Agricultural R&D is on the Move as Restaurant Menus Get Healthier

November 1st, 2018

McDonald’s iconic burgers are getting more “real.” The fast food giant recently announced that it plans to strip artificial ingredients from two-thirds of its menu. This announcement comes on the heels of a commitment earlier this year to market more balanced kids meals by offering new fruit and vegetables options in its Happy Meals and Mighty Kids Meals.

American eating habits are changing and to keep up, legacy brands such as McDonald’s are revamping their menus. Deloitte recently revealed that more than 75 percent of Americans self-reported they had healthy eating habits, and 83 percent said that traditional fast food menus failed to offer enough healthy choices.

In an effort to meet consumers’ demand for more low-calorie ingredients and fresh produce, restaurants are getting more creative with their food. McDonald’s has already introduced apple slices and easy-peel mandarins as kids meal options, and now its Australia team “is currently exploring new vegetable and lean protein options and McDonald’s France is looking at new vegetable offerings,” according to a company statement.

McDonald’s is not the only one that is trying to deliver cleaner and healthier food. Wendy’s, which has showcased its “start to fresh” partnership with Church Brothers Farms in the past, is focusing on growing its posh line of fresh salads. Sit-down restaurants are looking to inspire by incorporating new fresh produce varieties resulting from research and development (R&D) efforts. For example, the Cheesecake Factory is building many of its meals around broccolini, and Lazy Dog Restaurant & Bar launched a Roasted Street Carrots menu item which featured organic, rainbow heirloom carrots with a Mexican street-corn flare. In fact, more and more niche food chains are popping up around the country to bring more of these new, creative fresh produce dishes that go beyond the “garden variety” (pun intended).

While these brands are making headlines and being lauded for the healthy changes in their menu items, the man behind the curtain is often overlooked. Farmers and agricultural professionals are the real innovators and concept creators behind new fruit and vegetable varieties.

Take Driscoll’s, for example, which has created a legacy of reinventing the “typical” berry. Driscoll’s, the world’s largest berry company, has a team of agronomists, breeders, sensory analysts, plant health scientists and entomologists who are constantly researching and developing new flavor profiles for its berries.

Based out of Driscoll’s R&D campus in Watsonville, known as Cassin Ranch, the team of “Joy Makers” are using natural traditional breeding processes such as hand cross-pollination to bring about new and improved varieties. This includes the company’s recently released Sunshine Raspberries—gold raspberries that are honeyed with peach and apricot notes—and Blush Berries—pale pink berries that are sweeter and rounder than the typical strawberry. The Joy Makers are also working hard to improve current varieties of blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and strawberries, making them sweeter, bigger, juicier, hardier and more resistant to pests and diseases.

Farmers continue to bring R&D to the forefront to enhance existing fruits and vegetables that consumers have grown to love. Just this March, Duda Farm Fresh Foods—which invests 2 percent of its annual budget in research and development—added six more patents to its celery varietals. Their impressive celery R&D program has resulted in 33 patents that contribute to enhancing the flavor and quality of celery grown in their fields. The addition of these new patents will allow for the development of new celery varieties and flavor profiles that are sweeter, crisper and have less strings.

“Duda has been innovating for 92 years, as we recognize that we have to be innovative to survive and thrive,” said Sammy Duda, senior vice president of national operations for Duda Farm Fresh Foods. “With our continuing investments in R&D around flavor, taste, texture and convenience, we aim to improve the eating experience of our consumers while improving the sustainable production practices that are essential in today’s environment. We are excited about our investments and the new products the investments will allow us to introduce.”

In addition to creating new and improved varieties, farmers are also growing their commitment to R&D by expanding the market and offering new commodities to consumers.

Mulholland Citrus, which today specializes in easy-peel mandarins, was the first to propagate, grow and market the W. Murcott variety in the early 1990s. While traveling halfway around the world, in Morocco, Tom Muholland of Mulholland Citrus came across a species of citrus not available anywhere in the United States: the seedless W. Murcott mandarin. Mulholland Citrus then became the first American company to bring the mandarin to the United States. He named them “Delite” and launched the easy peel industry that was to follow.

“There are many types of citrus, and as farmers, we are the innovators looking for new varieties to develop to bring to the marketplace for the consumer to enjoy,” said Heather Mulholland, fourth-generation farmer and chief operating officer at Mulholland Citrus.

By the same token, broccolini—a broccoli-Chinese kale hybrid—graced our plates more than 20 years ago through the successful partnership between Mann Packing (which was recently acquired by Dole) and Sakata Seed. Broccolini, which has smaller florets and a longer, thinner stalk than broccoli, was developed by Sakata Seed’s plant breeders and successfully brought to the American market by Mann Packing. Today, the popularity of broccolini is rising and more restaurants ranging from fast casual to fine dining are using it in haute side dishes.

With changing diets, a rising world population and an increase in the global demand for food, the list of companies who are dedicated to prioritizing R&D continues to grow. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that private sector funding in food and agricultural R&D has risen rapidly over the last decade and now surpasses public sector funding. Between 2008 and 2013, public food and agricultural R&D declined by approximately 20 percent while private R&D funding increased by 64 percent. This includes investments in research, development and outreach of new varieties and technologies to mitigate animal and plant diseases, as well as increase productivity, sustainability and product quality.

The agricultural technology boom is also playing a significant role in the surge of R&D funding. AgFunder reported that in 2017, investment in agtech startups reached $10.1 billion—a 29 percent year-over-year increase. To support farmers’ efforts in innovating new fresh produce varieties, agtech start-up companies are developing technology to assist in everything from planning and optimization to automation and irrigation management. In fact, Hazel Technologies, a resident of the Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology and winner of the 2017 AgSharks™ Competition, has developed sachets that can be placed in boxes of fresh produce to extend shelf life. Hazel’s sachets time-release active ingredients into the storage atmosphere of commercially-packed produce, biochemically fighting spoilage by slowing the aging process and proliferation of disease.

As investment in R&D continues to soar, new innovations, such as Hazel’s spoilage-fighting inserts, are game changers for the industry. It can open doors for new fresh produce varieties to flourish and perhaps become the star menu items at local restaurants.

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Plant-Forward Concept Drives Meal Kit Firm

November 1st, 2018

The philosophy that drives menu decisions for Sun Basket, one of the top three meal kit firms in a crowded field, appears to be a perfect fit for produce suppliers.

Produce industry veteran Don Barnett, who is the company’s chief operating officer, recently told Western Grower &Shipper that from the very beginning Sun Basket’s point of differentiation has been its focus on creating healthy meals for its customers. He said the competition focuses on convenience while Sun Basket has centered on creating meals that are “healthy and delicious.”

