Divergent opinions grow over federal proposal for leafy greens regulations
USDA weighs safety options

The comments are in and now the nation's leafy greens growers and major produce associations are waiting to see how the U.S. Department of Agriculture will regulate the safety of spinach, lettuce and other leafy greens. USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service received more than 3,500 comments on a proposed leafy greens safety program before the Dec. 3 deadline.

Michael Durando, chief of USDA's marketing order administration branch, said his staff was busy this week posting the comments online. They will now start reviewing them. "What we will probably have with these comments is a highly diverse group of comments from diverse segments of the public", Durando said. "From there we'll have to figure out: is there a common theme, is there a compelling argument one way or the other, and then do something."

USDA is weighing various options, including developing a marketing agreement similar to the one in California that requires handlers to comply with food safety standards after voluntarily entering the program. Another option is a federal marketing order that would be implemented following a grower referendum, requiring mandatory compliance for all handlers.

In the past few months, Arizona joined California in establishing a leafy greens marketing agreement. Officials in Florida are also said to be exploring a leafy greens program. Steve Patricio, president of Westside Produce in Firebaugh, Calif., and chairman of Western Growers, said the fresh produce industry across the country is more focused than ever on food safety.

"There is phenomenal momentum based upon the California marketing agreement strategy," Patricio said. "But at the same time, the real crying need from a consumer perspective as well as a shipper perspective is for a federal solution so there is a level playing field throughout the country and relative to imports."

Western Growers was a catalyst in creating the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement after the 2006 outbreak of E. coli was linked to fresh, bagged spinach that was eventually traced to a single field. Patricio said part of Western Growers' three-pronged plan is development of national leafy greens regulations that are uniformly applied to domestic and imported produce, and science-based.

Joe Pezzini, chairman of California's Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement board and vice president of operations for Castroville-based Ocean Mist Farms, said the operation of the program in 2007 has gone smoothly. More than 400 audits have been done of growers and handlers to ensure compliance with food safety metrics and good agricultural practices. Pezzini said the logical next step is a national program.

"Food safety doesn't stop at the border. You do have other states, Arizona, Florida, Texas, looking at using this as a model", Pezzini said. "Producing safe food should be a priority for everyone." But not everyone agrees on how the national program should regulate leafy greens. "The biggest conflict going today (is) that despite the good things that are being done in terms of a national solution, there have been some buying groups who are trying to throw out their own new rules of new metrics", Patricio said.

A consortium of major produce buyers, the Food Safety Leadership Council, has issued a set of food safety standards, many which exceed current practices under California's Leafy Greens Agreement. For instance, the council advocates a minimum buffer between grazing livestock and growing fields. It requires concentrated animal feedlots to be separated from produce fields by a minimum one-mile buffer.

Tom Nassif, president and chief executive officer of Western Growers, responded to the council in a Nov. 6 letter to Garry Bergstrom of Publix Super Markets. "We believe that the new standards are unreasonable, excessive and scientifically indefensible and will require produce suppliers to submit to redundant, expensive and unnecessary food safety inspections and audits," Nassif wrote.

Nassif took issue with a wide range of council actions and asked Bergstrom to explain in greater detail the purpose and justification for them.

"Your effort marks the beginning of a destructive food-safety 'arms race,' where different groups of produce buyers, in an effort to claim that they have safer produce than the next, will impose on fresh-produce suppliers ever more stringent, expensive and scientifically indefensible food safety requirements without even the implication that the additional costs will be reimbursed", Nassif stated.

While Western Growers and the Food Safety Leadership Council try to sort out their differences, USDA's Durando said his staff will press forward to analyze comments on the proposed federal leafy greens marketing program. "Our goal is to complete the review and do it in a thorough and comprehensive way and do it as quickly as possible and as prudently as possible", Durando said.

Source: capitalpress.info

Publication date: 12/18/2007

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