Today in the Federal Register, the USDA Food and Nutrition Service announced an interim rule that increases the amount of cash value vouchers issued to pregnant, postpartum and partially breastfeeding women for the purchase of fruits and vegetables as part of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). In amending this rule, all women WIC participants now have access to $10 per month in cash value vouchers for fruits and vegetables as recommended by the Institute of Medicine. IOM’s intent was to move WIC participants toward increased fruit and vegetable consumption. Previously the dollar amount was $8 per month.

This rule is effective December 31, 2009, and state agencies must implement the provisions of this rule no later than April 30, 2010. Comments on this interim rule must be postmarked on or before February 1, 2010.

PMA applauds the move to increase the WIC voucher dollar amounts for produce as the program now gives our nation’s nutritionally at-risk mothers and their young children the ability to enjoy more healthful food choices.

Food safety reform legislation nears the final steps in the long legislative journey toward becoming law. The House passed its bill last summer, as has the Senate committee with jurisdiction over food safety. It remains for the full Senate to debate and vote on the bill and then for negotiators from the two chambers to resolve the differences between the two versions. This final bill then goes back for a vote by the House and the Senate and then to the President, who may sign or veto it.

Despite the many steps remaining, it is increasingly likely that Congress will complete its work on food safety in the first half of 2010. The Food and Drug Administration will then begin to implement the many mandates and regulatory changes that result from the legislation. PMA has long supported new food safety laws and regulations that will improve the safety of the food supply and enhance consumer confidence.

Stay tuned as we’ll be asking for your help in letting your senators know how important it is that they pass the food safety bill they’ll consider in January.

Last week on his audio blog, PMA Chief Science Officer Dr. Bob Whitaker outlined some key general principles produce leaders should bear in mind as they assess food safety risks. In addition to drawing out each step in the operation and then evaluating where food safety risks might be, leaders should designate a food safety team, spanning from field-level employees to senior managers, to ensure meaningful input in the planning process, and get corporate-wide buy-in or ownership when the plan is complete.

Dr. Whitaker also stressed using internal experts as they work daily in operation areas and can help define the mapping process more accurately. More importantly, they can help you develop the risk management practices that are needed. In addition, he urged leaders to make their risk management program measurable to the extent possible. Dr. Whitaker will talk about this in more detail in a future post.

Speaking of, this was the fourth in a series of posts on risk assessment from Dr. Whitaker. For future updates, you can visit his blog directly and sign up to get new updates via e-mail.

Periodically, Congress reconsiders the programs that address nutrition in this country, including the Women, Infants, Children Program (WIC), and school lunch and breakfast programs. Originally slated to come up in 2009, Congress pushed back the deadline in order to consider the other issues crowding its agenda. So we expect to see Child Nutrition Reauthorization in 2010. This is a key opportunity to promote fruits and vegetables in the American diet through these federal feeding programs.

We’ll need your help to be sure fresh produce gets its share of the plate in these feeding programs. Please answer the call when we ask you to contact your representatives and senators on this important issue. Consider joining GROW – Grass Roots Organized to Win – PMA’s volunteer network of members who support our lobbying and advocacy efforts. If you have never written or visited your elected officials before and are unsure about what to do, that’s OK — we’re here to help. PMA has a wealth of resources to help you become a successful and effective advocate for your business and the industry.

According to a survey by Hunter Public Relations, when Americans were asked to recall the most memorable food stories of 2009, food health and safety stories topped the list for the year (E. coli in ground beef, salmonella contamination in nuts, etc.). But food safety wasn’t top of mind for this year only; it was also remembered as being one of the biggest issues of the decade. Here in the produce industry, we’re acutely aware of the importance of food safety throughout the supply chain given the outbreaks we’ve experienced in years past.

Interestingly, the survey ranked childhood obesity as the top food story of the decade. On that front, we’ll be talking tomorrow about a pending legislative effort in 2010 that, if passed, will provide the opportunity for greater access to fruits and vegetables for children. This effort is known as Child Nutrition Reauthorization (which includes school lunch, WIC and other programs). The reauthorization is even more important to the produce industry in light of the Institutes of Medicine recommendations for new nutrition standards for school lunches and breakfasts, which will increase the amounts of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains in school meals, among other things.

Last month, FDA announced it extended until January 4 the deadline for industry comment on the draft commodity-specific food safety guidance documents for melons, leafy greens, and tomatoes. PMA submitted its comments on leafy greens, tomato, and melon guidance in early November.

In those remarks, we urged FDA to direct industry to include risk assessment and risk management in their activities. We also asked FDA to provide industry with more information about the foodborne illness outbreaks and related investigations involving these commodities so we can learn more. We called on FDA to partner with the Center for Produce Safety to research answers to information/data gaps and other produce-specific food safety questions.

Members who are considering offering comments to FDA are encouraged to use PMA’s insights as a guideline if they so choose. FDA will consider the comments it receives on these guidance documents, revise them as needed, and then publish final guidance. We’re actively engaged with FDA and will keep our members updated on new developments as they occur.

