Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/418083
www.goodfruit.com GOOD FRUIT GROWER DECEMBER 2014 81 feedlot. And, the transporta- tion rule may impact the use of straddle carriers to move fruit from warehouse to another company's packing facility. However, the greatest impact for the tree fruit indus- try will be seen in the proposed rule entitled "Standards for the Growing, Harvesting, Packing, and Holding of Produce for Human Consumption," which is better known as the "Produce Rule." FDA has clearly rejected our call to focus regulatory enforcement on produce crops having a known history of food safety problems. The FDA has embraced an umbrella approach that throws its regulatory shade over all produce crops. Compliance with production rules, such as related to irrigation water; required food safety education of field and packing house workers; paperwork mandates; and so forth are all part of the master plan. My fears concerning FSMA implementation are many. For example, I fear that: —The FSMA regulatory effort will place unnecessary pressure on our orchardists, in terms of the cost and headache of compliance, without true enhanced food safety benefits to consumers; —FDA does not have the resources to properly imple- ment any final rules and is unlikely to get such money from Congress; —Without enforcement money from Congress, FDA will seek fees from the affected regulated community (read: new taxes on orchardists and packinghouses); —Fresh produce imported from overseas, although fully subject to the FSMA rules, will skate into our country by way of forged paperwork; —Our tree-fruit industry will likely face retaliatory actions in export markets, whenever FDA officials should enforce our country's food safety standards in foreign fields; —In the future, federal enforcement officers on the ground will prove to be much less flexible or reasonable than the capable and comfort- ing food safety officials who are now developing FSMA rules at FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition; and —Orchardists will find it difficult to put future advances in food safety technology or science into commercial prac- tice given a fairly rigid set of FSMA rules. I think FSMA is another example of how a good idea (here, improved food safety for consumers) is forged into a federal law with little understanding by legislators of the complexities of the actual situation. Impossible goals are sought, such as no one should ever die from eating an unwashed grape. A regulatory agency (here, FDA) then is ordered to flesh out the law passed by Congress. The agency, while it truly believes in its public mission, has its own internal institutional impulses for more staff, money, and oversight. What might be done simply is rarely kept simple. While many of the proposed FSMA regulations are still under review, FDA has opened a new comment period, which closes December 15, for a few of these, includ- ing the important Produce Rule. Here FDA is making a sincere attempt, albeit in complicated and opaque lan- guage, to give more flexibility to, among other things, its requirement for pathogen testing of irrigation water that comes into direct contact with RACs (bureaucratic speak for "Raw Agricultural Commodities," or, for our purposes, an apple hanging on a tree irrigated by way of overhead sprinklers.) The Northwest Horticultural Council, U.S. Apple Association, United Fresh Produce Association, and many other groups, will all be submitting comments to FDA by December 15. I hope you will as well. Maybe Blanche DuBois will, too. • Visit the FDA website to submit comments: http://1.usa.gov/1FQLQpT I think FSMA is another example of how a good idea is forged into a federal law with little understanding by legislators of the complexities of the actual situation. • High Quality Plastic Resin • Easily Cleaned • Can be Sterilized • Various Sizes • Interlock Stacking • Vented or Solid • American Made Washington's Authorized DEALER 509-961-8252 RHONDA CALAHAN rhondac@wilsonirr.com www.wilsonirr.com Purchase, Rent or Lease to Own Macro ® Plastics Bins and Totes DELIVERY OPTIONS AVAILABLE! Authorized Dealers: Central Washington Eq., Washington Tractor, Walla Walla Farmers Co. Op., Hood River Eq., Linn Benton Tractor Co., Chehalem Valley Orchard Eq., Burnips Equipment Co., and Paige Equipment Co. Air-O-Fan Products Corporation / 507 E. Dinuba Avenue / Reedley, CA 93654