Obama wins

Democrat Barack Obama won the Fresh Talk poll presidential preference runoff against John McCain by a mere two tallies. This week's poll asks you to take your crystal ball and look at the impact of the now-likely recession. Remember, for the Fresh Talk poll archives, go to this link.

"It's all really grim."

Guest blogger Lance Jungmeyer chiming in ...

The economy is turning so grim, according to one shopper in this article, that she cut out her own purchases of fresh fruits and vegetables.

"Barb Phillips of Medway, for example, said the price on a case of formula for her 7-month-old son recently jumped from $32 to $38. Phillips, a loan processor who earns less than $40,000 a year, said she has stopped buying snacks and fresh produce for herself because prices are too high and stretches her meat purchases by making soups and stews.

"Everything just keeps going up," said Phillips, 41. "It's all really grim."

The article notes that fresh fruit and vegetable prices are up 20%, and it predicts a return to the 70s mentality of inflation.

A Dole win

Here is a release today from Dole about a court ruling turning back punitive damages related to health claims from Nicaragua banana workers. Dole scores a court win, but can can it pull off a PR win as well in this case?:

Dole Food Company, Inc. today announced that Judge Victoria Gerrard Chaney of the Los Angeles Superior Court found for Dole in the Tellez case by dismissing all punitive damages and finding that “any punitive damages award would be so arbitrary as to be grossly excessive, and thus violative of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment” of the United States Constitution. Judge Chaney further held that “viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to plaintiffs, the evidence compels a verdict for [Dole] as a matter of law.” The plaintiffs had alleged that Dole acted with malice against workers in the use of Dow Chemical’s agricultural chemical DBCP on contracted banana farms in Nicaragua nearly 30 years ago.
As a result of this and the court’s other favorable rulings on March 7, 2008, the original verdicts which totaled $5 million against Dole have now been reduced to $1.58 million.
“We always have maintained that punitive damages are inappropriate in these cases and would violate fundamental constitutional principles,” said C. Michael Carter, Dole's executive vice president and general counsel. “The rationale of Judge Chaney’s ruling clearly appears to preclude the award of punitive damages against Dole in any of the other cases pending in California, regardless of whether the plaintiffs are from Nicaragua or any other foreign country.”
As a result of these proceedings, the court found in Dole’s favor against seven of the 12 hand-picked plaintiffs in the Tellez case; and the court granted Dole’s motion for a new trial as to the claims of one of the other plaintiffs. Only the compensatory verdicts for four plaintiffs remain, subject to Dole’s appeal.
Dole is committed to a fair and reasonable resolution of claims by male banana workers in Nicaragua, who meet minimum criteria consistent with the reliable science. In Honduras, Dole, worker unions and the Government of Honduras have implemented a successful program to deal with these claims.

Keep it coming

American Farm Bureau doesn't want to see U.S. agricultural trade to Mexico compromised because of access issues for Mexican trucks in the U.S.

From today's press release from AFBF:

March 10, 2008—American agriculture could lose up to $2 billion per year if the U.S. does not meet its commitments to Mexico under the North American Free Trade Agreement, said American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman. Speaking today at a press conference with Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, Stallman said if Congress halts or impedes the Transportation Department’s Cross Border Trucking Pilot Program, Mexico’s retaliation could be devastating to U.S. agriculture. Mexico brought a NAFTA case against the United States which found that the United States is not in compliance with their obligations on this issue under the agreement. This case gives Mexico the authority to retaliate if efforts are not taken by the U.S. to comply.“Disruption of the program, which is consistent with U.S. trade obligations under NAFTA, will come at a considerable cost to U.S. agriculture and many other industries,” said Stallman. “Aside from the significant monetary loss, it is estimated that nearly 41,000 U.S. jobs in 17 states could be lost.”Under NAFTA, Mexican motor carriers are allowed to transport international cargo within the U.S In 2007, DOT announced a small demonstration project to begin implementation of the cross-border trucking provisions. Congress is threatening to halt the pilot program, which could lead to retaliation by Mexico.

The American agriculture industry is particularly vulnerable to retaliation given the growth of U.S. farm exports to Mexico and repeated calls from Mexico’s agriculture sector for restrictions on U.S. food products. Under NAFTA, U.S. food and agriculture exports have more than tripled, climbing from an average $3-4 billion per year prior to NAFTA to more than $12 billion in 2007, making Mexico the second largest export market for U.S. agriculture products.
“The U.S. has made significant strides under NAFTA, including increased export opportunities and the creation of thousands of American jobs,” said Stallman. “Further actions by the U.S. to halt our Mexican truck obligations would only hurt ourselves.”

