Last week, the U.S. Senate introduced the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013, S. 744. This bill addresses key issues of importance to the produce industry, including allowing farm workers currently in the country illegally to earn legal U.S. residency by fulfilling a future work requirement in agriculture, among other conditions, and creating a new guest worker program specifically for the agriculture sector.

In a press statement, PMA President and CEO Bryan Silbermann said: “After more than a decade of work by our industry, we welcome immigration reform legislation from the U.S. Senate’s ‘gang of eight.’ Thanks to the efforts of Senators Feinstein, Rubio, Hatch, and Bennet, and the round-the-clock work of industry leaders including Tom Nassif, president and CEO of Western Growers, Chuck Conner, president & CEO of National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, and PMA board member Mike Stuart, president of Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association, the Senate legislation addresses the critical workforce needs of American agriculture, now and into the future.

“That said, we aren’t quite ready to declare the work is done. On behalf of our members, PMA will continue to work through the Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform, of which we are an executive committee member, and the Agricultural Workforce Coalition.”

The bill’s introduction has generated significant media coverage, including this Wall Street Journal article.

We will be providing more details about S. 744 to our members soon, including how to use our online advocacy system – which takes less than three minutes to send a letter to Congressional leaders on this important farm labor issue.

At the recent USDA Ag Outlook Forum, Secretary Tom Vilsack outlined his thoughts on a variety of issues. The forum’s theme was “managing risk in the 21st Century,” and he noted that we have no control over some risks, such as weather. But there are many manmade risks that must be addressed: the government’s fiscal health, lack of a new five-year farm bill, labor uncertainty and immigration reform. He spoke proudly about the United States’ ability to feed itself, which makes it a stronger, safer nation. And he plugged rural America as an engine that produces beyond its size.

But what really caught my attention was his story about young people. He said he is seeing more excitement from them about agriculture. At a recent event, one young woman involved in ag said to him: “Ag is cool again.” He said to the group gathered at the forum: “We want to continue to make agriculture cool.”

That comment made me think about the PMA Foundation for Industry Talent and the variety of programs it offers, especially the Career Pathways and Emerging Leaders programs that provide opportunities and exposure to our industry for young people. It’s hosting a Young Professionals Webinar today, focused on social media.

We, too, want to be sure that our industry is seen as “cool” and that we attract the best and the brightest.

In prior posts concerning PMA’s Fresh Summit 2012 Convention & Exposition, I’ve shared details about various workshop topics – from traceability, to food safety wash water to social media. Today I’d like to highlight five distinct sessions that are part of the Fresh Summit business innovation and leadership education series. All of these workshops will be held Friday, October 26.

• Closing the Gap: Engaging Multiple Generations in Today’s Dynamic Marketplace. In this session, Seth Mattison (millennial guru and keynote speaker for BridgeWorks, LLC) will help leaders understand the unique needs of the very different generations populating the marketplace. He’ll cover which sales approaches and marketing techniques appeal to different generations and provide answers to questions concerning generations’ “hot buttons,” effective sales pitches, and the use of technology to connect with a new generation born online? You might recognize Seth’s name; we interviewed him for the Spring 2012 issue of PMA FRESH magazine and he’ll also be speaking during the PMA Foundation’s Young Professionals Webinar later this month on September 27.
• The Innovation Conversation: How to Survive the e-Revolution. Hear Kevin Coupe, content guy for MorningNewsBeat.com and Tom Tom Furphy, CEO of Consumer Equity Partners, share their insights into how the fresh produce supply chain must evolve at the pace of a web click. Participants will have the opportunity to engage in a far-reaching and provocative conversation about where traditional retailing is heading, what can be learned from e-commerce successes, how to compete in the new environment, and how to understand the new consumer.
• Fresh Produce as a Preferred Load: Competing for Transportation in a Shrinking Market. A number of issues are affecting the produce industry’s transportation sector, ranging from escalating costs and a profusion of new regulations to a scarcity of truck availability. In this session, Doug Stoiber of L&M Transportation Services will help shippers, growers, packers, inspectors, truck owners, drivers, transportation brokers, and buyers learn how to compete with other commodities for the best value in transportation.
• Your Business 2.0: Super iPad Tools that Keep You On-The-Go. Join Apple Certified Trainer, Consultant and iPad expert Phil Goodman for an interactive session designed to teach participants how to harness the power of iOS (Mobile Operating System) to facilitate daily business tasks – from hosting remote meetings to managing data with a single click to delivering powerful presentations. (Note: WiFi access will be available to the first 100 participants. Attendees are encouraged to bring their iPads to provide an interactive hands-on experience.)
• Retaining Top Talent and Keeping it Engaged – A Total Rewards Approach. In this session, Paul Rowson, HR Business Partner and Manager for The MITRE Corporation, will share ideas on how to keep key performers motivated and engaged through a well-designed rewards strategy. Learn how short-term incentives, work-life balance, career development, rewards, and recognition factor into a compensation package that goes beyond a paycheck.

