It was a big week for produce safety: Thursday the House passed its food safety bill, and Friday FDA announced proposed food safety guidance for melons, tomatoes and leafy greens.  Both actions are in line with what PMA has called for based on our food safety priorities. (Though this might be confusing because of the similar subject matter,  it’s likely that what FDA is doing now on the executive branch side will fit in neatly with the legislative branch’s food safety action when it comes time to turn that legislation into implementing regulation – in part because we’ll be working to ensure industry representation in both efforts.)

From our standpoint, one of the most important takeaways from this week is that we saw clear evidence of the increased collaboration that has taken place between government and industry on both the regulatory and legislative efforts. FDA’s guidance is built on the strong foundation that industry laid through commodity-specific guidance written over the past five years. And the legislation the House passed is significantly better than earlier versions because those crafting the bill listened to the real-world practicalities we raised. We’ve been working within the process to express our members’ needs, to explain how the industry works, to find the most efficient ways to achieve our common goal – produce safety. Though we all have the same goal, we don’t all have the same perspective, and we get a better result when all perspectives are heard, as we did with the guidance and the House bill.

Our job is not complete by any means. On the legislative side, we will see the Senate address food safety, probably this fall. The Senate and House versions will be reconciled through a conference committee, and then the final legislation goes to President Obama for his signature. On the regulatory side, we have a 90-day comment period on the FDA guidance, after which the agency likely will issue final guidance. Even that will not be the end, as FDA indicated to us today that this guidance is a precursor to regulation, and that we can expect that regulation within two years.

Rest assured, PMA will be involved in both the legislative and regulatory process, making sure our members’ views are represented.  Part of that will involve calling on you as needed to express your views and lend your expertise. When we call, we hope you’ll answer!

We wrote about the FDA’s transparency efforts about a month ago, and now we’ve filed more extensive comments with FDA on how to improve transparency among the agency, the industry, and consumers. Citing examples such as the outbreaks linked to spinach and Serrano peppers (the one first erroneously linked to tomatoes), we called on the agency to use industry before and during investigations so we get to a faster resolution.

We asked that FDA work with state and local agencies to improve their capabilities and capacities – again to speed the investigations. And we asked FDA to be as clear about the end of an outbreak, when it is safe to resume eating the affected item, as it is about the beginning of an outbreak when they tell consumers to stop eating a certain item.

Prevention of foodborne illness is a top priority for our industry and the FDA. On the rare occasions when a foodborne illness outbreak occurs, our collective priority is to stop the spread of the outbreak, often by removing the food linked to the outbreak from the supply chain and ensuring consumers have the information they need to avoid only those products that might make them sick and only for the finite time that the risk is presented.

We have seen improved efforts by FDA to gather industry information to help with its investigations. We must continue down that path and discover new ways to work together to speed and improve public health efforts. We will continue to work closely with FDA to bring the practical experience of our industry to the agency as we both work toward public health.

By the way, if you are interested in food safety issues, we call your attention to the Ask Dr. Bob audio blog. You can subscribe to it just as you have subscribed to this blog. You’ll get an e-mail whenever there is a new posting. Check it out.

As the FDA implements its Reportable Food Registry, PMA called on the agency to improve the guidance to ensure it advances public health without overburdening the industry.

The registry, to go into effect Sept. 8, is designed to provide a reliable mechanism to track patterns of adulteration in food that would allow FDA to better target its limited inspection resources to protect the public health. In addition to filing comments with FDA, PMA worked with others to provide an industry member to test the filing system with FDA so that any bugs can be worked out before the go-live date in September.

