" I heard it through the AgLine"

March 8, 2010

 

 

·        New transportation rules bode ill for growers  

·        Mexico fills tomato gap as Florida recovers  

·        Havana’s food production fails expectations

·        Monitoring tool spots food-safety offenders

·        USDA reaches settlement with black farmers

 

 

New transportation rules bode ill for growers 

 

(ydr.com) – Bill Buser uses a skid loader to load big bales of hay onto a truck, and he hauls the machine between the farm and fields on a trailer behind a pickup.

 

The weight of the truck, trailer and skid loader exceed 17,000 pounds, and under some proposed new regulations, Buser worries he would need a medical certificate to haul the machine on the road.

 

The 74-year-old farmer from Lower Windsor Township, Pa., said he doubts he would pass the physical. He has health problems, such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

 

His son and two employees might have to transport the skid loader, and they would be required to get the medical certificate. Buser said he might have to help pay a doctor's fee.

 

In many ways, farmers have operated under fewer transportation regulations than the general public, but more rules are coming. Teens may not be allowed to drive a pickup pulling a hay wagon to help out on the farm. Farmers may have to do more vehicle inspections, get medical certifications and keep record of their time -- similar to what commercial drivers must do.

 

Pennsylvania’s State police and state Department of Agriculture say some of the rules, such as the need for a medical certificate, aren't new -- but some farmers weren't aware of them. A Pennsylvania Bureau of Farming spokesman says the organization disagrees with that interpretation.

 

The new transportation rules, if adopted, will bring the state in line with the federal Motor Safety Carrier Administration's regulations for motor carriers, such as busses, tractor trailers and farm trucks. The agency audited the state three years ago and found deficiencies.

 

Pennsylvania has until the end of the month to make changes. Otherwise, state police stand to lose more than $6 million for enforcement programs for not complying, said Lt. Raymond Cook of the state police Bureau of Patrol.

 

Impact to farmers

 

How much the new regulations will impact farmers is being debated.

 

The state Department of Agriculture says the two biggest changes are:

 

# 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds will not be able to drive a farm truck pulling a trailer that exceeds a combined 17,000 pounds.

 

# Some extra record-keeping may be required, mostly during the months of December, January and February. That's because the state defines the planting and harvesting season as March 1 through Nov. 30, and the rules grant some exemptions during that time frame.

 

Rob Davidson, special assistant to Agriculture Secretary Russell C. Redding, said that tractors will not be affected by the changes. Some exemptions for farm trucks, which can be a pickup or dump truck, will be taken away, but others will be added.

 

"At the end of the day, I think farmers are better off with this," Davidson said of the changes.

 

The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, an organization that represents farmers, disagrees. It believes that some of the changes could increase costs for farmers, adversely affect farm labor, place limits on farming operations and require time-consuming paperwork, spokesman Mark O'Neill said in an e-mail.

 

He gave some examples:

 

# A 16-year-old son who is currently allowed to drive a pickup pulling a hay wagon (and combined weigh more than 17,000 pounds) would be no longer able to do that. The farmer might have to hire outside help to get the job done.

 

# Neighbors, retired farmers and others who help out occasionally on a farm may not be able to do so unless they get the medical certification they need to operate a farm truck pulling another vehicle exceeding the weight limit.

 

A medical certificate requires the driver to get a physical exam, take vision and hearing tests and get other laboratory work. That could be costly, especially if the farmer needs certificates for multiple workers.

 

# If a vehicle isn't registered with the state and exceeds the weight limit, the driver would have to inspect the vehicle before and after the trip -- and immediately fix any problems. That will require extra time.

 

Farmers locally confused by changes

 

Several farmers in York County said they haven't heard about the coming regulation changes, and others said they're still struggling to understand the impact to their business.

 

Donna Perry, whose husband and brothers-in-law own Perrydell Farms in York Township, said she heard rumblings about the changes but did not know the specifics.

