Worker Safety

MRLs and Crop Protection Materials are Improving but Complicated

MRLs and Crop Protection Materials are Improving but Complicated!

By Laurie Greene, Editor and Patrick Cavanaugh, Associate Editor

Rachel Kubiak, Environmental & Regulatory Affairs director with the Western Plant Health Association, based in Sacramento, commented that crop protection materials are improving. They target specific pests and they are set to maximum residue levels (MRL’s) when sold domestically or internationally. Yet, they are quite complicated.

“The materials are getting better,” Kubiak said, “but I would say that there is a large component that I don’t believe the activist community understands,” noted Kubiak.

Richard Cornett, director of communications for WPHA, blogged, “What most people are unaware of is that there is a highly integrated and multi-layered process of safety procedures to assure that pesticides are accessed for their safe use around humans and in the environment.”

U.S. EPA (a) scientifically reviews all pesticides for safety before registration, (b) involves EPA scientists at the Office of Pesticide Programs, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, as well as other departments, (c) guarantees that any pesticide used in the U.S. has been accessed and is safe and (d) applies tolerances only to produce grown in or imported into the United States.

In California, the Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) enforces EPA tolerances by sampling produce for pesticide residues from throughout the channels of trade, both domestic and imported, including wholesale and retail outlets, distribution centers, and farmers markets.

“There are complications in making those products available to our growers,” Kubiak said, “because so much of what we produce in California is exported to other countries, and this MRL issue complicates things.”

Foreign countries follow an international standard called CODEX Alimentarus which contains a list of pesticide MRLs. EPA tolerances and International Codex MRLs are not harmonized; residue on an imported commodity can trigger a no-tolerance-established assessment and removal by California DPR while being a legal residue in other countries.

“I think this is a large area in which we could do better. Educating those who don’t live in our world on the difficulties in bringing new products to market isn’t as simplistic as they like to make it seem,” said Kubiak.

2016-05-31T19:28:12-07:00July 2nd, 2015|

Tasteful Selections Opens Cal Green Potato Facility

Tasteful Selections Opens Cal Green Potato Facility in Arvin, CA

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Associate Editor

Bob Bender, a partner with CSS Farms, in Watertown, South Dakota, came out to Kern County several years ago to grow many different crops including chip potatoes, garlic, onions and bell peppers, as well as black-eyed peas. “We were looking for an opportunity in California to diversify our company so that we were not so dependent on the chip potato income.”

Bender said he was always looking for crops in which he could diversify, and in 2007, he had the opportunity to grow some baby, bite-sized potatoes for a Canadian company. “This worked out well for a few years, and then we decided in 2009 to pack the baby potatoes under our own CSS Farms label,” Bender said.

“That business started taking off a lot bigger than we expected, and in 2010, we saw that the business was growing to be too much for us to handle. We needed some marketing help because we did not know  much about it,” said Bender. “Plus, we were packing everything in 50-pound cartons, and we knew there would have to be more margin to the product if we sold directly to retail.

Bob Bender, Tasteful Selections

Bob Bender, Tasteful Selections

“That’s when we teamed up with the Wysocki family, owners of the Bancroft, Wisconsin-based RPE Company and experts in packing and marketing,” said Bender. “The marketing took off, and they built our first packing shed in a leased facility in Bakersfield. They sold product in smaller mesh bags for the consumer retail market under the Tasteful Selection brand,” noted Bender, who is now president and general manager of Tasteful Selections.”

Fast forward to March. 18, 2015 when CSS, along with RPE, and Stevens Point, Wisconsin-based Plover River Farms Alliance, Inc. partnered together and opened a new, stainless steel, 200,000 square foot facility in Arvin, near Bakersfield—all dedicated to Tasteful Selections specialty potatoes.

The expansion increases Tasteful Selections’ production capacity from eight to 12 packaging lines, doubles the potato washing capacity and adds more shipping docks and improved refrigeration and storage to meet the company’s double digit growth (over the past five years), leading the specialty potato category.

