" I heard it through the AgLine"

December 23, 2010

 

 

·        Money woes threaten food-safety bill

·        Drug war hinders US-Mexico produce trade

·        2010: A year of growth for ag machinery

·        Ultrasonic veggie washing shows promise

·        Hotel chefs go beyond locally grown

 

 

Money woes threaten food-safety bill

 

(DesMoinesRegister.com) – Washington, D.C. - An Iowa lawmaker who has a say in funding the Food and Drug Administration predicts there will be little if any money for the increased spending and staff authorized by a sweeping new food safety bill.

 

"We simply don't have the money to pay for it," Republican Rep. Tom Latham said in an interview Wednesday, a day after the bill got final congressional approval in the House. He voted against the bill along with the three other Republicans on the House agricultural appropriations subcommittee that controls the budget of the FDA.

 

Consumer advocates and food industry groups that pushed for the bill's passage are pledging to work to ensure that Congress comes up with the increases in funding.

 

Finding that money is certain to be a challenge, given the growing concern about the federal budget deficit and the turnover in Congress next year. Republicans will take control of the House next year, and they voted heavily against the bill: The 215-vote majority for the bill included just 10 GOP members.

 

One sure way to dampen the impact of the bill is to hold the line on the FDA's budget. The bill directs the FDA to increase inspections of farms and food companies and to ensure that processors have adequate plans and procedures for preventing contamination of foods.

 

"The funding issue is really going to be the kicker," said Jennifer Williams Zwagerman, an attorney in Des Moines with Faegre and Benson, which advises food and agribusiness companies. "If we can't fund it, the impact is going to be much less."

 

There could be a tussle with the Senate over the FDA funding. Democrats will still be in control of the Senate, and Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Ia., a leading architect of the FDA bill, is on the agricultural appropriations subcommittee there. He says he'll push for funding the legislation.

 

Latham denied that Republicans would withhold funding to stop the bill's provisions from being implemented. "The problem is we don't have the funding to start with," he said.

 

Latham supports the increased scrutiny of imported foods required by the legislation but he questions the expanded FDA oversight over domestic production. He said he's also concerned about the impact on smaller producers, although the bill exempts farms and processors with sales of less than $500,000 a year.

 

The bill was estimated to cost more than $1.4 billion over the next five years, with most of that spending coming in 2014 and 2015 after a phase-in period for the new regulations. The bill authorizes the FDA to hire nearly 18,000 new field staff. The FDA's budget for food regulation has nearly doubled over the last four years to more than $800 million.

 

The bill's provisions for oversight of imported foods includes requirements that the FDA inspect foreign producers, set up some overseas offices and write regulations for verifying the safety of products brought into the country.

 

The FDA, which regulates nearly all foods except for meat and poultry, also would be empowered for the first time to force companies to recall tainted products. Recalls are now conducted voluntarily.

 

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Drug war hinders US-Mexico produce trade

 

(Reuters via Yahoo! News) MEXICO CITY – U.S. importers of fresh fruits and vegetables from Mexico say they are beginning to face losses from delays after U.S. quality inspectors pulled out of Mexico fearing escalating drug violence.

 

The Arizona Department of Agriculture, or ADA, decided last month to stop sending inspectors to northern Sonora state to check fresh produce quality prior to import, citing fears of surging drug murders south of the border.

 

The retreat of U.S. agricultural inspectors from Nogales, Mexico, across from the city of the same name in Arizona, is a sign the drug war is affecting business and risks denting the country's reputation as a safe place for foreign investment.

 

More than 30,000 people have been killed in drug violence in the past four years in Mexico, according to official figures. Most killings are along the northern border where rival drug gangs battle for smuggling turf, but which also serves as a gateway for billions of dollars of legal commerce.

 

The State Department has issued travel warnings for U.S. citizens visiting some of the more dangerous border areas where there have been shootouts and explosives planted inside cars.

 

ADA, which has done quality checks on a contract basis from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for years, will now conduct hundreds of inspections in dozens of sites on the U.S. side of the border rather than in three warehouses in Nogales, Mexico.

 

Mostly tomatoes and table grapes are inspected in Nogales in a trade valued by the U.S. department of Agriculture at more than $1.1 billion.

 

TOMATO HARVEST

 

With the tomato harvest just beginning this month -- Mexico's No. 1 farm export to the United States, according to Mexico's agriculture ministry -- some importers say they are seeing the first signs of back-log because of the new rules.

