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May 12, 2011
· Food safety regs hogtie small growers
· One billion tons of food wasted annually – UN
· Nufarm stands to win $58M against Monsanto
· Oregon group tracking invasive species online
· Corn defeats onion in epic battle for NY veggie
Food safety regs hogtie small growers
(The Fresno Bee) – As the nation pays more attention to food safety, small farmers are feeling the pressure.
Increasingly, Valley growers are being asked -- by retailers, buyers and consumers -- to verify that they are using safe food handling practices.
To small farmers like Raul Medina Jr., that means testing
irrigation water for bacteria, staging a mock recall, and copying of dozens of
records for his family's 8-acre
"You really feel like you are under the gun,"
It's a new world for some small farmers.
Heightened awareness of food safety has processors, retailers and consumers demanding that farmers use practices that can be verified as safe.
Raising the level of concern have been outbreaks of illness from produce that have sickened hundreds in recent years.
The most recent case involves a multistate recall of grape tomatoes that might be contaminated with salmonella.
No illnesses have been reported.
While much of the focus of government regulators has been on large-scale farmers and processors, retailers are not taking any chances. Their attention also is turning to small farmers -- some who have found the issue challenging and costly.
Molinar works almost exclusively
with small farmers in the central
"We knew that the retailers were asking the packinghouses and wholesalers for the food-safety documents and they were beginning to start asking it from the farmers," Molinar said. "They wanted to see written policies in place."
Small farmers say they use common-sense, but they generally don't have written policies. They didn't need them until now.
To help, Molinar began holding training seminars, some in Hmong, others in Spanish.
A few dozen farmers showed up to the first meeting four years ago. About 60 attended the most recent one.
"This is really only just the beginning, and I have no doubt it will get more intense," Molinar said. "The government will eventually come up with some guidelines, but right now this is being driven by the buyers and consumers."
One of those buyers is Todd Hirasuna, general manager of Selma-based Sunnyside Packing Co.
The family-run packinghouse buys produce, including cherry tomatoes, green beans and squash, from dozens of small farmers in the Valley.
Sunnyside's wholesale and retailer customers were pushing Hirasuna to make sure his farmers followed industry-accepted safe food handling practices.
Hirasuna spent months culling through research to create a food-safety program that that most of his growers are adopting.
But Hirasuna admits it's a work in progress. One of the toughest parts of a food-safety program is a farm audit.
Sunnyside will require it of all its contract growers starting next year.
The audit takes place on the grower's farm and verifies whether the farm is abiding by Sunnyside's food-safety rules. The review is done by an independent company or by the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
The cost for an audit will range from $300 to more than $1,000.
At Sunnyside Packing, growers pass the audit with an 80% score.
Failure could result in being dropped from the packinghouse's roster of contract growers.
Hirasuna is optimistic his growers will get up to speed on the practices.
"We are trying to get them to understand what they need to do as growers, and to make any changes that are necessary," Hirasuna said. "The fact is, this is inevitable. And it may not even matter who you sell to anymore, whether it is to shippers or if you sell direct."
"It was something simple and I didn't have it,"
"It's frustrating, but it's also an education. And we have learned from this experience. Believe me, we learned."
One billion tons of food wasted annually – UN
(Bloomberg) – Food wasted or lost during production totals about 1.3 billion metric tons a year, or one-third of global production for human consumption, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization said.
Farmers in low-income countries lack suitable storage and
cooling facilities, so food spoils before getting to consumers, the UN said.
Rich countries waste about 222 million tons of food, nearly the total food
output in sub-Saharan
“Economically avoidable food losses have a direct and negative impact on the income of both farmers and consumers,” the UN said. “Improving the efficiency of the food supply chain could help to bring down the cost of food to the consumer and thus increase access.”
Retailers put too much emphasis on appearance, the UN said. Studies show consumers are willing to buy produce that doesn’t meet appearance standards as long as it is safe and tastes good, the organization said.
“Customers thus have the power to influence quality standards and should do so,” the UN said. “Selling farm produce closer to consumers, without having to conform to supermarkets’ quality standards, is another suggestion. This could be achieved through farmers’ markets and farm shops.”
Nufarm stands to win $58M against Monsanto
(Stock & Land) – A LONG-running dispute between Doug Rathbone's crop protection outfit Nufarm and the world's biggest seed company Monsanto could finally be drawing to a close.
