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8 • May 2007 • Farmer & Rancher Leafy Green Agreement Adopted to Assist Producers and Consumers by Steven Knudsen G reen leafy vegetable growers and handlers across California want to earn their customers back, and after seven months of coalition building and policy development they are positioned to do just that. The green leafy vegetable industry, along with support from Western Growers, Farm Bureau (FB), Produce Marketing Association and California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), has developed a food-safety matrix for production and harvest of lettuce and leafy greens. The agreement has come in response to consumer, retail, regulator and agricultural industry pressure stemming from the E. coli 0157H:7 outbreak last fall, which sadly resulted in 205 confirmed illnesses and three deaths in 26 states. The outbreak, which ultimately devastated the spinach industry in California, contributed to farm gate losses in San Luis Obispo County greater than $1.5 million, a 56 percent drop from 2005. Statewide, spinach growers lost close to $100 million dollars after regulators warned consumers to stop eating bagged spinach. To regain consumer confidence, green leafy handlers across the state have signed on as signatories to comply with the industry’s Good Agriculture Practices (GAP) defined within the matrix; they include best practices for irrigation water, soil amendments, nonsynthethic crop treatments, machine harvest, hand harvest, equipment-facilitated cross contamination, flooding, post-harvest water application, production locations and employee hygiene. These GAPs were developed by a coalition of leafy greens industry members and were reviewed and endorsed by food science experts in academia and government. As of April 1, a total of 71 handlers have become signatories to the agreement. Locally, many Central Coast handlers are signed on in support of the agreement: Agro Jal Farms Inc., Santa Maria; Babe Farms Inc., Santa Maria; Beachside Produce LLC, Guadalupe; Bonita Packing Company, Santa Maria; Fresh Kist, Nipomo; Pismo–Oceano Vegetable Exchange, Oceano; Sun Coast Farms, Santa Maria; and Talley Farms Inc., Arroyo Grande. On March 23, the newly formed Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement Board of Directors, which represents more than 99 percent of the leafy greens produced in California, accepted the matrix to be used in the marketing agreement’s verification program with a unanimous vote. Executive Board Member Ryan Talley had this to say about the agreement. “In a very short period of time, the industry has united and with the help of many individuals has worked tirelessly developing safety standards to make an extremely safe industry even safer.” Farmer & Rancher • May 2007 • 9 New regulation doesn’t come cheap, and signatories of the agreement are prepared to pay two cents per carton for the new program, which will be administered by CDFA. The assessment will generate approximately $4.6 million, with $3 million earmarked for auditing alone. Experts have told the board that the cost of implementing the program could run the board upward to $5 million in the first year. Ultimately, the budget will fund 12 to 15 fulltime inspectors to first inspect each farm for compliance and then enforce the GAPs outlined in the food-safety matrix. FB’s Rayne Thompson, Director–International Trade and Plant Health, said that development of the marketing agreement and matrix wasn’t easy. “Fast, thorough and tough decisions had to be made. It was important to get it done or someone else would have done it for us.” Inspections are scheduled to begin this spring. In the interim, trial inspections of signatories will take place with the expectation that each signatory is compliant with the program’s guidelines for good agricultural practices. The practices affect leafy green production of iceberg lettuce, romaine lettuce, green leaf lettuce, red leaf lettuce, butter lettuce, baby leaf lettuce (i.e., immature lettuce or leafy greens), escarole, endive, spring mix, spinach, cabbage, kale, arugula and chard. In the meantime, Senator Dean Flores is developing three controversial food-safety bills. SB 200 requires coordination of foodsafety inspections between the Department of Public Health and CDFA; SB 201 requires specific leafy green growing practices; and SB 202 requires a trace-back system and a biannual mock recall. All three bills have worked their way through the senate review process, passing on party line votes. Senate agriculture supporters, however, had some success in amending the bills. SB 201 was ammended to allow growers to apply for a variance if they wanted to follow different practices than those outlined in the bill and deleted the reference to a marketing order. LEAFY GREENS • • • • • • • Arugula Cabbage Chard Endive Escarole Kale Lettuces – baby leaf, butter, green & red leaf, iceberg, romaine • Spinach • Spring mix “Everyone’s goal is to provide consumers with a safe product,” says Thompson. “It is important to remember that the leafy green industry already provides some of the safest and highest-quality greens in the world. With this in mind, it is our hope that this effort will regain customer confidence and revive the industry.” Photos Left – Romaine lettuce is carefully harvested, leaving any leaves that touched the soil in the field. Center – 2006 lettuce production in SLO County accounted for more than $41.5 million or 21 percent of total vegetable production. Right – Green leafy vegetables are carefully inspected for quality. Photos by Steven Knudsen.