You can learn more about the 2012 Fresh Summit program by visiting our website. Also, if you’re planning to attend, be sure to register on or before September 21 to receive early registration rates. There are a number of event registration packages available; get complete details on these options. There’s also a Fresh Summit Community on PMA Xchange where you can learn more about this year’s show, as well as look back at sessions from the 2011 event.

One final note: If you know an industry leader who has demonstrated outstanding volunteer leadership skills and an uncommon commitment to helping PMA achieve its goals of advancing the produce industry, let us know by nominating him/her for the first annual Robert L. Carey Leadership Award. Get more specifics on this opportunity via our website.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent 5-3 decision about an Arizona immigration law returns the spotlight to federal immigration reform as it struck down most provisions of the state-level law. A federal solution that provides for sufficient labor to plant, harvest, pack, and ship specialty crops has long been embodied in AgJOBS (the Agricultural Job Opportunities, Benefits, and Security Act), which PMA and the specialty crop industry have supported. The Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform (of which we’re a member) details some of the benefits of reform through AgJOBS, including preserving U.S. farms, saving jobs, impact on food quality and safety, border security, and solving the farm labor crisis.

The media is full of stories about this crisis, including crops rotting in the fields for lack of harvest labor, growers’ choices to plant crops that are not labor-intense (i.e. not fresh fruits and vegetables), impacts on rural communities and other businesses, decisions to move production outside the United States, and more. PMA members throughout the supply chain are directly affected by this, as are consumers.

It’s an election year, and conventional wisdom says nothing will happen before the trip to the polls in November. The realities of political expediency are juxtaposed with the realities of fresh produce businesses. In the first case, there is concern that action will jeopardize a legislator’s future. In the second, it is inaction that puts our industry in jeopardy.

Even if reform is unlikely in the near term, keep talking to your legislators about the issue, about its impact on your business and the businesses and community your company support. Just because it’s unpopular right now doesn’t mean it’s unimportant.

Even though almost everyone believes nothing will happen on comprehensive immigration reform in this election year, our industry continues to suffer from lack of labor. The shortage eased a tiny bit during the recession, but workers who turned to harvest fresh fruits and vegetables turned away just as quickly as they discovered the skills and working conditions were less than appealing. This happened even when prisoners were sent to work the fields.

I recently attended the Consumer Federation of America’s Food Policy Conference, where immigration reform was on the program. The May 17 session included PMA director Maureen Torrey of Torrey Farms, a farm labor representative, a Food and Commercial Workers Union rep, and someone from USDA’s Economic Research. Though these groups are not always singing “kumbaya,” they fully agreed that the United States needs immigration reform sooner rather than later. Attendees at the session were surprised at the consensus among these diverse groups and appeared unaware of the severity of the problem.

And here are just a few examples from the news recently:

• “Larsen Farms of Pasco (WA) stopped harvesting (asparagus) about a week ago (late April) because they — along with other Tri-City area farmers — couldn’t find enough workers this year to cut asparagus.” (The Tri-city Herald, April 26)
• State laws imperil availability, acreage, farms. Georgia lost $140 million. “A lot of the smaller growers have elected not to plant as many crops or to plant any crops.…(T)hat just anybody can come do this job is also a misnomer. We consider these people skilled workers because they are pretty much professional harvesters, and they’re even skilled to particular crops. “(W)e have them (local, U.S. workers) come out here, but they usually don’t stay. They don’t stay more than a day or two, and they’re off to find another job.” (NPR Talk of the Nation, April 30)
• Alabama passed new laws as well, and growers’ experience with labor shortages last year have caused some to plant fewer acres of labor-intense produce crops and/or to switch to other crops that can be mechanically harvested. “On nearby Chandler Mountain, another prime farming area, Jimmy Miller said he cut back on produce because of possible labor shortages and instead planted more cotton and peanuts, which can both be harvested by big machines called combines that require minimal labor.” (Fox News Latino, May 13)

Political expediency here is not helping our industry, and we must be sure legislators know that the lack of resolution on immigration reform is having a daily and detrimental impact on our industry.

