant, and what factors lead to an increase in produce-related outbreaks. Potential risk factors include animals, land practices, packing and processing processes and wildlife.
Additionally, the project will feature workshops and publications to educate the animal operators, natural resource managers and the public about animal diseases that can be transferred to humans, how animal waste can contaminate water sources, and beneficial management practices for maintaining and improving water runoff quality.
Outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7 illness associated with fresh lettuce or spinach have been associated with pre-harvest contamination.
CSREES' portion of the grant was funded through the National Research Initiative (NRI). The NRI is the largest peer reviewed, competitive grants program in CSREES. Its purpose is to support research, extension, and education grants that address key problems of national, regional, and multi-state importance in sustaining all components of agriculture.
CSREES advances knowledge for agriculture, the environment, human health and well-being, and communities by supporting research, education, and extension programs in the Land-Grant University System and other partner organizations. For more information, visit http://www.csrees.usda.gov. ARS is the USDA's chief in-house scientific research agency.

Cal on technology

Cal of our Fresh Produce Industry Discussion Board posted some great thoughts about technology today. Here is an excerpt below. Join the group for the full read.
From Cal:

I had a few thoughts I wanted to share, so I started to type them out. It kind of got bigger then I intended so I added a couple headings to break it up.

Instant Messaging / VoIP
According to research companies like Gartner, instant messaging (IM) is begining to overtake email in usage in a few years. I'm pretty sure there is an error in the way they are calculating usage, but IMs are still extremely popular especially for people in my generation (under 30) and certain industries. I also have my "go-to" import guy who begged me to get on Skype. Skype is a combination IM/Voice over IP service. It makes free international voice calls over the internet, and if you have a camera hooked up like my macbook you can video conference with Skype.
Speaking of video conferencing, its pretty simple now. If you have an IM conversation going, Its a single button click to switch to video conferencing. I can't understand why this isn't more prevalent in our business. Its very popular with college kids. My family uses it pretty often outside the office.
Outside of those users however, I only have a few venders who I speak with regularly over IM. And the ones I do IM with I had to set up myself. Some companies have policies that prohibit IM use. I had to call management at one of my most important venders to get my sales guy special permission.
For me, its worth the trouble to have quick access to my venders. It allows me to monitor the markets a lot closer to real time then telephone and email permits. I've been wondering how others in the industry are using the technology, and what we should expect in the future.
Web 2.0 / Social Networks in Produce
Has anyone really started using the new web social networks, like LinkedIn or Facebook, for productive business? There are plenty of people saying that these types of social networking sites are going to be the way we do business in the future.
In our day to day work we build networks of colleagues that are necessary to doing business. The promise of social network sites is that they will help us build and monitor our personal networks. For example, LinkedIn facilitates growing your contacts though friend of a friend services. The idea is that if you are looking for someone to provide a service or product, and you don't directly have someone you trust to do the job, you can check if anyone in your network has someone they trust in their network.

TK: What do you think? How long will it take for the industry to become up to speed with all the technology that is available to them? Instant messaging, video conferencing, Internet phone and who knows what is next? The under-30 demographic, like Cal, will lead the way. All I know is that not long after I started with The Packer, the fax machine was the eighth wonder of the world.

Social Insecurity Numbers

It appears that fake documents with bogus Social Security numbers will not be good enough anymore, says this link from The Arizona Republic, passed on by Luis of the Fresh Produce Industry Discussion Group.

From the very long story:

The fake-document trade is booming in Arizona. It's about to get even bigger.Hundreds of operations around the Valley churn out fake green cards, Social Security cards and driver's licenses by the thousands, authorities say. Their chief customers: illegal immigrants. Some are trying to land jobs in Arizona. Some are passing through Phoenix, a major smuggling hub, on the way to other states. Most of the fake documents bought on the street by undocumented immigrants are made with bogus numbers.
But authorities fear the industry will grow as migrants look for ways to circumvent the state's new employer-sanctions law and a new Bush administration crackdown on illegal workers. The push for more documents, especially with authentic numbers, is expected to spur more identity theft. "It's growing, and it's pervasive," said Lt. Giles Tipsword of the Phoenix Police Department's property crimes bureau. "This is a multimillion-dollar industry." Arizona's new employer-sanctions law requires companies to verify worker eligibility through a federal database. Lawmakers in other states also are taking steps to make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to use fake documents to land jobs, hoping the crackdown will cut down on illegal immigration. And under new rules announced last week by the Bush administration, employers risk prosecution if they don't fire workers whose names and Social Security numbers don't match.But nobody thinks the fraudulent-document industry in Arizona will dry up and disappear. If anything, it's going to get bigger and more sophisticated as criminals who make fake documents adapt to meet demand. The database can't flag documents made with stolen identities, where the names and numbers match. As a result, a proliferation of fraudulent IDs, combined with identity theft, could undercut the employer-sanctions law. "There is a good potential for an increase in identity theft and also an increase in the manufacture and sale of fraudulent documents," said Leesa Berens Morrison, director of the Arizona Department of Homeland Security.

TK: The resourcefulness of the criminal mind shouldn't be underestimated,but I wonder if this story tends to soft pedal the very real troubles employers are facing.