Thanks Lance

From the June 30 edition of The Packer, I am running Lance Jungmeyer's final column as editor of The Packer. Lance has moved on to a new position with the state of Missouri, but he made The Packer a stronger publication by having been here. Thanks, Lance.

The news isn't going anywhere, but I am

By Lance Jungmeyer, Editor

A newspaper is your best friend. Carried under your arm from place to place, it is a constant companion. Whether you use one to start your day, end it, or sometime in between, it's there with you. A good newspaper speaks the truth and exposes lies. It portrays the mundane as well as the sublime. It makes you think. It makes you angry. And, hopefully, it helps show the way forward in uncertain times. It is all these things and more, until you throw it in the trash. Wad it up. Tear it to pieces. Alternatively, lay it flat in your pet's "elimination area." Don't worry, they'll make another one. And it'll be your best friend, too, for a time. More than ink on paper These days, The Packer is much more than a newspaper. We are a news organization, with tentacles spreading out across the Internet -- from our own Web site, www.thepacker.com, to Tom Karst's blog, www.freshtalk.blogspot.com. Our news and information is carried on other industry Web sites, Google News, YouTube - even competitors' sites will point back to our own. Yes, the Web is a great tool, one that we have embraced as our "daily" news operation. We are posting more stories than ever to the site, and there are major improvements on the way. Just wait. The Web also is a major disruptive element. You would have to be ignoring the news for the past year to not know that the media business is going through a major upheaval. More than just rethinking our business model, we are diligently preparing for a day when newsprint ceases to be a vehicle for our stories, however far off that is. A great many of our readers get their produce industry news almost exclusively online. Others say they never go online, that they like the sensory aspect of a newspaper. It is something to hold onto, after all. In whatever form, The Packer aims to give the best information available, in the most expedient manner possible. Setting the record straight I always think the best newspapers are judged not by their front page, but on Page 2, the home of corrections and clarifications. Be assured that The Packer does regret all errors that occur. When we have erred, we aim to set the record straight. We rely on our community of readers to tell us when we are wrong, just as we rely on them, as sources, to tell us what is right and true. In these ways, The Packer's audience is just as important a part of preserving this journal of public record as the newspaper itself. It's been that way for 115 years, and so it shall be until this old gray rag is put down. Most of us in the news business were lucky to have grown up when daily metropolitan journalism was at its peak. After Watergate, to be a journalist was an elevated calling. It meant digging through muck and sometimes seemingly useless information to find the real truth. Journalists proudly embrace the watchdog role, putting countless hours behind properly verifying the information we use. And then there is the craft itself. To put words on paper is to strive for immortality of thought, to convey a more perfect understanding of society, humanity, economics. To write is to know one's self, and to let others know you. Farewell This marks my final column as editor of The Packer, and likely my last as a journalist. I am leaving to pursue a career outside the fresh produce industry. To the many fine journalists I have worked with and learned from, thank you. To the many sources, confidantes and friends in the produce industry who have helped me along the way -- you know you are many -- I offer my heartfelt appreciation. It has been a pleasure serving you the past 13 years, and I wish you the best of luck in your businesses and great health and happiness in your lives. Even when this particular edition of The Packer makes its way to your recycle bin, it will have served its purpose, and that is a job worth having done. E-mail ljungmeyer72@yahoo.com

Headline writers run amok - Thai basil

Does the ever-widening net of the salmonella Saintpaul investigation now extend to Thai basil? Short answer: yes - at least the media is saying so, despite no backup at all from the FDA or CDC. The salmonella found on a shipment of Mexican-sourced Thai basil wasn't the same type as the tomato/pepper outbreak investigation, and officials at FDA have said it is not related to Saintpaul outbreak. However, that hasn't stopped headline writers from drawing the conclusion that Thai basil is also a "suspect" in the big outbreak. "Blame it on basil" if you will. It shows us again that no matter what the FDA/CDC says, there is likely to be several versions of it by the time it reaches the consumer. Here are some headlines today about Thai basil/salmonella from Google.:


Basil added to list of suspects

Salmonella? Blame it on basil, says FDA

The Packer's David Mitchell covered the story well: Basil recalled over salmonella concerns

Europe working to expand free f/v distribution to kids

Lars Hoelgaard, Deputy Director General for Agriculture, European Commission, Brussel, is joined by Saida Barnat, Aprifel in France, Robert Pederson, Danish Cancer Society, and Lorelei DiSogra, United Fresh Produce Association.

Photo: United Fresh Produce Association.

