Important Leafy Greens Webinar Scheduled for May 14

Process Underway to Further Strengthen Food Safety Requirements for Leafy Greens

 

Although leafy greens farmers are facing new challenges created by the Coronavirus pandemic, efforts to strengthen required food safety practices are still moving forward with numerous actions taking place this month.

“California’s leafy greens farmers are hard at work every day implementing new, more stringent food safety practices on their farms,” said Scott Horsfall, CEO of the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement (LGMA). “At the same time, we’re all focused on further strengthening the food safety standards required under the LGMA to protect consumers and prevent future outbreaks.”

Under a new process created to review and update required food safety practices for farming leafy green, the first in a series of webinars is being held May 14 at 10:00 a.m. to gather input on proposed changes to required practices, or metrics, for ag water. To register, click here.

A subcommittee of industry experts and scientists has been reviewing existing LGMA water metrics since August and has proposed changes to existing requirements. A summary of the proposed changes can be found here.

“Some 30 suggested changes for water use have been recommended by this subcommittee on water,” said Sharan Lanini, of Pacific International Marketing, who chairs the LGMA’ Technical Committee. “The recommendations include updated requirements for drip and furrow irrigation as well as water used for chemical applications. These updates are in addition to enhanced water metrics adopted by the LGMA last year for sprinkler applied water treatments during the last 21 days prior to harvest.”

Below is a detailed list of additional actions being conducted by the LGMA to strengthen food safety practices:

  • The LGMA has appointed subcommittees to address several topics including water,

equipment sanitation, soil amendments/crop inputs, adjacent land use and proximity to

animals.

  • These subcommittees include industry experts from both California and

Arizona who are systematically reviewing each section of the accepted food safety

practices as well as other potential food safety issues of concern from a scientific perspective.

 

  • The LGMA’s subcommittee on soil amendments/crop inputs has met several times since

December 2019, and is looking to develop more detailed standards to address requirements for existing best practices that include compost applications; other crop and soil inputs; storage, handling and transportation; container ID and tracking; and inputs applied to neighboring properties.

  • A subcommittee on equipment, packing materials and field sanitation is looking to develop enhanced standards related to harvest equipment, harvest personnel and training that also encompasses human vectored pathogens such as Cyclospora and COVID-19.
  • The public comment period for water has just ended, and the one on harvest related equipment sanitation practices is open through the end of May. Future comment periods will cover the topics of soil amendments/crop inputs and adjacent property/CAFOs. LGMA subcommittees will make recommendations in all of these areas.

The process for updating the LGMA standards is being facilitated by Western Growers, as an independent party to solicit and collect input from all stakeholders. A public website has been created so all interested parties can engage. A calendar outlining when various food safety topics will be reviewed has been posted.

“The goal is to create unified standards for how leafy greens are farmed using the best science and expertise available from throughout the leafy greens community,” said Horsfall. “Water is just the first topic to be addressed. This same process is planned for other areas of the LGMA metrics.”

Once recommended changes have been finalized through this collaborative process, they will be presented to the LGMA for adoption. Approved updates will become part of the required food safety practices and included in mandatory inspections for LGMA members.

Horsfall emphasized that government food safety audits conducted through the LGMA program are taking place even with the COVID-19 situation. As usual, every LGMA member will be audited about five times this year, with both announced and unannounced field audits, and every farmer will be audited at least once. These audits are already more stringent than they were last year.

“The real work of implementing food safety practices is being done every day by leafy greens farmers,” said Horsfall. “The role of the LGMA is to unify the industry under one common set of science-based food safety practices.”

 

2020-05-12T12:33:31-07:00May 12th, 2020|

California Pear Growers Committed to Growing Flavorful Pears that Ripen Naturally

California Pear Growers Say No to Anti-Ripening Treatments

California pear farmers have united as an industry with a pledge to never use post-harvest treatments like 1-MCP that impede ripening and create a disappointing experience for consumers.

“California pear farmers are committed to producing pears that offer the best eating experience for our consumers,” said Richard Elliot of Stillwater Orchards. “This is why we’re pledging never to treat our pears with 1-MCP. Which would you rather have–a fresh Bartlett pear that has been allowed to ripen as nature intended or one that’s been treated to last for months in storage and may never ripen? The choice should be pretty clear.”

“What we’ve found in repeated experiments in our lab is that pears treated with 1-MCP take as long as three weeks to ripen and, in fact, they may never get soft and juicy,” explains Dr. Beth Mitcham, a postharvest researcher at the University of California, Davis.

