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 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

 + + + + +

 FRUIT AND VEGETABLE INDUSTRY

 ADVISORY COMMITTEE

 + + + + +

 MEETING

 + + + + +

 TUESDAY

 MAY 9, 2017

 + + + + +

 The Fruit and Vegetable Industry

Advisory Committee met in Potomac 1 and Potomac 2

of the Hyatt Regency, 2799 Jefferson Davis

Highway, Arlington, Virginia, at 8:30 a.m., Beth

Knorr, Chair, presiding.

MEMBERS PRESENT

BETH KNORR, Chair, Executive Director, Cuyahoga

 Valley Countryside Conservancy

ROBERT NOLAN, Vice Chair, Owner/Operator, Deer 

 Run Farms, LLC

CHRISTIE BALCH, Executive Director, Crossroads

 Community Food Network

VIRGINIA BARNES, Manager, Food Safety and Public

 Relations, Barnes Farm, LLP

CARLOS CASTANEDA, Principal, Castaneda & Sons,

 Inc.

HELEN DIETRICH, Owner/Human Resources Manager,

 Ridgeview Orchards, LLC

KRISTINE ELLOR, Mycologist/Technical Director,

 Phillips Mushroom Farms

RICHARD HANAS, Vice President and Chief

 Operating Officer, A. Duda & Sons, Inc.

JOHANNA HERRON, Marketing Manager, Alaska State

 Department of Agriculture
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MICHAEL JANIS, Market Manager, San Francisco

 Wholesale Produce Market

MARTIN MALDONADO, General Manager/Supply Chain

 Director, Pure Fresh, LLC

ROLAND MCREYNOLDS, Executive Director, Carolina

 Farm Stewardship Association

MARK NICHOLSON, Co-Owner/Manager of Fresh Sales,

 Red Jacket Orchards

PATRICK ROGERS, Owner/Operator, McAlister and

 Rogers Farms

DANIEL SUTTON, General Manager, Pismo Oceano

 Vegetable Exchange

HARRY TALBOTT, Vice President of Farm

 Operations/Co-Owner, Talbott's Mountain

 Gold, LLP

JORGE VAZQUEZ, President/CEO, Latin Specialties,

 LLC

THOMAS WILLIAMS, Director, Produce and Floral,

 Coborn's

DAVID YANDA, President & CEO, Lakeside Foods,

 Inc.
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OTHERS PRESENT

MARLENE BETTS, Acting Designated Federal

 Official

GREG ASTILL, Economic Research Service, USDA

SAMIR ASSAR, CFSAN, FDA

RONALD BATCHER, AMS, USDA

JAN CARLSON, CFSAN, FDA

SASHA BARD CHAMBERLAIN, FNS, USDA

LORELEI DISOGRA, United Fresh

ERIN GRETHER, United Fresh 

ERIN HEALY, FNS, USDA

ANDREW JERMOLOWICZ, Rural Development, USDA

ED KALEIKAU, NIFA, USDA

KEN KECK, AMS, USDA

TRICIA KOVACS, USDA

TERRY LONG, AMS, USDA

JULIE MANES, United Fresh

MAXIMILIAN MERRILL, National Farm to School 

 Network

TRAVIS MINOR, Economic Research Service, USDA

ERIN MORRIS, AMS, USDA

ARTHUR NEAL, AMS, USDA

KEN PETERSEN, AMS, USDA

LAURA PHELPS, American Mushroom Institute

CHRISTOPHER PURDY, AMS, USDA

CARL PURVIS, AMS, USDA

LEANNE SKELTON, AMS, USDA

BRUCE SUMMERS, AMS, USDA

NATHANIEL "CHIP" TAYLOR, Specialty Crop 

 Inspections, USDA

LORENZO TRIBBETT, AMS, USDA

KIMBERLY THOMPSON, Food Directions

SHONTAI VANCE, Schramm, Williams & Associates

JESSICA WASSERMAN, Wasserman & Associates
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 C-O-N-T-E-N-T-S