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Lorelei DiSogra's participation in the May 27 to May 30 Fruit and Vegetable Summit in Paris was an example of international "cross-fertilization" of good nutrition policy. Both the U.S. and the European Union are expanding programs to give away free fruits and vegetables to school children. Lorelei passed on this EU news item in a recent email:

July 8 - The European Commission today proposed to establish a European Union-wide scheme to provide free fruit and vegetables to school children. European funds worth €90 million every year would pay for the purchase and distribution of fresh fruit and vegetables to schools, and this money would be matched by national funds in those Member States which chose to make use of the programme. This is the latest stage in the Commission's efforts to improve health and nutrition, as set out in the 'Strategy for Europe on Nutrition, Overweight and Obesity and related health issues'. The School Fruit Scheme aims to encourage good eating habits in young people, which studies show tend to be carried on into later life. Besides providing free fruit and vegetables, the scheme would require participating Member States to set up national strategies including educational and awareness-raising initiatives and the sharing of best practice. An estimated 22 million children in the EU are overweight. More than 5 million these are obese and this figure is expected to rise by 400,000 every year. Improved nutrition can play an important part in combating this problem. The proposal will now be sent to the Council and European Parliament.

TK: Policy changes of this magnitude don't just happen, The U.S. fruit and vegetable program and now the European initiative can be credited to a lot of work by many committed individuals and associations - and politicians and policy makers willing to consider a new way.

Food safety - what's ahead

If you are glass half-full, every-gray-cloud-has-a-silver-lining type of person, there may some redeemable value to the FDA/CDC handling of the salmonella outbreak investigation and oversight. The thought is this; the mistakes that FDA has made will be taken into account when Congress and the next Administration give the FDA new powers and resources to regulate the fresh produce industry. Surely there will be a modicum of common sense that the FDA’s power to harm industry in profound ways because of wrong theories and premature conclusion will argue for limits on FDA’s power.
Industry and association lobbyists will press for greater accountability on account of the FDA in future outbreak investigations, and compensation for industry losses in this one.
First of all, the industry must enumerate what the FDA has done wrong with the investigation. At first blush, this may appear to be easy. After all, tomato retail sales numbers for June noted in a previous blog post speak to the damage suffered by the supply chain.
Some even say the episode shows that the “market” can better handle issue of food safety; let’s leave the government out of the equation. Another thought is that food safety oversight should belong to the Department of Agriculture.
Let’s face it. The “the market” argument may place on message boards and think tanks, but Congress will have no part of it. That train left the station with Herbert Hoover. And there is no way with a Democratic majority that produce food safety is assigned to the USDA.
As soon as industry leaders air their grievances at federal missteps, they may soon feel the spotlight of inquiry themselves.
Indeed, “what’s gone wrong” is not a one-sided complaint. As long and apparently wrong the investigation has been so far, the FDA and members of Congress can respond that one of the reason that it has taken so long and fallen so short is the lack of an industry wide traceability system.
As much as lobbyists will argue that it has been the FDA’s investigative methods and theories are much more to blame, this argument cannot be made with 10 second sound bites on network news.
Industry leaders believe the Bioterrorism Act of 2002 has provided the industry with some breathing room to implement an industry led produce traceability initiative. The Bioterrorism Act requires industry players in most circumstances to know the “one up and one back” record of the produce they buy and sell. Thus, traceability in its crudest form is already the law.
The Produce Traceability Initiative is expected to release its timeline for industry adoption in August, and Congress may well defer to this effort up to a certain point. But in the end, it is hard to believe that produce traceability will be “voluntary”; I would assume that any food safety legislation will put a hard deadline for mandatory industry implementation.
There is strong hope within the industry that Congress will take up the issue of compensation for growers and others who have suffered losses as a result of the outbreak investigation. If the cause of the outbreak is found to be something other than tomatoes, I would heartily agree that compensation is called for. I asked Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado about the compensation issue and she said she hasn’t heard of any conversations yet about the possibility. “We don’t have a lot of money lying around here.”


So when does this all happen? Perhaps a couple of food safety provisions – related to mandatory recall authority and traceability – could be tucked in an omnibus spending bill this fall. Next year, particularly if Obama wins the White House, Democratic lawmakers will make a push for a single food safety agency.
Remember the time that produce industry leaders said they wanted strong federal oversight of food safety? Members of Congress have noted that industry is “clamoring” for regulation and are about to deliver it in spades. It will be hard to raise a hand to object and be asked, “Isn’t this what you said you wanted?”
Perhaps the most troublesome issue to lawmakers will be “local growers.” What kind of exclusions - if any – will be carved out for small producers in food safety and traceability legislation? Industry lobbyists will argue correctly that all food should be accounted for. While “local” growers are perhaps reaping the biggest benefit from ebbing consumer confidence in commercial fresh produce, they may also play a valuable role to the trade by limiting the legislative zeal of lawmakers who would be loathe to pass laws that would hurt small producers..