At the beginning, what Barnett called Sun Basket 1.0, the company offered a handful of different menus that featured low sodium, no saturated fats and low calorie items. It is now well into Sun Basket 2.0 with 10 different menu classification, including paleo, vegetarian, pescetarian, Mediterranean and gluten free.

The company is growing at a very fast pace with customers all over the United States and three distribution centers to serve them. “We cover 98.6 percent of the zip codes in the country,” Barnett said.

He equates the company’s current produce buying size as that of a 150-store chain. They are not yet as big as the huge retailers in this country but Barnett has no doubt that the home-delivery meal kit industry will grow far beyond the tiny percentage it currently holds. Several years ago, the food marketing system, including foodservice and retail, was estimated at $1.5 trillion. Earlier this year, an online story on “Recode” estimated the current size of the American meal kit market at $5 billion.

Barnett believes meal kits companies are disrupting food marketing in much the way Amazon disrupted book sales and a plethora of companies altered the apparel and office supply sectors. Twenty years into the book disruption equation, about 50 percent of books are now sold on line. Online office supplies have a similar growth curve. Online apparel sales started to take off a decade ago and already have a 20 percent market share. The Sun Basket executive predicts that the meal kit business will approach 15-20 percent market share in the next 10 years. He noted that 15 percent of $1.5 trillion ($225 billion) is a lot of business.

Currently, Hello Chef and Blue Apron are one and two in the industry (neither responded to requests for an interview), followed by Sun Basket. Barnett says those two companies rely on the convenience factor to attract, acquire and keep customers. He believes Sun Basket’s approach is more sustainable and will win out in the long run.

“We are both a food company and a technology company,” he said. “You can’t be one or the other in this business, you have to be both.”

As a food company specializing in meal kits, Sun Basket has built the infrastructure, including a produce buying operation in San Jose as well as two local buying offices in the Midwest and East. He said it operates a supply chain process that is far more efficient—and hence less costly—than that utilized by retailers or foodservice operators. He explained that produce typically goes through five to seven hands from field to fork: grower to the shipper to the distributor to the retail or foodservice distribution center to the store or restaurant to the consumer. And there can be a wholesaler or two in the mix as well. “We go from the grower to our D.C. to the consumer. That’s more efficient and less costly,” he said, noting that the mark-up along the way, including the 40-50 percent at retail, is eliminated. “This is a much better profit model. We are still figuring it out but it does allow us to pay more to the grower.”

The technology company part of the organization has its own set of challenges to figure out, but Barnett indicates that is where the opportunity lies. “We are not selling to mega-customers; we are selling to individuals with a highly personalized product.”

As such, each customers gets a menu page that lines up with their individual buying habits. A vegetarian is going to see vegetarian meals, while a gluten-free customers is obviously going to be presented with meals that cater to that diet. It is this personalization and dive into the data that creates the value for Sun Basket. He noted that often a person who identifies as vegetarian will swap out vegetarian meals for those featuring fish. Sun Basket’s data captures this and offers that online shopper, fish dishes in the row right after the vegetarian dishes.

Barnett explained that each customer has a particular value to Sun Basket. The company has ascertained this value through its collection of data. In the e-commerce world, he said these calculations are golden.  Investors—via the stock market or the venture capitalist route—want to know how much it costs to get a customer and what that customer is worth. For example, if it costs $100 to acquire a customer and that customer spends $100 with you, that one-to-one ratio is not going to lead to big profits. But if that customers spends $200 or $300 creating a two to one or three to one ratio, black ink will appear on the bottom line.

Currently Sun Basket is operating between 6 to 1 and 12 to 1, which Barnett said is very good. The company is in a fast growth cycle (including about 100 ads on Facebook at all times), so that ratio has not yet created revenues above expenses but Barnett said the firm has sufficient venture capital money to get it through the growth period. “We could show a profit tomorrow if we adjusted our sights and shot for 30 percent growth rather than 75 percent growth, which is where we currently are.”

Using hypothetical numbers, Barnett explained why the data it is collecting and the target marketing it is doing is so valuable. One of the company’s menu is a “Chef’s Choice.” This is the menu that competes most directly with its competitors’ convenience play. It is not highly personalized but rather appeals to the price shopper who jumps from one meal kit company to the next. These people will stay with one company for a while then move to another. For the sake of example, this shopper might cost $100 to acquire and will be worth $500 in sales before moving on. For Sun Basket’s more personalized menus, a shopper is worth more. He said that person with a paleo diet might be worth $3,000 for that same $100 acquisition cost. “We also know that shoppers who get their meals delivered on Monday are worth more than shoppers who get a Wednesday delivery.”

He explained that the prime nights for eating meal kits are Monday through Thursday. A Monday delivery allows for full consumption of the delivery over a few days with the shopper remaining excited about the purchase and more likely to continue using the service. A Wednesday delivery has the meals competing with weekend plans, which could mean lower utilization, less excitement and less chance for a long term customer. A new customer who identifies as wanting paleo dishes and wants delivery on Monday is a very desired customer, he said.

Barnett said the average customer gets a delivery with three meals for two every other week. For each individual with an average of four eating occasions a day that means Sun Basket is talking care of six of their 120 eating occasions during the month. At the current time, those six are all dinners. Barnett said the company is exploring other avenues to interact with the shoppers including snacks, deserts and other main-meal eating occasions.

For a grower-shipper, Sun Basket is an interesting customer. Barnett, who has worked for several suppliers including Dole, New Star and organicgirl, said about 99 percent of the produce it buys is organic. The organic label is part of its healthy and nutritious play to consumers. It also creates potential customers all over the country who might not have regular access to organic food in their supermarket or regular dining establishments. As a plant-forward meal kit, Sun Basket’s home deliveries are more produce-centric than the competition. “Every day we are buying the staples like leafy greens, carrots and garlic,” he said.

But the company is also always looking for that unique item and is willing to pay for it. “We can charge a premium so we can pay a premium,” he said.

Sun Basket’s executive chef is Justine Kelly, who practiced her craft for many years as the corporate chef de cuisine at the acclaimed Slanted Door restaurant in San Francisco. Barnett said she is constantly creating innovative dishes using items such as celery root for example. The menus are created about eight weeks in advance with the opportunity to substitute items up to two weeks prior to delivery. And if Mother Nature strikes making a particular item unavailable, the website can always note that a specific dish is “sold out.”

