For what goes the SNAP stimulus and other provocations

"Federal stimulus money is providing food stamp recipients more money to spend -- on french fries or fresh veggies?"

 

That was the subhead of this story in citylimits.org by Nevin Cohen. It's all for a good cause - fruits and vegetables - though Cohen determinedly favors local produce. From the piece:

 

 

 

Now's the time to redouble our efforts to increase access to fresh fruits and vegetables, which not only improves the nutritional status of low-income families who suffer disproportionately from diet-related diseases like obesity, diabetes and heart disease – but also supports local farmers throughout the region, helps to sustain agricultural communities, and protects ecologically sensitive areas (like NYC's own Catskill watershed) from harmful development

 

Later....

 

 

As we look to the next round of stimulus funding, one critical bricks-and-mortar project would make a huge improvement to our food system. A wholesale farmers market located adjacent to the city's existing produce market in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx would make it dramatically more profitable for midsize farmers to sell their fresh products in New York. By one estimate, the market would enable some 250 farmers to distribute their products in the city, making it economically viable for grocery stores, schools, hospitals and restaurants to buy a reliable supply of local food. :

 

 

More headlines snatched from the Web:

 

Mexican truck legislation to be ready by April The Journal of Commerce

 

The Department of Transportation should have legislation drafted to allow Mexican trucks to operate in the United States by the time President Obama visits Mexico on April 16 and 17, according to a department spokesman.The administration has called on DOT, the State Department and the U.S. Trade Representative to devise a plan to continue cross-border trucking after Congress on March 11 terminated a pilot program in the 2009 omnibus appropriations bill.

 

UK gardeners take tips from small farmers worldwide Oneworld.us

Coming from countries as far apart as Honduras and Malawi, these 'land-to-mouth' farmers use organic farming methods, which have been finely tuned by centuries of reliance on the land for survival," writes the UK-based development charity Progressio. "Their tips are being launched as 100,000 credit-crunched Britons queue up for allotments, vegetable plots are created in many more of our 15 million gardens, and sales of fruit and veg seeds have jumped by 28 percent."

 

 

Frozen, canned fruits and vegetables help you save green RedOrbit

 

Filling up with fruits and vegetables OUP Blog

Try some or all of the following strategies for increasing your fruit and vegetable intake.  Remember, fresh, frozen and canned fruits and vegetables all count.

• -Drink a frozen fruit smoothie for breakfast
• -Keep a vegetable platter on hand
• -Add vegetables and legumes to favorite soups
• -Add fresh fruit as a topping to cereal and yogurt
• -Opt for an all vegetable lunch
• -Top salads with legumes
• -Choose a rainbow of colorful produce

Gates Foundation to fund ag research Puget Sound Business Journal

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the National Science Foundation will pay $48 million over the next five years to fund research and solve critical agricultural challenges around the world.The program, called BREAD — Basic Research to Enable Agricultural Development — will make competitive awards to research projects addressing drought, pests, disease and other problems plaguing small farmers who rely on their crops as the source of their income and food, according to an announcement.Gates and the NSF will split in half the cost of the program.

Rabobank buys ag loans Reuters

Rabobank Group said on Monday it will buy $354 million in U.S. agricultural loans from the Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation in a bid to extend its reach into what remains a relatively healthy segment of the U.S. economy

Ag chemical industry shudders at organic White House garden Examiner.com

Climate change experts call nations to commit to action Guardian

The draft G20 communique leaked at the weekend makes only the smallest reference to climate change, and appears to be vague on the subject of how green the $2tn (£1.4tn) stimulus package agreed by world leaders should be. This provoked the eminent climatologist James Hansen, director of Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, to tell the Guardian: "If this is the best they can do, then their 'planet in peril' rhetoric is probably just that - empty rhetoric

Grain prices plummet under weight of planting forecast Bloomberg

U.S. farmers are preparing to plant record amounts of soybeans and demand for corn is falling, driving prices to the lowest levels in more than two years.

 

Sales down: not in the gardening aisle Marketing Daily

 

A new survey from the National Gardening Association found a 19% increase in the number of Americans who plan to plant a garden this year -- and 21% of them will be brand new to gardening. Last year, 31% -- or an estimated 36 million households -- had a garden, and 10% of them say they plan to devote more time to it this year. While the recession is clearly the main driver -- with 62% of gardeners saying the recession is motivating them -- there are other factors at work. About 58% say they just want better-tasting food, 54% want to lower food bills, 51% want better-quality food, and 48% want to know that their produce is safe.

