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" I heard it
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AgLine"
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December
29, 2009
·
United releases metrics for tomato food safety
·
Practical
methods help keep carbon in the soil
·
America’s
salad bowl feels pinch of recession
·
Food prices
facing perfect storm – Analysis
·
Food waste is
enough to turn your stomach
United releases metrics for tomato
food safety
WASHINGTON, D.C. – With an increased
spotlight on food safety issues, buyers and suppliers of fresh and fresh-cut
tomatoes now have a reliable set of auditing benchmarks, thanks to the combined
efforts of over 100 stakeholders from all stages of the fresh tomato supply
chain.
United Fresh released the Food Safety Programs and Auditing Protocol for the
Fresh Tomato Supply Chain, 2009, a harmonized food safety audit
protocol identifying policies and practices that the fresh tomato industry
expects its facilities to have in place to minimize the microbiological hazards
associated with fresh and fresh-cut tomato production and handling.
"This effort was a true collaboration between the tomato industry, our
customers and government,” said Ed Beckman, president of California Tomato
Farmers and participant in the development of the document. “Not only is there
agreement on standardized risk reduction protocol for the entire supply chain,
there's agreement that a single commodity-specific audit has greater merit than
multiple generic audits. The growers of California Tomato Farmers were
pleased to successfully pilot the program and look forward to working with our
customers on full implementation in 2010."
Growing out of United’s 2008 second edition of the Commodity Specific
Guidelines for the Fresh Tomato Supply Chain, the 2009 document includes
four sets of tomato food safety protocols: Open Field Production, Harvest and
Field Packing; Greenhouse; Packinghouse; and Repacking and Distribution. Each
set contains auditable requirements, or “items,” that the protocol developers
concluded should be attainable and in place for any North American fresh tomato
operation, regardless of region, size, growing practice or sub-commodity
handled. Additionally, each protocol is accompanied by a checklist which
provides an audit format that auditors can use to assess and record compliance.
“This document will be a valuable asset for the fresh and fresh-cut tomato
industry in terms of reducing confusion and conflicting expectations,” said Dr.
David Gombas, United Fresh senior vice president of
food safety and technology and corresponding editor of the document. “We found
that multiple stakeholders in the tomato industry were unsure of what constituted
‘compliance’. By bringing together a critical mass from the U.S. and Mexico fresh tomato supply chain,
including suppliers, customers and representatives of FDA and USDA, the
industry was able to come to consensus on what was reasonable and attainable by
growers and handlers, and also satisfied customers’ expectations.”
The document has already been met with favorable reviews from stakeholders
within the tomato industry, including Reggie Brown, executive vice president of
the Florida Tomato Exchange.
"The Florida
tomato industry is enthusiastic about the partnerships across the industry that
created these auditing protocols,” he said. “The standardization will allow
greater attention on the implementation of good food safety practices rather
than redundant audits."
The next step, which has already begun, is a training course for government and
private sectors auditors in how to perform audits according to the harmonized
tomato food safety protocol.
To review or download Food Safety Programs and Auditing Protocol for the
Fresh Tomato Supply Chain, 2009, please click here, and for more on United Fresh efforts in the field of
food safety, visit www.unitedfresh.org.
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Practical methods for keeping carbon
in the soil
(USDA-ARS) – Curbing greenhouse gas emissions from
cultivated fields may require going beyond cutting back on nitrogen fertilizer
and changing crop rotation cycles, according to research by Agricultural
Research Service scientists.
Jane Johnson, a soil scientist at the ARS North Central Soil
Conservation Research Laboratory in Morris,
Minn., is looking for practical
ways to keep carbon in the soil and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In a comprehensive study, she raised corn, soybean, wheat
and alfalfa in rotation so that each crop grew in the same year, on plots treated
with and without fertilizer. She also used a less-aggressive tillage system
known as strip tillage, in which only narrow bands of soil are tilled instead
of an entire field. For comparison, she replicated the cropping system adopted
by many Minnesota
farmers-raising corn and soybeans in a two-year cycle on fertilized plots
tilled with a chisel or moldboard plow.
