Housekeeping

The month of April has seen the best readership in the relatively short history of Fresh Talk, so we appreciate that. Thanks to Cryovac for their sponsorship of the blog. At the same time thanks to Luis, Big Apple, Valerie and others at the Fresh Produce Industry Discussion Group who continue to drive readership of that companion discussion board.

I notice the Fresh Talk poll about the vulnerability of fresh to frozen and canned is dead even, with about one more day left of voting. This merits editorial follow up with economists and retailers, no doubt.

Meanwhile, did you notice the big shortfall between shipments of imported produce this year compared with the same week last year? (check out the chart on the side of the blog). Reduced volumes of bananas likely account for some of the gap, but other factors (lower Chilean fruit volumes?) must be at work too. More on that later...

Showdown with the White House? Despite ongoing negotiations in the farm bill conference to limit subsidies to the wealthiest farmers, the White House still isn't happy with the farm bill, it seems. From the Wall Street Journal this morning:

Mr. Bush signed the 2002 farm bill but later regretted doing so, because the measure made no effort to overhaul subsidy programs. The legislation hampered his efforts to secure agreement in the Doha Round of global trade talks, amid complaints from developing countries that the U.S. isn't doing enough to trim farm supports. And against the backdrop of the 2008 campaign, the White House and Republicans in Congress have made a priority of reasserting the party's image as a responsible steward of taxpayer dollars.