Key issues in the spotlight at FFVA's 65th annual convention
Key issues in the spotlight at FFVA's 65th annual convention
NAPLES, FL - In the United States, 65 is the magic number that allows many workers to retire with full Social Security benefits. It represents an age that many people look forward to for their ability to slow down and enjoy their golden years.
The Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association, however, is doing anything but slowing down in its 65th year. During its annual convention, held Sept. 21-23 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, here, the association explored some of the major issues that are confronting the produce industry both in Florida and across the nation.
First on the agenda was a Sept. 22 session on sustainability that featured Andrew Sharp of the Fresca Group in the United Kingdom and Tim York of Salinas, CA-based Markon as panelists.
To set the stage, sustainability was defined as having two components: sustainable development and corporate social responsibility.
The first component was further defined by quoting the World Commission on the Environment & Development, which said in 1987 that sustainable development is "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
Corporate social responsibility was defined by the British Department of Trade & Industry as "voluntary actions that businesses can take, over and above compliance with minimum legal requirements, to address both its own competitive interests and the interests of wider society."
Mr. Sharp, who worked at the British retailers Marks & Spencer for 14 years and Tesco for three years prior to joining Fresca, said that Britain is further ahead on sustainability than the United States. He said that Marks & Spencer has what it calls "Plan A" with regard to sustainability efforts. The program is a 100-point initiative that covers various topics such as food miles and environmental issues. He said that Marks & Spencer suppliers are required to conform to Plan A in order to do business with the company. With Marks & Spencer accounting for 6 percent of food sales and 30 percent of clothing sales in the United Kingdom, its push for sustainability is not insignificant.
The retailer also is focused on reducing its own consumption of electricity and energy, according to Mr. Sharp, who said that it recently installed a system to process vegetable waste into methane gas, which could then be used as a source of energy.
Mr. York, whose buying organization is comprised of 11 independent distributors that supply foodservice establishments, said that consumption at foodservice establishments has declined for the first time in 31 years. As a result, he said that his members currently are not keen on investing money in sustainable measures due to the poor economy, but they are committed to doing things in an environmentally friendly and economically viable manner. But, he said, "As an industry, we are in danger if we don't start moving toward an industrywide model, as in the case of food safety, which resulted in multiple competing audit agencies."
He urged companies to look at even small things they can do to be more sustainable, and gave the example of Tanimura & Antle in Salinas converting its tractors to run on biodiesel.
"Sustainability does not require as much economic capital as it does intellectual capital," said Mr. York. "It's a journey, not a destination."
Food safety was the next big topic on the agenda at the convention, and a panel that featured some prominent members of the industry and government tried to shed some light on where the issue stands today.
The Sept. 23 session -- "Food safety: Is regulation in our future" -- featured David Acheson, associate commissioner of foods for the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, who is often referred to as the czar of food safety and who drew the ire of many tomato producers this summer for the Bush administration's handling of the Salmonella outbreak that was incorrectly attributed to tomatoes.
Joining Dr. Acheson on the panel were Tom Stenzel, president and chief executive officer of the United Fresh Produce Association, and Bryan Silbermann, president of the Produce Marketing Association.
Dr. Acheson admitted that there needs to be systemic changes in the approach to food safety and took the standing-room-only audience through the anatomy of a recall, beginning with the initial reports of an illness and going through the traceback of a product and the identification of a source. He said that in the case of a recent recall of peanut butter due to Salmonella contamination, the traceback was relatively easy since each jar is labeled with a lot code that tells when and where the product was produced.
That is not the case with produce, and tracing product is much more difficult since it is usually consumed and out of the pipeline by the time an outbreak is identified. He also said that tracebacks can be notoriously slow because they involve a lot of legwork and physical inspections at production facilities.
Dr. Acheson stressed the need for faster product tracing, more rapid detection methods and more emphasis on preventative controls. "We need to work together, both domestically and internationally, to break down these barriers," he said. "We need better interaction between federal, state, local and tribal governments, as well as foreign governments."
Mr. Stenzel was next on the dais and applauded Dr. Acheson's willingness to attend the convention in spite of the industry's less than benevolent view of the FDA.