Call to Order. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

 Agenda Overview

 Introductions

 Acceptance of the October 2016

 Meeting Summary

USDA Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41

Public Comments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60

Full Committee Convenes. . . . . . . . . . . . . .69

 Beth Knorr, 2016-17 Chair

 Bob Nolan, 2016-17 Vice Chair

Food Safety Working Group

 Ken Petersen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71

 Samir Assar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97

 Jan Carlson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

 Tricia Kovacs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

 Roland McReynolds. . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Produce Consumption Working Group

 Sasha Bard Chamberlain . . . . . . . . . . 195

 Erin Healey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

 Christie Balch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Research and Grants Working Group

 Roland McReynolds. . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

 Ed Kaleikau. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

 Arthur Neal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

 Michael Janis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

 Andrew Jermolowicz . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

 Ken Keck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

Market and Infrastructure Grants . . . . . . . . 304

Market News Working Group. . . . . . . . . . . . 331

What's New in AMS Market News - 

Terry Long . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

Questions and Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

Closing Remarks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358

Adjourn. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
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1 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S

2 (8:37 a.m.)

3 MS. BETTS: All right. Well, David's

4 kind of getting situated. I know we kind of

5 squeezed some people in. I just would like to

6 say, welcome. My name is Marlene Betts. I'm the

7 acting Designated Federal Official.

8 As you all know, Pam Stanziani has

9 taken on another position. So, thank you so much

10 for, you know, all of the craziness that's gone

11 on for the past few months of me trying to get up

12 to speed, and figure out what the working groups

13 are, and who everybody is, and all of the crazy

14 emails, and all of that kind of good stuff.

15 But we just want to thank you, and

16 thank you all for coming. Welcome to Washington. 

17 With that, I just want to do just a few

18 housekeeping items.

19 As you see we have a court reporter

20 here, and all of the mics. I know lots of folks

21 don't like to talk into the mics. But that helps

22 him. So, anytime you need to speak, just press
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1 the button and speak into the mic. If the folks

2 along the side of the room, if you could step up

3 to one of the mics and ask your question, or make

4 a comment that would be much appreciated as well.

5 Bathrooms are outside. The men's

6 restroom is straightaway. The women's is down to

7 the left. You can't miss it. Take a left, and

8 it's on the right hand side.

9 We do have some more coffee coming. 

10 Water in the back of the room. Let's see, what

11 else do we have for housekeeping? We do have

12 some space set aside upstairs at the lunch room

13 upstairs for the noon hour. Everybody has to pay

14 their own way. But we do have some space set

15 aside.

16 Also, after hours in the lobby we do

17 have some space set aside for cocktails if folks

18 want to gather at the end of the day to kind of

19 unwind, or what have you. Again, everybody pays

20 their own way. But they will have a space set

21 aside for us upstairs as well.

22 Let's see. In your packets in front
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1 of you, I just wanted to kind of go through that. 

2 There's a lot of information in there. There's

3 the agenda for the day.

4 There's the travel guide. I gave you

5 a copy of that, which, between Melissa and I,

6 we're going to be kind of bouncing around with us

7 here, USDA staff. We'll go through that here in

8 a little bit for what you need to do for your

9 travel voucher and your guide.

10 There's another handout that Tricia

11 Kovacs, who will be speaking later this morning,

12 asked me to put in your packet, that has kind of

13 the supply chain information in there. There's a

14 charter in there that talks about what we're all

15 here for.

16 On the right hand side there's draft

17 recommendations that have come through the Food

18 Safety Working Group, that we'll be discussing

19 either later this morning or early this

20 afternoon.

21 There's a roster of the full

22 Committee. Unfortunately some people could not
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1 make it for this one. But that is the full

2 roster. We do have 25 people at this point in

3 time.

4 And then there's also a working group

5 roster. And I know we have three new folks. And

6 that was the, what I would like to welcome to the

7 Board. Patrick Rogers is new, from Tennessee. 

8 Johanna Herron, I think she's farther down. And

9 Martin Maldonado is our three new members to the

10 Board.

11 And I don't think they have signed up

12 for a Committee. So, if you could let me know

13 before the end of this meeting which one that you

14 might like to partake, that would be awesome. 