At stake is about $58.9 million, which is what Nufarm
reckons it is owed by Monsanto, although it never names the
Nufarm is so confident it can extract the sum from Monsanto that the disputed amount has been recorded as a receivable. If it goes the other way its accounts will need some work.
Sources suggest the dispute will head into arbitration on May 24 in a matter that could keep the legal eagles tied up for three weeks.
The dispute centres on sales of glyphosate, a key ingredient in Nufarm's weedkillers. Under a deal struck between the pair back in 2002 costs and proceeds associated with Nufarm's sales were to be shared.
Glyphosate prices tanked in 2009, leaving Nufarm with high-cost product it had to sell for much less. Nufarm reckons those loses should be shared.
Oregon
(OregonLive.com)
– After two years of surveying scientists and land managers and engaging the
help of partners across the
), an online, GIS-based invasive species reporting and querying tool.
iMapInvasives, developed through a partnership between The Nature Conservancy, NatureServe, the New York Natural Heritage Program, Florida Natural Areas Inventory, and Oregon Biodiversity Information Center, will help land managers, regional planners, and others who are working to prevent, control or manage invasive species to accurately and quickly record and track where all types of invasive plants, animals, fish, and diseases are found.
"This is a huge step forward for
iMapInvasives provides trained users with their own interactive GIS data base, where they can enter and retrieve site information, share data with partnering organizations, and plan for future activities. In the future, iMapInvasives will also allow users to record and retrieve treatment data.
The initial list of species included in iMapInvasives was developed from the Oregon Department of Agriculture's "A" and "B" noxious weed lists, the Oregon Invasive Species Council's 100 Worst Invaders, noxious weeds listed in neighboring states, and any species that partner agencies are tracking.
The tool has launched with over 85,000 observations of
invasive species, and the list will continue to grow as new species are
recommended. The
One of the greatest benefits to iMapInvasives is that although an organization can batch upload large quantities of information at once, anyone with data entry access can add invasive species observations at any time.
"One of the reasons our organization provided financial support to iMapInvasives is because of the many functions it can provide," said Sam Leininger, WeedWise Program Manager at the Clackamas Soil and Water Conservation District. "And instead of Oregonians using fifty-plus databases to manage invasives, we now have one central location where we can input data, share data with partners, and have access to real-time information."
And iMapInvasives leverages the utility of the Oregon Invasive Species Hotline (http://oregoninvasiveshotline.org/
). Launched in 2008 by Oregon Public Broadcasting and managed by the Oregon Invasive Species Council, the hotline is the go-to place for people who have questions about species they are seeing that they think might be invasive, or for people who have an observation to report but do not want or need an iMapInvasives account. When people report a suspected invasive, the Hotline's list of expert contacts for each county reviews reports in their area to determine if the observation is indeed an invasive species. Confirmed observations from the hotline will be downloaded twice annually to iMapInvasives.
The public will be able to view general distribution data of invasive species, while those who request an account will be able to see point observation data as well as detailed assessment/treatment polygons when this feature is added later this year.
"The Oregon Invasive Species Council is very pleased to
have played an important role in surveying Oregonians about their invasive
species database needs and wants, initiating a fundraising effort, and doing
the legwork to offer a great product for
iMapInvasives is intended to complement WeedMapper (http://www.weedmapper.org
), a collection of spatial information of
the distribution of noxious weeds in the state of
For more information about how to use iMapInvasives,
visit
The site contains background information, frequently asked questions, and training videos.
Corn defeats onion in epic battle for NY veggie
(gothamist.com)
– Today we learn that the battle for vegetal supremacy over the state of
Although the winner hasn't been officially announced, gambling men and government insiders are placing a strong handicap on zea mays in advance of the Senate's final word.
As previously reported, it's been a vicious fight, with dueling bills and aggressive campaigning on both sides. Onions fought the good fight, but in the end, they just weren't sweet enough.
"While the onion is an acquired taste for many, most New Yorkers enjoy sweet corn from the day their first teeth grow in until their teeth start falling out," wrote pro-corn advocate Timothy Kennedy.
Other supporters point out that corn is the state's largest crop, and generates some $70 million in cash receipts. Still more lawmakers (we're looking at you, Cathy Young) were torn, unable to decide between the two vegetables, and turned to the public for help.
Well, the public has spoken, and it apparently doesn't care about Bloomin' Onions or their purported health benefits. In deference to kettle corn, chowder, and batter-fried cobs, we salute you, corn.
End Transmission