 

"It's created a logistics nightmare for us as a company," said Gil Munguia, a manager at packing company L&M in Nogales.

 

"There's not enough space, there's not enough inspectors and there is not enough time in the day to get this done on the U.S. side of the border at multiple locations. Time and space is money in this industry," he said.

 

Adding to worries, Mexico could ship significantly more produce to the United States this year after a damaging frost hit crops in Florida, Mexico's main competitor for winter fruits and vegetables. More product crossing the border will put extra pressure on the new system.

 

Hold ups in inspection could stall distribution chains, forcing Mexican farmers to leave their fruit in the fields or face higher costs to export through alternative ports of entry, the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas, or FPAA, said.

 

Some U.S. warehouses have been forced to rent extra space to have room for the inspections, said Mexican tomato exporter Jose Castro from Yory Packing company.

 

Arizona agriculture officials say they are doing everything possible to minimize bottlenecks and so far -- early in the season -- there have been no problems.

 

Some Mexican growers may even find the new system beneficial since they will only have to unload once instead of unloading on the Mexican side for inspection and again on the U.S. side for distribution, ADA spokeswoman Laura Oxley said.

 

State inspectors agreed to change their schedules to handle the more than 1,000 truckloads of goods that can cross the border during peak harvesting in mid-January, February and March, said Lance Jungmeyer, president of the FPAA based in Nogales, Arizona.

But Jungmeyer added the real squeeze will be as the harvest hits full swing. "There is really no room for error and very little time for getting up to speed."

 

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2010: A year of growth for ag machinery

 

(Industry Week) – Last week the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) released its business outlook survey saying that agricultural machinery manufacturers predict overall U.S. business to close out 2010 with 2.4% growth, then gain 3.7% in 2011.

 

In 2010 they predict growth of 2.4%, followed by 2013 growth of 3%.

 

AEM is the North American-based international trade group representing the off-road equipment manufacturing industry.

 

Canadian business overall is expected to be 4.1% higher in 2010 than the previous year, but then flatten out, down 0.5% in 2011, up 1% in 2012 and up 1.5% in 2013.

 

Industry business to the rest of the world is expected to increase the most through 2013 -- up 2.8% in 2010, followed by 7.6% growth in 2011 and gains of 6.9% in 2012 and 5.9% in 2013.

 

The survey asked respondents to rank how several factors would influence sales. Positive commodity prices were a key factor as well as strong export sales. Credit availability to finance purchases remains a concern as are steel prices.

 

"While there has been a recession, agriculture has been fortunate to have powered through, showing positive signs in most areas. I emphasize most, because some have struggled along with other economic sectors. Those serving consumers more directly and those in the dairy industry coping with volatile milk prices have certainly faced difficulties. But for the most part, agriculture has remained in good shape," stated AEM's Charlie O'Brien, vice president, agricultural sector.

 

O'Brien emphasized that export sales have been a bright spot for U.S. companies, helping to create and support jobs for American workers. "Especially in the current economy, Congress needs to help our farmers and manufacturers by acting on export agreements such as the ones with Korea, Colombia and Panama," he stated.

 

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Ultrasonic veggie washing shows promise

 

(mb.com.ph) MANILA, Philippines – Ultrasonic technology may soon be used to decontaminate pesticide residue and patological microorganisms in fruits and vegetables.

 

Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech) executive director Ricardo Cachuela says his agency has been conducting tests on the technology for at least a year and adds that results were encouraging.

 

"Our initial tests show that ultrasonic treatment on mangoes can remove the latex from the skin without affecting the color and weight," he revealed.

 

PhilMech tests also showed that lettuce, bitter gourd (ampalaya) and banana treated with 10 minutes of ultrasonic washing at 40 kilohertz (kHz) removed pesticide residues from the fruits and vegetables without affecting their quality and shelf life.

 

Even as the results were promising, Cachuela hastened to add that the commercialization of the technology is not expected in the short term.

 

The PhilMech chief is batting for its eventual use, stressing that the technology will benefit Philippine agriculture in the long haul.

 

"More and more consumers are giving priority to food safety and this means that over time, the demand for less chemical residues in food that they buy. By using ultrasonic washing, this demand may be satisfied," he explained.

 

Presently, removing pathogenic microorganisms from vegetables and fruits is done by using chemical solutions or heat technology.