In comments filed July 24, PMA Chief Science Officer Dr. Bob Whitaker called for improvements such as clarification of the phrase “reasonable probability,” reporting requirements and timeliness of report filing. He also stressed that if FDA wishes to grant the ability to file submit reportable foods to its inspectors, then it seems reasonable that the inspectors should have demonstrated knowledge in the area. In addition, FDA should give the operator a mechanism to disagree with the inspector and provide a rationale, data or other evidence that mitigates the inspector’s observations within a specified period of time

What’s critical here is that we get FDA the real-world information it needs to make these programs work for everyone – for public health and for the industry. We can’t expect FDA to understand the intricacies of our industry, and that’s why it’s important to get our perspective to them both in comments and by testing the system.

Doubling current produce consumption in the foodservice sector is a very ambitious goal announced by the CEOs of PMA, the National Restaurant Association, and the International Foodservice Distributors Association during PMA’s Foodservice Conference & Exposition last week. Getting there will be the industry’s challenge, but the executives offered these suggestions as a starting point to help move the consumption needle forward:

• re-imagine the restaurant experience, with produce having a stronger presence and telling its story from field to fork;
• increase consumer confidence in fresh produce, including product safety, trust and integrity;
• demonstrate social responsibility, balancing the needs of people, the planet and profitability;
• foster closer collaboration among the industry sectors, including operators, distributors; and grower/shippers; and
• foster closer collaboration with government and other stakeholders.

Concerning closer government collaboration, it is clear that the Administration is keenly interested in this subject. From physical examples such as the USDA People’s Garden and the White House Kitchen Garden to discussions PMA has had with White House and USDA officials, produce consumption and nutrition efforts are hot topics in our nation’s Capitol.

To learn more about this project, visit the PMA Web site.

A few weeks ago, we talked about effective advocacy and how to get your message across. Today, we’ll take a look at short- and long-term advocacy efforts. Getting to the point where legislators and their staff rely on you for advice on produce-related issues takes time. They won’t immediately understand why AgJOBS is so important to your ability to do business, or how hard you work to ensure the safety and quality of your product. After all, most of them don’t work in the industry. You are the expert, and they need your real-world expertise.

How do you do this, especially given that advocacy isn’t your full-time job? If you can squeeze 15 minutes out of your week, you can:

• Learn about your legislators at the PMA Advocacy Action Center.
• E-mail the PMA Government Relations team to find out when your legislators’ August townhall meetings are — and then attend those events.
• E-mail legislators through PMA’s Advocacy Action Center.
• Review information on PMA’s site about policy issues.
• Set up a 15-minute phone conversation with your legislators’ staff.
• Plan a site visit.

Start with a few 15-minute tasks and do one a week. As you plan, think about how they can combine over time to help you meet long-term goals. For example, as you learn about your elected officials, have a 15-minute phone meeting with a staff person and then develop a plan for a site visit (which may be a long-term goal). Over time, these activities will lead legislators to a better understanding of how policy decisions impact people and businesses back home in their district/state. And that will lead to better policy decisions that help your business and our industry. Here at PMA we’re planning district office visits with our Senators during the August recess. We’ll let you know how those go.

FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg discussed her goals of restoring trust in FDA, making decisions based on public health, and reforming the food safety system when she addressed the July 22 meeting of the Alliance for a Stronger FDA.

PMA supports the alliance, a group of more than which seeks to ensure that FDA has sufficient appropriated resources to fulfill its critical public health mission. Hamburg thanked the alliance, noting that FDA’s budget has significantly increased recently, in part due to the efforts of the alliance.

FDA is a critical agency for our industry, and it’s important that the agency be well-funded and do a good job so that consumer confidence in the safety of food, including fresh fruits and vegetables, can improve. Commissioner Hamburg stressed the need for more regulatory science on which to base decisions, noting that fresh produce and seafood are areas where more science is needed. She said she is committed to greater transparency, and noted the efforts of the Transparency Task Force. PMA offered oral comments at a hearing in June, and we are preparing more-extensive written comments on how FDA and the industry can work more closely toward our common goal of safe produce and public health.

The Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops (SISC) is moving forward swiftly to develop sustainability metrics. The Index, which PMA supports, is a multi-stakeholder initiative to develop a system for measuring sustainable performance throughout the specialty crop supply chain. The project seeks to offer a suite of outcomes-based metrics to enable operators at any point along the supply chain to benchmark, compare, and communicate their own performance.

We met July 17 to review the progress of the Metrics Review Committees, many of which are nearly ready to pilot test their metrics. Nearly 250 people from industry, non-governmental organizations, academia and government are working on these metrics that will give us all a common way to talk about and measure sustainability in our industry. This commitment of time and expertise validates the importance of creating these metrics and a system within which to use them. SISC is an impressive group of organizations that might at times be on different sides of some issues. But we have a common goal, and everyone from environmental and consumer organizations to huge for-profit companies is dedicated to it.

PMA is committed to sustainability through participation in SISC, education programs, internal improvements and opportunities for members to share their sustainability stories. Watch for our Fresh Connections: Minneapolis, which will focus on sustainability (I’ll be speaking there). And don’t miss the workshop on Finding the ROI of Sustainability Oct. 4 at Fresh Summit in Anaheim where experts will talk about how being environmentally responsible can be very good for business.

We send a shout-out to Greg McLucas of Taylor Farms’ Maryland office who has volunteered to be a bit of a guinea pig for FDA. In September, FDA’s Reportable Food Registry goes live, and FDA is testing it with real-world food company representatives. FDA asked PMA, along with other food associations, to provide industry members to test the online registry so FDA can work out any bugs before September. PMA and United Fresh called on Greg, who graciously accepted. So come September, if you should have to use the Reportable Food Registry, and if it goes smoothly, you can thank Greg for his efforts.

While on the topic of food safety, the importance of a corporate food safety culture is something that cannot be overlooked. Our chief science officer, Dr. Bob Whitaker, has been sharing his thoughts on this concept over at the Ask Dr. Bob Whitaker audio blog. Currently there are two installments of “building a food safety culture” posted, with more thought pieces scheduled over the coming weeks. Be sure to check it out and drop him an e-mail or any questions you may have on this topic.

In the new world of renewable energy, California onion bulbs now will power light bulbs, thanks to the development of an onion juice-fueled Advanced Energy Recovery System by Gills Onions. By extracting the juice from onion waste and letting it ferment in a special processing system, Gills is able to create enough “juice” to power 460 homes through two 300-kilowatt fuel cells supplied by FuelCell Energy. The innovative and cost-saving technology converts 100 percent of 300,000 pounds of onion waste daily into ultra-clean electrical energy, heat and high-value cattle feed, also reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by up to 30,000 tons per year.

This is another example of how the fresh produce industry is becoming more innovative in the sustainability realm. PMA has been collecting members’ sustainability stories and posting them to PMA.com. What about you? Does your organization have a sustainability story to tell? If so, please let us know.

Also, PMA has taken another sustainability step forward here at the office. In August 2009, we will begin sending invoices to PMA members and customers electronically rather than through the postal service. This paperless program will have a positive impact on the environment by eliminating paper use for invoicing cycles, as well as the eliminating the carbon footprint of mailing invoices each month.

It’s been a few weeks since our last update on the Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits, and Security Act of 2009) and we want to keep you posted on this important bill’s status. Two more co-sponsors in the House have come on board: Steve Rothman (D-NJ) and Jerry McNerney (D-CA). We have also heard that John Shimkus (R-IL) has committed to co-sponsor as well. This bipartisan bill contains the solution for our ag labor issues, and you can help build support.

We thank all members who have written Congress about AgJOBS. As the immigration debate (be it AgJOBS or a comprehensive reform measure) continues on Capitol Hill, it’s essential that PMA members offer the real-world experiences of our industry to your members of Congress so they can make informed decisions that provide the labor resources we need. Taking action only involves a few minutes of your time. Get engaged in the grassroots advocacy process now by visiting the PMA Advocacy Action Center.