As the company’s buying power is continuing to increase, Barnett said it is just now starting to work with growers on a pre-plant basis looking for specific crops to be grown for specific time periods. Currently, it is buying commodity packs and breaking them down for its own needs at its distribution centers. But Barnett said it is also just starting to work with grower-shippers on customized packs. The company is delivering to consumers five days out of seven so the D.C.’s are all operating on a full-time basis.

 

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Ag Economy Faces Uncertainty

November 1st, 2018

Uncertainty in several areas including world trade, tariffs and labor do pose some issues for the agricultural sector that does impact its attractiveness to lenders, according to a couple of financial experts interviewed by Western Grower & Shipper recently.

“There is a lot going on that is impactful to agriculture,” said Dean Cardoza, executive vice president of Bank of America, listing both tariffs and the global trade situation as concerns.

Mark Littlefield, who wears the same title for Farm Credit West, added the uncertainty about the availability of labor is another negative factor for the ag sector. In fact, he said agriculture in general appears to be in an “off cycle” for the next 18 months. “We’ve got to see a little more certainty moving forward. It might be into 2020 before we have a better understanding of the trade wars.”

Uncertainty is not a friend to the financial community as lenders of money favor stability over volatility. Though with that said, both men noted that ag borrowers with a good financial story to tell will be able to find funds to finance their operations. Even though the Federal Reserve has been consistently raising interest rates for the past two years and three more hikes are expected in 2019, interest rates are still historically low.

“Money is still cheap,” said Cardoza. “Historically anything under 10 percent is good. We have been spoiled for a long time with low interest rates.”

Even with projected rate hikes going forward, he said the interest rate will still only be in the 4-5 percent range, which is still very good. Littlefield made the same point, noting in mid-September that even after the latest rate hike, 10-year money was still just over 3 percent. Consequently, he said it is currently an excellent time to invest capital in your operation if you have a good business reason to do so.

When evaluating loan applications, the modern banker in the ag sector is very knowledgeable about the factors that play a role. As mentioned, Littlefield and Farm Credit is concerned about the labor situation in California. Costs are going up and access to labor can be a challenge. A borrower has to have a clear plan for harvesting those crops before getting money to plant them.

Water concerns play just as important a role. A borrower for crop production needs to have access to water as well as a backup plan. Littlefield said farmers do come to the table well prepared, but it is also the role of the lending institution to analyze the opportunities and steer the borrower, for example, to a crop with less water demands if water supply is an issue.

Turning back to some of the global issues, Cardoza said the issues surrounding potential trade wars and tariffs appears to be more impactful to the protein and grain sectors of agriculture. He does not believe the fruit and vegetable sector, as a whole, will be impacted greatly. Of course, exports are very important for some crops but domestic sales still make up the lion’s share for the vast majority of specialty crops.

One major exception is the nut category. Littlefield said almonds and pistachios could see some market disruption if other countries increase tariffs on those two export-centric crops. But looking at the big picture, he believes that the Trump Administration’s effort to get better trade deals could be very beneficial to agriculture.

Another issue the bankers tackled was the high cost of land in California. Littlefield said a lot of land is currently being sold at prices that will not allow the crop on that land to service the debt. He said this is a major issue for new or younger farmers trying to establish themselves. For more established farmers with a larger asset base, the calculation is less critical as the loan on new land can be serviced by the production from a larger portfolio of land.

Cardoza said that is a challenge for new farmers. He added that it is very difficult to get into the business without a leg up from a previous generation of farmers. Speaking of which, he noted that a major issue today is a company’s succession plan. Many farmers, he said, do not have a succession plan because they have no one following them into the business. “The kids don’t want to come back to the farm after college. We always look at that. We have to.”

Both lending institutions for this story did stress their commitment to agriculture and that they are very proactive lenders in the sector. “That’s all we do,” Littlefield said of Farm Credit, noting that investing in new farmers is the company’s recipe for future success.

Recently, he said, younger farms are finding a foothold with smaller operations such as micro-farms, urban farming and farm-to-table operations. “We have programs (for new farmers) below market rate to help,” he said.

Cardoza revealed that Bank of the West is the third largest ag lender in the United States and devotes a larger percentage of its assets to the sector than its competitors in the commercial banking business. “We are a $70 billion bank and we have $7.2 billion committed to the industry. That’s 10 percent of our assets. No one else comes close.”

As such, he said the bank’s exposure is high “and we have to be very good at what we do.”

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Need Boosts H-2A Filings

November 1st, 2018

H-2A certifications in California and Arizona are poised to reach a record high this year as growers access the U.S. Department of Labor program in an effort to address the acute labor shortage that plagues production agriculture.

For the past decade, the Western Growers Legal Department has been helping those members traverse the bureaucratic maze to secure those workers. “Just through Q3 (Sept. 30) of this year, California has certified more than 16,000 positions,” said Jason Resnick, WG’s general counsel and vice president. “By the end of the year, we should be close to 20,000. In 2017, for the entire year, we certified 15,000.”

Arizona has not seen a dramatic increase in year over year H-2A applications but it has moved up two spots in the ranking of states. Through the third quarter of this year, Arizona employers have secured 6,112 H-2A workers, which represents 3.2 percent of the foreign ag workers approved in the United States, and puts Arizona in eighth place among the states.

California’s activity for 2018 makes it the fifth highest user of the program following Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Washington. Resnick said the interest is fueled by need, but also because with experience it has become easier to use. “It has certainly gotten easier over time as we’ve gained extensive experience,” said Resnick.

But he also noted that the Department of Labor has cut down on the paperwork requirements and added an online portal that makes it easier. However, he said that the U.S. Customs and Immigration Service still utilizes a paper application so the process has room for improvement, but it’s better than it was.

“California has seen quite an increase in the last five years,” he said. “Five years ago we were not in the top five. I think it is going to continue to expand in California, but there are challenges.”

He said agriculture continues to advocate for more streamlining of the application process and for continued modernization including a switch to a total on-line application. “We’d like to see more electronic processing and direct communication with a point of contact to discuss issues,” Resnick said. “We’d also like to see some technical changes to allow for the staggering of the workers. It’s gotten easier but it is still a restrictive program with lots of processes and legal loopholes that need to be changed to make it more employer friendly.”

One company that has joined the H-2A game in the past few years and gotten assistance from Western Growers is Talley Farms in Arroyo Grande, CA. “We started using it three or four years ago through a labor contractor and now this is our second year doing it on our own,” said Ryan Talley. “We have had a much better experience doing it ourselves.”

While the paperwork was tedious the first year and the company went through a learning curve, he said this year was much easier. And the result has been very satisfying. “The individual workers are happy to be here, they appreciate the opportunity and are eager to work.”