In all, the company sells eight flavors of potatoes in one-, two- or three-bite sizes, plus offers a medley of flavors in each bite size. The potatoes have unique flavors, creamy textures and tender skins. The products are pre-washed, so consumers do not have to clean or peel the product. And the small sizes equate to faster cooking times.

“Fifty percent of our team is marketing, so we’re not just growing and packing the potatoes. RPE handles all of our marketing and sales, which has been so instrumental in our growth,” said Bender, who now oversees the day-to-day operations in California. RPE has been a tremendous asset to Tasteful Selections; the fact that we are in all fifty states, in 52 percent of all grocery stores, with growth in every store, says a lot about RPE,” Bender noted.

The fact that the facility was built with all stainless steel components is an invaluable addition to our operations and food safety protocols.  The facility’s design honors Cal Green Certification Standards. The Cal Green Certification ensures that we are maximizing our efficiency while reducing our environmental impact. Not only does this benefit us, it also helps the surrounding communities in promoting water savings, environmental responsibility, cost effectiveness and a healthier place to live and work for its currently 257 employees.

Tasteful Selections

Tasteful Selections

Milt Carter is CEO and President of CSS Farms, which grows all the potatoes for Tasteful Selections. “We are co-owner of the company, along with RPE, and the grand opening of our facility is a big day for us as we continue our journey to bring unique potatoes to the potato category and to the table,” said Carter.

“We particularly like the qualities of our baby potatoes, including unique flavors and better taste than the average potato. The uniform sizes we pack allow for uniform cooking times, making cooking easier for the consumer. And the growth we have seen reflects that consumers really like them.”

“When we started Tasteful Selections in 2010, we knew we had something amazing, and even we were surprised by the success that we had,” said Russell Wysocki, President and CEO of RPE. “The opening of this new plant shows that we are consistently investing in our future in specialty potatoes,” he said.

“The new plant will allow us to bring in new product lines, do a better job in precise-sizing, and maintain our high quality standard,” noted Wysocki. “On the farm, Bob and Milt bring us five separate crops a year; we have the ability to deliver the freshest potatoes with the best quality to our customers throughout the country and throughout the season.”

“The one-, two- or three-bite Tasteful Sections potatoes in the one pound or 1.5 pound bag are very popular with consumers.” said Wysocki. “It use to be that you would sell a lot of potatoes in a 10-pound bag, but that’s getting a lot harder to do. However, this product offers consumers a package from which they can get multiple meals, without taking five weeks to consume and perhaps resorting to the garbage can to get rid of them.”

“The baby potatoes are immature potatoes, before they grow bigger, but they still contain all the nutrients found in the larger potatoes,” said Wysocki.

Carter explained, “Our signature flavor Honey Gold baby potatoes are proprietary to Tasteful Selections, and they have a very unique flavor. A high percentage of people the taste distinctive in taste tests, and most like it very much.”

“It’s a great product,” noted Wysocki. “We basically took product that was being discarded in the market 10 years ago. We saw the quality of what was culled, and we felt it was something significant we could bring to the marketplace. So we considered the possibility, then brought it to market, and we have had phenomenal growth,” he said.

2016-05-31T19:30:24-07:00May 17th, 2015|

AHPA Leadership Urges Members to Support Voluntary Almond Industry PAC

By Laurie Greene, Editor

Almond Hullers & Processors Association (AHPA) Chairman Dick Cunningham and President Kelly Covello urged their membership to support the voluntary California Almond Industry PAC at the association’s 34th Annual AHPA Convention, held on the Big Island in Hawaii over the past three days.

Almond Hullers & Processors Association

Facing immense challenges such as the slowdown of West Coast ports, air quality laws and regulations, net energy metering (NEM), food quality and safety, worker safety, bees and bee health, wastewater treatment, crop protection regulation, aboveground petroleum storage Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) Plans, competing research priorities and most urgently, unprecedented drought conditions and public misunderstanding and criticism of almond water usage, the Almond Industry aims to create a unified voice for candidate support, political information and education services.