 

"Why can't they just let us alone?" she said. "As if being a farmer isn't hard enough."

 

Andy Flinchbaugh, who farms with his family in Hellam Township, said the family members' business will be affected by the changes. They rely on a lot of part-time help, and those employees would have to get medical certification to drive some of their vehicles.

 

During the winter, they deliver wheat, for example, to flour mills, Flinchbaugh said. Because that falls outside of the planting and harvesting season, they'll now be subjected to hour limitations and time-keeping requirements under the new rules.

 

"We work very long hours, and we have to remain competitive," he said.

 

In the end, it's the farmers -- not the consumers -- who will take the hit, Flinchbaugh said. Even if costs go up, farmers can't pass it along to the consumer.

 

"It's nice they have these exemptions, but they're still too restrictive for us," he said.

 

MORE ABOUT THE PROPOSED RULES

 

The state Department of Agriculture posted a three-page document on its Web site earlier this week to inform farmers about some new transportation regulations that will affect them. Tractors and other farm equipment will be exempt from the motor carrier safety regulations. Here is a sample of some of the changes:

 

# No one under the age of 18 will be permitted to operate a truck-and-trailer combination -- for example, a pickup pulling a hay wagon -- that weighs more than 17,000 pounds on a public roadway.

 

# The driver of a farm vehicle not registered with the state must inspect the vehicle before and after a trip. The change applies to trucks and truck-and-trailer combinations that exceed 17,000 pounds.

 

# Drivers must possess a medical certification when they drive a farm truck outside a 150-mile radius of the farm. Some exceptions exist.

 

# A maintenance record must be kept for a farm vehicle weighing more than 17,000 pounds.

 

# Drivers of a truck-and-trailer combination weighing more than 17,000 pounds must be at least 18, speak and read English and have a valid medical card.

 

Details: www.agriculture.state.pa.us or www.pfb.com.

 

Return to Top

 

 

Mexico fills tomato gap as Florida recovers 

 

(AP via Cincinnati.com) – ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - A frigid Florida winter is taking its toll on your sandwich. The Sunshine State is the main U.S. source for fresh winter tomatoes, and its growers lost some 70 percent of their crop during January's prolonged cold snap.

 

At the same time, Mexican tomato wholesalers are benefiting - and so are Arizona import companies - as a frigid Florida winter takes its toll on your sandwiches.

 

Domestic U.S. wholesale prices are up nearly five times over last year. The average wholesale price for a 25-pound box of tomatoes is now $30, up from $6.50 a year ago, The Associated Press reports. That means you can say goodbye to the beefsteaks on that burger and prepare to pay more than usual for the succulent wedges in your salad.

 

And because high demand has driven up domestic prices, many wholesalers are buying from Mexico instead.

 

"We're obviously losing market share to Mexico," said Reggie Brown of the Florida Tomato Grower's Exchange.

 

With Florida out of the market, supply-and-demand issues have raised the average wholesale price for a box of tomatoes going through Nogales to about $24 to $26, said Allison Moore, communications director of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas, based in Nogales, Ariz.

 

Normally at this time of year that price would be about $10 to $12, she said.

 

At Costello Sandwich and Sides in Chicago, which uses 10 to 15 cases of tomatoes a week and is now paying $25 a case instead of $15, customers can expect to get a bit less tomato on their sandwiches. The shop hasn't raised prices or stopped serving tomatoes altogether, but manager Matthew Villareal says he can see the tomatoes are soft when the prep cooks are cutting them.

 

"The tomato prices definitely have gone up and the quality isn't so great either," he said. "We just kind of eat the cost."

 

An unusually cold January in Florida destroyed entire fields of tomatoes - along with some green beans, sweet corn and squash. The cold scarred the tomatoes, damaged their vines, and forced many farmers to delay their harvest.

 

Some parts of Florida saw average temperatures so low that this January and February were among the 10 coldest on record, according to the National Weather Service.