Compared to the local workforce, he said the H-2A workers are more productive and the quality of work is superior. “If you have a crew with 16 to 18 workers, 16 to 18 people show up,” he said.

Talley said the key to success is using the company’s longtime workers to recruit H-2A workers. “We are recruiting from the home towns of some of our domestic workers. We go down there (to Mexico) recruit workers and explain exactly what we are looking for. We are getting recommendations from our workers. It’s a win-win. It has been a wonderful experience for us.”

Talley personally participated in the recruitment in Mexico and he believes that was very important. “The key was having individuals already working for us talking to individuals in their own towns,” he reiterated. The company recruited 45 people with the majority having nine to 10 month contracts and a few having three to four month contracts.

He admits that it was the fear of the unknown that prevented Talley Farms from trying to access the H-2A years earlier. “We heard the horror stories and thought it was a daunting task.”

He said one hurdle Talley Farms did not have to jump was the housing issue. “We already had enough houses on our farm to handle the workers. That’s a problem others have that we don’t have.”

Resnick said that is one of the biggest challenges. The H-2A regulations require the employer to provide suitable housing for the workers. “That is a limiting factor,” he said, “especially in California. Availability and affordability of housing in California is a problem. Zoning rules make it difficult to build new housing and it’s difficult to buy housing because of the cost. Many employers say that is a significant deterrence.”

Some H-2A workers have had to be housed quite a distance from the field requiring extensive travel time, which can gets into a complicated situation regarding wage and hour laws.

One thing that is not a problem is the prevailing wage laws. DOL rules set the adverse effect wage that the workers must be paid. In California, for 2018, the wage is $13.18. “Most workers will make that and more so it’s not an issue,” Resnick said. “In Arizona, the prevailing rate is lower than the state’s minimum wage, so it is not an issue at all.”

With regard to the program itself, Resnick said employers put in an application for a set amount of unnamed workers and then they must recruit those workers once the application is approved. “Overall I think it is working pretty well now,” he said. “We don’t see the issues that we had in the past such as delays in approving the application beyond the time when the workers were needed. That doesn’t seem to happen anymore.”

Resnick said for those interested who can solve the housing issue, “it is a workable program that can give you a legal, guaranteed workforce. And WG’s legal department can help with the paperwork.”

 

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De Minimis No More: The End of Even Nominal Off-the-Clock Work in California

November 1st, 2018

By Christine Samsel and Sherli Frank

 

The “de minimis” doctrine comes from the Latin maxim de minimis non curat lex, which means “the law does not concern itself with trifles.” The maxim suggests that technicalities must yield to practical common sense and justice so as to avoid expensive litigation.

For the past 70 years, federal courts have applied the de minimis doctrine to excuse the payment of wages to non-exempt employees for small amounts of compensable time if the time was shown to be administratively difficult to record. These federal courts have found periods of up to 15 minutes per day to be de minimis, even though the time would otherwise have been compensable.

As highlighted in a recent California Supreme Court case, however, California law does concern itself with trifles. In the landmark decision Troester v. Starbucks Corp., the California Supreme Court concluded that non-exempt employees must be compensated for off-the-clock work that is required on a regular basis or as a regular component of a job. This includes small increments of time, such as the 4 to 10 minutes per shift claimed by plaintiff Troestar.

Specifically, Troester claimed that during each closing shift, he was required to clock out before initiating the company’s software “close store procedure” on a computer terminal. Thereafter, he would activate the alarm, exit the store and lock the front door. As the court saw it, Troester’s off-the-clock work was a regular feature of his job that was capable of being recorded for payroll purposes. More than that, the court held that the de minimis doctrine couldn’t shield Starbucks from liability for unpaid wages, at least not in California state courts.

In reaching its conclusion, the court reasoned that California’s wage and hour laws did not adopt the de minimis doctrine found in their federal counterpart, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The court noted that California law is more protective of employee rights than federal law, and requires non-exempt employees to be paid for all hours worked. “The federal rule permitting employers under some circumstances to require employees to work as much as 10 minutes a day without compensation is less protective than [California’s] rule that an employee must be paid for ‘all hours worked.’”

The court left open the possibility that certain tasks and circumstances may be so minute or irregular that it is unreasonable to expect the time to be recorded, the key words being “minute” and “irregular.” Neither word will provide much comfort to employers.

The court already indicated that the term “minute” is subject to changes in technology: “advances in technology and changes in behavioral norms are constantly shaping our understanding of what fractions of time can be reliably measured, and what counts as too trifling a moment to measure in the wage and hour context.” In other words, what may be considered too small an increment of time today may be deemed as reasonably captured—and therefore compensable—time tomorrow.

The court’s majority opinion provides no assistance in understanding the scope or limitation of “irregular” off-the-clock work. However, Justice Kruger’s concurring opinion does give three examples of minute and irregular off-the-clock work: (1) on rare and unpredictable occasions, a software glitch delays employees from logging in on their computer to start their shift; (2) on occasion, employees receive schedule changes by email or text message during their off hours and are expected to read the message; and (3) a retail employee is sometimes asked questions by customers when he or she is off duty, and the employee spends a minute or two helping the customer. However, unless the circumstance faced by an employer is the same as one of these examples, the employer is at risk that the off-the-clock activity is compensable.

The takeaway here is that regular off-the-clock work requirements, even if they involve a very short period of time, have to be paid. This would include such things as locking doors, setting alarms, putting away tools, dropping cash into a deposit box, accompanying coworkers to their vehicles, and the like. The holding shouldn’t come as a surprise. The Starbucks decision fits within the broad obligation of California employers to compensate employees for all time the employee is “subject to the control” of the employer.

In past years, and especially in the agricultural setting, California employers have had to adapt their practices to account for those minutes when employees are ostensibly under their control, including time spent putting on and taking off required protective gear, and time spent walking from the worksite to break areas. At issue in several recently filed lawsuits is whether the time spent on employer-provided buses that transport employees to worksites is compensable. California employers have been on the forefront of developing mechanisms to ensure that non-exempt employees get paid for all compensable time, including utilizing advanced timekeeping systems and restructuring job duties to ensure that work is performed while employees are clocked in. Employers would be well-advised to review non-exempt employees’ job duties to determine whether any are performed prior to or after clocking in, and ensure either that such time is compensated and/or that duties are modified so the work is performed on the clock or by exempt employees. The silver lining is that many of the steps already taken by California employers in addressing these issues will leave them well-armed in the post-Starbucks employment landscape.

 

Christine Samsel (partner) and Sherli Frank (associate) are attorneys with Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck. Their expertise includes advising and counseling employers on employment practices and representing them in disputes.

