Oahu Agriculture Technology Field Day - June 24, 2008

VincentD — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 02:42:00 GMT

The Oahu Resources Conservation and Development Council, in conjunction with the Hawaii Agricultural Reseach Center will be holding a field day on Oahu at the HARC field plots in Kunia. See below for more information....(read more)

Eating Local and Food Safety Issues

VincentD — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 00:26:00 GMT

I think we were all disappointed when we opened up the Tuesday, August 10, 2007 Honolulu Advertiser when Jan TenBruggencate article about the E. coli outbreak traced to lettuce on Kauai. It seems that 8 people were sickened due to E. coli contamination after eating lettuce. The E. coli was the O157:H7 strain that has been so devastating in the contamination of bagged spinach from California. In both cases, it appears that the fields were contaminated somehow by runoff containing E. coli due to neighboring livestock farms and the fact that both products are consumed raw makes it a risk. In the spinach case, the contaminated spinach was mixed with other spinach, bagged and shipped nationwide. In June 2007, USDA Economic Research Service presented a study in their on-line magazine, Amber Waves, that illustrated the impact of the outbreak on spinach shipments and sales. Even in 2007, almost a year after the contamination, bagged spinach sales lag behind sales before the outbreak. The California spinach growers were forced to lay off workers and plow under their crops. And the impacts went way beyond the Salinas Valley in California. The Marler Blog put out by Bill Marler of the Marler-Clark law firm, reported that an Indiana salad-processing plant closed as a result of the down turn in bagged salad products. A Brevard County, Florida produce broker filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The estimated cost to California spinach growers was at least $50 million in lost revenue in 2006.

In Hawaii, if we are to focus on the importance of "buying local" produce, shouldn't we also be fairly confident in the safety of the food that we eat that comes from our local farms? I'm not sure that we can. Considering the impact that the E. coli contamination had and continues to have on California spinach growers, what would be the impact to our local produce industries, especially greens and herbs which are eaten raw with minimal processing? Frankly, a more severe outbreak than what was reported on Kauai, would devastate the "buy fresh, buy local" movement in Hawaii. So how confident are we about our produce growers' ability to reduce the risk of contamination? I want to believe that they are doing their best to reduce my risk. I don't particularly want to parboil my Manoa lettuce!

CTAHR's Jim Hollyer and Lynn Nakamura-Tengan have been working with farmers to help them prepare for third-party food safety audits. To pass these audits, the farmers must "clean up their act" with respect to how they manage their products as they grow, harvest, process and package their product. With Whole Foods coming to town and their higher standards, along with more and more retailers and even wholesalers concerned about the source of their products, the whole idea of food safety for these "local" products becomes an idea whose time has come.

Sustainable Agriculture : lettuce

Oahu Agriculture Technology Field Day - June 24, 2008

Eating Local and Food Safety Issues