Fresh Produce Discussion Blog

Created by The Packer's National Editor Tom Karst

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Coming on

Had some visits today with David Gombas of United, Michelle Smith of FDA and sat in on a little bit of a labor hearing, where Reggie Brown of the Florida Tomato Committee was testifying. I missed the farm bill conference hearing, but I've heard that not a lot happened.

From a Capitol Hill staffer, I heard there there will be a Putnam-Cardoza produce safety bill introduced in the not too distant future.

Will the WIC food packages be reopened? Juice and fresh potato interests (United also favors including potatoes) wants to revise the packages, and others want to gain back the $2 per month lost in rulemaking. I have an interview with John Keeling on Thursday and I'm sure the topic will come up....

Tomorrow I'll spend some time at the USDA and try to catch some more or the farm bill conference.

What - or more accurately, where - is the future venue of United's shows? Haven't seen Tom Stenzel this week to ask him, and no one else on United staff is spilling the beans. When I see Tom, I'll see if he has any news....

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Slide show - DC April 14

No FBI T-shirts for Fresh Talk readers, but I do give you a little slide show from Washington, D.C. You'll see pictures from my visit to the United Fresh Produce Association on April 14 and scenes from the farm bill conference session that same day.


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Farm bill conference today

Today's farm bill conference begins at 9:30 a.m. the Hart Senate Building, but don't expect final solutions about money today, just fine tuning of specific features of various titles within the farm bill. Yesterday, it was interesting to watch the USDA's Chuck Conner at the conference committee hearing. At various times, he was shaking his head no, smiling, or leaning over to whisper something to another agency official. Hopes may be dimming for a new farm bill in 2008, based on the fiscal disagreements and body language on display yesterday.

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Tesco results today

From The Telegraph in the UK comes this story anticipating the release of Tesco's results later today. Of course, much speculation about what Tesco will say about its U.S. Fresh & Easy venture, though it won't disclose sales from the group just yet. The oft-quoted analyst Mike Dennis says this about Tesco's Fresh & Easy in the story:


Among its harshest critics has been Mike Dennis, analyst at Piper Jaffray, the bank. In a note yesterday, Mr Dennis said: "What's the problem with Fresh & Easy? In our view, it is a sterile, small costco, too quiet, not quirky, has a negative feel, too different or ahead of its time. Maybe all of the above, but Tesco seems to have over-engineered the concept." Ouch!

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Potatoes get second look

As the industry continues to fight to get potatoes in the WIC food package (the latest reported clarification from USDA is that all fresh potatoes - not just white potatoes - will be excluded) - the Drudge Report features this link today of a story about potatoes, so that means many millions of readers will see this Reuters report by Terry Wade about the "humble potato" now being accorded new respect. A few excerpts from the story:

As wheat and rice prices surge, the humble potato -- long derided as a boring tuber prone to making you fat -- is being rediscovered as a nutritious crop that could cheaply feed an increasingly hungry world.

Potatoes, which are native to Peru, can be grown at almost any elevation or climate: from the barren, frigid slopes of the Andes Mountains to the tropical flatlands of Asia. They require very little water, mature in as little as 50 days, and can yield between two and four times more food per hectare than wheat or rice.

"The shocks to the food supply are very real and that means we could potentially be moving into a reality where there is not enough food to feed the world," said Pamela Anderson, director of the International Potato Center in Lima (CIP), a non-profit scientific group researching the potato family to promote food security.

Like others, she says the potato is part of the solution.

The potato has potential as an antidote to hunger caused by higher food prices, a population that is growing by one billion people each decade, climbing costs for fertilizer and diesel, and more cropland being sown for biofuel production.

To focus attention on this, the United Nations named 2008 the International Year of the Potato, calling the vegetable a "hidden treasure".

Governments are also turning to the tuber. Peru's leaders, frustrated by a doubling of wheat prices in the past year, have started a program encouraging bakers to use potato flour to make bread. Potato bread is being given to school children, prisoners and the military, in the hope the trend will catch on.

Supporters say it tastes just as good as wheat bread, but not enough mills are set up to make potato flour.

"We have to change people's eating habits," said Ismael Benavides, Peru's agriculture minister. "People got addicted to wheat when it was cheap."

Even though the potato emerged in Peru 8,000 years ago near Lake Titicaca, Peruvians eat fewer potatoes than people in Europe: Belarus leads the world in potato consumption, with each inhabitant of the eastern European state devouring an average of 376 pounds (171 kg) a year.

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