From Field to Fork

Recently Hollanda Produce shared with us a video of its sustainability efforts, and given that water is such a critical issue for many PMA members, we thought we’d share some highlights with you.

Located on the sustainability videos page on the PMA Web site, the video clip illustrates the company’s hydroponic production methods (which allow them to recycle water, reduce water use, limit water loss due to evaporation, and stop soil erosion). Hollandia has found that their hydroponic system conserves 66 to 84 percent of the water that would be used if lettuce were grown in the field (depending on the region, soil structure, time of year and irrigation method used). Their hydroponic greenhouse method of growing lettuce also produces 3.55 more lettuce per acre than conventional field-grown methods.

Other sustainable efforts Hollandia has undertaken include reducing agricultural inputs through integrated pest management programs, using clamshell and paperboard packaging made from recycled materials, and reducing energy expenses through thermal curtains and using solar technology on greenhouse structures (they’ve seen a 60 percent reduction in energy costs as a result).

If you have a sustainability story or video to share, please let us know.

Several news items caught our consumption eye recently. Did you read about the new study by the National Bureau of Economic Research? It suggests that mandatory calorie posting in restaurants does not necessarily negatively impact restaurants’ profits, and in some instances may actually lead to an increase in revenue. With the right use of fresh produce, restaurants can have nutrition numbers that bring in that revenue.

One way that can happen is by doubling fresh produce use in restaurants in the next 10 years (see PMA information on two reports on this effort). An article from The Packer reporting on the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone’s Produce First! Event noted that 44% of attendees said increasing produce is a high priority, and 74% said boosting produce at foodservice could move the needle toward that goal. Some top minds in the industry created this initiative, and it’s great to see it is being discussed by companies that can make it happen.

In another survey, Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index data show mixed results on two key metrics in 2009 compared with 2008. Though in 2009 more Americans said they “ate healthy all day yesterday” (66.4% in 2009 up from 65.9% in 2008), those reporting eating five or more servings of fresh fruits and vegetables on at least four days in the previous week slipped to 55.6% last year from 56.4% in 2008. Those numbers don’t look huge by themselves, but when you extrapolate that to one-half or one percent of the U.S. population, you can see a significant opportunity or loss.

Have you noticed the commercials for a variety of juice drinks that purport to give you X servings of your fruits or vegetables (one touts three servings of vegetables; one trumpets two servings of fruit – and there are others)? Consumers are looking for convenient ways to get the nutrition they need. It’s up to us to give it to them – otherwise other companies will snag our nutrition halo and our sales.

Fresh produce and floral grower-shippers who move product via passenger aircraft may face possible delays as the U.S. Transportation Security Administration moves to increase air cargo screening to 100 percent this August. Currently 50 percent screening at the piece level is in place.

These screening changes may cause significant air cargo handling delays at airlines where all screening is currently performed. This is a concern for produce and floral industry members who ship highly perishable products by passenger aircraft (especially to overseas export markets).

However, to mitigate these anticipated delays, the TSA is offering a series of Webinars and town hall meetings to educate industry about the benefits of the Certified Cargo Screening Program and how it provides businesses with options to screen cargo cost-effectively and efficiently at various points in the supply chain. Presented by Doug Brittin of the Transportation Security Administration, Webinars will be held:

• February 3 (1:00-2:00 p.m. EST)
• February 25 (1:00-2:00 p.m. EST)
• March 18 (1:00-2:00 p.m. EST)
• April 15 (1:00-2:00 p.m. EST)
• May 13 (1:00-2:00 p.m. EST)
• June 10 (1:00-2:00 p.m. EST)

You can register for a TSA Webinar here. Also on the registration page is a list of the town hall meetings if you’d like to attend one. The town halls are scheduled weekly from mid February to mid June at various cities throughout the U.S.

In today’s Federal Register, the USDA announced the availability of $55 million in grant funds, less USDA administrative costs, to solely enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops - defined as fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, horticulture, and nursery crops (including floriculture).

Each state department of agriculture that submits an application that is reviewed and approved by USDA will receive a minimum grant amount of at least $100,000, or up to one-third of 1 percent of the total amount of funding made available in fiscal year 2010, whichever is greater.

In addition, AMS will allocate the remainder of the grant funds based on the value of specialty crop production in each state in relation to the national value of specialty crop production using the latest available cash receipt data. Some examples these monies could be used include:

• Increasing child and adult nutrition knowledge and consumption of specialty crops;
• Assisting all entities in the specialty crop distribution chain in developing Good Agricultural, Good Handling and Good Manufacturing practices, including cost share arrangements for funding audits of small farmer, packer and processor systems;
• Enhancing food safety; and
• Fostering organic and sustainable production practices.

To get involved in this process, talk to your state department of agriculture so that your ideas can be turned into grant requests that move our industry forward. Applications must be received between February 3 and July 29. For more details, visit the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program Web site.

If you missed the January 19 PMA Webinar on country of origin labeling compliance trends at retail, we have just posted the Webinar recording to the COOL page on the PMA Web site. During the session, USDA highlighted three commonly seen COOL challenges at store level:

• Store portioned/packaged items (e.g. cut melons and pineapple, bagged green beans, trayed tomatoes), packaged herbs, and specialty produce frequently do not have any origin declaration.
• Inaccurate origin declarations (e.g. where the sign does not match the country on the PLU sticker) are also common.
• Abbreviations and variant spellings do not unmistakably indicate the country of origin (e.g. the use of “locally grown” or region – instead of U.S. state or country of origin).