Related to food safety, the Produce Traceability Initiative Steering Committee still seeks industry feedback on PTI implementation. Please share your company’s progress and thoughts about the PTI by taking the online survey, also by January 4.

The House passed its climate change bill in 2009. The Senate will continue considering the topic in 2010, though the ultimate prospects are not clear. In addition to the larger policy questions affecting this bill, there will be considerable time spent on its impacts on agriculture, including fruit and vegetable production and distribution. Our industry has some unique perspectives as our perishable crops require special handling, including refrigeration.

On the regulatory side, USDA is joining ag offices from 20 other countries in the new Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA), an international research collaborative to combat climate change. The GRA will focus on research, development, and extension of technologies and practices to grow more food (and more climate-resilient food systems) without growing greenhouse gas emissions. Using partnerships among researchers in participating countries, the alliance expects to develop knowledge and technologies farmers and other land and resource managers around the globe can use. Those outputs may include cost-effective and accurate ways of measuring greenhouse gas emissions and carbon stored in soil; new farming practices that reduce emissions and increase carbon storage in farmland in different countries; and farming methods that sustain yields while helping to mitigate climate change. USDA will expand its research to contribute to these efforts.

In addition, USDA, in cooperation with the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), released The Effects of Climate Change on U.S. Ecosystems today at the climate talks in Copenhagen, Denmark. Specifically on fruits and vegetables, the report states: “Marketable yield of horticultural crops (such as tomato, onion, and fruit) are more vulnerable to climate change than grains and oilseed crops due to the high sensitivity of their quality and appearance to climate factors.”

We’ll keep you posted on developments on this important topic.

In mid October, Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Illinois, announced principles for his immigration reform legislation. Recently, Rep. Gutierrez unveiled his full proposal and it is worth noting that the AgJOBS bill is included. AgJOBS is supported by hundreds of organizations representing agricultural employers, farm worker advocates, business, faith, immigrant and civil rights groups.

PMA supports AgJOBS because it addresses the long-term labor needs of agriculture by overhauling the H-2A program while providing fair protections to farmworkers. AgJOBS also provides a critical near-term transition to wider use of reformed H-2A by providing experienced and otherwise law-abiding but unauthorized farmworkers a chance to earn legal status by meeting strict conditions.

Fresh fruits and vegetables are highly perishable and need to be harvested, packaged, and shipped in a timely manner. This is especially important in certain agricultural areas of the U.S. that have small windows of opportunity to harvest their crops due to the seasons. The industry relies on a strong workforce of both domestic and guest workers in order to gather produce from the fields; however, current U.S. guest worker programs do not sufficiently meet our industry’s needs. AgJOBS would meet these needs.

As the immigration discussion continues on Capitol Hill, it’s essential that PMA members offer the real-world experiences of our industry to their 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.

Recently on the Ask Dr. Bob audio blog, PMA Chief Science Officer Dr. Bob Whitaker shared more details on the different types of risks produce industry leaders should plan for as they build food safety culture within their organizations.

Since crops are grown in nature, they can potentially be exposed to a number of biological, chemical or physical contaminants that could cause illness in humans. Crops are subject to weather, animals, birds, insects, and human intrusion. Fruits and vegetables grow in soils that can harbor vibrant microbial populations. Irrigation water may be sourced from wells and reservoirs that are fairly protected, but also canals and rivers (where the water often travels hundreds of miles) can be subject to a wide variety of contaminating factors along the route. Also, many commodities are handled numerous times by humans during harvest, sorting, and packing and then sometimes shipped across the country.

Dr. Whitaker suggests that “when we look at the complex supply chain that is employed in produce and the potential for contamination events, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. However, these potential risk events are really opportunities for operators to use their best practices to manage these risks. An effective risk mapping and assessment process helps identify the points of potential risk, but it doesn’t stop there. That process will also help each company determine how likely a contamination event is to occur, so that the company can then assign a priority to addressing that risk, and determining what tool or management process might be employed to do so.”

Note: this was the third in a series of posts on risk assessment from Dr. Bob Whitaker. For future updates, you can visit his blog directly and sign up to get new updates via e-mail.

The second day of the public meeting on traceability offered many themes similar to the first day. Hosted by FDA and USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, the meeting moved more into the details of how traceability can happen and what common elements food traceability requires. Speakers from industry, including PMA, talked about the need for common standards, flexibility to accommodate different types of food and businesses, global applicability, and more.

One speaker said that traceability should remain voluntary, handled by industry members. Others talked about the burdens for smaller companies. I spoke about the Produce Traceability Initiative’s ability to connect each link in the supply chain and provide common information to assist traceback and trace forward.

What continues to surprise me is that some believe traceability can remain optional, that requirements from the government might not happen and things can move forward status quo. There is no indication that either FDA or Congress will leave it at that. Government is moving forward on traceability – through the legislative and regulatory processes. That’s why it is so important that we participate in discussions like those held this week and educate legislators and regulators about the PTI, a system created by industry for industry to solve a real-world issue.