Food Safety for Dummies

Which should be the unofficial name for the FDA.   A customer had some spinach sampled the other day by that agency and was prompted to order a recall because the random test came back positive for e-coli.  The spinach had been on the store shelf for almost 2 weeks and was either at or beyond its best before date when sampled.  Short of irradiation or cooking the spinach, there is almost no way not to have a positive test for some microorganisms two weeks after washing.  Also, by the time the test was conducted and the results were known it was another two weeks later.  Of course by that time 99% of the spinach in that lot was either eaten or thrown out, but the customer was told to order the recall anyway.  It will probably depress sales of his brand for a couple of months.  I'm sure if the FDA conducted the same tests in the meat case of most supermarkets we would all be vegetarians in short order.  My customer went on a harangue about the injustice of it and i had to agree with most of what he said.  However, as a society, we all want to be confident the food we eat is safe.  The reforms Teddy Roosevelt put in place after the muckrakers of the early 20th century exposed the meatpacking industry were necessary, and more regulation is not necessarily a bad thing.  However, common sense is also a necessary part of the regulatory process. 

Food for the food

Was a phrase used by an acquaintance last night during a dinner party.  He was referring to a salad served midway through the meal as a palate cleanser.  Unfortunately, while he was being snarky, I don't think the sentiment was too far from his real feelings re the vegetable kingdom.  As we slide into 2012, one of the things our industry must address is the consumer perception that fresh vegtables are neither necessary or desirable additions to ordinary or even special dinners.  While their is a large constituency for fresh among baby boomers and those concerned about their health, an even larger number of younger generations and the elderly have either abandoned fresh, or never embraced it in the first place.  Some people will dump a couple of cans of sodium laced vegetables on the plate and feel they have served up a healthy meal.  Education can help with these perceptions, but cost and flavor are the real drivers of consumption in many cases.  In store demos of fresh vegetable cookery, much as the additive laced processed food manufacturers do at Costco and Sam's Club may be one way to boost consumption.  More visible information regarding the health benefits of fresh is another.  Who will foot the bills and who will design the programs?  Something needs to be done, or demand will level off and  will be reflected in the producer pricing.  We need to promote produce as food for us, not food for the food.

Southern Cooking

The NYT has an article in today's edition praising the revival of "traditional" southern cooking.  As usual in these kinds of reporting, they focus on the very high end chefs and the boutique farms that serve them.  A gentleman farmer who seemingly makes a good living raising 200 pigs which gourmet restaurants around the country slaver for; a rice and grain expert who is bringing back the original ingredients for "hoppin john", and various other players who rarely get their hands dirty.  No mention of "artisanal" produce.  I guess regular dirt farmers don't rate unless they are growing collards or kale from 17th century heirloom seed, if then.  Meanwhile, the local NPR station did a small feature on a couple of locals who started a CSA several years ago.  I've seen some of their stuff and I guess their customers are either hopeless romantics who are dead set on supporting local agriculture, or clueless about what good organic produce looks like.   But it's good to see a couple of guys making a living off a few acres of produce in the Champlain valley.  What I am driving at is the gradual reinvention of agriculture, circa 2011.  I hope it continues in the new year.

Not a creature was stirring...especially truck drivers

I hate the week between Christmas and New Years.  Buyers are on vacation and their subs don't want to talk to anyone unless they have to.  Suppliers are frantically trying to move the crop which inconveniently won't stop growing for the holiday.  Consumers are still eating leftovers from Christmas and planning New Year's parties which are mostly booze and salty snacks and finally, looming over all is the absence of trucks from the road.  There are a few hardy souls out there willing to deliver, but seemingly, the vast majority of truckers want to haul a load which arrives close to their house on Christmas Eve, and then hibernate until Jan. 2.  Add in the first serious snow storms in the Plains states and the mountains and even the few trucks on the road are being delayed.  As I have whined previously, holidays are the bane of the produce business.

Day after

Looks like a Merry Christmas was had by all at Casa Monzeglio.  The wrapping paper is cleaned up and we will begin the countdown to Christmas tree undecorate day.  Knowing Mrs. M. this event will be delayed until well into the New Year.  In the meantime,  I hope the market for vegetables will pick up as 2012 approaches. 

Twas the night before the night before...