The desire for longer shelf life and waste reduction in the fresh produce industry has resulted in suppliers’ use of 1-MCP. It might work well on items that develop their sugar and ripeness during growth, like apples, but for pears and fruits that ripen after picking, 1-MCP can have adverse effects on fruit quality.

“When a consumer buys a pear treated with 1-MCP it won’t ripen properly,” said Matt Hemly of Greene and Hemly in Courtland. “Unfortunately, the consumer has no way of knowing if the pears they’re buying have been treated with 1-MCP. And they won’t know until they buy the pear, take it home to ripen it only to find it never does.”

California pear season starts in July every year. That’s when shoppers should begin seeing new crop Bartlett pears in-store grown by local farmers. This is also the time of year when imported pears from growing regions in the southern hemisphere or domestic fruit harvested nearly a year ago — often treated with 1-MCP — may still be available and on stores shelves.

IRI/Freshlook retail scan data analyzing the pear category over the past five years shows that since 2015, the pear category overall has seen continued decline. National retail dollar sales have declined $79 million (-16.1%) and volume also declined 62 million pounds (-19.2%)

“We just don’t believe that 1-MCP is a smart choice for pears like Barletts that must ripen off the tree,” said Chiles Wilson of Rivermaid Trading Company.

California pear farmers take care to pick pears at a point when they have plenty of sugar, but they’re still green. Bartlett pears actually won’t ripen on the tree, which means they can be shipped without damaging the fruit. And because California Bartletts are not treated with anti-ripening products, these pears will ripen naturally. Once a consumer brings home a California pear, they can expect to enjoy a ripened pear full of flavor within a few days.

“Reducing waste is a great goal for and is something we should all be doing to help the environment,” said Chris Zanobini, Executive Director of the California Pear Advisory Board. “But all too often we waste food in our own homes when we throw things away instead of eating them. Pears are a wonderful fruit in this respect. Consumers can ripen them on the counter to the desired state of ripeness and then store in the refrigerator until they want to eat them. Pears treated with 1-MCP may be thrown away because they never ripen. This can actually create more waste.”

The California Pear Advisory Board is based in Sacramento, CA and represents all producers of pears in the state. A short video explaining the California pear industry’s pledge can be found here. More information about California pears, pear varieties and pear farmers can be found at www.calpear.com.

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2020-05-06T19:47:38-07:00May 7th, 2020|

West Hills College Farm of the Future Part 2

Students Test New Agricultural Technologies and At Farm of the Future

By Tim Hammerich, with the AgInfo.net

West Hills College’s Farm of the Future is a unique program that provides students with practical, hands-on farming experience.

Director Terry Brase also envisions it as a chance to work with companies where in addition to hands-on learning, students can test new agricultural technologies.

“We also have another side of the farm where we’ve got close to a hundred acres that are made up of smaller plots. Those are the areas that are reserved for student projects,said Brase. And that currently we’re actually looking for funding where the project or the company that wants to maybe demonstrate a product will pay us. And pay a group of students to run a demonstration on one of these fields. And the students are directly responsible for the decisions and using the product, coming up with little research demonstration against the control part of the plot to see if it works or not.”

Brase said this gives companies early exposure for up-and-coming products, and the students a career related job during school.

“But I think what it really provides, the real value, is that the students are being paid through like a scholarship to work here on the farm. So they’re making money while they’re working on the farm. This way they’re getting the experience and we’re helping them through school,” Brase said.

Interested students or companies can visit West Hills College’s website for more information.

AgInfo.net is the largest Radio Network in the West with 140 Affiliate Radio Stations.

2020-05-04T20:44:44-07:00May 6th, 2020|

Practical Hands-On Farm Ed Experience

Farm Ed for the Future  Part 1

By Tim Hammerich with the Ag Information Network

As millions of people are losing their jobs, community college are preparing to help many of them find new skills and new careers.

West Hills College in Coalinga has a unique program that provides students with practical, hands-on farming experience. It’s called the Farm of the Future. Here is Program Director Terry Brase.

“Our goal is that every student that comes through our educational academic classes and courses will get some type of experience on the farm. And as such, it’s a working farm. So we have 23 acres of pistachios,” said Brase. We have little over 80 acres of row crop that we produce, our own irrigation system. So my role as the Director is to kind of oversee the farm and the academic programs. We try to make the Farm of the Future a demonstration of how technology is used in California agriculture.”

The program has two different pathways. One for agricultural science which includes studies like plant science, irrigation, integrated pest management, and precision agriculture. The other is for more industrial studies like truck driving, heavy equipment operation, food safety, and welding.

As we’ve seen recently these are essential careers that required proper training, Brase said.

Please go to West Hills College for more information.