She used a hydraulic soil probe to measure the organic
carbon sequestered in the soil, and closed-vented chambers to measure emissions
of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. She found that when measured
over the course of a year, greenhouse gas releases were largely the same under
two-year and four-year rotation systems, and that applying nitrogen fertilizer
had less overall impact than anticipated on nitrous oxide emissions. Nitrous
oxide emissions peaked during spring thaws when the sun warmed the soil,
regardless of which tillage or rotation system was used.
Chisel and moldboard plowing increased carbon dioxide
emissions for a short time. But measured over the course of a year, carbon
dioxide emissions were no different from plots with intensive tillage than
plots without it. She also found no consistent patterns to methane releases.
Johnson's work is part of a five-year ARS project known as GRACEnet (Greenhouse gas Reduction through Agricultural
Carbon Enhancement network) in which researchers at more than 32 sites are
examining strategies to help reduce agriculture's climate change footprint. The
project supports the USDA priority of responding to climate change.
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America’s salad bowl feels pinch of
recession
(TheCalifornian.com)
Salinas Valley's No. 1 industry — agriculture —
felt the recession's pinch in 2009.
"People are still waiting to see whether
the economy will pick up," said Bob Perkins, executive director of the
Monterey County Farm Bureau. "They're waiting to get paid for something so
they can pay their suppliers. The concern everywhere is if somebody goes under,
there's a domino effect through the supply system."
"Ag is always under economic
pressure," said Joe Pezzini, chief operating
officer of Ocean Mist Farms. "There's a squeeze on margins and the ability
to sustain a profit. There are businesses you've seen go by the wayside; times
are tough and there may be others."
In May, Monterey-based SK Foods filed for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The next day, sister company Salyer
American Fresh Foods came under the control of a receiver as banks claimed $34
million in loans were in default. Forty full-time and hundreds of seasonal
employees lost their jobs.
The recession was hardly the only factor in
their collapse. SK Foods was the target of federal investigations. Eight
employees and associates entered guilty pleas in government cases alleging
price-fixing, bribery or misbranding.
SK Foods wasn't the only ag
company taking a financial hit or downsizing.Chiquita
Brands International, which owns Fresh Express in Salinas, posted a $412 million loss in the
last quarter of 2008. In January, it announced companywide layoffs, including
an undisclosed number at the local plant.
In March, the Dole Fresh Vegetables plant in
Gonzales laid off 186 seasonal asparagus workers. River Ranch Fresh Foods
announced a "permanent cessation" of harvest operations at its Abbott Street
facility in Salinas
effective June 1, with job losses up to 210.
As consumers hunted for ever-lower food
prices, big stores such as Costco, Safeway, Walmart
and Kroger tried to use their purchasing power to meet that demand. A few
grocery chains now control more than 80 percent of the market, said Lorri Koster, chairwoman of the
Grower-Shipper Association and co-chairwoman of the Mann Packing board.
In the cut-lettuce or bagged salad sections,
instead of a local label — such as Fresh Express — your eye was just as likely
to be drawn to a retailer's brand.
"That narrows our margins," Koster said.
In ag, the greatest
profits are in "value-added" products and services. Grape growers
here ship most of their product out of the county for winemaking elsewhere.
Whether it's wine or bagged salads, growers want to keep that wealth in Monterey County.
The expense of farming here, where land and
living costs are high, makes value-added all the more desirable; but in a
vicious circle, that expense tends to drive the activity out of the area.
"We have to maintain and lower the costs
of doing business here," Koster said.
Williamson Act
As 2009 went on, though, costs actually grew
for some as the Williamson Act became a casualty of the state's budget crisis.
The act provides property tax discounts to
owners promising to keep their land in agriculture. The state historically
reimbursed counties for the lost tax revenue.
But Sacramento's
budget deal stopped reimbursement, at least for now. About a third of the
750,000 acres of farmland in Monterey
County are contracted
under the Williamson Act.
"There were signs it was coming back in
January, but we're told it's not," Perkins said. "That's very
disturbing to rural counties like Monterey.
If the state doesn't provide the funding, a lot of counties would abandon the
program. In the long run, it could raise taxes on a lot of people."
Cattle ranchers would be the hardest hit.
"You just can't make enough on range
cattle to pay the taxes," Perkins said. "Ranchers are indicating they
might have to sell off some land. We could see huge changes in the landscape of
Monterey County."
