Fw: OCEAN MIST FARMS ANNOUNCES PRECAUTIONARY, VOLUNTARY RECALL OF GREENONIONS

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Rose <mr@nstpr.com>

Date: Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:17:28
To: Mike Rose<mr@nstpr.com>
Subject: OCEAN MIST FARMS ANNOUNCES PRECAUTIONARY, VOLUNTARY RECALL OF GREEN
ONIONS


Contact: Afreen Malik
Food Safety Manager
Afreen@oceanmist.com
831-970-3763

OCEAN MIST FARMS ANNOUNCES PRECAUTIONARY,
VOLUNTARY RECALL OF GREEN ONIONS

CASTROVILLE, CA ­ AUG. 28, 2009 ­ Although no Ocean Mist Farms¹ product has
been identified, the company immediately began a precautionary, voluntary
recall of iceless green onions. This decision follows confirmation from
federal regulators of a positive test for salmonella on iceless green onions
supplied by Circle Produce to several shippers, including Ocean Mist Farms.


³The health and safety of our customers and their consumers always comes
first. As soon as we learned of the positive test, it became our immediate
responsibility to begin a voluntary recall of the product in the interest of
protecting public health,² said Ed Boutonnet, president, Ocean Mist Farms.
³We quickly traced back the product using our tracking system and will work
closely with our customers and officials.²

³It¹s fortunate there have been no reported illnesses; regardless, we must
remain vigilant in ensuring food safety.² The company has suspended
receiving Circle Produce green onions. Ocean Mist Farms will continue to
provide green onions from its own growing and packing operation.

"We¹re seeing more inspections by regulators throughout the industry, which
is good. It¹s having a positive effect in ensuring food safety, and through
our systems at Ocean Mist Farms, we¹re able to trace back and quickly recall
product.²

It is possible that a small amount of product may have already been
purchased by consumers and therefore anyone who has purchased any of the
following products with the trace back codes listed below should dispose of
the product. For additional information, consumers can visit
www.oceanmist.com.

The recalled iceless green onion pack styles and code dates are as follows:

· 4 x 12 count

· 2 x 24 count

· 36 count 5.5 oz Cello Bag

· 40 count 5.5 oz Cello Bag



Trace Back Code: 95ONCP7G

Production Dates: 80309; 80709; 80809; 81109; 81209; 81309



# # #




Mike Rose € Vice President

Nuffer, Smith, Tucker, Inc.
707 Broadway, 19th Floor € San Diego CA 92101
p. 619.296.0605, ext. 236 € f. 619.296.8530 € m. 619.302.3442

www.nstpr.com € Blog: nstpr.net/blog/
Twitter: @hattrickscore

Partner, The WORLDCOM Public Relations Group
www.worldcomgroup.com

Chicago Tribune: Dominick's cuts prices up to 30%

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-thu-dominicks-0827-aug27,0,6665244.story


www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-thu-dominicks-0827-aug27,0,6665244.story
chicagotribune.com
Grocery competition: Dominick's cuts prices up to 30% on some items
Move viewed as response to Jewel; price pressures mount as grocery stores compete with discount chains

By Mike Hughlett

Tribune reporter

August 27, 2009

Dominick's is firing a volley in what looks to be a grocery price war in the Chicago area, announcing that it's cutting prices on thousands of items.

The price-cutting spree follows a similar move in April by Jewel, and it mirrors pricing battles across the nation as supermarket chains battle a weak economy and increasing competition from big discount food retailers, particularly Wal-Mart.

Dominick's said the price cuts have been implemented over the past three weeks, and advertising for the new pricing structure starts Thursday.

The price cuts are as high as 30 percent on some items, said Don Keprta, president of the Dominick's division of California-based Safeway Inc. The company didn't release an average price cut.

The reductions will apply to a range of products at Dominick's 81 Chicagoland stores. "These are things the typical shopper will have on their list," Keprta said.

Dominick's will retain its "Fresh Values" loyalty card program, which offers lower prices to consumers who carry the card. Some items in Dominick's stores might feature price cuts based on the loyalty card and the new "everyday low pricing" program, Keprta said.

Dominick's is the Chicago area's second-largest grocery chain, with an 11 percent market share in January 2009, according to data from market researcher Nielsen Co. Jewel is the area's supermarket leader, with 39 percent of the market, according to Nielsen.

Jim Hertel, a managing partner with food retailing consultant Willard Bishop, said Dominick's widespread price cutting appears to be a response to Jewel.