AgInfo.net is the largest Radio Network in the West with 140 Affiliate Radio Stations.
2021-05-12T11:05:00-07:00May 4th, 2020|

Big Funding for Specialty Crop Multi-State Programs

 

California Awarded More Than $3.8 Million to Support The Specialty Crop Industry Through Multi-State Initiatives

 

The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) is pleased to announce that four projects submitted by California were selected for funding for the 2019 Specialty Crop Multi-State Program (SCMP).

 

The SCMP is a federal grant program offered by USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service. SCMP strengthens food safety; seeks new ways to address plant pests, disease, and other crop-specific issues; and increases marketing opportunities for fruits, vegetables, tree nuts and dried fruits to horticulture and nursery crops, including floriculture. Funding is awarded competitively to state departments of agriculture that partner with stakeholder organizations in two or more states.

 

The California Department of Food and Agriculture will partner with:

 

  • The University of California, Davis, Oregon State University, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Washington, Utah State University, and University of Arizona to create a non‐biased plant trials network that assesses plant performance under different irrigation regimes. Awarded $999,992.
  • The University of California, University of Florida’s Gulf Coast Research and Education Center, Texas A&M University, California State University, and the USDA – Agricultural Research Service’s National Clonal Germplasm Repository ‐ Tree Fruit & Nut Crops & Grapes, to develop strategies to increase marketable yield of pomegranate in California and Florida. Awarded $885,801.
  • The University of California, Davis, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, USDA Agricultural Research Service, University of Minnesota and the Organic Center to evaluate the food safety impacts of sheep grazing cover crops, compared to tilled termination of cover crops and winter fallow, before spinach and cucumber. Awarded $999,985.
  • The University of California and Texas A&M University to conduct large‐scale trials of improved (high‐yielding, high‐quality, more resilient) varieties under conventional versus modified environmental conditions in the San Joaquin Valley and in Central California and the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Awarded $962,804.

 

A complete list of funded projects is available here. Additional information about the SCMP can be found on the USDA and CDFASCMP websites.

2020-04-30T17:25:21-07:00May 1st, 2020|

Minimizing Food Waste During These Difficult Times

 

Food Waste Becoming a Bigger Problem

By Tim Hammerich, with  AgInfo.net 

We typically waste about ⅓ of all of the calories our farmers produce, and the pandemic has likely made that number even higher. When the food service market all but disappeared, fresh produce in warehouses had nowhere to go.  Crops that had already been planted are now ready, and the market has not yet returned, typically leading to enormous food waste.

Sarah Hulick is responsible for Grower Innovation at Full Harvest Technologies, which facilitates markets for food that would otherwise be wasted.

“Right when this all started in like mid- to late March, it was actually more like they were already harvested and sitting in warehouses. And that’s really hard because every single cost is already sunk in that product, including the plastic wrap on the cauliflower heads, the cooling, the energy, everything is already in that product,” noted Hulick.  You know, right now it’s more like maybe they planted for higher demand and now it’s sitting out in a field and they have to make that tough choice to till it in. Or if they have a good relationship with a food bank, they could harvest it and send it to a food bank. But yeah, there’s a lot of food being wasted right now, said Hulick.

Hulick said the logistics of getting fresh produce to a food bank can be complicated, and in California it cannot be taken to a landfill. Some farmers are being forced to till their harvest in due to lack of markets.

AgInfo.net is the largest Radio Network in the West with 140 Affiliate Radio Stations.

 

2020-04-29T19:21:54-07:00April 30th, 2020|

New Bt From Vestaron Will Help With Worm Pests

A New Bt Innovation For Worm Pests

Tree nut growers – large/small, conventional/organic – are familiar with Bt, or Bacillus thuringiensis. This spore-forming, gram positive bacterium has played a role in insect pest management since soon after isolation in 1901 by a Japanese biologist investigating a disease of silkworms.

Targeting lepidopteran larvae (caterpillars, loopers, “worms”), EPA has registered commercially available products such as DiPel, Javelin, XenTari and most recently Leprotec, a liquid formulation alternative. Among these are two lep-active subspecies, Bt ssp kurstaki and ssp aizawai.

Acceptance by modern-day growers partially stems from advantages common to most bioinsecticides: 4-hour REI, 0-day PHI and exemption from residue tolerances. Compared to conventional chemistries, Bt products have an excellent safety profile for workers, pollinators, natural enemies and the environment. Furthermore, most meet NOP guidelines for use in organic production.

Bt products also bring a distinct mode of action for managing the development of insecticide resistance. Classified as a Group 11 insecticide, Bt officially operates as a “Microbial Disruptor of Insect Midgut Membranes.” The bacteria produce proteinaceous crystals that are denatured in the digestive tract, liberating toxins that bind to receptors on the midgut surface, forming pores in the membrane, causing ionic imbalance, septicemia, feeding cessation, paralysis and death.