And all through the industry, not a tractor was stirring.   It seems the Christmas on Sunday thing is not what a lot of people thought it would be.  Because the week before the holiday is not truncated, it seems there is not urgency to prepare.  I stopped at a local supermarket to buy some items for Christmas dinner after work yesterday and there was a pretty good crowd of shoppers, but still not a mob scene.  Retailers of holiday gifts are, I think, finding much the same outcome.  Today and tomorrow feature blowout sales already and the vibe is discount or bust.  Sounds like the FOBs for western produce.  Lettuce is already being consigned to wholesale markets and even items in relatively short supply such as cauliflower and broccoli are tumbling.  Trucks are still available out west, and for most of us in the produce business, the holiday is over.  All in all, a not so Merry Christmas to all and to all the hope of a better 2012.

Silver Bells and lead linings

The wreckage of the Christmas business is on full display in Hunt's Point market this morning.  Lettuce at $12, cauliflower at $14. and on and on.  The FOBs for all these items are at least that high, which means there are a lot of bill downs going on.  So the only white Christmas shippers are experiencing is a blizzard of paperwork as they see their potential profits evaporate.  Meanwhile, the consumer, on whom we all depend is nowhere to be seen.  There will be business before the holiday, but how much and when is the question.  Meanwhile on the NCR, I'll be harvesting the Christmas spinach and New Year's collards tonight.  The temps will be in the low 40s today, but it looks like a real White Christmas by tomorrow at noon.  We'll see.

Post Christmas/ Channukah

Looks like whatever rush there was for the holiday is over.  Starting next week we'll look forward to the new year, and with Congress dithering on the payroll tax deduction it looks like most people will have even less money in their pockets than they do now.  Although the 2% they are talking about is not a make or break deal for most people.  Especially for the people these pious hypocrites claim they are fighting for.  If anything it will just convince them to be lighter on their grocery shopping than they have been.  This of course translates into another slow month in the produce business.  I am firmly convinced we will not see a rebound in demand until more people get back on the employment rolls. 

Snow business...

Blizzards in the heartland, ice in the fields in Yuma, balmy breezes in Montreal.  Wait, what's wrong with this picture.  It seems this year we will be robbed of our traditional white Christmas.  I for one won't be crying if we are green on the 25th.  The spinach still looks nice under the reemay blankets and the collards and kale are hanging out with panache.  Still no push for fresh veggies on the wholesale markets.  It seems the consumer has factored in the mild temps and is putting off Christmas dinner shopping til the last moment.  At least that is what produce growers, buyers and sellers are hoping.  Otherwise, the markets will tank and the eggnog will curdle.  Unless there is a major weather event, the prospect of the New Year will be somewhat terrifying if the last couple of weeks are a preview of future prospects in the deal.

Seasonal Madness

Drank the Christmas Kool-Aid yesterday.  Strolling the streets of Lake Placid on a picture perfect December day, absorbing the Christmas vibe, and listening to Nine Lessons and assorted hymns and carols performed by the Northern Adirondack Vocal Ensemble.  My favorite Alto was involved of course, so the experience was even more pleasurable.  I have always been a sucker for the holiday season, dating back to my Catholic school days when the whole thing took on mystical significance.  But, today it's back to the produce business, which seems the antithesis of the above.  The only spirit I've noticed so far is a Scroogian refusal by the populace to eat their veggies.  The markets for many items are plunging and there is no quick turnaround in sight.  The economy is still weighing on many people's purchasing decisions.  Hopefully the New Year's resolution to eat healthy will boost sales as we head into January.

Ready

For Christmas, Channukah, Kwanza, Festivus, etc?  Not.  At this time of the season, virtually everyone in the supply chain asks if you are "ready" for whatever holiday you celebrate.  The usual answers range from "not quite" to "are you kidding".  Most of the women gleefully tell you they are finished (whatever that means) and most men, myself included,don't start thinking about it until about 5 days before whatever the date is.  Most people in the produce business hate the holidays because it means a lot of guessing about supply and demand, late trucks and tension which drains you of any holiday spirit.  The whole month of December is one long slog and New Year's day is the goal.  Not because of any holiday spirit, but because it signifies the end of a marathon of snafus.  So when the next person asks me if I'm ready for the holidays, I'll take a page from Scrooge's book and boil them in their Christmas pudding and bury them with a stake of holly driven through their heart.  Humbug!