 

Shall we plant greens? Lettuce Steamboat Pilot

 

 

DOL withdraw interpretation of FLSA relocation expenses in H2A final rule Washington Labor and Employment Wire

 

Farmers describe struggle as food safety issue Norwich Bulletin

 

 

 Zoi: change needed in policy and attitude Roll Call

 

 Opponents will say — as they have many times in the past — that finally putting a price on the pollution that is a primary cause of climate change will wreck our economy. But that is a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation we face. After more than a century of relying on fossil fuels as the leading driver of economic growth, it's time to change course.

 

AFBF: Adopt existing regs for H2A

From the inbox this afternoon, more unrest over the Administration's pullback on H2A reform put forward in December:


WASHINGTON, D.C., March 30, 2009—The American Farm Bureau Federation opposes changes to the H-2A temporary worker program proposed by the Labor Department and urges the department to implement the existing regulations that were promulgated Dec. 18 and became effective Jan. 17.

In a letter sent Friday to Thomas Dowd, administrator of DOL’s Office of Policy Development and Research Employment and Training Administration, AFBF said. “We have heard nothing but opposition from growers in reaction to changes proposed by the Department.” AFBF said the DOL proposal will directly and immediately harm many farmers.

“The H-2A rules that the Labor Department wants to put on hold made several improvements in the program. Farm Bureau is disappointed that the department wants to suspend these rules that allow U.S. agriculture to legally hire much-needed temporary workers,” said AFBF President Bob Stallman.

Stallman said the sudden change in policy also is creating confusion for many farmers who have spent time learning the new rules, have already filled out applications and may well have contracts signed based on the provisions.

“The existing regulations that DOL proposes suspending for nine months cut red tape and make it easier to hire temporary workers,” Stallman said.

“One of the rules that DOL wants to suspend assures farmers that wages required under the program would be closer to those actually being paid in the economy and that workers referred by state workforce agencies were authorized for employment in the U.S.,” Stallman said. “Doing away with this rule will clearly hurt a farmer’s bottom line during extremely difficult economic times.”

The AFBF letter also emphasized that DOL did not provide enough time for public comment when it published the proposed rule in the Federal Register March 17 and gave only 10 days for interested parties to submit comments. Customary procedures normally allow at least 30 days for public comment. The shorter comment period did not provide AFBF sufficient time to reach out to its members and seek feedback.

Click this link to access the AFBF letter to Administrator Dowd: http://www.fb.org/newsroom/nr/nr2009/03-30-09/labor-h2a09_0326.pdf

Tweet falls flat

Not much of a response to the Fresh Talk poll about Twitter this week. Here are the results for one week poll ending March 30, 2009.


Do you have, or have you ever considered, starting a "twitter" account?

Yes 6 (54%)
No 5 (45%)

Votes so far: 11 Poll closed


However, here are two thoughtful responses from the Fresh Produce Industry Discussion Group (linkedin)

From Joe Garcia:

Twitter is a good addition to other online marketing tools (social networking sites, blogs, etc). I have to admit that I'm still trying to figure out how to best use it...I'm just not that cool yet I guess! Micro-blogging one's ongoing life (hour-by-hour) seems a bit odd to me but the power (and potential) of the technology is undeniable. Would love to hear how others have used Twitter to promote their small business.


From Margie Way:

I am a fresh produce industry recruiter and I am on Twitter a lot. Twitter differs from a blog in that people will usually not follow someone who's goal is to sell or market goods. Now if an executive in a company is on Twitter discussing his day to day stuggles in creating a new product, the community may follow to see what happens next, then at the product release go buy it! Twitter is a site to get a peek into the lives of others. Check out Jim Gaffigan's site - he's marketing his Comedy Show on March 29th. He's funny in the way he talks about it all and he is 'way over the top' in his promotion of it yet a lot of people are following because he's hilarious! Yet I've watched others try to sell items and lose followers right away.


TK: Be sure both to join the two Fresh Produce Industry Discussion Groups linked to this blog, one on google for longer posts and file sharing and the rapidly growing networking/discussion group at linkedin.

Kansas City produce promotions - April 1 to April 7

Here are images of food pages from the suburban Kansas City market for the week of April 1 to April 7. Represented are Price Chopper, HyVee and Hen House.