Mr. Stenzel said that the current economic crisis has "wiped food safety off the map at Congress, but there will be major reforms coming in the next two years."
He stressed that whatever reforms do come, they need to be commodity- specific and they must be applied to both domestic and foreign product. With regard to the tomato traceback investigation, Mr. Stenzel said that one major problem was the lack of authority in running the probe. "No agency was clearly in charge," he said. "We need a command-and-control structure like what happens when the [National Transportation Safety Board] investigates a plane crash. They immediately have experts on the scene and they don't say what might have caused the crash; they wait until they know the cause for sure before they say anything."
With regard to a traceback system, Mr. Stenzel said that it is imperative to bring the industry into the fold. "I guarantee that we can do a traceback faster than the FDA because we know our industry" better than the FDA does. Next up was Mr. Silbermann, who filled in for Rep. Adam Putnam (R-FL) due to the congressman's need to attend to matters related to the economic bailout in Washington, DC.
Mr. Silbermann said that since produce is a global industry, there is a need to develop global solutions. He said that currently, traceability means different things to different people. There is now internal traceability, which is proprietary data that companies maintain, and external traceability, which is data exchange between companies and their trading partners.
"We need to combine these two parts," he said. "It is not enough to have internal traceability. We need to be able to pass data from one company to the next. We need common standards."
Mr. Silbermann said that advancements will come with the implementation of the GS1 standard, which requires that all brand owners (shippers) be assigned a numerical prefix to be included on all case configurations. He also said that public endorsement of the GS1 standard by major buyers and sellers, as well as associations, will be important for adoption of better traceback standards.
When the floor was opened to questions and comments, Tony DiMare of DiMare Inc., a leading tomato grower and an outspoken critic of the FDA's handling of this summer's traceback investigation, said to Dr. Acheson, "FDA really missed the boat on this investigation. You need to bring the [produce] industry into the investigation earlier ... or we cannot help."
Dr. Acheson replied, "I agree. We're learning from each other. We need transparency, and I am committed to this."
Billy Heller, chief executive officer of Pacific Tomato/Triple E Produce, also a leading tomato grower, pointed out a weak link in the traceability plan, stating, "Twenty percent of the tomato producers make up 80 percent of the volume. Those who produce the other 20 percent of the volume will not come into compliance [with GTIN] for years, and the standard needs to apply across the board."
The final educational session of the convention dealt with immigration and its effect on agriculture. Panelists for the session were Monte Lake, an attorney with Siff & Lake LLP, and Craig Ruggelbrugge, co-chairman of the Agricultural Coalition for Immigration Reform.
Mr. Lake started by saying that there has been a significant rise in immigration enforcement by the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration & Customs Enforcement division during recent years, and it is leaving agriculture employers in a difficult position. He said that the current H-2A guest worker program is a "mixed bag" that is rife with problems. "Reform could potentially be good," he said, "but we just don't know yet." "For employers, challenges stem from it being a patchwork that includes federal and state laws as a result of inaction by Congress," he added.
Stating what has become painfully obvious for the produce industry, Mr. Lake said, "If we don't come up with a viable legal labor supply, it will impede agriculture from moving forward."
Mr. Ruggelbrugge started his presentation by stating that the required labor force for agriculture has remained steady at 1.6 million workers for the past several years, yet 70 percent of the workers remain unauthorized, indicating the lack of progress on any meaningful reform.
To illustrate the lack of available labor, he cited the fact that 25 percent of the pear crop in Lake County, CA, was lost in 2006 and 1 million pounds of asparagus in western Michigan was lost in 2007 due to the shortage of workers.
Mr. Ruggelbrugge said that he is doubtful that any reform will happen this year due to the economic crisis and the lame duck administration in place. But he said that both presidential candidates offer some hope for assistance. "Senator McCain is capable of collaboration across the aisle and may be motivated to get this issue out of the way early," he said.
Regarding Sen. Barack Obama, he said, "He faces less risk on this issue as his base presents less of a problem. But many newly elected Democrats are afraid of the issue."
Mr. Ruggelbrugge suggested that immigration reform needs grassroots action, favorable media attention, passionate community outreach and national support.