Pricing and the holidays

As usual, the disconnect between the FOB price and the actual market at wholesalers is getting wider and wider as the weather conditions in the west make growers' expectations soar.  Cauliflower is $20./carton FOB, but the wholesalers in Hunt's Point are selling for $22.  Freight is about $4.00/carton.  Profit on a $24. item should be at least $4., so the selling price should be north of $28.00.  The same disparity is apparent with broccoli and lettuce.  The cause is again the grower's desire to maximize profit, but to keep the coolers empty as we approach the holidays.  So they get the max FOB from anyone willing to pay and they make deals or consign the rest hoping for even higher returns.  These hopes are rarely fulfilled, but that doen't stop them from repeating this dance every year.

White Christmas anyone?

The odds are usually pretty good for a blanket of white here on the NCR.  In the ten years I have lived here, I think we have had snow on the ground 9 times, even if it was only a dusting.  This year could be another anomaly.  Daytime temps should be in the 30s and nights in the teens next week, but that is more typical of New Jersey this time of year.  But that is OK with me.  A green Christmas (fresh spinach anyone?) works for me.

How Apropos

Just after posting regarding nutrition and voting, I saw an article in the WaPo which claimed the President carried 81% of counties which had a Whole Foods Warehouse, but only 35% of the counties with a Cracker Barrel Restaurant.  I rest my case.

Nutrition and Politics

As the clown car of Republican candidates descends to Iowa for the blessing of the few, dedicated  true beleivers who skew heavily towards the evangelical end of the religio-political spectrum, I wonder if nutrition has anything to do with political affiliation.  Surely, socio-economic status has hitherto been the most reliable indicator of allegiance to democrats and republicans.  The evangelicals have recently skewed this as they apparently put social and religious issues ahead of economics.  So you get the spectacle of a $30,000/year mechanic voting for the plutocracy because they promise to put a lock and key on his neighbor's daughter's uterus.  What is he eating?   I have a feeling better nutrition, i.e. less twinkies and more fresh veggies might help clear his thinking a little.  Anyway, I believe, without any particular evidence that the dumbing down of our political discourse is connected to the enormous amounts of empty calories consumed by too many of my countrymen.  It tends to preserve my sanity.

the weirdness continues

Weatherwise, it's such a lovely day, to quote the song, but that's only here.  Seven and a half inches of rain in South Florida, snow in Little Rock, and more on the way for other southern locations.  It's a festival of strange on the weather front.  The freeze in the Arizona desert will make your holiday dip tray a little more expensive as cauliflower and broccoli prices rise.  Meanwhile, east coast spinach growers are still shipping, much to the chagrin of Texas and Arizona growers.   What is remarkable about the above reports is the frequency with which they are reported.  Where any one of the weather events I described used to be a once a year or once a decade experience, now you can find all of them on one weekend.  What that bodes for the future of agriculture here and globally is ominous.

Family farming

A friend recently sent a you tube link to some farmers at the OWS in New York.  They looked to be fairly young, probably supplying the green markets in the city during the season from small farms just outside the megalopolis.  These are the kind of farming entrepeneurs who get nada from the government, except for programs aimed at low income taxpayers.  While Cargil, ADM, and the 10,000 acre corn and soybean growers rake in millions of our dollars to subsidize the factory farming system which is turning  Murcans into the most obese society in history.  Let's spend some of that funding on the 5 and 10 acre local farmers who put virtually all their income back into their community.  If these folks can make a decent middle class income, the local food movement would get a huge shot in the arm and more people would be exposed to good, seasonal fruits and veggies at affordable prices.  It would be a virtuous feedback cycle, encouraging more ambitious young people to get into the farming business.  That is critical, as the older generation of farmers is rapidly reaching retirement without replacements.