Through a Memorandum of Agreement with the Almond Board of California (ABC), AHPA is able is able contract for a portion of ABC Logostaff time/expertise to assist in AHPA’s advocacy efforts and provide a unified voice for the industry. The ABC educates regulatory agencies and legislators but is prevented by the USDA Federal Marketing Order to advocate for government policy or legislation.

The California Almond Industry PAC will hold a fundraiser in Bakersfield on May 14th, at Imbibe, 4140 Truxtun Avenue, from 5:30-7:00pm, sponsored by Golden Empire Shelling, LLC., Landmark Irrigation, Inc., Pacific Ag Management, Inc., Paramount Farms, and Supreme Almonds of California.

Fundraisers will also be arranged in the Northern and Fresno areas in the upcoming months.

Sponsorship Levels include:

  • Platinum: $2500
  • Gold: $1500
  • Supporter: $500 (includes a guest)

You do not need to be an AHPA member to contribute or attend the event.

For more information, contact (209) 599-5800 or staff@ahpa.net.

California Almond Industry Political Action Committee

California Almond Industry Political Action Committee

2016-05-31T19:30:25-07:00May 1st, 2015|

Slowdown at West Coast Ports Stops, Restarts at Port of Oakland, and Stops. . .

Port of Oakland Work Stoppage Ends

By Laurie Greene, CalAgToday reporter

Despite the tentative 5-year coast-wide contract agreement reached on February 20, 2015, between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and its 20,000 members at 29 West Coast ports, and the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) , which represents management for the ports and shipping lines there, ILWU Local 10 has repeatedly engaged in illegal work stoppages at the Port of Oakland, according to PMA, and brought operations to a standstill yesterday at Oakland International Container Terminal, the largest terminal in the Port.

PMA reports that ILWU Local 10 has repeatedly refused to allow yard crane operators to work as directed, reports PMA. These workers are essential to the movement of cargo in and out of the port. The terminal in question follows standard industry practice of hiring two workers for every yard crane – the same as at every other terminal at the port. Yet, ILWU Local 10 refused to allow yard cranes to operate unless that number was increased to three. This is a demand that Local 10 made and dropped during negotiations that led to the tentative agreement.

PMA also claims that Local 10 also refused to allow longshore utility workers to lock and unlock connecting devices between chassis and containers. The use of steady utility workers to perform this work is a longstanding practice at every terminal in the port. And while Local 10 made a demand in bargaining to change this practice, they dropped it in the tentative agreement.

“These repeated work stoppages by Local 10 – which run counter to the tentative agreement reached after more than nine months of negotiations – are the sort of counterproductive activity,” according to PMA, “that has become commonplace in Oakland over the years. Local 10’s current actions are damaging to the PMA member companies, to the shippers whose containers are idled, and to the reputation and future of the Port of Oakland.”

According to a CNN Money report TODAYMelvin Mackay, president of the ILWU Local 10 at Oakland, denied the union was engaged in the job action and blamed the shutdown on the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) sending workers home.

“It’s a ploy by the PMA. These members come to go to work,” said Mackay. “But the companies are telling the members to operate the machine with no safety man on the ground. The members want safety. That’s the bottom line.”

An arbitrator ruled the union was engaged in an illegal strike that shut down most of the Oakland operations yesterday, affecting the container terminal — the key operation at the port.

The Oakland port handles the third greatest volume of containers of all West Coast ports–linchpins to trade between the U.S. and Asia– after only the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which are the nation’s largest ports. It is the sixth largest container port nationwide.

American Shipper reported TODAY, “U.S. container imports are down more than 5 percent in 2015, with the nearly the entire drop attributable to West Coast ports, according to statistics released Wednesday by the trade data firm Zepol Corp.”

2016-05-31T19:30:27-07:00March 12th, 2015|

Monterey County and Farm Worker Advocacy Group Negotiate Accord

Center for Community Advocacy (CCA) and Monterey County Ag Commissioner’s Office Join Hands

 

A farmworker advocacy group and the agency that regulates pesticide use in Monterey County TODAY  announced the establishment of a farmworker advisory committee to advise the agency and to connect field workers to resources that the agency can use to help them.