National Retail Report - March 27

From the USDA's National Retail report:


Retailers this week highlighted items for March Madness basketball tournaments and were looking forward to Lent and Easter. Several large retailers were running “10 for $10”, “Buy 10 get $5 off”, “2 for $” or “5 for $5” generally with store brand items. Cabbage, post-St. Patrick’s Day, suffered a big fall in the number of stores on ad, from over 12,000 to less than 1,500 stores this week. Fruit and vegetable ads were pretty evenly split as a percentage of overall produce ads. Grapes and strawberries remained at the number 1 and number 2 spots. Cantaloupes and tomatoes on the vine pushed asparagus out of the Top 5 ranking for produce ads for the week.

Fruit and Tree Nuts Outlook - USDA

The latest USDA ERS Fruit and Tree Nuts Outlook has been released and can be found here. From the report, notes about oranges and grapefruit:


The smaller crop of fresh oranges out of California this season boosted the average price growers received November 2008 through February 2009 over the same time last season. Weak demand for oranges for processing has driven down Florida’s processing-orange grower prices this season. U.S grapefruit production is forecast at 1.4 million tons this season, 13 percent below last season and 16 percent below 2006/07. Despite the smaller crop this season, grower prices for fresh grapefruit have been running behind the past several seasons.


On mandarins and clementines....


The 2008 California Citrus Acreage Report shows the State’s bearing acreage for tangerines more than doubled between 2005 and 2008. The number of nonbearing acres planted to tangerines is second only to navel oranges among the State’s citrus acreage. About a third of the acreage is in Kern County, followed by Tulare County. The W. Murcott mandarin variety still has the most acreage of all the tangerine varieties. It appears to remain a very popular variety because it also has the biggest number of nonbearing acres. Various clementine varieties account for the second biggest number of acres, followed by the Minneola, which is a tangelo.



On strawberries...


Forecast bigger acreage in major strawberry-producing States will help boost domestic production, likely surpassing the record-large crop of 2.5 billion pounds produced last year. In January, NASS had forecast 2009 combined strawberry planted acreage in California, Florida, and Oregon to increase by 2,800 acres from a year ago, totaling 48,500 acres. Acreage increased for all three States, with California having the largest additional production area, increasing by 2,300 acres. The forecasts also show Florida with 400 more acres inproduction and Oregon having an additional 100 acres.


On avocados.....


U.S. fresh avocado imports have been increasing consecutively over the last seven years, reaching a record 694.0 million pounds in 2007/08. In 2006/07 and 2007/08, imports made up 65 to 75 percent of all the avocados for domestic fresh-market consumption. As in the two previous marketing seasons, imports will again play a dominant role in meeting avocado demand in the United States in 2008/09. With yet another large crop expected for this year, Mexico will likely fill in for most of the slack in U.S. supplies. Imports from Chile have increasingly faced competition with Mexico in the U.S. market over the last few years, with its share of U.S. import volume declining from over 60 percent during the early 2000s to 21 percent in 2007/08. According to the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service, Mexican Hass avocado production is forecast to increase to a record 1.15 million metric tons, up 13 percent
from 2007/08. With this level of production, Mexico is forecast to increase avocado exports 6 percent, to a record 320 million metric tons. Most of these exports will be bound for the U.S. market.


On bananas and other imports.....


As the No. 1 fresh fruit import, banana shipments dominate overall U.S. fresh fruit imports. Due to adverse weather in Costa Rica and Panama, two of the major sources of bananas for the U.S. market, shipments this January were down 8 percent from last January (table 15). Heavy flooding in November damaged plantations in both countries, reducing supplies. Costa Rica also experienced an earthquake in January, bringing more damage to its banana industry. Banana supplies were tight throughout much of 2008, and are likely to remain so through at least early 2009. As a result, American consumers can expect to continue to pay higher than average prices over the next few months. Shipments of Spanish clementines and Chilean grapes were up this season due to good crops in the respective countries. During the winter months, all the grapes in the U.S. grocery stores are from the Southern Hemisphere, mostly from Chile. As a result of the increased quantity of grapes imported into the United States from November through March, consumers paid less at retail throughout much of the import season. Spanish clementines compete in the U.S. markets with fresh navel oranges, and tangerines and mandarins—including California clementines. California’s clementine production has grown in recent years, increasing market availability of the fruit. Retail prices for clementines were lower this January and February than last year, according to AMS retail price data, largely due to the increase in the quantity of Spanish and California clementines in U.S. markets.