
		" I heard it through the AgLine"

February 3, 2010

· Consumer Reports asks: What’s in your salad?

· Food safety issues in the winter Salad Bowl

· Florida’s frozen farmers to get USDA help

· UK survey shows kids clueless about food

· iGrow a gardeners’ garden of refer madness

Consumer Reports asks: What’s in your salad?

(Wire Services) – Consumer Reports' latest tests of packaged leafy greens found bacteria that are common indicators of poor sanitation and fecal contamination, in some cases, at rather high levels.

The story appears in the March 2010 issue of Consumer Reports and is also available free online at www.ConsumerReports.org. Consumers Union today also issued a report urging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to set safety standards for greens, available online at www.ConsumersUnion.org. FDA food safety legislation pending in the Senate, and passed last summer by the House of Representatives, would require the FDA to create just such safety standards.

The tests, which were conducted with financial support from the Pew Health Group, assessed for several types of bacteria, including total coliforms and Enterocccous -- "indicator organisms" found in the human digestive tract and in the ambient environment that can signal inadequate sanitation and the potential for the presence of disease-causing organisms. While there are no existing federal standards for indicator bacteria in salad greens, there are standards for these bacteria in milk, beef, and drinking water. Several industry consultants suggest that an unacceptable level in leafy greens would be 10,000 or more colony forming units per gram (CFU/g).

Consumer Reports found that 39 percent of samples exceeded this level for total coliform, and 23 percent for Enterococcus. The tests did not find E. coli O157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes or Salmonella -- sometimes deadly pathogens which can be found in greens, although it was not expected given the small sample size. The goal was to investigate other markers of poor sanitation that should be used in the food safety management of produce.

"Although these 'indicator' bacteria generally do not make healthy people sick, the tests show not enough is being done to assure the safety or cleanliness of leafy greens," said Dr. Michael Hansen, senior scientist at Consumers Unions, nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports. "Levels of bacteria varied widely, even among different samples of the same brand. More research and effort is needed within the industry to better protect the public. In the meantime, consumers should buy packages of greens that are as far from the use-by date as possible."

For its latest analysis, Consumer Reports had an outside lab test 208 containers of 16 brands of salad greens, sold in plastic clamshells or bags, bought last summer from stores in Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York. Among the findings:

* 39 percent of samples exceeded 10,000 CFUs (or another similar measure) per gram for total coliforms and 23 percent for Enteroccocus, the levels industry consultants deemed unacceptable.

* 2 percent of samples exceeded French and 5 percent Brazilian standards for fecal coliform bacteria.

* Many packages containing spinach, and packages which were one to five days from their use-by date, had higher bacterial levels. Packages six to eight days from their use-by date generally fared better.

* Whether the greens came in a clamshell or bag, included "baby" greens, or were organic made no difference in bacteria levels.

* Brands for which there were more than four samples, including national brands Dole, Earthbound Farm Organic, and Fresh Express, plus regional and store brands, had at least one package with relatively high levels of total coliforms or Enteroccocus.

"The Senate should act immediately to pass pending FDA food safety reform legislation that requires the agency to set performance standards as well as develop safety standards for the growing or processing of fresh produce," said Hansen. "FDA should also formally declare that certain pathogenic bacteria -- such as E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella, and Listeria -- be considered adulterants when found in salad greens." The Senate bill, S. 510, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, was voted unanimously out of committee in November. The House passed similar legislation last July.

Until packaged salad becomes cleaner, consumers' best line of defense involves following these procedures in stores and kitchens:

* Buy packages far from their use-by date.

* Wash the greens even if the packages say "prewashed" or "triplewashed." Rinsing won't remove all bacteria but may remove residual soil.

* Prevent cross contamination of greens by keeping them away from raw meat and poultry.

Food safety issues in the winter Salad Bowl

(YumaSun.com) – Kurt Nolte, director of the Yuma County Cooperative Extension, and his fellow researchers find themselves sometimes as glorified dog poop scoopers along the canals that snake through the area.

So what would researchers with doctoral degrees find so interesting about such a mundane thing?

Turns out, the answer is a lot. Hanging in the balance is the area's fresh vegetable production that feeds much of the nation and even world populations in the winter months.

It's all about food safety, the huge new issue facing growers and in particular the fresh vegetable industry, Nolte said.

To illustrate the seriousness of the situation, Nolte told of a recent phone call he received from a grower's food safety specialist.