15 And if there's any movement as to the working

16 groups or whatever, just let me know.

17 And then of course there's an AMS

18 handout that's in there, that kind of gives folks

19 a little background of what AMS is all about. 

20 So, with that, I just want to kind of hit some

21 highlights from the charter, and then I'm going

22 to turn it over to Melissa Bailey who will walk
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1 us through the agenda.

2 But as you know, this is a federal

3 advisory committee. We meet about twice a year. 

4 We're governed under the Sunshine Act. So, this

5 is a public meeting, open public meeting. And

6 it's supported by all of these smaller working

7 groups, which we will hear about here in a little

8 while.

9 The nomination process is pretty much,

10 we put out a notice in the Federal Register. And

11 basically the industry nominates everyone that

12 sits around the room. We go through the vetting

13 process. And basically the Secretary of

14 Agriculture appoints you.

15 And also in the charter it lists all

16 of the different sectors in the fruit and

17 vegetable industry. That's represented, so I

18 won't bore you with all that.

19 The charter does expire in July. We

20 are working on trying to get that done. As you

21 know we have been in transition. So, we're

22 trying to work through the transition, and try to
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1 get the charter renewed. And once that gets

2 renewed we will start the nomination process.

3 I believe there are ten members whose

4 terms expire in July of this year. I think

5 that's on the roster, whose term expires. So, as

6 soon as, that kind of package is all moving

7 together. So, once we get some movement, now

8 that we have a Secretary, we will let you all

9 know. And that will be going out in the Federal

10 Register.

11 As I said, I'm the Designated Federal

12 Officer. And Erin Morris is the Executive

13 Secretary, providing the leadership. I provide

14 the administrative support basically.

15 And basically the expectation that we

16 have for the Committee is that you work as a

17 team, and try to determine the issues that are

18 important to the industry. And then hopefully at

19 the end of the day that you may establish some

20 recommendations, as there are some drafted in

21 your handout. And/or some statements that we can

22 bring forward to the Secretary.
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1 We want you all to participate. So,

2 hopefully the mics won't be prohibitive of

3 everybody speaking and providing feedback. We

4 all really want you to hear your perspective. I

5 think that makes for a great meeting, and a great

6 product at the end. So, please, participate.

7 Like I said, we have I think five or

8 six working groups. And if you feel like we need

9 to create another one, or maybe we need to put

10 one on a shelf, or whatever, we can do that as

11 well.

12 Again, this is kind of your meeting. 

13 We're here to help facilitate. And I think that

14 is pretty much what I wanted to say. And so,

15 with that I think I'm going to turn it over to

16 Melissa Bailey.

17 She is our Associate Deputy

18 Administrator for Specialty Crops. And she's

19 going to walk us through the agenda and some

20 other items that she may have on her list. So,

21 Melissa.

22 MS. BAILEY: Great. Thanks, Marlene. 
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1 So, I'm Melissa Bailey. I'm one of two Associate

2 Deputy Administrators with the Specialty Crops

3 Program at AMS.

4 I have met a number of you when I've

5 popped in at some of the past meetings. So, I've

6 had some involvement in things you've worked on

7 before.

8 And it's great to see some familiar

9 faces, both from those meetings, but also, I've

10 worked with Roland before on some issues. Used

11 to work with Tina on a previous advisory

12 committee. So, it's nice to see everybody. And

13 welcome.

14 So, I also want to just take a minute

15 to really thank Marlene, because just with all

16 the transition she's been great at jumping and

17 learning a whole lot at once about how this

18 advisory committee functions. And so, just thank

19 you for all of your efforts.

20 And so, you may note that the agenda

21 is slightly different than how we've structured

22 it in the past. I think what we're trying to do
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1 is keep focus on the three areas that the

2 Committee seemed most interested in after

3 October.

4 That's not to say there aren't other

5 areas. But for the purpose of this meeting we've

6 sort of structured it into those three areas. 