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Data Power and Western Growers

November 1st, 2018

Perhaps the single largest missed opportunity for the fresh produce sector is the failure to coalesce and share data. I am not talking about “transparency” of data—such that customers can learn the “provenance” of produce or other attributes. Nor am I talking about the distributed ledger or “blockchain” shared among supply chain partners. I am referring to the key data sets held on-farm that could be leveraged to benefit the entire industry if aggregated and reflected back in a useful way.

There are many examples of missed opportunity. Take the simple data set associated with mandatory water testing. These tests—for generic E. coli—were first instituted in 2007 after an outbreak associated with spinach on the Central Coast. The requirements are to test the source of water and to test water as close as possible to its point of use (to account for any change from the source). Every handler who is member of the Leafy Green Marketing Agreement or the California Cantaloupe Advisory Board is required to perform these tests routinely. Today, the industry holds in its hands more than a decade’s worth of water test results from hundreds of growers (many sampling common surface water sources) across California and Arizona and is adding to this data every season. But this data is siloed within each individual company and while it holds value in terms of monitoring water quality and meeting audit requirements, its value is limited when not shared.

Imagine if aggregated water data was available on water sources throughout Californian and Arizona; that data could be utilized to qualify water sources as required by the Food Safety Modernization Act for multiple growers instead of farm by farm. Additionally, once a source was qualified, a sampling schedule could be established for multiple growers such that the costs to maintain the water quality profile were shared instead of duplicated by each farm. Then there is the potential learning that might be had when we looked at trends over the last decade—are there “hot spots,” seasonal variations, etc. If we begin to overlay additional data, such as weather and geographical information, do other issues stand out? When we understand these dynamics better, which only can be accomplished through data, we are better prepared to proactively address issues and build stronger preventive programs.

In the food safety arena, a similar case could be made for data associated with pre-harvest testing of products. Many shippers and buyers are requiring pre-harvest testing as another hurdle in their food safety programs. If this data was shared and aggregated, again we would have better insight into trends and greater opportunity to proactively address issues that might surface thorough analysis of these data sets. Even if all of these data were “negatives” that information would tell us something about how we sample, analyze and how truly rare field level contamination is. Data is knowledge and nowhere is that more sorely needed than in the evaluation and continuous improvement of industry food safety programs.

Food safety is not, however, the only area where shared and aggregated data has power. Environmental performance data such as information about applied water, nutrients, and crop protection materials is also very important. There are both governmental organizations, such as the regional water quality control boards, and market place players that are demanding information and data to measure compliance and to make or verify marketplace claims.  Today, the prevailing paradigm is for growers and others to collect and share these data sets with those in position to require it.  Again, this siloed approach limits the potential value of the information to growers and adds value to the regulatory and purchasing communities. The value is in the aggregation of this data and the reflection of aggregated performance to drive improvement. For example, if I am growing lettuce in a region and there are similar growers near me, it is the aggregated data reflected back to me in the form of “average” or “best in class” that provides me insight into whether I am in relation to my peers. In turn, I can use this information to improve my practices or validate my high performance.

Data driven agriculture means continuously improving systems. It is an opportunity for the agricultural industry to work together to ensure all operations have an opportunity to improve individual operations as well as lift others.

To achieve the state of data driven agriculture, growers must be willing to share data into a confidential database that is managed by a trusted partner. The partner needs to be an entity that recognizes that individual data points are owned outright by the grower, and has the ability and commitment to protect the confidentiality of that information such that no one could know or discern the owner. A strong partner would also be a long established entity that is fundamentally interested in serving the greater good. One who will ensure not only privacy and confidentiality but also work to utilize the aggregated data in a way that serves both the data owners and the industry at large. This is where Western Growers comes in.

Western Growers is fundamentally interested in becoming the data repository for individual WG members and others. It is our intent to develop a robust data center within Western Growers that can be used to help growers comply with data requirements from the marketplace and regulatory communities. A Western Growers-led data enterprise will inform and empower continuous improvement of food safety and environmental performance by allowing us to promote positive performance as well as provide information on issues or areas where WG should create and deploy resources and education.

To advance this effort, Western Growers Science and Technology, along with other WG companies and divisions, are working with select companies to provide secure mechanisms to voluntarily provide data and adding data experts on staff to help secure, aggregate and reflect useful information to members who elect to participate.

While we have several member companies currently committed to provide select data, we are seeking additional volunteers and test pilots to work directly with us to build out a specialty crop data service that benefits our industry. If you see the value of aggregated industry data to your operation, to the industry at large and to Western Growers, please reach out and help us build something that works for growers and handlers first—as opposed to just collecting and submitting your data elsewhere and losing the opportunity to leverage its value.

 

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Posted in WG&S Magazine, November / December 2018 Issue | No Comments »

Expanding Service Offerings to Further Reduce Employer Health Costs

November 1st, 2018

With a combined total of 80-plus years providing employee health benefits and services to employer groups, Western Growers Assurance Trust together with Pinnacle Claims Management continue to find additional ways to help employers save money on their health care costs each year. Below are some of the services that we have added or expanded upon in recent years:

Western Growers Assurance Trust (WGAT)

When WGAT launched in 1957, our mission was to give Western Growers members an affordable option for health care benefits by offering highly customizable benefit plans to meet their diverse needs. Six decades later, we are still committed to our original mission but continue to expand health benefit services to meet the growing needs of our clients. This includes:

•   Providing telehealth services. WGAT participants can speak with a board-certified physician or mental health professional to treat common ailments on their own schedule and at a lower cost than other care options. When employees utilize telehealth services, it reduces employer health costs by minimizing excess trips to urgent care or the emergency room. The coordination of lab services was recently added for further convenience.

•   Expanding our Cedar Network. Throughout California, we continue to expand our list of network providers and health centers as the need arises. We also have our own Cedar Health and Wellness Centers located in Oxnard, Santa Maria, Salinas and Watsonville. For nearly a decade, the Cedar Network has been an effective way for employers in the agriculture industry to offer basic health coverage and prevention care to employees at a low premium cost. WGAT was the first association health plan to create a proprietary network in response to the elimination of mini-medical plans by the Affordable Care Act. It remains a popular option, especially for employers with seasonal harvesters.

•   Adding services at our Centers. The Cedar Centers offer additional services for WGAT participants such as free annual flu shots at all locations and X-ray procedures at the Watsonville location for a $25 copay. In 2018, we recently added a private room and telehealth equipment in our Oxnard Center so local WGAT participants with a specialty condition no longer need to travel long distances to see a specialty provider. Participants can also have a video visit with a psychologist or psychiatrist.