He closed by saying, "I remain optimistic that we will get this problem solved. As Winston Churchill once said, 'Americans will do the right thing once they have tried everything else.' "
The Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association, however, is doing anything but slowing down in its 65th year. During its annual convention, held Sept. 21-23 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, here, the association explored some of the major issues that are confronting the produce industry both in Florida and across the nation.
First on the agenda was a Sept. 22 session on sustainability that featured Andrew Sharp of the Fresca Group in the United Kingdom and Tim York of Salinas, CA-based Markon as panelists.
To set the stage, sustainability was defined as having two components: sustainable development and corporate social responsibility.
The first component was further defined by quoting the World Commission on the Environment & Development, which said in 1987 that sustainable development is "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
Corporate social responsibility was defined by the British Department of Trade & Industry as "voluntary actions that businesses can take, over and above compliance with minimum legal requirements, to address both its own competitive interests and the interests of wider society."
Mr. Sharp, who worked at the British retailers Marks & Spencer for 14 years and Tesco for three years prior to joining Fresca, said that Britain is further ahead on sustainability than the United States. He said that Marks & Spencer has what it calls "Plan A" with regard to sustainability efforts. The program is a 100-point initiative that covers various topics such as food miles and environmental issues. He said that Marks & Spencer suppliers are required to conform to Plan A in order to do business with the company. With Marks & Spencer accounting for 6 percent of food sales and 30 percent of clothing sales in the United Kingdom, its push for sustainability is not insignificant.
The retailer also is focused on reducing its own consumption of electricity and energy, according to Mr. Sharp, who said that it recently installed a system to process vegetable waste into methane gas, which could then be used as a source of energy.
Mr. York, whose buying organization is comprised of 11 independent distributors that supply foodservice establishments, said that consumption at foodservice establishments has declined for the first time in 31 years. As a result, he said that his members currently are not keen on investing money in sustainable measures due to the poor economy, but they are committed to doing things in an environmentally friendly and economically viable manner. But, he said, "As an industry, we are in danger if we don't start moving toward an industrywide model, as in the case of food safety, which resulted in multiple competing audit agencies."
He urged companies to look at even small things they can do to be more sustainable, and gave the example of Tanimura & Antle in Salinas converting its tractors to run on biodiesel.
"Sustainability does not require as much economic capital as it does intellectual capital," said Mr. York. "It's a journey, not a destination."
Food safety was the next big topic on the agenda at the convention, and a panel that featured some prominent members of the industry and government tried to shed some light on where the issue stands today.
The Sept. 23 session -- "Food safety: Is regulation in our future" -- featured David Acheson, associate commissioner of foods for the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, who is often referred to as the czar of food safety and who drew the ire of many tomato producers this summer for the Bush administration's handling of the Salmonella outbreak that was incorrectly attributed to tomatoes.
Joining Dr. Acheson on the panel were Tom Stenzel, president and chief executive officer of the United Fresh Produce Association, and Bryan Silbermann, president of the Produce Marketing Association.
Dr. Acheson admitted that there needs to be systemic changes in the approach to food safety and took the standing-room-only audience through the anatomy of a recall, beginning with the initial reports of an illness and going through the traceback of a product and the identification of a source. He said that in the case of a recent recall of peanut butter due to Salmonella contamination, the traceback was relatively easy since each jar is labeled with a lot code that tells when and where the product was produced.
That is not the case with produce, and tracing product is much more difficult since it is usually consumed and out of the pipeline by the time an outbreak is identified. He also said that tracebacks can be notoriously slow because they involve a lot of legwork and physical inspections at production facilities.
Dr. Acheson stressed the need for faster product tracing, more rapid detection methods and more emphasis on preventative controls. "We need to work together, both domestically and internationally, to break down these barriers," he said. "We need better interaction between federal, state, local and tribal governments, as well as foreign governments."
Mr. Stenzel was next on the dais and applauded Dr. Acheson's willingness to attend the convention in spite of the industry's less than benevolent view of the FDA.
Mr. Stenzel said that the current economic crisis has "wiped food safety off the map at Congress, but there will be major reforms coming in the next two years."