Modern Bt formulations are the outcome of decades of research and discovery. Among thousands of strains, the few commercially available have been carefully selected for efficacy against pest targets. Performance is driven by the Bt strain’s unique Cry toxin profile as well as the quality and quantity of fermentation products yielded by the manufacturing process.

An exciting new innovation in the use of Bt goes well beyond strain selection and fermentation advances. In 2019, EPA approved Spear®-Lep, a bioinsecticide from Vestaron that makes use of Bt’s midgut-disrupting activities to deliver a potent target-specific active ingredient to receptors in the insect nervous system. The active ingredient in this bioinsecticide (a 40-amino acid peptide called GS-omega/kappa-Hxtx), may be 30 times smaller than Bt, but is 10-20 times larger than conventional active ingredients. How to get it to target sites on receptors in the insect nervous system? Tank mix with a low rate of Btk, apply to foliage for ingestion by lepidopteran larvae, and open pathways through the midgut for the Spear peptide.

The partnership between Spear peptide and Btk translates to high performance with much less active ingredient. Add in proven field efficacy (such as against navel orangeworm), plus a novel mode of action (with no cross resistance to current insecticides), and Spear-Lep emerges as a versatile and innovative tool for tree nuts and other high-value field crops.

 

2021-05-12T11:00:35-07:00April 27th, 2020|

The Reason Farmers Are Destroying Crops Etc. During COVID Crisis

Why Are Farmers Destroying Crops While Store Shelves Are Empty?

 

By Pam Kan-Rice UCANR Assistant Director, News and Information Outreach

Empty grocery store shelves are troubling enough to California consumers who are accustomed to abundant supplies. To hear about farmers dumping milk, crushing eggs and plowing under crops when demand for food is strong just doesn’t make sense to most consumers.

Although the new coronavirus crisis has currently derailed the connection between supply and demand, “the food system in the United States is resilient and there is little reason for alarm about food availability,” write University of California agricultural economists.

Overall, neither food consumption nor the amount of food supplied by farms have changed much, they write in a new article published by UC’s Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics. The authors explain that the sudden closure of schools, restaurants and other institutions, coupled with residents in many states sheltering in place to reduce the spread of COVID-19, has disrupted normal patterns of where people buy food.

“Price changes, surpluses and shortages along the food supply chain are likely the result of recent and temporary shocks to supply, demand or both,” said co-author Ellen Bruno, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at UC Berkeley.

“On the demand side, we have seen customers shift to buying more food at the grocery store as restaurants and other food service businesses have closed. Plus, consumers have changed what they consume and stockpile during these times,” she said.

Initially, worried consumers stocked up on staples such as rice and pasta that store well. Then, with more free time, they started cooking at home and baking their own bread and pastries, buying up eggs, flour, sugar and other baking supplies.

“On the supply side, there are challenges in trying to rearrange production and packaging to service grocery stores, as opposed to restaurants, schools, etc. which often purchase items in different quantities,” Bruno said. “Plus, there are the obvious health concerns and potential disruptions due to the impact of the virus on the workers themselves.” 

How quickly the food supply system will adapt to changing demand depends on the product, according to Bruno and her co-authors Richard J. Sexton, UC Davis professor, and Daniel A. Sumner, director of the UC Agricultural Issues Center and UC Davis professor, both in the Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics.

Canned fruits and vegetables are often processed shortly after harvest and can be moved from storage to retail fairly quickly. To increase egg production, farmers have to add to the number of laying hens, which takes months. Many perishable produce items are planted, harvested, packed and shipped according to a precise schedule to replenish grocery store inventories “just in time” so farmers can’t quickly increase the amount of fresh fruit and vegetables they supply.

Produce Isles are Full Across the country

Produce wholesalers who sell to food service have products and packaging specifically designed for that market. For example, packing plants that prepare large bulk salad packages for restaurants aren’t set up to pack salad into retail-ready bags that require consumer labels. While adjustments were made, some fresh produce rotted or was plowed under.

After the COVID-19 disruption ends, the authors expect the food supply chain to evolve as the economy gradually recovers.

“In the longer term, even after restaurants and the food service industry are back and running, reduced incomes due to the recession will change our consumption patterns,” Bruno said. “Demand for food consumed at home doesn’t change much with income, but demand for food at restaurants does. In many ways, food service and the growers that supply directly to food service will be hardest hit by all of this because they suffer both in the short run with mandatory closures and in the long run with an economic recession.”