Regulation, food safety
Growers found themselves in an uncertain
regulatory environment in 2009, and change remains in the air.
"If health-care [legislation] gets
stalled or resolved, Congress will move on to food safety next," Pezzini said. "There's been a lot of criticism of the
FDA for their inability to safeguard the food supply and that's propelling this
issue forward.
"It's a question of deciding which
authorities — USDA, FDA, others — will have jurisdiction, and how far-reaching
those regulations will be. The House has already passed a version; it's still
in committee in the Senate. Obama has recognized it as an important
issue."
In September, the USDA held a hearing in Monterey on a proposal to take California's Leafy Greens Marketing
Agreement national. The state agreement on food safety measures, participation
in which is voluntary, was a response to a fatal E. coli outbreak in Central Coast spinach in 2006. Leafy Greens has
support in the ag industry, but some organic farmers
protested, citing the cost of compliance and arguing the agreement blurs the
distinction between marketing and food safety.
Water
With the ag water
discharge waiver that's been in place for five years expiring, growers must
present their proposal for run-off monitoring to the Central Coast Regional
Water Quality Control Board in the spring of 2010. Growers would like something
akin to current requirements, under which they need only demonstrate progress
in the reduction of fertilizers, minerals and sediments in run-off.
"Water board staff has wanted to turn it
into more of a regulatory big-hammer program and set numerical targets to be
reached," Perkins said.
Statewide, there is a growing focus on water
conservation, especially in the Central Valley,
which relies on water from other parts of the state. Locally, manifestations of
this concern include drip irrigation and water recycling.
"It's all a sign of this state in which
we have more people than we have resources for," Pezzini
said. "There's greater scrutiny on what's in the water as it leaves the
farm. Conservation practices are going to become more important."
The board, Pezzini
said, is under greater pressures now because of the shortages in the Central Valley, where many fields were simply left fallow
in 2009.
Recalls
Monterey County growers and food processors issued more
recalls in 2009 than in 2008.
Dec. 10: OrganicGirl Produce voluntarily recalls
120 cartons of packaged Berries & Balsamic salads because they may contain
an incorrect condiment package with an unlabeled allergen for walnuts.
Sept. 17: Ippolito International voluntarily
recalls 1,715 cartons of spinach as a precaution against salmonella.
Aug. 27: Steinbeck Country Produce voluntarily recalls 3,360 cartons of
iceless green onions as a precaution against salmonella.
Aug. 12: NewStar Fresh Foods voluntarily recalls
772 cartons of iced jumbo green onions as a precaution against salmonella.
July 29: Camacho's Food Processing recalls 1,450 pounds of fried pork skins
after they were distributed without federal inspection.
July 21: Tanimura & Antle
voluntarily recalls 22,000 cartons of wrapped and bulk romaine lettuce heads as
a precaution against salmonella.
No illnesses were reported. Salmonella, for
example, presented itself in random FDA test samples rather than in clinics or
hospital beds. Growers said the rising recalls were actually a good sign,
showing increased scrutiny of food safety. They also said it was possible that
the samples tested became contaminated after leaving the Salinas Valley.
Crop report
The Monterey County Crop Report that came out
in May — and covered the prior year — showed the gross value of crops here rose
to $3.82 billion in 2008, one-tenth of a percent higher than 2007.
That income hadn't fallen in a recession year
was reason for some to cheer — but it was a muted cheer, as the expense side
was much less favorable.
The 10 top-selling crops in 2008 ranked in
the same order as the year before. They were led by leaf lettuce at $651.5
million, up 6 percent, and strawberries at $619.2 million, up 2 percent. Head
lettuce held the No. 3 spot despite dropping $48 million. Head lettuce totaled
$460.6 million.
Grapes were No. 6 at $238.3 million. Spinach
continued its comeback from the 2006 E. coli outbreak and held onto the No. 8
slot at $131 million.
Artichokes lost ground. The No. 14 crop was
down 10 percent in value, almost $8 million, to $66.6 million. Artichoke
acreage was down 17 percent. "That's a commodity that's struggling," Pezzini said.