7 So, after I go over the agenda we'll do

8 introductions of the Committee, as well as

9 anybody from USDA who hasn't yet introduced

10 themselves.

11 Marlene's already covered the role of

12 the Committee and charter, and the meeting

13 process. We will do -- Marlene, did we send the

14 2016 meeting summary out? Or are we not doing

15 that?

16 MS. BETTS: I did not do that.

17 MS. BAILEY: Okay.

18 MS. BETTS: I was trying to feverishly

19 do it through all of the transcripts that are

20 posted on the website.

21 MS. BAILEY: Yes.

22 MS. BETTS: It looks like the basic
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1 thing that came out of it were the working groups

2 from the last meeting.

3 MS. BAILEY: Yes.

4 MS. BETTS: So, but I can certainly

5 send that out after. I kind of put something

6 together yesterday really quickly.

7 MS. BAILEY: Yes.

8 MS. BETTS: But we haven't had really

9 a chance to look at that.

10 MS. BAILEY: Yes. So, that's the

11 meeting summary from the 2016 meeting. We'll go

12 ahead and circulate that to the Committee just by

13 email.

14 Essentially the last meeting was

15 fairly organizational. And just getting sort of

16 structured into your working groups. But as

17 Marlene said, the transcripts from that meeting

18 have been posted on line on the advisory

19 committee page.

20 Then we'll move into USDA reports. We

21 have our Acting Administrator here to give you an

22 update from the Agency, USDA perspective. Erin
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1 will also provide some commentary. And then

2 we'll just go over briefly the travel

3 reimbursement information.

4 At that point we have a brief period

5 of time for public comments, should there be any. 

6 And then we will somewhat pass the meeting to our

7 Chair and Co-Chair of the Committee, Beth and

8 Bob, to facilitate for this, later this morning

9 and this afternoon.

10 So, moving into sort of the first

11 focus area is going to be the Food Safety Working

12 Group. We have a number of speakers, both from

13 USDA and FDA. And I won't go through. But you

14 can see exactly who will be coming, and what

15 topics they'll be covering, based on feedback

16 from that working group.

17 That will bring us right up to

18 probably lunch time, given the number of people

19 that are speaking, and the focus that this

20 Committee has had on that issue, particularly

21 given the Food Safety Modernization Act.

22 So, we'll have lunch. At 1 o'clock
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1 we'll come back. And there are three draft

2 recommendations from the working group. And

3 Roland will be sort of spearheading walking

4 through those with the Committee.

5 And that's mainly just to give an

6 initial presentation of those, so you can hear it

7 right after you've had the context from FDA and

8 USDA, and start thinking about as a committee if

9 the content of those draft recommendations are

10 things you'd like to vote on as a final

11 recommendation from the Committee.

12 So, there will be an opportunity for

13 more discussion on that tomorrow morning. Then

14 we'll move into, from 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., our

15 Produce Consumption Working Group, which has been

16 led by Christie.

17 And we have two speakers from Food

18 Nutrition Service coming. One had actually given

19 a presentation on one of the subcommittee calls

20 that we felt would be helpful for the whole

21 Committee to hear. Really with the charge of,

22 are there ways to increase fruit and vegetable
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1 consumption in the school feeding programs.

2 And then we'll have another speaker

3 talk about farm to school. And then there will

4 be some opportunity for any discussion. They

5 don't have a draft recommendation at this time,

6 but may have some initial ideas to share with the

7 Committee.

8 At 3 o'clock we'll move into the

9 Research and Grants Working Group, which has been

10 chaired by Roland. And we have a number of

11 speakers, again, based on the interests of the

12 few subcommittee calls that we have had since the

13 last meeting, to talk about a range of things

14 from plant breeding and support for plant

15 breeding programs, wholesale markets and

16 infrastructure funding. And we'll have both

17 Rural Development from USDA, as well as some ag 

18 marketing service representatives.

19 And again, an opportunity for

20 discussion right after those speakers, in the

21 event that that working group would like to bring

22 anything forward tomorrow.
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1 At 4:30 p.m. we will have our Director

2 of Market News for Specialty Crops, Terry Long,

3 come and bring a brief overview of kind of what's

4 new in AMS Market News for you.

