Dole E-coli 0157:H7 Incident:
Canadian Health Hazard Alert
Contrasts With FDA Passivity
One of the overlooked points about the Dole recall is the difference in approach between Canada and the U.S. in the way these things are handled. First the whole thing was discovered by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, which seems to go around to retail warehouses performing random tests on product. The FDA doesn’t take […]
Pundit’s Mailbag —
Assessing U.S. And Non-U.S.
Food Safety Standards
I am writing as a former life-long part of the western produce industry. I’m afraid my note is going to verge on a rant, but I just read yet another article, this one in a trade publication, where buyers, FDA, etc., etc., are beating on our industry, re-living the spinach incident, and generally flagellating themselves […]
An Observational Study Is Not An Experiment: Cautions In Research Interpretation
One of the most important long term issues for the industry is that of health claims for produce. We have a Goldilocks variety of claims: A general claim that consumption of produce is healthy, a more narrow claim that certain categories of produce offer health benefits — which is what “5-a-Day the Color Way” was […]
Going Green Only When It’s Convenient
Everyone is into “green”: Hannaford announced it will build a “Green” supermarket that will obtain the “Platinum” designation, the highest there is of the U.S. Green Building Council. United Natural Foods sent us an invitation to a dedication of “California’s fourth largest solar panel system.” Tesco is building a larger array on the top of […]
Wal-Mart Looks To Keep
Deep Discounters At Bay
Think Wal-Mart is worried about Safeway’s Lifestyle stores? We bet they think more about Aldi, Supervalu’s Save-a-Lot and other deep discounters. We get some confirmation on that theory by the fact that ASDA, Wal-Mart’s subsidiary in the United Kingdom, is striving to hold the line on prices: Asda is planning drastic action to cope with […]
New York Apple Association Receives United’s Produce Advocate Of The Year Award
At United’s Washington Public Policy Conference, the annual Produce Advocate of the Year award was given to the New York Apple Association: United Fresh Produce Association President and CEO Tom Stenzel (at right) presents the 2007 Produce Advocate of the Year Award to the New York Apple Association. Jim Allen, president of the association accepts […]
Reducing Carbon Vs. Increasing Wealth
The New York Times ran a fascinating piece on global warming. It is based on an interview with Bjorn Lomborg, who the Times describes as “…the Danish political scientist and scourge of environmentalist orthodoxy.” The interview took place at New York’s Bridge Cafe. The most interesting thing about the Bridge Cafe — aside from its […]
Wegmans, Wal-Mart And Media Bias
You have to wonder if some mornings the folks who work for Wal-Mart must ask themselves what they are doing wrong. Here they are, a great company that has provided millions of jobs and helped a lot of people on tight budgets, and every time they go to open a store, there are protesters and […]
Pundit’s Mailbag — The Meaning Of Food Miles And Other ‘Green’ Terms
Our piece, C.H. Robinson Launches Our World Organics Line, brought a number of questions, less about the line than about this phrase in our comments: Although we wish C.H. Robinson would drop the “Food Miles” language as that has now been clearly demonstrated to have no relationship to anything important and is just a marketing […]
Dole Hit With Another Recall
Just after we reminded ourselves of the one-year mark since the Spinach Crisis began — noted in Spinach Crisis, One Year Later — we get a knot in the stomach and a sense of déjà vu when we learned about a problem with a Dole brand blend of romaine, green leaf and butter lettuces in […]