Synergene acquisition
In November, Switzerland-based Syngenta AG
bought Salinas-based lettuce seed producer Synergene
Seed & Technology. Terms of the deal were undisclosed. The Swiss firm also
acquired Santa Maria-based Pybas Vegetable Seed as it
sought a foothold in the North American market.
The two Central Coast
companies employ about 20 to 25 people, and were eyed for germplasm
that could become the basis for new lettuce varieties.
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Food prices facing perfect storm –
Analysis
(foodnavigator.com)
– There’s a perfect storm building for food prices. You don’t have to scan the
horizon to see the signs; the clouds are developing all around us - at a faster
rate than anyone expected.
It’s a lethal cloudscape of high energy prices and climate
change that threatens to send prices soaring – but this may not be a bad thing:
Provided the world’s poorest are insulated from its effects.
Today’s historically low food prices will end soon with
significant and, for some, catastrophically high, rises in the years ahead.
That means food policy-makers and food companies should plan now how best to
mitigate the effects of this building storm.
It’s a readjustment many companies and government bodies at
various junctures in the food supply are welcoming – if its resonances can be
contained within the developed world. With the hyper competition that typifies
many western retail markets driving food prices to historic lows, a reality
check spurred by an energy crisis and environmental concerns is no bad thing.
The food industry must remain profitable or the innovation
required to feed ever-more mouths (nearly 10 billion by 2150) won’t be
forthcoming.
Increased energy
Search at the storm’s heart and you will find high energy
prices. Last week the price of crude oil reached $80 a barrel following US
statistics revealing a sharp fall in US stockpiles. According to the US
Petroleum Institute, stockpiles fell by 4.4m barrels instead of the predicted
1.2m. The reports sent US light crude prices up 90 cents to $80.
News like that can only sharpen the US’s apparently
ravenous appetite for fuel crops.
And acres devoted to fuel crops are, by definition, not
being tilled for food.
Earlier this year the United States Department of
Agriculture published an outlook suggesting that for the period 2007-08, global
consumption of wheat exceeded production by 14.7m tons, leaving global wheat
stocks at their lowest in 30 years.
In Europe, lower plantings
and adverse weather have also lowered harvests in some of the major producing
and exporting countries.
In Australia,
a significant world wheat producer, drought has slashed wheat yields by 52 per
cent, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation.
Dr Sushil Pandi
of the International Rice Research Institute has warned: “Shortfalls in
production and subsequent price rises are being exacerbated by increasing
competition for land, labour and water for biofuel
production.”
China
has shifted more than three million hectares out of rice production and into
biofuel crop production, he added.
It’s not just competition for land,
high energy prices are having a powerful impact on the costs of food transport.
Increasingly Western distribution systems depend on transporting food vast
distances from producer to consumers.
In some cases, food is shipped around the world simply for
processing, to take advantage of low labour costs,
and then shipped back again for consumption. These practices appear
increasingly unsustainable.
Climate change
Meanwhile, there is the greatest threat of all – climate
change. Its precise impact is impossible to predict. But William Cline, senior
fellow at the Institute for International Economics and the Center for Global
Development in Washington,
suggests global warming will cause a 16 per cent decline in global agricultural
gross domestic product (GDP) within 11 years.
Time is running out for policy-makers and food companies to
plan a response to these threats. A good starting point is UN secretary general
Ban Ki-moon’s call for a “single global vision” to
address the problems of world hunger. In a chilling warning he said there can
be “no food security without climate security.”
As part of that process food companies can and should reduce
their energy consumption to sustainable levels. This applies both to the
production of food and to its distribution.
It may be innovation in this area that offers the greatest
hope for food production to maintain a price befitting to its true costs – and
to the benefit of individuals and the planet they inhabit.
The perfect storm for food prices may be impossible to
avoid. But it could be a good thing if it makes Western nations value food more
appropriately.
Mike Stones has written on food and farming topics for 20 years.
He lives in Southern France and co-owns a small family arable farm in northern England. If you
would like to comment on this article please email michael.stones
‘at’ decisionnews.com.
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Food waste is enough to turn your stomach
(Deutsche
Welle) – The amount of food thrown away and
buried in landfills around Europe and the United States is contributing to
the global food crisis and adding a new dimension to the climate change debate.