•   Increasing communications. WGAT is committed to educating our valued employer clients on utilizing their WGAT plan, as well as sharing industry news on what changes may affect them. In 2015, we further enhanced our employer communications program by creating and distributing a quarterly employer newsletter (and two-page participant version) entitled WGAT Your Service.

Pinnacle Claims Management (PCMI)

PCMI was launched in 1996 to assist mid- to large-sized employer groups that wanted to self-fund their health benefit plans. PCMI works as a third party administrator and takes the burden off employers to administer a more flexible health plan. In the years since, we continue to expand our services to offer employers more ways to save through self-funding. For example, our clients can upgrade their plans and take advantage of Pinnacle’s affiliate companies to help them save in the areas of:

•  Pharmacy costs. PinnacleRx Solutions (PRxS) is a full-service pharmacy benefit manager that helps lower a company’s pharmacy costs while improving the quality of benefits available to employees. Through PRxS, employers receive a number of tools, reporting capabilities and solutions to help them better manage rising employee pharmacy costs. PinnacleRx Solutions is a full service.

•  High medical costs. Through Pinnacle Health Management (PHM), employers can reduce high medical costs by implementing care management and/or wellness programs. PHM employs nurses who are available to help employees with chronic conditions including asthma, diabetes, high cholesterol, smoking cessation, weight management, and the recent addition of pain management and depression. PHM also added free genetic testing to participants in the care management program. Through our partner, Rxight Medicine Testing, participants will receive a free medical testing kit (valued at $300) to test which medicines are right for them and which to avoid based on their unique genetic composition.

•  Printing and credit card transactions costs. One of our newest companies, Pinnacle Print and Transaction Solutions, provides cost-effective solutions so employers can save on print services, such as ID cards and employee enrollment forms, and on e-payments transaction costs for claims paid by virtual credit cards.

To receive more information on the WGAT health plan or if you are interested in purchasing the plan, contact Western Growers Insurance Trust at (800) 333-4WGA. If you are interested in Pinnacle Claims Management or any of its affiliate companies, please contact [email protected].

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Posted in WG&S Magazine, November / December 2018 Issue | No Comments »

The Ag Land Grab: A Continuing Trend?

November 1st, 2018

A decade ago, we saw a significant shift in land ownership, where investors were buying up farmland across the country at a rapid speed. This was especially the case with institutional investors, such as college endowments, hedge funds and pension funds. Why?

The year 2008 marked the beginning of the U.S. financial crisis and our economy was plummeting fast toward the bottom. Farmland offered stable income in the form of rent and capital gains as the land appreciates in value. Additionally, financial investors were looking to mitigate risks by diversifying beyond the garden-variety stock and bond portfolio.

Farmland was a far better alternative for what was available in credit markets; it was an asset class that was tangible. Fixed income allocations, which large pension funds and endowments were mandated to include in their portfolios, had a historically low interest rate environment. In perspective, an average yield for U.S. government bonds had historically averaged 4.2 percent. In 2012, the 10-year government bond hit a record low of 1.39 percent. Beyond the United States, interest rates globally were hitting an all-time lows. In a search for yield, there was an appetite for alternative investment solutions since investors were not receiving the interest rates on bonds they normally would. That’s where farmland came in.

“Farmland financialization” gained so much steam that in 2013 publicly traded real estate investment trusts (REITs) came on the U.S. market to serve as an investment vehicle that catered to this phenomenon.

Since the 2016 election, interest rates have gradually been increasing (not yet to historical averages) but the forecast is a return to normalization in rates. I’ve been asked by many of our members if the ag land grab will continue. The answer is: perhaps.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently reported that U.S. farm real estate value (a measurement of the value of all land and buildings on farms) averaged about $3,140 per acre in 2018. This is up $60 per acre (1.9%) from 2017 values. Though values are on the up, if per acre farm land values begin to stabilize or soften, higher rates of return on investment grade fixed income could once again compete for institutional investable assets.

Here are some key factors that can impact land prices:

•   Interest Rates: Just last month, the Federal Reserve announced that they will raise interest rates a quarter percentage point, to a range of 2% to 2.25%. That’s the third time they have hiked rates up in 2018. The Fed has also forecasted a continued rise in rate for the next two years.

•   Crop Prices: REITs generate income by leasing its land to tenant farmers, but rents can slump when crop prices drop. The prices of our fruits, vegetables and nuts directly affect farmland value.

•   U.S. Trade Policy: Trade tariffs and disagreements have become a critical factor in farm prices this year. For some specialty crops, exports are a large part of the agricultural market and any significant change in our trade markets will have a significant impact on farmland values.

•   Farm Income: There is a direct correlation between land prices and income from farming and ranching. If farm debt increases, investors may feel that the price per acre is just too high.

Taking these factors into account, individual investors may be hesitant to continue to place big bets on agricultural land. Western Growers Financial Services will continue to keep a keen eye on the value of stocks and bonds, to learn if this farmland financialization trend will come back in full force. If you have any questions about corporate asset management or investment policy design in the meantime, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me at [email protected] or (949) 885-2379.

 

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Posted in WG&S Magazine, November / December 2018 Issue | No Comments »

Measuring and Taking Financial Risk When Exporting Product

November 1st, 2018

By Matt Bigham

The risks associated with selling and exporting produce continue to change and evolve, making it increasingly important to reevaluate the tools available to your business in order to secure or even increase revenue. One of the most effective ways to do so is to decrease the inherent risk of nonpayment. While the trade environment changes, there are options available to help manage risk, as well as expand into new markets. Trade credit analysis can help you define exactly what your risks are and ultimately help you decide if that risk is worth taking, or if the risk would be better transferred to an insurance company.

Whether the risk relates to increasing business with existing customers, expanding business to new prospects, expanding your business into new geographical areas or remaining competitive in the current political environment, trade credit insurance can be used as a financial tool to help you position your business for growth and leave you less vulnerable to financial risk. You can benefit from trade credit analysis in these four areas:

 

EXISTING CUSTOMERS

You may find yourself in a situation with a customer with whom you have a long-standing relationship, and selling more to that customer could create additional risk for non-payment. In order to offset the additional risk, your business could employ trade credit insurance, transferring that extra risk of non-payment to your insurer.

 

PROSPECTS

When dealing with potential new clients or prospects, a significant concern will be whether that new customer has the appropriate funds to pay for your goods. However, your lack of knowledge of who they are, their reputation, or their fiscal responsibility presents some major risk factors. When covering your new clients with trade credit insurance, the insurer now becomes responsible for performing the proper credit and background checks, and evaluating the potential for risk—which alleviates the risk to you and your business. Practically speaking, when you are dealing with someone new, trade credit insurance helps do the research for you, providing you with protection against non-payment, or providing you with the information necessary to determine whether you are willing to take on the risk yourself.

