WGA urge businesses to voice support at CDFA meeting
WGA urge businesses to voice support at CDFA meeting
Top officials with the Western Growers Association plan to meet with leafy green businesses in early January to explain the proposed California marketing agreement and to urge them to strongly support it at the Jan. 12 public meeting in Salinas.
WGA Chairman Steve Patricio and President and Chief Executive Officer Tom Nassif, along with senior staff, are planning to discuss the marketing agreement Jan. 10 and 11 with growers and handlers in El Centro, Oxnard, Santa Maria and Salinas. The group is rallying support for the Jan. 12 public meeting at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Salinas.
Leafy green companies that handle, process, ship or distribute products would come under the new agreement which, for the first time, welcomes California government oversight and certifies to buyers that the products are produced under prescribed best practices and traceback programs. It would be voluntary for handlers to participate in the program, which would certify and verify that products bearing a seal were grown and processed under the terms of the agreement.
Produce trade associations are hoping the marketing agreement is in place in February, setting the stage for the mandatory leafy green marketing order, which may be circulated to growers in draft form as early as late January.
Western Growers Association told its members that all California leafy green handlers must read, understand and sign the marketing agreement to make it work. Handlers should immediately sign and implement the marketing agreement once it's officially approved by the California Department of Food & Agriculture, WGA said in a notice to members.
In the meantime, the produce industry is eagerly awaiting the final report from food safety authorities on the spinach outbreak, the incident that has forever changed the "nation's salad bowl" in California. That report was expected by the end of December but was delayed when FDA outbreak investigators were reassigned to the Taco Bell incident, according to an FDA spokesman.
WGA Chairman Steve Patricio and President and Chief Executive Officer Tom Nassif, along with senior staff, are planning to discuss the marketing agreement Jan. 10 and 11 with growers and handlers in El Centro, Oxnard, Santa Maria and Salinas. The group is rallying support for the Jan. 12 public meeting at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Salinas.
Leafy green companies that handle, process, ship or distribute products would come under the new agreement which, for the first time, welcomes California government oversight and certifies to buyers that the products are produced under prescribed best practices and traceback programs. It would be voluntary for handlers to participate in the program, which would certify and verify that products bearing a seal were grown and processed under the terms of the agreement.
Produce trade associations are hoping the marketing agreement is in place in February, setting the stage for the mandatory leafy green marketing order, which may be circulated to growers in draft form as early as late January.
Western Growers Association told its members that all California leafy green handlers must read, understand and sign the marketing agreement to make it work. Handlers should immediately sign and implement the marketing agreement once it's officially approved by the California Department of Food & Agriculture, WGA said in a notice to members.
In the meantime, the produce industry is eagerly awaiting the final report from food safety authorities on the spinach outbreak, the incident that has forever changed the "nation's salad bowl" in California. That report was expected by the end of December but was delayed when FDA outbreak investigators were reassigned to the Taco Bell incident, according to an FDA spokesman.