5 This Committee has always been a great

6 support of Market News information. And I think

7 that's something that Tom wanted to bring

8 forward, just and update. And if there's any

9 further recommendation from the Committee at that

10 time, with the plan to recess at 5:00 p.m. today. 

11 So, that sort of outlines the plan for today.

12 Moving in to tomorrow, Wednesday

13 morning, we wanted to provide an opportunity for

14 some of the other working groups, who maybe

15 haven't been quite as active, leading up to this

16 meeting, new farmer advocacy and mentoring, ag

17 labor. I think there was a mention at one point

18 of some broadband, interest in broadband and

19 increasing that.

20 So, we'll leave some time, about an

21 hour, for general comments from the folks on

22 those subcommittees who might want to start
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1 thinking about future recommendations. And then

2 we'll have an opportunity for the working groups

3 who do have recommendations, or want to continue

4 formulating things, to meet.

5 And a lot of tomorrow is really

6 centered around giving you guys an opportunity,

7 face time, to further develop, and put any final

8 recommendations forward to the Department.

9 And then at 1 o'clock we will adjourn,

10 and make sure we get our famous advisory

11 committee group photo, which is always the

12 highlight for everybody. And so, basically

13 that's the agenda.

14 One other thing I have shared, I think

15 with Bob and Beth before, and I would like to

16 share here is, we would like to, moving forward,

17 get into kind of routine of, when the Committee

18 makes recommendations, providing sort of a formal

19 response back on those.

20 So, any, I think our commitment would

21 be, anything coming out of this meeting, that we

22 would then circulate back at some point, you
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1 know. It may take a little time. But a

2 memorandum or response to kind of, what are

3 USDA's next steps with regard to the

4 recommendations that you've made?

5 We would like to get into a better

6 system of being able to track all the

7 recommendations, and kind of where we ended up on

8 things. As I know that's come up a few times at

9 past meetings.

10 So, we do have a plan for that,

11 following after this meeting. And welcome any

12 feedback as we kind of roll that out to see if

13 that works for everybody. So, that's something

14 that's on our radar. Yes.

15 MR. MCREYNOLDS: Melissa, Roland

16 McReynolds, Carolina Farm Stewardship

17 Association. Very much welcome this idea of the

18 sort of formal response back. Is that going to

19 retroactively apply to our past recommendations? 

20 Or is this just a going forward?

21 MS. BAILEY: I think, this is Melissa

22 again. I think initially we'll start with going
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1 forward, so that we can get a system in place

2 that makes sense.

3 And then, if there are particular

4 recommendations that, you know, the folks here

5 have known, they've worked on, and kind of

6 wondered what happened.

7 I think we would like people to bring

8 those to our attention, as we kind of get a

9 handle on those past ones. So, sort of a

10 combination approach is kind of how I would

11 envision that working.

12 Great. That is all I have on the

13 agenda. Marlene, unless you have anything else?

14 MS. BETTS: No. Maybe now is a good

15 time to have everybody introduce themselves

16 around the room. And maybe say your name, who

17 you're representing, and maybe a fun fact that

18 you want people to know about you, you know,

19 whether it's a hobby, anything.

20 So, with that I'm going to let Mark

21 get us started. Okay. I'll start. We'll go

22 this way around the room then. Okay. Marlene
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1 Betts. I'm obviously with USDA. I'm Acting

2 Designated Federal Official.

3 My everyday job I'm with the Promotion

4 and Economics Division in the Specialty Crops

5 Program. We work with the Research and Promotion

6 Programs. I'm currently working with some, one

7 of our newer programs, the Paper and Packaging

8 Board, which has been quite interesting, working

9 with the paper industry, and helping to get

10 people to use paper again, which I'm a very big

11 advocate of, as you can see. And I'm also

12 working with the avocado industry as well.

13 I enjoy traveling. Just got back from

14 vacation in Myrtle Beach. And just like to

15 travel throughout the U.S., and trying to do some

16 more traveling overseas. Looking at possibly

17 getting back to New Zealand next year, hopefully. 