“The advisory committee gives us direct access to farmworker leaders; to their concerns and to their suggestions,” said Eric Lauritzen, the Agricultural Commissioner of the County of Monterey.

“This gives us the opportunity to engage in positive, productive conversations that will help us fulfill our obligations to the farmworker community and to the agricultural industry in general.”

Farmworker leaders trained by the Center for Community Advocacy (CCA) will compose the advisory committee.

“CCA strives to develop leadership capacity among farmworkers at the neighborhood level,” explained Juan Uranga, CCA’s executive director and lead attorney. “We use CCA’s housing, health and programs to spot, recruit and engage neighborhood leaders throughout the Salinas and Pajaro Valleys. These leaders first improve conditions in their housing units and neighborhoods. We then create venues where these neighborhood leaders can use their collective power to strengthen their families and create positive change in their communities.”

Six of these CCA-trained neighborhood leaders will comprise the advisory committee.

“We are excited about creating this opportunity,” said one of the CCA neighborhood leaders. “We are pioneers and we hope we’ll be able to work together to help our brothers and sisters who work in the fields. We had a ‘meet and greet’ session with the Commissioner and his staff and we were impressed by their willingness to work with us.”

The Committee will advise the Commissioner’s Office on policies and practices as they impact field workers in Monterey County. The advisory committee and the Agricultural Commissioner’s Office will strive to improve protocols that protect farmworkers from pesticide exposure and other protocols within the Commissioner’s jurisdiction that protect the health and safety of farmworkers. The partnership will also help disseminate information about resources and programs that the Commissioner’s Office can make available to the farmworker community.

The advisory committee comes after negotiations that led to a Statement of Purpose between CCA and the Agricultural Commissioner’s Office. The Statement describes the following functions for the committee:

1. To meet at regular intervals with the Commissioner and his/her staff to exchange information and ideas that will improve the safety of farmworkers.

2. To help disseminate safety information from the Commissioner’s Office to the farmworker community, as the need arises

3. To host annual community dialogues where farmworkers and the Commissioner’s Office meet to discuss the Commissioner’s jurisdiction over agricultural lands in Monterey County.

4. To promote a more sustainable agricultural economy in Monterey County by protecting its most critical resource: farmworkers.

Discussions about forming the committee began several years ago. Working through a rocky start, both the Commissioner’s Office and CCA saw the incredible potential in developing a working relationship.

The two agencies had never worked together. Each had questions about the other’s willingness to work cooperatively. The two agencies developed their relationship by working together on several projects including the AgKnowledge Program hosted by the Grower-Shipper Foundation and a series of small forums between the Commissioner’s Office and CCA-trained leaders. Now, both the Agricultural Commissioner’s office and CCA look forward to this joint effort.

2016-08-29T21:03:53-07:00August 22nd, 2014|

Heat Illness Prevention: Warning for Farmworkers This Week

Heat Illness Prevention

Extreme Heat Wave Expected to Continue Throughout this Week

 

With really high temperatures throughout the Central Coast, Cal/OSHA will probably focus enforcement in coming days in these areas. Please remember the key points of compliance with the Heat Illness Prevention Standard:Heat Illness Prevention

 

* Water — 1 quart per worker per hour, with a plan for replenishment throughout the work shift

 

* Shade — enough for 25% of the crew working at the location; use of natural shade is acceptable if no shadow is cast; air-conditioned vehicles are acceptable; provided at all times when temperature exceeds 85 degrees

 

* Rest — allow workers to rest in shade if they feel the need for no less than 5 minutes

 

* Training — workers & supervisors must be trained about heat illness and emergency response procedures before being exposed to heat

 

* High-Heat Procedures — ensure effective communications in case of emergency; observe employees carefully for signs of heat illness; remind employees to drink water throughout the shift; closely supervise un-acclimatized employees for first 14 days of exposure to high heat

2017-05-04T16:51:11-07:00May 14th, 2014|
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