In April, Jewel launched its "Big Relief Price Cut," reducing prices by up to 20 percent on thousands of items. It's unclear how effective the price cuts have been in generating more business because Jewel's parent company, Minnesota-based Supervalu Inc., doesn't break out results for the chain.

A look at Supervalu's and Safeway's overall sales trends indicates why the companies need to boost traffic: Both experienced declines in same-store sales during their most recent quarters. And those negative trends have occurred even as consumers favor grocery stores rather than restaurants because of the weak economy.

One reason for declining sales at Supervalu and Safeway is price deflation. As commodity costs have fallen, prices on some retail food items have sunk too. But conventional supermarkets also are under increasing pressure from discount chains, which are thriving in a weak economy.

So price competition is heating up. "It's not everywhere, but it's in an awful lot of places and it's kind of a coming thing," Hertel said.

Widespread price cutting isn't without risk for a food retailer, Hertel said. Price cuts have to be meaningful to consumers but not so deep they crimp a grocery chains' profit margins. Also, big price cuts could make consumers think twice about a chain, given the prices they had been paying.

"Are you begging the question from the shopper's standpoint: 'Have you been overpriced on these items?' " Hertel said.

And Charles Cerankosky, a stock analyst at Northcoast Research, pointed out that while supermarkets are very vocal about price cuts, they don't tell consumers about price hikes they're making on other items at the same time.

BBC: Banana diseases hit African crops

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8225588.stm

Banana diseases hit African crops

Food supplies in several African countries are under threat because two diseases are attacking bananas, food scientists have told the BBC.

Crops are being damaged from Angola through to Uganda - including many areas where bananas are a staple food.

Experts are urging farmers to use pesticides or change to a resistant variety of banana where possible.

Scientists have been meeting in Tanzania to decide how to tackle the diseases, which are spread by insects.

'Big danger'

The scientists, from the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), issued a statement saying "drastic and expensive control measures" were needed.


They recommended "completely excavating entire banana fields and treating them with pesticides, or burning the plants".

Experts say the two diseases - bunchy top viral disease and bacterial wilt - are both spread by insects and very few varieties of banana have resistance to them.

While bunchy top stunts the growth of plants by causing leaves to sprout from the top, bacterial wilt kills off plants and makes their fruit inedible.

Christopher Chemirehreh, of the Kawanda Agricultural Research Institute in Uganda, said people were particularly vulnerable in the areas where the diseases were found.

"It's a big danger because the affected areas have the banana as their staple crop," he told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.

"So if they fail to control the bacterial wilt, their incomes are affected and their food is affected, so it's a very big problem."
Story from BBC NEWS:



BANANA DISEASES
# Bunchy top Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Gabon, DR Congo, Congo Republic, northern Angola and central Malawi
# Bacterial wilt Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, western Kenya, north-western Tanzania, North and South Kivu in DR Congo Source: CGIAR

Advocates ask for end to local law enforcement of immigration law

Racial profiling result of 287(g), labor advocates say

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hP40tXGOw_nqDZvXSle5kYpHLTlQD9ABGKR80


LOS ANGELES — Immigrant and civil rights advocates are asking the Obama administration to put an end to a federal program that lets local police and sheriff's departments enforce the country's immigration laws.

More than 500 organizations signed a letter dated Tuesday urging Obama to end the program, which they claim has exacerbated racial profiling.

Immigrant rights groups have long condemned the so-called 287(g) program, which trains local law enforcement officers and lets them enforce immigration law in their jurisdictions. It also has been criticized by the Government Accountability Office and led to a Justice Department Investigation of the Maricopa County, Ariz., sheriff's office.

Organizations decided to call for the program to be terminated after the Obama administration last month announced plans to revamp it, said Marielena Hincapie, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center.

"Our assessment is these changes are really cosmetic changes and are not going to achieve the type of structural changes that are needed," Hincapie said. "Given the violations that have been documented and the potential for increased racial profiling and increased violation, at this point, the best thing is to stop administering this program."

Signatories to the letter include the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Anti-Defamation League and others.

Matt Chandler, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, said the agency takes the concerns raised by the signatories very seriously but believes the administration's revamp will strengthen federal government oversight of the program.

Last month, the government said changes to the program included requiring local agencies to resolve criminal charges that led to the arrest of immigrants and establishing a complaint process.

Chandler said 66 local law enforcement agencies currently have 287(g) programs and 13 more have been approved to start them.

