WPPC centers on immigration reform, farm bill, food safety
WPPC centers on immigration reform, farm bill, food safety
WASHINGTON -- Fruit and vegetable producers continue to push for improvements in nutrition and farm policies, but their agenda may hinge on whether Congress spells relief for an industry struggling to maintain a stable foreign workforce, said Mike Stuart of the Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association.
Speaking at the Sept. 14 United Fresh Produce Association meeting, here, Mr. Stuart said that the industry has opportunities to expand the school snack program and provide more fruits and vegetables to mothers and children on a government feeding program.
But "there's a dark cloud on the horizon," he said, and if immigration reform is not passed, it could put the ability of the produce industry to succeed in "serious jeopardy."
Rep. Adam Putnam (R-FL) said that it will be a "Mount Everest-size struggle" to educate people on the need for immigration reform, but there is an opportunity during a lame duck session to pass a bill. "We don't want to start again in January," he added.
Congress continues to focus on border security, which he said is the easiest issue to fix, before the more difficult issues of how to create a stable workforce and what to do with the millions of people already working in the country.
As chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, Rep. Putnam called on the produce industry to educate Congress and their neighbors about the issue. "We've already lost [the debate] on the definition of amnesty," he said.
On the issue of the farm bill, members of Congress who spoke at the Washington Public Policy Conference urged advocates to continue pushing to modernize the 2007 farm bill and fight for specialty crop provisions, especially as the nation grapples with an obesity epidemic. But in a tight budgetary climate, "something will get squeezed," Rep. Putnam warned. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), who authored the popular snack pilot program for school-aged children, said that members of Congress are more aware of the need to respond to the obesity epidemic. With the age of adult-onset diabetes getting lower each year, Congress is looking for solutions, he said. It makes sense to expand the snack program to every elementary school in America, he told attendees at a Capitol Hill luncheon.
Congress also will need to respond to a World Trade Organization decision stemming from Brazil's challenge of the U.S. cotton crop subsidy program. Sen. Harkin said that Congress will look at the issue of restricting program crop growers from planting fruits and vegetables. Producers are concerned that growers receiving direct subsidies for planting cotton can grow fruits and vegetables, thereby affecting the prices and incomes of produce businesses.
The meeting also centered on food safety, and right before the spinach outbreak was announced, Robert Brackett, Food & Drug Administration food safety chief, updated the United Fresh meeting on its lettuce safety initiative. Started just weeks before the latest outbreak, the initiative was set in motion as a response to recurring outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7 in lettuce and has now been expanded to cover spinach.
Dr. Brackett said that produce-related outbreaks were on the rise in part because people were consuming more produce and the industry was taking advantage of packaging breakthroughs that extend product shelf-life but allow more people to become exposed if there is contamination.
FDA's Lettuce Safety Initiative was initiated to stop illnesses not fight villains, he said. At first, there were "glitches with communication" between the industry and regulators. He heard reports, though, of "unprecedented cooperation" from the industry and hailed the experience as a model for responding to other food-safety matters.
"We have a better appreciation for the complexity of the issue," he said. Dr. Brackett outlined the worker health, animal control and water-quality issues found so far during the farm and processing facility visits.
While encouraging consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables, Dr. Brackett said that FDA has set the goal of reducing produce-associated illnesses by 25 percent over the next five years.
In the long term, there is a need to increase the use of sanitary handling procedures and to step up research and gather more information during outbreaks to understand how contamination occurs. It will depend on a large collaboration between industry and government, with a big role for university researchers and extension staff, he said.
Speaking at the Sept. 14 United Fresh Produce Association meeting, here, Mr. Stuart said that the industry has opportunities to expand the school snack program and provide more fruits and vegetables to mothers and children on a government feeding program.
But "there's a dark cloud on the horizon," he said, and if immigration reform is not passed, it could put the ability of the produce industry to succeed in "serious jeopardy."
Rep. Adam Putnam (R-FL) said that it will be a "Mount Everest-size struggle" to educate people on the need for immigration reform, but there is an opportunity during a lame duck session to pass a bill. "We don't want to start again in January," he added.
Congress continues to focus on border security, which he said is the easiest issue to fix, before the more difficult issues of how to create a stable workforce and what to do with the millions of people already working in the country.
As chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, Rep. Putnam called on the produce industry to educate Congress and their neighbors about the issue. "We've already lost [the debate] on the definition of amnesty," he said.
On the issue of the farm bill, members of Congress who spoke at the Washington Public Policy Conference urged advocates to continue pushing to modernize the 2007 farm bill and fight for specialty crop provisions, especially as the nation grapples with an obesity epidemic. But in a tight budgetary climate, "something will get squeezed," Rep. Putnam warned. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), who authored the popular snack pilot program for school-aged children, said that members of Congress are more aware of the need to respond to the obesity epidemic. With the age of adult-onset diabetes getting lower each year, Congress is looking for solutions, he said. It makes sense to expand the snack program to every elementary school in America, he told attendees at a Capitol Hill luncheon.
Congress also will need to respond to a World Trade Organization decision stemming from Brazil's challenge of the U.S. cotton crop subsidy program. Sen. Harkin said that Congress will look at the issue of restricting program crop growers from planting fruits and vegetables. Producers are concerned that growers receiving direct subsidies for planting cotton can grow fruits and vegetables, thereby affecting the prices and incomes of produce businesses.
The meeting also centered on food safety, and right before the spinach outbreak was announced, Robert Brackett, Food & Drug Administration food safety chief, updated the United Fresh meeting on its lettuce safety initiative. Started just weeks before the latest outbreak, the initiative was set in motion as a response to recurring outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7 in lettuce and has now been expanded to cover spinach.
Dr. Brackett said that produce-related outbreaks were on the rise in part because people were consuming more produce and the industry was taking advantage of packaging breakthroughs that extend product shelf-life but allow more people to become exposed if there is contamination.
FDA's Lettuce Safety Initiative was initiated to stop illnesses not fight villains, he said. At first, there were "glitches with communication" between the industry and regulators. He heard reports, though, of "unprecedented cooperation" from the industry and hailed the experience as a model for responding to other food-safety matters.
"We have a better appreciation for the complexity of the issue," he said. Dr. Brackett outlined the worker health, animal control and water-quality issues found so far during the farm and processing facility visits.
While encouraging consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables, Dr. Brackett said that FDA has set the goal of reducing produce-associated illnesses by 25 percent over the next five years.
In the long term, there is a need to increase the use of sanitary handling procedures and to step up research and gather more information during outbreaks to understand how contamination occurs. It will depend on a large collaboration between industry and government, with a big role for university researchers and extension staff, he said.