 

However, the use of chemical solutions to decontaminate vegetables can have serious health implications, with some researchers insisting that ingestion of residues can lead to serious risks in the long term

 

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Hotel chefs go beyond locally grown

 

(The New York Times) – David Garcelon, a chef, says he enjoys checking on the little alpine strawberries, Malabar spinach, mojito mint and several varieties of wine grapes in his small garden. But he is not out in his backyard; he’s on the 14th-floor roof of the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto, where the view is of the steel, glass and concrete of nearby skyscrapers.

 

“You can just grab a handful of ripe tomatoes and they’re ready to add to a dish for a small lunch for a board meeting,” said Mr. Garcelon, executive chef of the hotel. “It is a much more interesting way to eat. It is almost inevitably fresher and better.”

 

Eating local, homegrown cuisine is not new. There are plenty of practicing “locavores,” and restaurants have been serving fresh, local food for a while. But now, hotels are “going local,” establishing partnerships with area farmers and growing food in rooftop gardens as they begin to cater to travelers seeking to eat healthily on the road.

 

Nor are the hotels’ efforts limited to growing fruits and vegetables. Some hotels are now keeping bees, whose honey sweetens tea and soups, desserts and cocktails.

 

“There is almost not a more versatile product,” Mr. Garcelon said. The hotel installed hives in 2008, and last year harvested about 450 pounds of honey.

 

Mariano Stellner, a corporate director of food and beverage for the hotel’s parent, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, said the company encouraged its chefs to “stay local, stay seasonal, whenever possible.”

 

Fairmont’s property in Montreal, the Queen Elizabeth, for example, adopted a goat whose milk is used to make fresh cheese, and the Fairmont in Washington features honey-based drinks. Eleven Fairmont hotels in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Kenya and China keep bees, overseen by local groups or resident beekeepers, and almost half of the brand’s 64 properties worldwide keep gardens.

 

“Hotels have long had ornamental gardens,” said Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University, and author of “What to Eat” (North Point Press, 2006). But food-producing ones will “make them more friendly and help connect with the community, in ways I don’t think hotels have done in the past.”

 

Jim McIntosh, a senior vice president for Colliers International, who travels frequently selling industrial real estate, said that when he stayed at the Fairmont Vancouver Airport recently, the menu highlighted items from the hotel’s garden. “It caught my eye,” Mr. McIntosh said, adding that even though he is not a foodie, it was “kind of comforting.”

 

The number of hotels with working gardens and bees is quickly rising, said Bjorn Hanson, divisional dean of the Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management at New York University. “It is kind of the ultimate version of local,” he said. “It creates a positive image, and people will pay a premium for it.”

 

The Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile has its own garden, too. But it also cures its own meats, makes its own cheeses and pastas, and even stomps grapes in the lobby (with guests’ help) to create wines, said Myk Banas, executive chef and director of food and beverage operations. “If you order mac and cheese, we make the macaroni, and we make the cheese and the cheese sauce.”

 

The hotel also has bees in its ninth-floor rooftop garden, and some of the honey is used in Rooftop Honey Wheat Beer, made in partnership with a local brewery. “It is so local, it’s only sold on one block,” Mr. Banas said.

 

Some hotels do not have their own gardens but establish close relationships with nearby farms. “We change our dinner menu up until 5 p.m., depending on what products we get,” said Jason McLeod, the executive chef the Elysian Hotel in Chicago, which opened in December. It is more difficult than ordering everything through one distributor; because the hotel deals with a number of local farms, he said, “on some nights, we call 20 to 30 farms to place orders.”

 

The hotel has gone one step further by reserving land at Heritage Prairie Farm in Elburn, Ill., to grow produce specifically for the hotel, and to keep its bees. On a recent visit to the farm, the culinary team, which included bartenders and servers, planted seeds for Green Zebra and Cherokee Purple heirloom tomatoes, used for its homemade ketchup. The staff also sometimes assists with the harvests at farms. “You have to commit fully,” Mr. McLeod said. “We’re very passionate about what we do.”

 

Westin Hotels have two properties — in Paris and Annapolis, Md. — that view beekeeping as an opportunity to help the at-risk honey bee population. “My father was a beekeeper for as long as I can remember,” said James Barrett, executive chef and director of food and beverage at the Westin Annapolis.

 

Mr. Barrett said he inherited the bees after his father died in November, and the hives are now installed on the hotel’s rooftop. Recently, a neighbor of the Westin Annapolis stopped by to say his wildflower garden had taken off this year because of the bees.

 

“When I’m up on the roof,” Mr. Barrett said, “that buzzing sound is like white noise. It’s time to reflect on the relationship with my father, and the impact he had on me.”

 

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