The internet is changing how we work, live, and communicate, but it is also changing business – how we innovate, create products and services, and interact with customers and suppliers. Anthony D. Williams, a keynote speaker at the recent Canadian Produce Marketing Association convention in Calgary, told attendees how they could immerse themselves in technology and get benefits for their business, personal, and social lives. Williams, co-author of Macrowikinomics and Wikinomics, said these new ways of interacting are also changing education, health care, government, and political engagement.

Collaboration, openness and sharing are the three principles of “wikinomics,” he said.

He spoke of the new fabric of connectivity: social consequences, the changing nature of society and human communities. No longer does your life include those you meet in business or in your geographic community. You can form communities around any shared interest, goal, or idea. He noted how many successful endeavors are being built by volunteers who gather around a common concept (Wikipedia, Linux operating system, etc.). These are not just about free information or open source programming; they are about a different kind of business model. Some companies, when faced with a conundrum go beyond their internal R&D departments and seek solutions outside the company. They send the issue out to their networks and get solutions. Williams called it extraordinary sharing for extraordinary challenges. Another example is the apps for iPhones. Apple doesn’t develop the apps; it offers a platform for innovation. Apple doesn’t have to pay the developers, just share the profits.

Every business decision doesn’t work this way, and Williams said you have to assess the right circumstances for this type of solution. And, he said, this is a big advantage for small and medium sized companies as it allows them to compete with the big guys. They can have global reach and tap talent pools around the world. They don’t have to create infrastructure for themselves, they can use Google apps, communication from Skype, and remote staffers.

Williams likened this time to the time of the invention of the printing press. Putting knowledge into the hands of the people empowered them to think differently and forever changed feudal economies and the concentrated power of monarchies and the church. The current version of democratizing knowledge led to the Arab Spring and powerful transparency is evident in Wikileaks. On a more local level, it means that after a medical diagnosis, you may go into your doctor far better-informed and prepared to participate more fully in your treatment.

So, how can you get into this? Williams suggested:

• On Twitter, follow the leaders of topics you’re interested in. They are often ahead of the curve, ahead of the media, and innovators. Then share your own knowledge to inform others.
• Immerse yourself in the future. Experiment with Wikipedia and contribute where you have expertise.
• Get serious about innovation – make it a priority. Encourage risk taking, embrace suggestions from any level in the company, give people time to create.
• Challenge a community (however you define it) to solve a problem.
• Put your customers on your design team.
• Recruit young people to lead change – and let them do it.

How are you embracing collaboration? Tell us about it on PMA Xchange, where you can collaborate with other members and PMA staff experts on a wide variety of topics.

Here at the Canadian Produce Marketing Association convention in Calgary, keynote speaker Joel Cohen tied comedy writing to business innovation through his experiences as an Emmy-winning writer and co-executive producer for The Simpsons. As you can imagine, his presentation was full of humor and peppered with Simpsons’ clips. Linking innovation to creativity, he outlined seven concepts that are important to comedy writing and innovative businesses.

1. Environment: The environment must support innovation – giving those doing the work the freedom to do it and be creative, imposing only essential constraints and minimal (if any) interference from the top.
2. Relatable: Ideas, like good jokes, have to be relatable. People have to get on board at the beginning and see how something relates to them. A good joke then takes a twist – as does an innovative product or service.
3. Diversity: It’s not true that there are no bad ideas. There are bad ideas. But a bad idea often has a nugget that can be built on to make it good. A diverse group maximizes the breadth of ideas in brainstorming and can take the nugget from a bad idea to an innovative product.
4. Keep looking: Don’t go with your first instinct; first ideas aren’t always the most creative. Explore some more.
5. Novel combinations: Take things that don’t go together and jam them together to see what you get. (Who would have thought a camera, a phone, and an internet search device would go together – and yet we have the smart phone.)
6. Cut it if it doesn’t fit: Even something that seems like a great idea won’t help you if it takes away from the project or doesn’t match your goals. Sometimes you have to let it go (or shelve it for another time).
7. Keep your humble filter: Remove your bias from the process and go for what is best overall, not just what you think is best.

Sure, some of these are obvious (d’oh!). But it’s always good to get a reminder, and by framing it in The Simpsons, Cohen drove the messages home with humor.

A recent Yahoo! article suggests that agriculture is one of the degrees to avoid for those either headed back to college or continuing their post-high school education. Using data from the National Association of Colleges and Employers’ (NACE) 2012 Job Outlook study, which surveyed almost 1,000 employers on their future hiring plans, three agricultural degrees were derided by the article’s author as “useless.”