18 So, really enjoy traveling. So, with that, I

19 will pass it on.

20 MS. BALCH: Hi, everyone. I'm

21 Christie Balch. I'm the Executive Director of

22 the Crossroads Community Food Network. We're
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1 based in Tacoma Park, Maryland, right outside of

2 D.C.

3 On this committee I chair the Produce

4 Consumption Working Group. And we are, we would

5 love more members. So, new members, you are

6 welcome to join, and old members too.

7 And a fun fact, in my spare time I'm

8 a volunteer EMT and firefighter at my local fire

9 station.

10 MR. JANIS: Hi. Good morning. I'm

11 Michael Janis. I'm with the San Francisco

12 Wholesale Produce Market. We're in San

13 Francisco, obviously, California.

14 I sit on the Food Safety Working

15 Group, as well as the Grants and Research. And I

16 want to thank Roland for all his leadership on

17 those committees.

18 A fun fact, I actually grew up not far

19 from where Bob grew up, on Long Island, even

20 though I've been down in San Francisco a long

21 time. I'm sure that's it. All yours.

22 MR. WILLIAMS: All right. I'm Tom
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1 Williams. I'm the Director of Produce and Flora

2 for Coborn's. We're a family ran, employee owned

3 group of grocery stores in Minnesota, Wisconsin,

4 North Dakota, South Dakota. We have 50 stores.

5 And a fun fact. Well, I also love to

6 travel. And our kids got that same bug. And so,

7 our middle son has announced that he's going to

8 do a destination wedding next year.

9 And it's going to be in a place where

10 we love, which is in Maui. But that is a true

11 destination wedding. The fun fact will be the

12 expense of the destination wedding. That's it

13 for me.

14 MS. BAILEY: Melissa Bailey, Associate

15 Deputy Administrator with Ag Marketing Service. 

16 I've been with USDA for about seven years now. 

17 And worked in university and private sector

18 before. Also worked for the National Organic

19 Program before coming to Specialty Crops Program,

20 which is how I know Tina.

21 And I work primarily at USDA with the

22 Perishable Ag Commodities Act Division, Marlene's
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1 group, the Promotion Economics Team, as well as

2 the Marketing Order and Agreements Division.

3 And my fun fact is, this fall I did my

4 first half marathon. So, and now I have the bug. 

5 So, hopefully that will last. And, I don't know,

6 my running group keeps telling me maybe I'll do a

7 marathon. But that seems a little extreme to me. 

8 So, thanks.

9 MR. SUMMERS: Good morning, everybody. 

10 I'm Bruce Summers. I'm the Associate, one of the

11 Associate Administrators in AMS. But I'm

12 currently pretending, or acting as the AMS

13 Administrator.

14 Fun fact is, when they, in January

15 when they said you're going to be Acting

16 Administrator, that could last an hour, or it

17 could last a few months. Well, we blew through

18 the first hour, and it's still going.

19 MS. MORRIS: This is going to be fun

20 all day. Hi. I'm Erin Morris. I am currently

21 the Acting Deputy Administrator of the Specialty

22 Crops Program. And I'm the other Associate
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1 Administrator. So, Bruce and I are having fun

2 wearing multiple hats these days. A good time.

3 I've been with AMS for just over 18

4 years in a variety of different places. And have

5 loved every one of them. So, thanks so much for

6 allowing me to participate in this meeting today.

7 A fun fact for me, I'll keep the

8 travel bug going. We love to travel. It's

9 either Disney World, or Europe. Those are pretty

10 much the only two places that we go. But it's a

11 good time.

12 MR. YANDA: Good morning. I'm Dave

13 Yanda, recently retired, and CEO of Lakeside

14 foods in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. We have 13

15 plants, pretty much throughout the Midwest. And

16 been on the Committee for, I know many of you

17 have been here for a couple of years. So, really

18 enjoy seeing everyone.

19 A fun fact is that we left Siesta Key,

20 Florida last week, Sunday morning. And it was in

21 the high 80s. And I left my driveway in

22 Wisconsin yesterday, and it was 29 degrees. A
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1 little culture shock.