He stressed that whatever reforms do come, they need to be commodity- specific and they must be applied to both domestic and foreign product. With regard to the tomato traceback investigation, Mr. Stenzel said that one major problem was the lack of authority in running the probe. "No agency was clearly in charge," he said. "We need a command-and-control structure like what happens when the [National Transportation Safety Board] investigates a plane crash. They immediately have experts on the scene and they don't say what might have caused the crash; they wait until they know the cause for sure before they say anything."
With regard to a traceback system, Mr. Stenzel said that it is imperative to bring the industry into the fold. "I guarantee that we can do a traceback faster than the FDA because we know our industry" better than the FDA does. Next up was Mr. Silbermann, who filled in for Rep. Adam Putnam (R-FL) due to the congressman's need to attend to matters related to the economic bailout in Washington, DC.
Mr. Silbermann said that since produce is a global industry, there is a need to develop global solutions. He said that currently, traceability means different things to different people. There is now internal traceability, which is proprietary data that companies maintain, and external traceability, which is data exchange between companies and their trading partners.
"We need to combine these two parts," he said. "It is not enough to have internal traceability. We need to be able to pass data from one company to the next. We need common standards."
Mr. Silbermann said that advancements will come with the implementation of the GS1 standard, which requires that all brand owners (shippers) be assigned a numerical prefix to be included on all case configurations. He also said that public endorsement of the GS1 standard by major buyers and sellers, as well as associations, will be important for adoption of better traceback standards.
When the floor was opened to questions and comments, Tony DiMare of DiMare Inc., a leading tomato grower and an outspoken critic of the FDA's handling of this summer's traceback investigation, said to Dr. Acheson, "FDA really missed the boat on this investigation. You need to bring the [produce] industry into the investigation earlier ... or we cannot help."
Dr. Acheson replied, "I agree. We're learning from each other. We need transparency, and I am committed to this."
Billy Heller, chief executive officer of Pacific Tomato/Triple E Produce, also a leading tomato grower, pointed out a weak link in the traceability plan, stating, "Twenty percent of the tomato producers make up 80 percent of the volume. Those who produce the other 20 percent of the volume will not come into compliance [with GTIN] for years, and the standard needs to apply across the board."
The final educational session of the convention dealt with immigration and its effect on agriculture. Panelists for the session were Monte Lake, an attorney with Siff & Lake LLP, and Craig Ruggelbrugge, co-chairman of the Agricultural Coalition for Immigration Reform.
Mr. Lake started by saying that there has been a significant rise in immigration enforcement by the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration & Customs Enforcement division during recent years, and it is leaving agriculture employers in a difficult position. He said that the current H-2A guest worker program is a "mixed bag" that is rife with problems. "Reform could potentially be good," he said, "but we just don't know yet." "For employers, challenges stem from it being a patchwork that includes federal and state laws as a result of inaction by Congress," he added.
Stating what has become painfully obvious for the produce industry, Mr. Lake said, "If we don't come up with a viable legal labor supply, it will impede agriculture from moving forward."
Mr. Ruggelbrugge started his presentation by stating that the required labor force for agriculture has remained steady at 1.6 million workers for the past several years, yet 70 percent of the workers remain unauthorized, indicating the lack of progress on any meaningful reform.
To illustrate the lack of available labor, he cited the fact that 25 percent of the pear crop in Lake County, CA, was lost in 2006 and 1 million pounds of asparagus in western Michigan was lost in 2007 due to the shortage of workers.
Mr. Ruggelbrugge said that he is doubtful that any reform will happen this year due to the economic crisis and the lame duck administration in place. But he said that both presidential candidates offer some hope for assistance. "Senator McCain is capable of collaboration across the aisle and may be motivated to get this issue out of the way early," he said.
Regarding Sen. Barack Obama, he said, "He faces less risk on this issue as his base presents less of a problem. But many newly elected Democrats are afraid of the issue."
Mr. Ruggelbrugge suggested that immigration reform needs grassroots action, favorable media attention, passionate community outreach and national support.
He closed by saying, "I remain optimistic that we will get this problem solved. As Winston Churchill once said, 'Americans will do the right thing once they have tried everything else.' "