Tis the season

For patronizing far off farms as we try to deny the seasonal eating which virtually every generation before the baby boom lived with.   Instead of eating the storage vegetables available in each region of the colder parts of the country, we have an iceberg or romaine salad courtesy of Yuma, Arizona.  The lettuce was probably harvested at least a week before the consumer ever gets their hands on it, so the freshness angle is greatly overplayed.  If there was ever any nutrition in the lettuce it probably was lost during transit.  The broccoli, cauliflower, greens , etc. are definitely more nutritious, but even they suffer from extended transit times.  In many cases, flash frozen veg has more nutrients than its stressed out fresh counterparts.   I guess I have been spoiled after many years of gardening, but I have become more and more reluctant to buy the "fresh" vegetables offered during the winter.  I usually succumb, but with the lengthening season in my own gardens the transition to week old veg is looking even less palatable than usual. 

Weather fixation

I know I have a weather fixation, but since it so directly impacts everything I do, I beg your indulgence.  Freezes in S. California and Arizona.  Torrential rains in the midwest.  Mild temps in the Northeast.  What is a produce broker and small farmer to do.  Mostly enjoy, I guess.  The spinach deal continues in New Jersey as some fields are coming back for recut for the third time with some of the best quality of the season.  Meanwhile, frost and freeze in the Arizona desert where most of America's winter lettuce is produced have forced the price up and limited availability for Christmas and New Year's promotion.  I still have lettuce in my garden, although it would be some damage to pick through.  Anytime you can pick fresh salad greens in December in northern New York, it is strange, to say the least.  Carpe diem!

Holding your breath

It seems both the weather and the veg business is holding their collective breath as the Christmas and New Year's holidays approach.  It was 35 degrees when I walked the family pooch this morning at 6 a.m.. Last year at this time, that would have been the high temp for the week.  The weatherman says some snow showers tonight, but no real deep freeze on the horizon.  I harvested a couple pounds of beautiful spinach for supper last night.  It went very well with some sauteed onions and a can of black beans.  There is still plenty more of that in the garden.  Meanwhile, the produce business is moribund.  The squeeze on the middle class has seemingly lowered demand for most vegetables.  I think many people are saving their more limited monetary firepower for the holiday meals and entertainments.  So they skimp in the weeks leading up to Christmas and Channukah and the result is sluggish sales for the chains and food service wholesalers.  I guess we need snow and tax cuts to get the season moving.  Everyone hum a few bars of White Christmas....

S.A.D.

Stands for seasonal affect disorder.  That's a feeling of depression brought on by low light levels as the day length shortens to it's nadir on the winter solstice.  I think the produce business is suffering from the malady, since everyone you speak to seems to think the world is ending.  Certainly the produce world is feeling the effects of low levels of sales and enthusiasm. 

Really strange weather

The ski resorts must think there is a celestial prankster on the loose.  After 10 inches of snow before Thanksgiving, we have had 2 weeks of milder than normal weather for this time of year.  On Sunday I played golf, mulched the garlic beds and harvested broccoli and carrots.  Skiing was not in the cards, unless you had rollers on the bottom of your skis.  Looks like the warm will continue, albeit not gardening and golfing weather, at least til the weekend.  I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, but it's looking more like the plot of the movie of that name.  We may have to wait until Christmas eve for the traditional blanket of white.

To market to market

Once again, the farmer strikes.  I deliver commodity A to a receiver who tells me he can buy the exact same commodity one bag at a time from another receiver on the same market for the same price I am charging.  The same grower demands an FOB price which precludes my making a profit and at the same time consigns product.  The result is he loses and I lose.  But the farmer feels good somehow because he is dealing directly with the customer and cutting out the parasitic middleman.  I know this sounds self serving, but the broker acts as a buffer between the farmer and the wholesaler, using knowledge of the markets to maximize the return to the grower while providing a fair price to the market.  I have been struggling to make sense of the grower's folly for over 25 years and to this day it still makes no sense. 

Fired up, ready to what

Beautiful morning here on the NCR.  The temp is a mild (For December) 28 degrees.  It makes you feel empowered to work and satisfy the intense demand for the healthy products you are selling.  Then you make the first call and get the first rejection.  "I can buy the same item for $1.00 less at so and so".  The balloon deflates and reality sets in.  Time to get into the grind it out mentality that has served me over the years.  There is a customer out there for every carrot, head of lettuce or cauliflower, not to mention spinach.  The trick is to find the willing buyer at a price we can both live with.  That is the essential process in our capitalist society in its most naked form.  Supply and demand in the most elemenal form.