 

"Anecdotally, from talking to some real long timers, as well as people who watch the weather, this has been the most extended cold in maybe 60 years," said Terry McElroy, spokesman for the Florida Department of Agriculture.

 

Industry estimates suggest that about two-thirds of the tomato crop in the major southwestern production region was destroyed, according to a Feb. 25 United States Department of Agriculture report.

 

There's more bad news, Brown said: Because of the continued cold weather - 38-degree temperatures were predicted Friday in some central Florida growing areas - the current crop of fruit isn't as far along as everyone had hoped.

 

"We thought they'd recover by early April, but now it's mid- April," he said.

 

And because high demand has driven up domestic prices, many wholesalers are buying from Mexico instead.

 

"We're obviously losing market share to Mexico, and there's always a price to pay to get the customer to get back into the Florida market," Brown said.

 

Florida is the only place where tomatoes are grown on a large scale in the U.S. during winter. California doesn't grow them until later in the year, and much of that state's crop is used for processed foods, such as ketchup, sauce and juice. Other states grow tomatoes in greenhouses year- round, but Florida's winter tomato crop is by far the largest.

 

At Subway restaurants, the timing of this year's shortage was fortuitous: It hit right when the sandwich chain switches its tomato purchases from Florida to other regions.

 

While they so far haven't been impacted, managers are ordering different varieties of tomatoes to keep supplies steady, a spokesman said Thursday.

 

McDonald's Corp., CKE Restaurants Inc., (which owns Hardees, Carl Jr.) and Darden Restaurants (the nation's biggest casual dining chain, which owns Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Longhorn Steakhouse; Capital Grille; Seasons 52) said it's business as usual and no shortages are being reported.

 

Some Wendy's restaurants posted signs saying tomatoes would only be provided upon request because of limited availability.

 

But smaller restaurants are feeling the pinch. In Chicago, where a hot dog isn't a hot dog without chopped tomatoes, you might end up with just a bit less on the bun.

 

"We're a little more careful with our tomatoes," admitted Bill Murphy, owner of Murphy's Red Hots, which uses 75 to 100 pounds of the fruit a week. "You still owe it to your customers to get them out there and get them on the dogs. You try to get an extra piece out of every tomato if you can. You don't toss them around like they're pennies, you toss them around like they're quarters."

 

Return to Top

 

 

Havana’s food production fails expectations

 

(AP via Yahoo! News) HAVANA – Production of fruits and vegetables in Cuba's capital and surrounding farmlands is 40 percent lower than expected so far this year, as the island's agricultural sector continues to founder despite a series of reforms.

 

The Communist Party newspaper Granma said Havana province, which includes the city of the same name, fell short of its targets through the end of February largely because of government ineptitude.

 

It reported that authorities failed to provide farmers with seeds in a timely manner and said fertilizer and other nutrients to bolster crops were also slow in coming.

 

The result was less food for sale at heavily subsidized state farmer's markets.

 

"The frequently semi-empty stalls at the markets are signs of these failures and the difference between what is produced in the countryside and what is sold," the newspaper said.

 

Shortages of all kinds of basics, from lettuce to potatoes to peanuts, are common in Cuba, though some items have lately been even more difficult to find than usual.

 

President Raul Castro has made improving food production and slashing expensive imports a top priority since taking power from his brother Fidel — first temporarily, then permanently — in 2006.

 

The government shifted much of the control of government-run farms from Agricultural Ministry officials in Havana to local farming boards in hopes of boosting productivity. It also put far more idle state land into the hands of private farmers.

 

Still, the government continues to provide seeds, fertilizer, gasoline and other supplies to farms and buys up nearly all of what they produce. Problems at any point in the supply chain can cause lengthy delays and hurt production.

 

Return to Top

 

 

Monitoring tool spots food-safety offenders

 

(FoodProductionDaily.com) – A new monitoring tool presented at a recent EFSA conference has named China, Iran, Turkey, the United Sates and Spain as the top five offenders in food contamination between 2003 and 2008.