A few days after a romaine crop was harvested, an auditor found a dog print in the field and a pile of dog waste near the field.

"This was considered raw manure," Nolte said. As a result, the grower won't be allowed to grow lettuce on that field for a year.

Nolte said that in the 100 years vegetables have been produced in the area, there has never been a foodborne illness outbreak attributed to produce grown here. He attributed that to the dry, cold winter conditions under which vegetables are grown here.

But a foodborne illness outbreak that originates elsewhere has a sweeping impact on the entire industry. The outbreak that occurred in 2006 in spinach was devastating to the industry here, an impact from which growers are still recovering.

As a result, Nolte said, Arizona and California have adopted the Leafy Green Marketing Agreement that spells out strict standards for producing vegetables. It's an agreement that could well serve as a model for the rest of the nation. If a nationwide standard is adopted, that would also apply to imports that aren't currently subject to strict food safety guidelines, he said.

It turned out that most of those present were pretty savvy about the area's agriculture industry - that it is responsible for more than a third of the local economy and a third of Arizona's $9 billion agriculture production, it's a high-tech, big-stakes industry and it provides more than 90 percent of the nation's winter fresh vegetables and it exports around the world. There are nine salad plants in Yuma County and each one on average processes 2 million pounds of lettuce a day during the peak of the season.

The diversity of crops grown here is rather amazing as well. Nolte said about 150 different crops are produced here ranging from organic herbs to a mesquite nursery, seed crops to dates and hay. Yuma County is the leading producer in the state not only for winter vegetables but also pima cotton, durum wheat, field corn, citrus and melons. It's third for upland cotton; it would be higher except growers cut the season short in the fall to get winter vegetables back in the ground.

In 2008, more than 99 percent of U.S. lettuce was grown in California and Arizona, with most of Arizona's production in Yuma County. And the U.S. is led only by China in the production of lettuce.

Nolte also noted that 100 percent of the 175,000 acres of irrigated farmland in Yuma County is farmed with equipment that has GPS, or global positioning system, onboard for precision farming.

Finally, he noted that it takes half the energy of one power plant to run the pumps to carry Colorado River water from Parker to the Central Arizona Project.

Most of Yuma County's fields are irrigated through gravity flow, he said.

That's an argument for protecting Yuma's water rights and its agriculture, he said.

"Agriculture is important to Yuma County and it should be for the state and nation. If we lose it, we will be in bad shape for the safety and quality of food on your plates."

Florida’s frozen farmers to get USDA help

(Tampa Bay Online) – The U.S. Department of Agriculture declared a disaster for most of Florida's counties following the string of freezing weather that battered crops from berries to corn last month.

The declaration opens the way for federal assistance in the form of low-interest loans.

The federal department determined that farmers in 60 of the state's 67 counties suffered at least a 30 percent loss during the blast of Arctic air that sent thermometers plunging below freezing through the state and reached into the vegetable-growing region south of Lake Okeechobee.

The counties excluded from the declaration are in the Panhandle, where farming is limited in January.

Farmers are tallying the loss from the freezes, and a dollar amount likely won't be known for months, though agriculture officials are confident it will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, said Liz Compton, spokeswoman for the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

A more accurate determination will come after farmers sell their surviving crops or those that were replanted, she said.

Farmers will have to apply for the loans and must meet a minimum loss to qualify.

Although any help is appreciated, the declaration may not cover the loss to eastern Hillsborough's berry farmers, said Ted Campbell, director of the Florida Strawberry Growers Association.

The parade of freezes - 11 consecutive nights in and around Plant City - erased the month of January for the berry farmers, he said.

"Typically, that's one of the most profitable months. That's a huge hole in their year," he said. That loss is impossible to quantify when applying for assistance, Campbell said.

The USDA uses a 30 percent loss to determine whether a county qualifies, but individual farmers usually require a higher loss to get assistance.

"Whether individual famers qualify, that's case by case. You really have to be hurt to get assistance," Campbell said.

UK survey shows kids clueless about food

(AFP via Yahoo! News) – LONDON - Many young children do not know where their food originates from, a survey showed on Tuesday, with some youngsters believing bacon comes from horses and eggs come from sheep.

Less than one in four of those surveyed knew that beef burgers are sourced from cows, said rural insurance firm Cornish Mutual, which commissioned the research. More than a quarter (29 percent) thought pigs was the correct answer.

The survey, which tested the food knowledge of over 1,100 children from Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset between the ages of six and eight, found that two thirds struggled to identify where everyday food products come from.