Chris Newman, legal programs director for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said the letter was sent on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Kennedy's immigration legacy

Will Kennedy's death hasten immigration reform? From the San Francisco Chronicle:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/nov05election/detail?blogid=14&entry_id=46354

Much has been said in the past two days about Sen. Ted Kennedy's legacy with regard to health care and civil rights, but less attention has been paid to another area where the senator from Massachusetts left his mark: immigration.

In recent years Kennedy has been a vocal advocate for comprehensive immigration reform, teaming up with Republican Sen. John McCain in 2005 to author a bill that would form the basis for repeated efforts -- so far unsuccessful -- to enact an immigration overhaul.

But Kennedy's involvement with immigration reform dates back much further. He was a freshman senator in 1965 when he became the floor manager -- and a strong supporter -- of the Immigration and Nationality Act that reversed forty years of low immigration under a system that favored Europeans and excluded Asians almost entirely.

The spirit of the civil rights movement informed that bill, the Hart-Celler Act, which eliminated discriminatory "national origin" quotas, replacing them with a more color-blind system and one which offered safe haven to refugees and encouraged family "reunification" by extending the option to immigrate to relatives of citizens and legal immigrants.

In urging passage of the 1965 bill, Kennedy famously told his colleagues from the Senate floor, "First, our cities will not be flooded with a million immigrants annually.... Second, the ethnic mix of this country will not be upset."

In fact, the United States has lately granted roughly a million green cards -- permanent immigrant documents -- a year. And immigrants in the ensuing decades have come much more from Asia and Latin America than from Europe.

Advocates for restricted immigration have been damning Kennedy ever since, while those who believe immigration is a source of national vitality applaud the lasting mark he made on the United States.

Former Immigration and Naturalization Service commissioner Doris Meisner, who is now a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington DC, had this to say upon the senator's passing: "Senator Kennedy helped change the character of the immigration system, and indeed the country, bringing the United States a step closer to its founding ideals of fairness and opportunity for all."

Immigration check in LA jails

From the LA Times today:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-immigjail28-2009aug28,0,2310084,print.story


All inmates booked into jails throughout Los Angeles County will have their immigration status checked beginning today, but federal officials said they don't have the resources to deport all illegal immigrants with criminal records who are identified.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement will prioritize illegal immigrants with past convictions for violent crimes, including murder, rape, kidnapping and robbery. Though immigration officials plan to assess every case individually, they said some with less serious criminal records may be released back into the community.

"The reality of the situation is that we don't presently have the resources to respond to every single person," agency head John T. Morton said during a recent visit to Los Angeles. "We are focusing on the worst of the worst."

Morton said the issue is "something we are going to need to work out with the Congress and the administration."

Secure Communities, the identification program, began last fall and is now in nearly 80 counties, including Ventura and San Diego. The government plans to have it up and running in all jails and prisons by the end of 2013. The program is part of the administration's focus on targeting illegal immigrants with criminal records.

Nationwide, about 12% of all inmates checked were here illegally and had prior criminal convictions. Of those, about 6,700 had been convicted of violent crimes. Roughly 60,000 others had other criminal convictions.

In Los Angeles County, more than 40 law enforcement agencies will run inmates' fingerprints through federal databases during the booking process to see if the inmates have had any contact with the immigration system. Immigration officials will then determine the inmates' immigration status, check their criminal records and place holds on those with a prior conviction of a serious crime. Once those inmates finish serving their time, they will be transferred to immigration custody for possible deportation.

If the inmate has been previously deported or has an outstanding order, they also will be subject to removal, said Trey Lund, field office director of detention and removal operations for ICE in Los Angeles.

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, said Secure Communities is a good program but has limitations because of lack of detention beds.

"By not increasing detention space, the administration seems to be suggesting that it is not all that serious about it," he said. "When illegal immigrants are identified, it is preferable that we don't just let them go."

Immigration officials said the new screening process avoids concerns about racial profiling because every inmates' fingerprints will be checked.

"In a nutshell, it takes the guesswork out of it," Lund said.

But Joan Friedland of the National Immigration Law Center said she is concerned about the racial profiling that occurs before booking. Friedland also said she doesn't trust that Immigration and Customs Enforcement will deport only those with serious criminal convictions. Anecdotal evidence from counties using Secure Communities shows that people are being deported based on minor crimes, she said.

anna.gorman@latimes.com