 

Taking into account more than just the number of food alerts from a particular country, the new computer system is being touted as a tool to facilitate the adoption of the Beijing Declaration on food safety.

 

Signed by 50 countries in 2007 the Beijing Declaration urges signatories to develop comprehensive programmes to improve consumer protection and participate in the International Food Safety Authorities Network (INFOSAN) to share food safety information.

 

Identification

 

The scientists behind the new computer tool, which was presented last month at an EFSA-AESAN conference on risk surveillance of imports, claim it will help countries identify major food safety transgressors and detectors within their trading networks. They also say the program will allow easy handling of the enormous quantities of data that arise from food alerts and recalls.

 

Writing in the PlusOne open access journal, the system creators said: “Owing to the enormity and frequency of arrival of the data involved, the development of new monitoring systems is warranted to facilitate wider participation in food alerting and to provide early detection of potential ‘epidemics’ of contaminated foodstuffs (e.g. melamine in Chinese food products).”

 

Network approach

 

The new system takes a “network approach” that attempts to capture the complexity of global food safety, analyse trends, and predict the impact of interventions. Rather than just counting up food alerts, the software takes into account the number of reports received by transgressor countries and reporting countries (detectors) related to a particular country. The computer tool is also capable of taking impact into account by computing the number of countries involved in a transgression as well as the number of alerts.

 

Worst offenders

 

Analysing data from the alert logs from the European Rapid Alert System between January 2003 and 2008 the program picked out some of the worst food safety offenders.

 

In descending order, the five biggest offenders judged by the total number of food alerts were Iran, China, Turkey, the US, and Spain. But the order was different when impact was taken into account with China taking first place as the worst offender and Iran dropping down the list.

 

Return to Top

 

 

USDA reaches settlement with black farmers

 

WASHINGTON (AP)--The Obama administration on Feb. 25 announced a $1.25 billion deal with black farmers that could end a years-long stalemate over alleged racial discrimination by the Department of Agriculture.

 

If approved by Congress, it would be the second round of damages stemming from a class-action lawsuit the government originally settled in 1999. The new money is intended for people who were denied earlier payments because they missed deadlines for filing. The amount of money each would get depends on how many claims are successfully filed.

 

President Barack Obama initially called for the $1.25 billion in his budget last year, but the request stalled in Congress as disagreements persisted over the amount of funding and the structure of the settlement. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said the agreement should pave the way for congressional approval and get money flowing soon.

 

In a statement, Obama said the deal would bring "these long-ignored claims of African-American farmers to a rightful conclusion.''

 

"I look forward to a swift resolution to this issue, so that the families affected can move on with their lives,'' Obama said.

 

Vilsack said the deal should close a "sordid chapter'' in USDA history in which blacks often lost land or went deeply into debt after being denied loans and other aid that routinely went to their white counterparts.

 

John Boyd, a key plaintiff organizer and head of the National Black Farmers Association, initially balked at the $1.25 billion last year, saying it would take more money to satisfy all the claims. But he said that he and others agreed to the total because the case has dragged on for so long.

 

"Many of the farmers have already died waiting for justice, so I thought this was the right thing to do,'' he said.

 

The original lawsuit is known as Pigford, named after Timothy Pigford, a black farmer from North Carolina who was among the original plaintiffs. Under the 1999 settlement, the government paid out more than $1 billion to about 16,000 farmers, mostly from the South.

 

Most claimants opted for expedited $50,000 payments that required a relatively low burden of proof. Boyd and others have pushed for another round of damages because thousands of people said they didn't know about the settlement and missed deadlines for filing.

 

The new agreement calls for a similar process in which claimants can win damages without going to court.

 

Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli said claimants can seek fast-track payments of up to $50,000 plus debt relief, or choose a longer process for damages of up to $250,000. Estimates on the number of potential claims vary widely, but some expect about 65,000--which would set average payments at roughly $20,000.

 

Return to Top

 

End Transmission