Web 2013
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05/20/13Boughs Loaded With Fruit● I attended United Fresh 2013 last week in San Diego, the annual convention and trade show of the United Fresh Produce Association. Over the years the number of both attendees and exhibitors has slowly declined at this traditional event. The trade show floor now is more weighted to firms offering food safety, traceability, equipment, and such solutions than booths of commercial produce companies or commodity promotion organizations. It is still an important event for the nation's fruit and vegetable industry, but is altered from what it was once. ● To my way of thinking, the best convention speaker in San Diego was Joe Scarborough of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" political program. He was slated to be with Mika Brzezinski, but his partner was... Posted at 02:43 PM | Permalink | Comments: 1 |
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05/10/13To The MidwayImmigration Reform and the Farm Bill are both moving, however haltingly, on Capitol Hill. We will soon see if either--or both--of these controversial measures has enough political momentum to advance beyond committee mark-ups to actual enactment. |
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04/30/13Stern Truths● Last Friday, I attended a breakfast meeting in Yakima hosted by the William D. Ruckelshaus Center's advisory board. (The center is a joint effort of the University of Washington and Washington State University that fosters collaborative public policy.) About 35 people were present: most notably, Bill Ruckelshaus (age 80) and Slade Gorton (85). It was nice to meet both of these men who have done so much positive in the public sphere over their long lives. Each looked healthy, as they remain active in the hunt for good political solutions to intractable problems. It is hard to believe that forty years have passed since Mr. Ruckelshaus resigned his Justice Department job rather than execute President Nixon's orders to fire Archibald Cox during the Watergate... |
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04/25/13STAX● Max Baucus (D/Montana) announced on Tuesday he will not run for re-election to the U.S. Senate in 2014. Senator Baucus is chairman of the Finance Committee and has been a powerful figure on a range of federal issues, including international trade policy. Former policy aides of his are scattered throughout important positions in Washington, D.C. For example, the current acting USTR, Ambassador Demetrios Marantis was once a top aide to Chairman Baucus. The question now for Ambassador Marantis is will he get nominated as permanent Trade Representative by President Obama even though his political mentor is a lame duck. Also of interest is the fact that with Senator Baucus' retirement, Senator Ron Wyden (D/Oregon) is set to gain control of Finance in the next Congress,... |
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04/19/13A Week AwhirlThis week provided a spike of activity on three major agricultural policy fronts: food safety, immigration reform, and the Farm Bill. The time to comment on proposed food safety rules will likely be extended by 120 days, according to a top official at the Food and Drug Administration; a compromise bi-partisan immigration bill (S. 744) was introduced in the U.S. Senate; and, it appears that Farm Bill hearings will be scheduled for mid-May in the House Agriculture Committee. |
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04/12/13Food Safety● The May 16 deadline looms for public comments on two of the proposed rules implementing the Food Safety Modernization Act. Given the complexity of these proposals, and the fact that not all the contemplated FSMA rules have yet been published, a good number of trade associations representing the nation's produce industry this week co-signed a letter to the Food and Drug Administration asking for a significant extension of time for public comment. The United Fresh Produce Association took the lead in making this request, which the Northwest Horticultural Council supported. Although it is not a certainty, odds are in favor of FDA granting some additional time. ● Another point concerning the need for additional time to comment to FDA is the fact that many... |
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04/02/13Snap, crackle, popOur tree fruits often find themselves featured in the logos designed for special events. Some current examples: peach for this weekend's NCAA Final Four in Atlanta; apple for this year's 50th anniversary of the founding of the Codex Alimentarius Commission and cherry for the now-running National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C. SNAP is the acronym at USDA now used for its old-style "food stamps." SNAP, the supplemental nutrition assistance program, according to The Wall Street Journal, now takes up as much money in the federal budget last year as the equivalent of the combined annual budgets of the departments of Homeland Security, Justice, and Interior: $74.6 billion. If you go to the web site for SNAP, USDA clearly states that grocery... |
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03/27/13Merry GoneOne of the federal sequestration cuts is the suspension by USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service of several reports, including the first NASS estimate of the new season's national apple crop, normally released in August. The apple marketers from our area of the country that I have talked with see this particular cutback of service as a very minor issue. Kathleen Merrigan, the number two person in the hierarchy of the Department of Agriculture, has announced she will be leaving on April 29. Deputy Secretary Merrigan was an untraditional political appointee, who championed organic agriculture, nutrition, and local food systems. With a doctorate degree in environmental planning and policy and with close ties to Senator Leahy of Vermont, she was not... |
