- Opinion: Simple Questions About Devastating Disease Require Transparent Answers
- USDA Announces $1.5 Million Fresh Potato Purchase
- Congress Passes Short-term Spending Bill
- FDA Proposes Produce Food Safety Rule
- DOL Proposes Changes to Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR) Methodology for H-2A Workers
- Potato LEAF Silent Auction Now Open!
- Potato Expo Room Block Expires December 13
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Opinion: Simple Questions About Devastating Disease Require Transparent Answers
For the second time in under 12 months, the North American potato industry received news that no one wanted: more detections of the devastating potato wart disease found in fields in PEI, Canada.
On Thursday, NPC CEO Kam Quarles published an op-ed in a leading ag industry news outlet, The Packer, stating that an efficient resolution to PEI’s shipping restrictions imposed by the Canadian government requires transparent answers to some simple questions.
Read the full op-ed here.
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USDA Announces $1.5 Million Fresh Potato Purchase
On December 1, USDA announced the purchase of 100,800 50-pound cartons of fresh potatoes. The department said the potatoes will be used for child nutrition programs and other food assistance efforts. Deliveries will be contracted from January 1 to July 31, 2022.
“America’s potato growers appreciate USDA's efforts to address food insecurity by providing children and families with America's favorite nutrient-rich vegetable: potatoes!,” said NPC President and Maine potato grower Dominic LaJoie. “This latest purchase brings the total of USDA’s support of our industry to $51.5 million in fresh potato buys over the last two years, and demonstrates USDA’s commitment to ensuring that food insecure Americans have access to fresh, healthy vegetables.”
The USDA purchase award placed the fresh potato purchases at a value of $1.475 million. Per carton delivered prices ranged from $11.24 to $19.38 per carton, according to the USDA.
The purchase report can be found here.
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Congress Passes Short-term Spending Bill
On Thursday, both chambers of Congress cleared a short-term funding bill for federal agencies through February 18. The action defuses the possibility for a government shutdown, which was set to begin at midnight, Thursday. Still left unresolved is how to deal with increasing the federal debt limit, which must occur in the next six weeks to preserve the U.S. government’s credit rating.
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FDA Proposes Produce Food Safety Rule
The FDA this week issued a proposed rule aimed at improving the safety of produce by requiring farms to conduct comprehensive assessments that would help them identify and mitigate hazards in water used to grow produce. The rule, which is part of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), would replace some of the existing requirements for ag water in the Produce Safety Rule (PSR).
The proposed rule would include:
- A requirement for farms to manage their agricultural water quality based on the results of a comprehensive systems assessment (“agricultural water assessment”) that is adaptable to the wide variety of water sources and uses and future scientific advancements.
- An annual assessment by farms of their pre-harvest agricultural water to identify any conditions likely to introduce hazards into, or onto, covered produce or food contact surfaces. Based on these assessments, farms would then determine whether corrective or mitigation measures are reasonably necessary to reduce the potential for contamination. The assessment would include an evaluation of the farm’s water system, agricultural water use practices, crop characteristics, environmental conditions and other relevant factors, such as the results of any testing conducted to inform the assessment.
- A requirement that farms implement expedited mitigation measures for hazards related to certain activities associated with adjacent and nearby lands, to protect the quality of the water used on produce. This is being included following several recent outbreak investigations on produce that revealed potential routes of contamination including activities and conditions, such as animal grazing and the presence of livestock and wildlife on land adjacent to, or near, produce farms or their water sources.
- The removal of certain testing requirements for pre-harvest agricultural water and replacing them with the agricultural water assessments identified above. The proposed revisions are intended to address stakeholder concerns about complexity and practical implementation challenges while protecting public health.
FDA plans to hold two virtual public meetings to solicit feedback on the proposal. In addition, the agency is also developing an online tool to assist growers in understanding agricultural water assessments. FDA has said it will exercise enforcement discretion and extend the compliance deadline (currently January 26, 2022) through a forthcoming Federal Register notice.
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DOL Proposes Changes to Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR) Methodology for H-2A Workers
This week, the U.S. Department of Labor released a proposal to amend its regulations governing the wages paid to agricultural guest workers under the H-2A program. Specifically, the department proposes to revise the methodology by which it determines the elevated minimum wage that is required to be paid to those workers, so their presence in the labor market does not adversely impact wages paid to U.S. workers.
The Department of Labor sets this elevated minimum wage (the “Adverse Effect Wage Rate” or AEWR) each year. The methodology for determining the minimum wage has changed with nearly every administration over the past 20 years and its rate can cause cascading effects across both guest worker and domestic agricultural workers’ labor markets. The proposal seeks to make USDA’s Farm Labor Survey the primary method of determining wages. This methodology has been challenged over the years as lacking the necessary data to realistically determine an appropriate AEWR.
“The entire agriculture industry will need to look very closely at this proposal which can materially alter the availability of agricultural workers and the costs associated with them during this very fragile inflationary time for our economy,” said RJ Andrus, NPC’s VP of Legislative Affairs. “American agriculture must have access to a competitive labor supply, as these skilled workers are essential for numerous occupations in our highly challenging industry.”
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Potato LEAF Silent Auction Now Open!
The Potato Leadership, Education, and Advancement Foundation (Potato LEAF) silent auction is now live! Bidding will remain open from now until the end of Potato Expo at 5:00pm PT on January 6.
Items available for bidding include:
- Apple Watch Series 7
- Deluxe Two-Night Suite at the Gaylord Rockies
- Chopping Board Signed by Food Network Star (and co-host of Potato Expo 2022’s Quick Fire Potato Challenge!) Simon Majumdar
…and so much more!
Additional auction items are being added on a regular basis, so make sure to check back often.
To bid on the silent auction or view the items available during the live auction on January 5, click here.
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Potato Expo Room Block Expires December 13
We are pleased to partner with the Anaheim Marriott as the exclusive hotel for Potato Expo 2022. The discounted room block rate is available to attendees through December 13. Don't miss out – make your room reservation today!
Congrats to Sander Dagen of Dagen Heritage Farms – the winner of the Anaheim Marriott suite upgrade for letting us know what he is looking forward to most at Potato Expo 2022!
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