Christmas has become a traditional time for over indulgence
in Western countries. The holiday season seems to provide everyone with an
excuse to eat and drink to excess. Supermarkets burst with sweet treats and a
mind-boggling selection of festive fare.
While most of it will be ingested, more than a third of food
in Europe and the United
States will grow moldy fur in the back of
the fridge, pass its use-by date and land in garbage.
Huge food waste problem developing in Europe
In the United Kingdom, one of Europe's worst food waste
offenders, around 6.7 million tons of purchased and edible food, worth £10.2
billion (11.2 billion euros, $16.6 billion), are
annually discarded. Around 4.1 million tons of this wasted food comes directly
from food manufacturers.
"Only 30 to 40 percent of produced in Europe ends up at
your table," Henrik Harjula,
the principal administrator at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) in Paris,
told Deutsche Welle. "It is already disappearing
when it is transported, when it is rotting and when it doesn't meet European
standards. On top of this, in many countries in Europe,
one third of the food that consumers buy is thrown away and 50 percent of that
is thrown away without even being opened."
Add Europe's waste to that of the United States and the food waste
problem becomes even larger. Around 40 percent of all food manufactured and put
on sale in the United States
is wasted, and studies show this trend is increasing. Food waste - including
waste from farms, manufacturers, retailers and consumers - has risen 50 percent
since 1974, reaching about 150 trillion calories per year in 2003.
Supermarkets sweeps food to trash
"People tend to go to these supermarkets once or twice
a month but how can you accurately evaluate how much you a going to
consume?" he asked. "They can't tell so they buy extra. Of course,
this suggests that consumers are to blame too but there is this trend across Europe of 'buy one, get one free' so people are buying a
lot of food that they don't need."
The statistics relating to food waste sit uncomfortably with
the continued reports of global food shortages and food price spikes. While
there are other factors sharing the blame for a global food shortage, including
the high cost of oil, a growing population, poor harvests and diverting grains
to use for bio-fuels, food waste contributes to the problem.
"A lot of the food and agriculture in Europe
and the West is subsidized and this is a huge problem for producers in the
developing world," Harjula said. "Their
products are not competitive on these markets and as a result they cannot sell
their products, which leads to farmers losing income, losing their land and the
poverty and hardship which comes from that."
Food waste causing an environmental stink
In addition to its effect on food supply in the developing
world, landfills full of food are also detrimental to the environment.
"Here in Europe we consume so much globalized food,
like kiwis from New Zealand
and pineapples from Australia
– all of which has to be transported over thousands of kilometers to get
here," Harjula said of food's environmental
cost.
But it's the methane created by rotting food that is having
the worst effect on the climate, he added. A greenhouse gas estimated to be 20
times worse for the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, methane is emitted from
landfills as food rots.
"There are ways of collecting this gas from the
decomposing food and using it for energy purposes but it is not a widespread
practice at the moment," Harjula said.
"What must be done in the meantime is to find away of taking the organic
material out of landfill refuse."
Until there are more efficient means of harnessing methane,
it's important to keep food out of landfills, according to Tom MacMillan,
executive director of the British Food Ethics Council.
"Food waste is harmful and unfair, and it is essential
to stop food going into landfill," he told Deutsche Welle.
"Now is the moment all parties should be searching out ways to define
prosperity that get away from runaway consumption. Until they succeed, chucking
out less food won't make our lifestyles more sustainable."
Slow progress taken towards solution
European countries are already taking steps to reduce the
production of methane from food waste deposited in landfill sites, Harjula said. The enforcement of the EU's landfill
directive is expected to reduce the amount of organic material in landfill
sites to 35 percent by 2016, but a number of European nations, including
Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland, have already reduced their levels to
5 percent and in some cases even less.
Experts believe that
much of the responsibility for reducing food waste rests with the
manufacturers. The food industry must find ways to reduce waste throughout the
production and supply chain, and find ways to redistribute finished food
products and reuse by-products of the production process.
Consumers of course
can also do their bit. By planning before shopping for food, consumers can
reduce their food waste output at point-of-purchase and in their homes, while
adhering to efficient food storage ideas can the amount of food which becomes
inedible quickly and then thrown away.
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End Transmission