Western Growers Response to Reagan Udall Report: Roadmap to Produce Safety

“The produce (food safety) system is fragmented, uncoordinated, under-resourced, and not aligned around a common strategy for making produce safer.” This statement from the Reagan Udall Report: Roadmap for Produce Safety is a concise descriptor of the fundamental challenge to those willing to champion systematic change.

There is little alignment between public health authorities, buyers, sellers and academia when it comes to setting standards for field-level food safety, leaving growers with multiple standards, many that are arbitrary and non-value added. Add to this the urgency of decreasing domestic fruit and vegetable production. Every year, domestic production is lost to increased production costs, labor shortages, and local, state and federal policies that impact economic viability. Imported produce takes the place of lost domestic production, and the production does not return to the U.S.

Step one in the Roadmap for Produce Safety is the formation of a sustained stakeholder collaboration (SSC) that will serve to advance strategic priorities for fresh produce food safety. It is important that any resulting SSC also enhances domestic productivity.

The fresh produce industry is fragmented. Fresh produce growers vary by size, commodity, region and season. Building an SSC that fairly represents the diversity of grower perspectives will itself be a challenge. Balancing this diverse perspective within the context of the more dominant buyer and seller voices and the push for change rightly put forth by consumer advocates will require all stakeholders to confront and commit to their part in shared accountability in fresh produce safety. An SSC by itself will be of no service without a commitment to concerted action. Action comes from a high level of commitment to achieving shared goals.

Fresh produce growers and their representative organizations cannot achieve the systemic change needed in food safety on their own. They need the combined power of the full supply chain, consumers and academia. Bringing more resources to a system with a weakened infrastructure, driving alignment across government agencies and achieving transformative change is an ambitious and tough undertaking.

The SSC’s composition, membership and structure will be as critical to its success as the priorities it sets for action. It will need to respect and acknowledge successful work already in place, let go of past criticisms of existing organizations and allow for new, constructive and bold conversations.

The California and Arizona Leafy Green Marketing Agreements, although imperfect, reflect solid models of sustained continuous improvement in food safety for leafy greens. The recently completed Commodity-Specific Food Safety Guidelines for Cantaloupe and Netted Melons was developed using a transparent public process led by industry and guided by academic experts. The process was a pilot trial of bringing together diverse regional growers to create a single document that reflects the best scientific information available about growing practices for these crops.

The S.A.F.E. Think Tank (Sustainable Alliance for Food Ecosystems) brings together subject matter experts from government, academia and industry focused on food ecosystems and the movement of environmental pathogens. These successful working organizations (formal and ad hoc) represent grower commitments to improve food safety. Amplification of these efforts (as well as others not named here) should be a priority for any SSC.

Western Growers wants to see transformative, systematic change in fresh produce safety. We recognize the value of an SSC in achieving this goal. Growers deserve resources and support. Consumers deserve the systematic changes necessary to improve safety.