For example, a general degree in agriculture made the list due to farms becoming more efficient and, as a result, having less of a need for farm managers. An animal science degree was included because it was too specific and owners of the degree may have difficulty finding jobs outside of their focus area. Finally, a horticulture degree was seen as “better than agriculture, but not by much. If you’re lucky, you may find some way to apply that to a related business like food processing or production.”

As someone who came into the produce business without any formal education in agriculture (outside of what I learned growing up helping my parents garden and experienced on my uncle’s dairy farm), I think articles like this do a huge disservice to the fruit and vegetable industry by characterizing agriculture as a sector that has little or no potential for someone to make a living.

For example, PMA’s Foundation for Industry Talent has a wealth of resources (college career fairs, webinars, and more) for the industry to use when seeking employees, as well as programs to help upcoming college graduates learn more about the numerous employment possibilities within the industry via the Foundation’s Career Pathways program at Fresh Summit, an industry job bank, internships, scholarships to PMA and other industry events, and more. A number of students who have participated in Foundation programs have gone on to find jobs within our industry.

Speaking of the Foundation, in the coming weeks it will finalize the selection of participants in the Foundation’s 2012 Emerging Leaders Program. Last year’s inaugural program provided participants with opportunities to network with peers across the global supply chain; interact with top industry and business leaders; and hone the cross-functional and strategic thinking skills needed to become a more effective leader.

If you have someone in your organization who you’d like to nominate for this event, visit the Emerging Leaders website and be sure to apply by the February 10 deadline.

A few weeks ago I came across a 2011 study which found how consumers handle positive and negative experiences with customer service. Given that our industry is largely a “people” business with an emphasis on personal relationships, I thought the study would be of interest.

It found that when consumers have a good customer service experience, 47 percent are likely to tell a company representative; 17 percent will express their opinions via social media; and 15 percent will write a review. However, if consumers have a poor experience, 36 percent are willing to write a complaint directly to the company, and one in four will express their opinions on social media.

Consumers who have had poor experiences also tend to talk with friends about it, and their friends listen. Half (49 percent) of consumers are “very unlikely” to do with business with a company based on a bad recommendation from someone they trust. If someone has a great recommendation, though, 61 percent are equally as likely to choose that company in the future.

In addition, about one in 10 people are even willing to reach out to the media about their experiences. If they’re unhappy, nine percent will contact the media to report it, up one percent from last year. Those who have great experiences are less likely to make news, with five percent calling for media attention, also up one percent from 2010.

Reading the study’s findings made me wonder how consumers react to a negative experience with the fresh produce they buy. Do they tell friends and family (in person or via Facebook or Twitter)? Do they complain to the store or grower? Or do they keep quiet and avoid purchasing that produce item in the future?

With so many produce businesses expanding their online presences into social media, I believe there’s an opportunity to have more direct conversations and dialogue with consumers – both satisfied and dissatisfied.

How are you taking advantage of social media to address customer concerns? Let’s hear about it below in the comments.

Last week prior to a House Judiciary Committee hearing on immigration and farm labor, the Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform (of which PMA is a member) submitted a statement calling on committee leadership to consider Rep. Dan Lungren’s proposal – which we’ve talked about previously here on the blog.

In that statement, ACIR cited research conducted by the National Council of Agricultural Employers which documents the shortcomings of the existing H-2A program. (Note: The full NCAE report will be available in October.) The research was conducted by Washington State University and was overseen by Carol House, the former deputy administrator of USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service who was responsible for most of NASS’ statistical products, including the Census on Agriculture. The NCAE study found that:

• User growers reported more than $300 million in economic loss in 2010 due to failure of the program to provide the workers needed, when they are needed.
• Seventy-two percent of growers reported that workers arrived after the date of need, on average 22 days after they were needed.
• The number of grower appeals of arbitrary denials has skyrocketed.
• The program places enormous emphasis on the recruitment and hiring of U.S. worker referrals; yet, these referrals produce few workers.
• Sixty-eight percent of US worker referrals never accepted a job, 7 percent accepted a job but never began work, 20 percent began work but did not work through the contract period, and only 5 percent worked through the contract.
• More than half of users reported contacting their Members of Congress to seek assistance.

Both NCAE’s report and our own economic impact study provide credible data points that show the U.S. agriculture industry’s labor needs (specifically, access to a legal and stable workforce) and how our industry contributes to the nation’s overall economy: total employment impact, including direct and “ripple effect” jobs, of more than 2.7 million jobs and total economic reach and impact of more than $554 billion.

Yet, perhaps the most powerful tool in this debate is your voice as a constituent. If you or your supply chain partners are feeling the adverse effects from not having enough labor to harvest and get products to market, visit the PMA Advocacy Action Center to contact Congress on this critical issue.