 

GEOGRAPHIC AREA

If you desire to expand your sales in a geographical area, or you want to penetrate a new area, your business will undoubtedly be open to risk of non-payment. When shipping overseas, your business is open to a longer credit risk, with payment coming months after delivery. The longer that your credit line is open to your customer, the more risk it presents to your business. Fortunately, trade credit insurance helps to cover your finances should the worst happen.

 

POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT

The global political environment is in a state of constant flux. Tariffs on certain crops are making U.S. goods more expensive overseas. If you are dealing with these issues or changes in laws, sanctions, or currency fluctuations, trade credit insurance will help maintain a sustainable risk level by ensuring that your exposure remains low regardless of the ever-changing political environment.

What does this mean for you? First, we are able to provide you with access to specialists who understand credit, political, and security risk unique to agribusiness. We can help you measure your exposure to these risks. Second, as brokers, we are able to provide you with a full menu of trade credit insurance options that are available, including access to all the insurance carriers offering this specialized coverage.

One of the many advantages of Western Growers membership is access to the latest insurance products, independent guidance, and resources to help you manage your business needs in an ever-changing global environment. For a consultation, analysis and pricing for your business, please contact me at [email protected] or (602) 757-7869.

Posted in November / December 2018 Issue | Comments Closed

Trade Takes Center Stage in 2018

November 1st, 2018

By Tracey Chow

This year, trade has taken center stage and captured news headlines globally. Given the dramatic upheavals and extremely fluid nature of our international markets and trade partnerships, Western Growers is at the forefront of communicating our members’ needs in an effort to help expand American agricultural exports and remain competitive abroad.

Trade Overview

The Trump Administration has long made known its intentions to achieve free, fair and reciprocal trade through aggressive oversight and enforcement, as well as far-reaching yet significant negotiation demands. Threats of stronger U.S. enforcement officially materialized earlier this year, with hefty tariffs increases targeting a wide range of foreign imports from around the globe—the most notable being steel and aluminum. Chinese products are being hit the hardest; in turn, China has responded with its own tariff increases, making U.S. agriculture its primary target. Into China alone, specialty crop products face retaliatory increases ranging from 25 to 40 percent. According to an economic study by the University of California-Davis, the industry could face losses of nearly $3 billion worldwide, conservatively.

After months of uncertainty and market uneasiness, a revised North American Free Trade Agreement was recently announced (now the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement or USMCA), as well as a revised KORUS (U.S. Korea Free Trade Agreement). At minimum, these developments will help restore some market confidence and ease pressure on the administration’s multi-front trade agenda. However, negotiations with China have stalled, with scheduled bilateral discussions being postponed or cancelled repeatedly and both sides continuing to escalate both the amount of tariffs and the types of products targeted.

 

USDA Trade Mitigation Programs

On August 27, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue unveiled a mitigation package as a way to help assist U.S. farmers facing trade-related losses. Comprised of three programs, the package is authorized up to $12 billion in payments and programs. Across all sectors of agriculture, this amount has been deemed wholly insufficient, covering a few cents on the dollar for producers. For specialty crops, the amount earmarked totals roughly $800 million—clearly off the mark of what UC Davis estimated. Furthermore, it remains to be seen whether the entirety of the $12 billion will even be spent, given that USDA faces pressures from the administration’s extremely fiscally-conservative Office of Management and Budget.

 

•  Food Purchase & Distribution Program (FPDP)

Modeled after USDA’s existing ‘bonus buy’ program, up to $1.2 billion in certain products will be federally purchased and distributed to nutrition assistance programs; specialty crops purchases will comprise roughly half of the spending. USDA aims to purchase tariff-targeted products at staggered dates that best correspond with the industry’s low/high demand cycles. It is important to note that the variety, quantity, and purchasing/distribution timeframe vary by each commodity, so there is a rolling calendar of deadlines for bid submissions. Those interested in selling product through this program must also meet existing USDA-approved vendor requirements prior to placing bids.

More information can be found at: https://www.ams.usda.gov/selling-food

 

•  Agricultural Trade Program (ATP)

Modeled after some of USDA’s existing cost-share trade promotion programs, $200 million is open to all forms of agricultural commodities (including branded) seeking to identify and develop alternative foreign markets. In addition to a sector-wide trade promotion proposal and other information, proof of tariff-related losses is needed. The list of qualified promotion activities is quite inclusive and flexible, including point-of-sale demonstrations, consumer advertising, and helping with non-tariff SPS issues. The deadline for applications is November 2, 2018.

More information can be found at: https://www.fas.usda.gov/programs/agricultural-trade-promotion-program-atp

 

•  Market Facilitation Program (MFP)

This $4 billion direct payment program is predominately geared towards commodity crops and certain livestock products. However, specialized payment options have been developed for almonds ($63 million) and cherries ($111 million), based on a formula that takes into account 50 percent of a grower’s total production and their adjusted gross income (AGI), post-harvest in the current year. Payments will be capped at $125,000. The sign up period runs now through January 15, 2019.

More information can be found at: https://www.farmers.gov/manage/mfp

 

What Western Growers Has Done

First and foremost, WG continues to drive home the message with the Administration and Congress that our industry supports trade, not aid; a resolution to all the conflicts must be secured as soon as possible to prevent further industry damage. Concurrently, we worked closely with officials to ensure our share of the mitigation funds is equitable, and that the programs are accessible and usable for our unique industry. We continue to work through technical and operational matters with USDA, and we stand ready to assist WG members interested in accessing the trade mitigation programs.

 

Looking Forward

On the heels of its deals with Mexico, Canada and South Korea, the Administration has publicly expressed interest in crafting bilateral agreements with Japan and India. However, at the time of this writing, the Administration has given no indications that significant strides have been made towards resolving the trade dispute with China, nor when tariffs are expected to be lifted and markets fully re-opened. Throughout several conversations with officials from the Department of Commerce, USDA and USTR, the common message has been that a trade dispute ‘exit strategy’ (with China and others) has still not yet been developed, and we should continue to expect negative reverberations in our industry for several more months ahead.

USDA has described this mitigation package as a “short-term relief strategy to protect agriculture producers.” As such, there is no official word as of yet if a second mitigation package will be deemed warranted or authorized by USDA; if one were to occur, it would likely be rolled out early next year. Absent any drastically positive progress in the U.S.-China talks, we anticipate we will be re-engaging with USDA to discuss a second round of assistance, as well as the other agencies to further press for a timely resolution and restored (if not improved) market access.

