Fresh and Easy on Sunday

Some of The Packer's editorial team going to Las Vegas will be treated to a tour of a Fresh & Easy store Sunday. I hope to get some pics from the visits to the blog on Sunday night.

I'll be anxious to hear what people think of the Vegas show, partly because I'm responsible for writing an overview next week. I might have to put up a poll on Fresh Talk to account for reactions the Vegas show, though I'm tempted to run a poll about the potatoes and WIC issue.

I need to visit the Fresh Produce Industry Discussion Group, but I see that the group has been very active of late, covering everything from new rules about blueberry imports from Central America to more talk about the recession and the farm bill.

Farm bill conference to meet tonight

From the office of Sen. Tom Harkin:

WASHINGTON D.C. – Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate-House Conference Committee on the farm bill, today announced a meeting for all Senate and House farm bill conferees.

The conference committee is scheduled for Thursday, May 1, 2008, at 5:00 PM in room G50 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building (located on ground floor).

Senate extends deadline to May 16

Kate Cyrul passes on news that the Senate just passed by Unanimous Consent a bill to provide a temporary extension of programs authorized by the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act (to May 16, 2008).

It seems that Memorial Day, after all, will be the hard deadline for the farm bill.

Sunkist and global sourcing

A Sunkist news release yesterday brought news of its new sourcing manager. From the Sunkist release:

Michael Nomoto, a veteran exporter from Southern California, has been named Managing Director of Sunkist’s global sourcing organization, Sunkist Global LLC. He replaces Mark Tompkins who was tapped earlier this year to lead Sunkist’s domestic fresh fruit sales network.

Later....

In his new position, Nomoto is responsible for securing production and folding it seamlessly into the Sunkist international sales and delivery network. “Sunkist is currently sourcing complementary citrus from South Africa, Australia and Mexico and delivering it to customers in North America and Asia,” said Hanlin. “Mike will expand those relationships as well as develop new ones in other citrus producing areas.”

TK: Where will those new sources for Sunkist be? Here is a good world citrus roundup from the USDA FAS. Right now, the top fresh citrus exporters in the world are Spain, South Africa, the U.S., Turkey, Argentina, China, Mexico and Morocco. If Argentina gains access to the U.S. market - as is widely expected - it figures that Sunkist would want to be a significant part of that deal.

Trust for America's Health - Another Scathing Critique

Doug Powell and the KSU Food Safety Network provide this link to the Web site Trust for America's Health. Here is what their Web site says about themselves:

Trust for America's Health (TFAH) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to saving lives by protecting the health of every community and working to make disease prevention a national priority. From anthrax to asthma, from chemical terrorism to cancer, America is facing a crisis of epidemics. As a nation, we are stuck in a “disease du jour” mentality, which means we lose sight of the bigger picture: building a public health defense that is strong enough to cover us from all points of attack – whether the threats are from a bioterrorist or Mother Nature. By focusing on PREVENTION, PROTECTION, and COMMUNITIES, TFAH is leading the fight to make disease prevention a national priority, from Capitol Hill to Main Street. We know what works. Now we need to build the resolve to get it done.


The group (2004 IRS 990 PDF here) released this news release on April 30 about this 25 page pdf research report:

On April 30, 2008, Trust for America's Health (TFAH) released a new report that identifies major gaps in the nation's food safety system, including obsolete laws, misallocation of resources, and inconsistencies among major food safety agencies.
"Our goal should be reducing the number of Americans who get sick from foodborne illness. But we can't adequately protect people from contaminated foods if we continue to use 100 year-old practices," said Jeff Levi, PhD, Executive Director of TFAH. "We need to bring food safety into the 21st century. We have the technology. We're way past due for a smart and strategic upgrade."
TFAH calls for a series of actions to help the nation modernize the food safety system by using strategic inspection practices and state-of-the-art surveillance. While many of the recommendations are focused on government actions, the report finds that fixing food safety will require a collaborative effort by food producers, processors, distributors, retailers, and consumers, combined with strong leadership from the federal, state, and local government. Some of the recommendations include:
Repeal outdated end-product and processing plant inspection mandates and shift the emphasis of inspection practices to the prevention of outbreaks and illnesses through the entire food production process and supply chain;
Create mechanisms that allow inspection practices to keep pace with changes in the industry;
Establish uniform performance standards and best practices that are enforceable through actions including detention and recall authority and civil penalty authority;
Require food safety education for commercial food handlers;
Improve monitoring of foreign imports and international practices; and
Strengthen the FDA with increased funding and aligning resources with high risk threats, with the long-term goal of realigning all federal food safety functions.

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.