As noted during the Webinar, retail surveillance activities will be resuming soon and we’ve just learned that USDA is holding refresher training February 17 and 18 for state-level compliance personnel. So, expect to see an uptick in in-store compliance checks by the end of the month if not early March.

As you know, 2009 was a landmark year for produce in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program run by the USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS). That program gives eligible mothers and their young children additional food, and last year, fresh produce was added to the list of foods recipients could choose. The mothers get a $10 voucher for produce (up from the original $8), and kids get a $6 voucher. FNS sought comments from interested parties on the program and we offered our thoughts late last week.

We praised USDA for incorporating a strong complement of fresh fruits and vegetables in the program that clearly advances a strong nutrition platform for WIC recipients. And we offered four suggestions for improving this important nutrition safety net for moms and kids:

• Increase the cash-value of the fruit/vegetable voucher for WIC children to $8 a month as originally recommended by the Institute of Medicine. Just as USDA increased the voucher for moms last year, increasing the kids’ vouchers will ensure that they get an addition daily serving of fruit and vegetables.
• Increase the cash value of the fruit/vegetable voucher for fully breastfeeding women to $12 a month, as recommended by the National WIC Association.
• Require state WIC agencies to allow split tender to enable WIC families to maximize the full benefit of their fruit/vegetable vouchers. Split tender provides WIC families with the ability and option to add cash to their fruit/vegetable voucher purchases at check out so they can fully maximize their benefits. It is encouraging that WIC recipients want to go beyond the value of the vouchers and further increase their fruit and vegetable consumption. Currently, 12 state WIC agencies don’t allow split tender. The result is that WIC families in these states have to put a fruit/vegetable item back so they do not go over the cash value of their fruit/vegetable voucher.
• Reconsider the inclusion of white potatoes under the WIC fruit and vegetable voucher program. We recommend including all fresh fruits and vegetables in the program. This provides a full range of nutritious choices as well as cultural/personal flexibility for recipients.

This is an amazing opportunity for the program recipients and for our industry. Fresh produce is high in nutrition for participating moms and kids. And produce offers a higher margin than other items in the store for participating retailers. Healthy families, healthy industry: Everyone wins. If your stores offer WIC benefits, let us know how it’s going in the produce department. Moms have been able to buy produce with these vouchers since last fall (even earlier in Delaware and New York). We’re interested to know whether you’ve seen an impact on sales.

Last week on his audio blog, PMA Chief Science Officer Dr. Bob Whitaker discussed verification as part of a series of posts about risk assessment and risk management, in particular food safety audits. He noted that sometimes the food safety discussion in our industry is overshadowed or somehow equated with discussions on what audits are best and how many we have to do. The reality is that audits are only a tool - a snapshot in time.

He added that food safety audits are “a mechanism to demonstrate to yourself, your senior management, and your customers that you are following your food safety program – and that you can verify it through your audit that day. At their best, food safety audits are excellent training opportunities for employees, a chance to have an independent set of eyes critique your program, and a time when you can step back from all the other responsibilities and critically look at your food safety program and how it is being implemented. So an audit can be an important learning experience.”

For future updates on this topic and others, you can visit his blog directly and sign up to get new updates via e-mail.
 

On January 21, the Coordinating Council for the Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops (SISC) met in Washington, D.C. We assessed progress against our work and discussed future applications of the data that could be collected. SISC is a multi-stakeholder initiative to develop a system for measuring sustainable performance throughout the specialty crop supply chain. The Metrics Review Committees have worked quickly, and several metrics soon will be piloted to test their applicability in the real world.

We know that some businesses are tracking sustainability numbers (energy, water, crop inputs, etc.), and some buyers are asking for such numbers. We want to avoid having a plethora of measurement systems out there so that companies spend more time measuring than they do on their businesses. That’s why we see great value in having this one set of outcomes-based metrics to enable operators at any point along the supply chain to benchmark, compare, and communicate their own performance.

If you’re interested in working on these metrics or the pilots, you can sign up at the SISC Web site.

Wrapping up a three-week stint of sharing PMA’s 2010 legislative and regulatory forecast with East Coast growers, at the end of this week I will be presenting this information (as well as an update on traceability) to attendees of the Tennessee Fruit and Vegetable Association during its Horticultural Expo.

As I looked at PMA’s economic impact study, I learned that, in Tennessee, the fresh produce and floral industry accounts for 30,755 direct full time equivalent jobs. These direct jobs generate an additional 17,625 jobs for a total employment impact of 48,380 jobs. In total, these workers earn $1,209,120,857 and the total economic output is $9,536,221,697.

Getting out and connecting to members at meetings like these are one of the things I really enjoy doing for PMA. While my e-mail (and Blackberry) keeps me constantly linked to what is happening, it’s very easy to become over-reliant technology and lose sight of the value of industry gatherings.

That said, technology can be used to bridge the information gap. For those who can’t be there but would like to know what is going on at the meeting, you can follow me on Twitter.

As the U.S. economy continues on the path to recovery, PMA President & CEO Bryan Silbermann will address consumer trends and their economic implications during PMA Fresh Connections: San Antonio on Thursday, February 4. He will share insights into how the fresh produce industry doing in the “new economy” and how consumer behaviors affect our rapidly-evolving industry.

For example: PMA research has found that even in the current economy, few consumers are moving away from fresh produce overall. But what they are doing is making adjustments among categories of fresh fruits and vegetables – seeking out familiar standbys that are available year-round and relatively inexpensive.

Seating for PMA’s Fresh Connections: San Antonio is limited, and open to both PMA members and non-members. Register by February 2 to receive the early-bird registration rate of $100 for PMA members and $150 for non-members. For more details, visit the PMA Web site.