When asked where crisps (French fries) came from, some confused pupils listed rabbits, plastic or sheep as the main ingredient, though the vast majority did know potatoes was the right answer.

Some youngsters thought yoghurt was made using turkeys and ducks, while others believed cheese came from rats, mice or butterflies.

The subject of vegetables scored better with the children. Nearly all (98 percent) could recognise carrots and sweetcorn, nearly two thirds knew a healthy diet requires five portions of fruit or vegetables a day and 77 percent of those surveyed had visited a farm.

Still, the managing director of Cornish Mutual admitted he was "surprised" by the findings and said there were "some huge gaps" in children's food knowledge.

"Given that we are surrounded by farming and the countryside, we would have expected children in the region to know more about the origins of their food," said Alan Goddard.

The food survey coincides with the launch of a new campaign called "Dig Down South West" aimed at encouraging children to start their own vegetable patch.

iGrow a gardeners’ garden of refer madness

(Oakland Tribune) – The place has the feel of the nursery at a Home Depot, but the house plants, barbecues and sheds are replaced with hydroponic equipment, fans and nutrients for growing medical cannabis plants.

It's called iGrow, and the owner of the 15,000-square-foot superstore, Dhar Mann, describes it as a one-stop shop for medical marijuana patients who want to grow their own cannabis plants.

"What we are doing is taking the black market out of the (medical cannabis growing industry)," said Mann, the 25-year-old son of the owners of Friendly Cab, an Oakland-based company for more than three decades.

The shop was made possible, in part, by a City Council resolution that allows medical marijuana patients to have a maximum of 72 plants indoors, a 36-square-foot growing area, 20 plants outdoors and up to three pounds of dried marijuana.

"If you come in here with valid California identification and you have a medical recommendation or patient identification card, we will be open to talking to you about growing cannabis," said General Manager Justin Jorgensen.

And even if you don't, iGrow will have a doctor on site to write recommendations for those who qualify.

"He is going to ask for supporting (medical documentation), and if you don't have it you may or may not get approved," said Jorgensen.

The iGrow superstore, located at 70 Hegenberger Loop near the airport, isn't the first hydroponics store in the city, but Mann says it's the largest in the Bay Area. Like other stores, the shelves are stocked with various types of grow lights, fans, plant nutrients and additives, and growing containers.

Many City Council members are supportive of the store.

"It's going to create new job opportunities for residents," said Councilmember Larry Reid (Elmhurst-East Oakland), who represents the district where iGrow opened last Thursday.

Reid said he is confident the store has enough security to keep out criminals looking to steal valuable equipment and products. And he said he is excited that the store could appeal to gardeners looking to improve their vegetable or flower gardens.

"It can be useful for those that want to just grow tomatoes or any other vegetable in their backyard," Reid said.

But the main focus of iGrow will be selling supplies for and giving classes about growing medical marijuana.

A portion of the warehouse will be sectioned off for the 25 online classes offered by the University of Cannabis, also recently launched and run by Mann. Courses cover everything from the "Global History of Hemp" to "Sharpening Your Green Thumb" to "The Brain, the Body & the Bud." Classes, which run from $40 to $60, can be taken at iGrow or on your own computer, Mann said.

And then there's the Grow Squad, experienced indoor cultivators who will give three hours of complimentary in-person or over-the-phone advice to people interested in growing cannabis, Mann said.

"We want to educate you," Mann said. "And hopefully that education will cut down on some of the fires (in grow houses recently)."

Mann has been working on the $250,000 project, which included a new storefront and a complete overhaul of the long-vacant warehouse, since the fall.

Several hundred people attended Thursday's grand opening, which included speeches by Reid and Oakland Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan (at-large).

"The grow business is an economic opportunity for our city," Kaplan said. "We want to celebrate, we want to support and we want to uplift that to help pay for the parks, libraries and services that people need," referring to the fact that the business will generate tax revenue.

Dave Weddingdress, co-founder of the Harborside Health Center cannabis club in San Jose, also attended the event.

"We are happy to see these places open under reasonable regulations," he said.

Mann also had short videos from other elected officials, including Rep. John Garamendi, touting the project as a boon for urban agriculture and the city's economy.

"We're excited that iGrow was born in the epicenter of the cannabis movement," said Mann. "And we're even more thrilled to see the strong support that the city of Oakland and the community has shown us for the grand opening of our new business."

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