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03/13/13Return from Barcelona● This past Sunday I arrived back from Barcelona, Spain. There, I had attended the 2013 Global Food Safety Conference, the main annual gathering for GFSI, the Global Food Safety Initiative. About 780 delegates from some 53 countries were present. It was clear to me that this private organization is primarily driven by the commercial needs and requirements of large retailers (for example, Walmart and Carrefour) and major international food companies (for example, Cargill, Coca-Cola, and Tyson Foods). One participant from Nestlé mentioned that his company had 328,000 employees, 461 factories in 83 countries, 10,000 branded products, and dealt with over 12,000 vendors. Given the complexities of today's global food system, GFSI would like to be the entity that the United... |
02/25/13Barcelona● This Sunday I journey to Barcelona, Spain, to attend the Global Food Safety Conference. This annual meeting, to be held on March 6-8, is a project of the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), a European-based effort by large international retailers to establish a method of approving various food safety standards. (One of the officers of GFSI is the vice-president of food safety & health at Wal-Mart USA.) The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's lead person for food safety policy, Mike Taylor, will be a prominent speaker at the conference in Barcelona, which is expected to attract about 1,000 participants from some sixty countries. ● The Feds are making a statement about the seriousness of food safety enforcement. Last Friday four former... |
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02/20/13Sasquatch● Sequestration is set to go into effect on March 1. I do not see this action being averted, so large automatic budget cuts in most federal programs and services will likely kick in. The only question is how quickly after March 1 before House Republicans and the White House reach a political agreement to revoke this blunt policy instrument. I think the budget solution that is known as sequestration is somewhat like our region's Sasquatch: to be feared, but, in truth, never really to be found. ● President Obama's nominee to lead the Interior Department is a Seattle-based executive, Sally Jewell, president of the out-of-doors outfitter REI. This may pose a problem for former Washington State Governor Christine Gregoire's appointment hopes: having two cabinet... |
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01/29/13Recess● A powerful court decision handed down this past Friday involving Noel Canning and the National Labor Relations Board made page-one headlines in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal over the weekend. The United States Court of Appeals (District of Columbia Circuit) decided that an NLRB ruling against Noel Canning was invalid since President Obama had improperly named three of its five members by way of “recess” appointments. This sets up a United States Supreme Court review of the conflicting constitutional powers of our government’s Executive and Legislative branches. What does this have to do with the tree fruit industry? Not much. Except it is interesting to me this high profile case originated with a Yakima, Washington, based beverage firm... |
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01/25/13Potomac Views● The Subcommittee on Horticulture, Research, Biotechnology and Foreign Agricultural Service of the House Agriculture Committee is now led by Austin Scott (R/Georgia). This week, the ranking member of the minority party for it was named: Kurt Schrader (D/Oregon). First-term Congresswoman Suzan DelBene (D/Washington) also has joined this subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over many issues of interest to tree fruit growers and shippers. ● Congressman Doc Hastings (R/Washington) has assigned some of his legislative policy work on agriculture to Annick C. Miller Rivera. She will work closely on these matters with the office’s legislative director, Kate Woods. ● U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss (R/Georgia) announced today he will not run for reelection in 2014. With his... |
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01/22/13Hudson Valley Apple Pie● If the apple industry of Washington state would like to address some of its trade access problems with the People’s Republic of China, now is not a bad time. The United States ambassador to China is Gary Locke, a former governor of Washington, while Washington’s new governor, Jay Inslee, is familiar with apple export issues and has a keen interest in trade questions involving China. ● If you don’t think a politician can help his state’s agricultural products, look at yesterday’s luncheon hosted by the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. The dessert? Hudson Valley Apple Pie with Sour Cream Ice Cream. The chairman of the committee who decided on the menu? Senator Chuck Schumer (D/New York). ● Changes at USDA’s... |
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01/08/13Drugged Media● Last Friday, the Food and Drug Administration released two of its proposed regulations implementing FSMA, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act. They deal with the safety of produce and food facilities. Setting aside the merits of the proposals, what was interesting to me was the choreographed release. FDA successfully controlled the media message by releasing the lengthy documents on a Friday and then holding explanatory conference calls for the media and other interested people on very short notice. The upshot was that there was only laudatory press for FDA’s regulatory actions over the weekend. The national media focus was how government was protecting consumers rather than whether more intrusive federal regulation was actually needed at the orchard level.... |