 

Posted in November / December 2018 Issue | Comments Closed

Cal/OSHA Emergency Regulation on Injury and Illnesses Recordkeeping Now in Effect

November 8th, 2018

Cal/OSHA Emergency Regulation on Injury and Illnesses Recordkeeping Now in Effect

Cal/OSHA has issued emergency regulations requiring certain employers in California to electronically submit each year their Form 300A summaries of work-related injuries and illnesses to federal OSHA.

The regulation requires that employers with 250 or more employees must submit online the Form 300A summary covering calendar year 2017 by December 31, 2018, unless specifically exempted by section 14300.2 of Title 8 of the California Code of Regulations.

In addition, employers with 20 to 249 employees in specific listed industries must also submit online by the end of this year the Form 300A for 2017. The listed industries appear in Appendix H of the emergency regulations and does include agriculture.

Affected employers are now required to submit their 300A summaries online each year and should follow the instructions on federal OSHA’s Injury Tracking Application webpage.

The emergency regulation have been approved by the Office of Administrative Law so they are in effect now. Cal/OSHA will proceed with the formal rulemaking process to make the emergency regulations permanent.

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Employer Liability for Sexual Harassment Training Session Available on Nov. 20

November 12th, 2018

According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), employer liability for sexual harassment has been a controversial issue in the courts. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that an employer is always liable for a hostile work environment created by a supervisor when the discrimination is a tangible employment action (significant change in employment status such as hiring, firing, failing to promote or a change in benefits).

In a hostile environment case with no tangible job action, “the employer is only presumed liable for a supervisor’s harassment. The employer may have an affirmative defense against such a claim, and avoid liability, if the employer can show that it had and enforced a policy against sexual harassment and that the complaining employee unreasonably failed to take advantage of preventive or corrective opportunities that the employer provided.”

SHRM strongly suggests to “establish a written nondiscrimination policy, including a specific policy against sexual (and all other forms of) harassment.” This should be published in the employee handbook. They also suggest to conduct regular training seminars on sexual harassment and require mandatory attendance, keep records of attendees at each session and investigate ALL complaints of sexual harassment.

Courts encourage employers to educate their workers about the policy by conducting training for managers and employees. Western Growers is offering a training session on November 20, 2018, in Fresno to cover these topics and other best practices to combat harassment issues in the workplace.

TRAINING DETAILS

COST:

  • WG Member: $60
  • Non-WG Member: $75

LOCATION & DATE: 

Fresno

Tuesday, November 20, 2018

WG Fresno Field Office (7575 N. Palm Ave., Ste. 101, Fresno, CA 93711)

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WG to Host FSPCA Foreign Supplier Verification Course

November 15th, 2018

Western Growers will be hosting a Train-the-Trainer FSPCA Foreign Supplier Verification Programs (FSVP) course on April 9 – 11, 2019. This course combines the FSPCA Foreign Supplier Verification Programs participant course with the FSPCA Foreign Supplier Verification Programs Lead Instructor course. This combination course is coordinated by the Food Safety Preventive Controls Alliance (FSPCA).

COURSE INFORMATION

Prerequisites:

1.     Participants must be an approved Lead Instructor candidate

2.     Participants must be present for the entire course, please plan travel accordingly

FSPCA Foreign Supplier Verification Programs Course:

This course will provide participants with the knowledge to implement the requirements of the Foreign Supplier Verification Programs for Importers of Food for Humans and Animals regulations of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This regulation is one of a number of regulations issued as result of the 2011 Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).

This course is designed for:

1.     U.S.‐based importers who meet the definition of “importer” in the FSVP rule, which includes those who own or are the consignee of food at the time of entry, or, if no owner or consignee exists, the U.S. agent or representative of the foreign owner.

2.     Others who have an interest in ensuring that the requirements of the FSVP rule are met, including brokers, exporters, foreign suppliers of food that will be exported to the U.S., persons/business owners who currently buy food from foreign sources, and representatives of foreign governments.

The FSVP curriculum was designed by regulatory, academia, and industry professionals and developed with funding from FDA as part of the FSPCA. In contrast to the Preventive Controls (PC) rule, the FSVP rule does not require you to attend a training program following a “standardized curriculum” recognized by FDA. Attending this course, however, will help you understand the FSVP requirements and how those requirements can be met in your particular circumstance.

FSPCA Foreign Supplier Verification Programs Lead Instructor Course:

This course provides the Lead Instructor candidate the knowledge and tools needed to perform the duties of a Lead Instructor for the Foreign Supplier Verification Programs course.

The course content is focused on strategies to aid in the effective instruction of the activities and documentation that support the creation and implementation of Foreign Supplier Verification Programs. Administrative tasks for issuing Food Safety Preventive Controls Alliance certificates are also covered as well as a refresher on effective presentation for the adult learner.

Completing this instructor training allows you to deliver the FSPCA Foreign Supplier Verification Programs course as a Lead Instructor.

Prerequisites:

  1. Successful completion of FSPCA Foreign Supplier Verification Programs (FSVP) course
  2. Must be an approved FSVP Lead Instructor candidate

COURSE LOGISTICS

FSPCA Foreign Supplier Verification Programs Combination Course

Date: Tuesday, April 9 – Thursday, April 11, 2019

·        8:00 AM – 5:00 PM (Days 1 & 2)

·        8:00 AM – 12:00 PM (Day 3)

Location: Western Growers (15525 Sand Canyon Irvine, CA 92618)

Cost: $995 (includes all course materials and snacks)

Instructors:

  • Kathy Gombas, Food Safety Expert
  • Brian Ravitch, FDA

To Register:

  1. Visit the FSPCA website at https://www.ifsh.iit.edu/fspca/courses/foreign-supplier-verification-programs-fsvp#FSVP-lead-instructor-course-schedule to view the list of available FSVP Lead Instructor courses
  2. Click on the date for the course you are interested in. This will take you to the course registration site.
  3. Log into course registration site (https://ifpti.absorbtraining.com/#/login) with your username and password
  4. Pay for session selected with credit card (Visa, MasterCard and Discover)
  5. After session selection and payment you will receive an enrollment confirmation email (check spam folder)

If you need help registering, technical assistance creating an account or logging in or have forgotten your username or password, please contact the LMS Administrator at [email protected] or by calling (269) 488-3258.

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Western Growers Office Closed November 22, 23 for Thanksgiving

November 20th, 2018

In honor of the Thanksgiving holiday, all Western Growers offices will be closed on Thursday, November 22 and Friday, November 23. Western Growers wishes you a safe and happy Thanksgiving! 

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