Trim trolley

The Packer has never covered this story that broke in 2004 and has apparently has not resurfaced since. At the time, Tesco introduced a "trim trolley" to give customers a gentle workout in their shopping trip. The audacity of such an invention is admirable, but since we have not heard any more about the "trim trolley" I'm guessing they are gathering dust in some London warehouse. From the story in the Timesonline from 2004:

Next week the chain wheels out the Tesco Trim Trolley, designed to make the typical 40-minute supermarket shop into a gentle workout. The shopper sets it to “different levels of shopping resistance” — making it harder or easier to push — and the trolley monitors heart rate, number of calories burnt, and when the shopper starts to burn fat instead of carbohydrates.
Shoppers are thought to burn up about 160 calories during a typical 40-minute visit to the supermarket, but pushing the Trim Trolley for the same time with the resistance level set at seven — with ten being the hardest — the average person would use up 280 calories, the equivalent of a 20-minute swim at a leisurely pace, and about double the amount used in walking for 40 minutes.
Wayne Asher, a technical consultant on the project, said: “Most of us spend three or four hours a week pushing a trolley around. It’s hard for most of us to spend that much time in a gym. Shopping is subconscious exercise, and Tesco wants to make people aware of that, and more conscious about their health generally.”
Mr Asher added: “We hope it will make people think more about what they are putting in their trolleys. It should be harder to choose to buy cream gateaux when you’ve got calorie levels on your mind.”
Prototype Trim Trolleys are to be introduced for trial at Tesco’s store in Kensington, West London, next week.
“It is a response to customers’ growing concerns about health and fitness,” a Tesco spokeswoman said. “At the moment it is just a prototype and it is hard to say how many stores they could eventually be in. It depends how customers react to them.”
The prototype costs about £500, compared with £70 for a standard wire trolley, and Tesco has yet to decide on security measures to ensure the Trim Trolleys remain in the store. Derek Thowney, of Wanzl, which supplies Tesco with up to 100,000 trolleys a year, said: “It is the first time we have designed a trolley like this and there is nothing else like it in the world. It is a standard trolley but with the sort of fitness attachments added that you would find in a gym, enabling you to do a workout while you shop.”
The prototype’s introduction coincides with Tesco’s sponsorship of Race for Life in which an estimated 325,000 women will run, jog or walk 5km at 150 venues over the coming months in aid of Cancer Research UK.

TK: How about going the extra mile and put RFID tags on all the food and a RFID reader on the cart? Putting in a head of broccoli would reset the cart to zero resistance, while a package of Ding Dongs would put the resistance level to maximum. The shopping cart as a means to change behavior....

Where does McCain stand on immigration?

This column from the Website Media Matters looks at how the immigration issue has played out in John McCain's bid to be the Republican candidate for president From the story:

In a March 9 New York Times Week in Review piece headlined "A Scorecard on Conventional Wisdom," reporter Mark Leibovich included the "conventional wisdom" that Sen. John McCain would be "done in by immigration in the Republican primaries" in the list of "What Proved to Be False" in the 2008 presidential campaign. But Leibovich did not explain a key reason -- recently noted by the Times -- that McCain may have avoided being "done in" by the immigration issue: He reversed his position on immigration to align himself with the Republican base. Rather than account for McCain's reversal, Leibovich attributed McCain's ability to survive the immigration issue only to "immigration reced[ing] somewhat as an issue late in 2007, and Mr. McCain's chief opponent -- Mike Huckabee ... also attracting suspicion on the issue from the right."

McCain's current immigration position -- that "we've got to secure the borders first" -- is at odds with his prior position that border security could not be disaggregated from other aspects of comprehensive immigration reform without being rendered ineffective. The Times itself reported on McCain's reversal on immigration in a March 3 article by reporter Elisabeth Bumiller, which stated that McCain has "meandered over the years from position to position on some topics, particularly as he has tried to court the conservatives who have long distrusted him." The article noted in particular that McCain "moved from his original position on immigration" and "went so far at a debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in January to say that if his original proposal came to a vote on the Senate floor, he would not vote for it."

TK Regardless of the current position McCain says he espouses, he will be counted an ally in efforts to bring comprehensive immigration reform to the U.S. How connected McCain is with agricultural issues, however, remains to be determined. One Washington lobbyist I visited with recently said that McCain's staff has not had a particularly strong staffer on agricultural issues.