Although it’s uncertain how long the pandemic will last, the authors say Americans will have an adequate supply of safe, healthy food.

“Despite these disruptions, overall our food supply chain is robust and adaptable,” Bruno said. “Nothing in the underlying economics suggests that there will be a lack of food available.”

To read “The Coronavirus and the Food Supply Chain,” visit https://bit.ly/covidimpactonfood

2020-04-22T20:08:51-07:00April 24th, 2020|

Tough Market for California Lemons

 

Lemons are Ready, but Markets are Not

By Tim Hammerich, with AgInfo.Net

Recent weeks have been tough for the restaurant and food service industries, and for the farmers that supply them. This could not come at a worse time for the California lemon industry, who harvests this time of year and relies on these markets.

Chris Sayer is a lemon producer in Ventura County. “It’s raining. Hopefully this delay of a week will allow them to start to clear the packing house out and then maybe we can get moving on selling some fruit. About half the lemons go to restaurants. And witch that shut down and this being the peak of lemon harvest season, basically all the storage is at capacity and they can’t pick more unless they sell or dump something to get things moving again.”

Without restaurant demand and very little processing or long term storage capability, packers and producers like Chris are left with very few options.

“Usually Ventura County gets picked over the course of about six or eight weeks. I mean, we’re already a little bit behind.,” said Sayer. “I would say that I’ve probably got two more weeks before we start losing fruit, either just from dropping or just sort of gets overripe. And of course, even once we get it harvested and into storage, you know, prices are awful at the moment.”

Sayer knows it won’t be a good year for lemons, but hopes that he can at least get something for harvesting a crop.

2020-04-21T16:37:11-07:00April 23rd, 2020|

California Pear Farmers Will Harvest in July

California Pear Farmers Set to Begin Harvest in Early July

 As the nation’s food industry is working hard to keep food on our tables, California pear farmers are preparing to harvest a crop of fresh pears in early July.

“California pear harvest appears to be on a normal schedule this year after two years of late harvest timing,” said Matt Hemly of Greene and Hemly in Courtland. “We’ve seen pear category sales affected in recent years during July because of our late harvest. This year we expect to be picking Bartlett pears in the River District within the first weeks in July. Retailers will have no problem getting American grown pears into their stores this year.”

“We want to thank retailers and all of their employees for keeping our food supply moving during this difficult time,” said Richard Elliot of Stillwater Orchards. “As we move out of this pandemic, we hope that retailers will support local growers, families and communities to put America first.”

California pear growers are taking extra steps in the orchards and packing facilities to ensure a safe, healthy supply of fresh pears during this time.

“We employ 450 people in our farms and packing house,” explains Chiles Wilson, owner of Rivermaid Trading Company, based in Lodi, CA. “We want to make sure we can give them their jobs back this year. It’s not just about us as farmers but all the people we employ and their families.”

“Flavor is most important to consumers,” explains Pat Scully of Scully Packing in Lake County. “California pear farmers take care to pick pears at a point when they have plenty of sugar, and we never treat our pears with anti-ripening products like 1-MCP.”

1-MCP is a product that impedes fruit ripening. Producers in many growing regions use 1-MCP to extend a pear’s storage life. Unfortunately, a 1-MCP treated pear may not ever ripen properly.  It may turn yellow and appear to be ripe but never soften. This disappoints consumers and prevents repeat sales.

“What we’ve found in repeated experiments in our lab is that pears treated with 1-MCP take as long as three weeks to ripen and, in fact, they may never get soft and juicy,” explains Dr. Beth Mitcham, a postharvest researcher at the University of California, Davis.

“We don’t believe that 1-MCP is a smart choice for pears like Bartletts that must ripen off the tree,” said Rivermaid Trading company’s Wilson. “We know 1-MCP inhibits the fruit’s ability to ripen, meaning no flavor and no softening.  With the increased use over the past few years, we think there is a direct correlation to retail pear category decline.”

Because Bartlett pears are picked green off the tree, they ship well and will ripen naturally.  Once a consumer brings them home, they will become a ripe juicy flavorful piece of fruit.

“We’re committed to producing pears that offer the best eating experience for our consumers,” said Hemly. “In early July, shoppers should begin seeing new crop Bartlett pears in-store grown by local farmers. Our California Pear Advisory Board representatives will soon be reaching out to retailers — even if it’s only virtually — to set up promotions for the new season. “

The California Pear Advisory Board is based in Sacramento, CA and represents all producers of pears in the state. More information about California pears, pear varieties and pear farmers can be found at www.calpear.com.

2020-04-21T16:35:13-07:00April 22nd, 2020|
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