2 MS. HERRON: Hello. My name is

3 Johanna Herron. I work for the Division of

4 Agriculture in Alaska. I run the Market Access

5 and Food Safety Section, which covers specialty

6 crop, country of origin, marketing, farm to

7 school, a bunch of different things.

8 Let's see, a fun fact. I could tell

9 you a bunch of Alaska fun facts maybe. So, we

10 have communities that are as far apart as San

11 Francisco to Chicago.

12 And I would say some of the most

13 unique things that grow up there, I've seen

14 somebody starting a variety of cactus that's

15 going well. And grapes, kiwi, some interesting

16 different, different things creep up there, just

17 not in good volume.

18 MR. CASTANEDA: Good morning. My

19 name's Carlos Castaneda. I'm out of California. 

20 I'm been a farm labor contractor since 1991,

21 although the past few years I've turned into an

22 H2A labor contractor. Now the ratio's about two
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1 to one.

2 Fun fact, last night I got the most

3 sleep I've had in many years. I have four

4 children, 7, 5, 3, and 1. So, you can do the

5 math.

6 MR. TALBOT: Bruce Talbot from

7 Palisade, Colorado. We are peach and grape

8 producers. We are about halfway between Denver

9 and Salt Lake, to give you a feel, on the

10 Colorado River. And fun fact, I still referee

11 soccer, though I take ibuprofen before I start.

12 MS. DIETRICH: Good morning. I'm

13 Helen Dietrich, from Michigan. We grow apples,

14 asparagus, and cherries. Fun fact, I'm on our

15 Library Board. And we just increased the size of

16 our library. We doubled it. And it will open

17 next week. So, we're really excited about that.

18 MR. PURDY: Hi. I'm Chris Purdy. I'm

19 one of the other Associate Deputy Administrators

20 for Specialty Crops Program, with Melissa. I

21 work with the Inspection Division, Market News,

22 the Food Safety Audit Program.
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1 I'd also like to put a little

2 commercial in. I work with the produce industry

3 to help encourage sales of produce to the

4 Commodity Procurement Program within USDA.

5 We buy about a half a billion dollars'

6 worth of various forms of fruits and vegetables. 

7 And so, if you're interested in learning more

8 about it come see me.

9 MR. SUTTON: Good morning. My name is

10 Dan Sutton. I'm general manager of Pismo Oceano

11 Vegetable Exchange. We are a grower/shipper of

12 fresh produce in California.

13 A fun fact, my family is from England. 

14 And we applied several years ago, and found out

15 about a year ago that I had been given the title

16 of Count in England. I know that doesn't mean

17 anything here in this room to any of you. but

18 when I go back to England the title Count does

19 mean something.

20 (Off microphone comments.)

21 MR. HANAS: Good morning, everyone. 

22 I'm Rick Hanas, formerly with A. Duda & Sons for
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1 46 and a half years, as Executive Vice President

2 and COO. I just retired in February. But I'm

3 still going to do some consulting work for the

4 company. So, I'm going to be part of some other

5 associations that we're involved with.

6 Fun fact, one of them is my wife loves

7 to travel. So now I'm going to be traveling with

8 her. We're fixing to go to Stockholm, and then

9 go up, and then go over to Russia.

10 And the other fun fact is I've got two

11 grandchildren. And now I get to spend as much

12 time as I want with each one of them. They're 5

13 and 1 years old.

14 MR. VAZQUEZ: Good morning, everyone. 

15 I'm Jorge Vazquez, President of Latin Specialties

16 in Houston, Texas. So, we are a family owned

17 produce distribution and fresh cut operation.

18 I've been with the Committee for, this

19 is going to be my third year, I think. And my

20 term's about to expire. But it's fun and, you

21 know, I love all of the time, spending time with

22 all of you guys.
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1 Fun fact, I like to scuba dive. Used

2 to run a lot. So watch out for your back,

3 because -- but you can definitely do the

4 marathon, you know. So, go for it. Thank you.

5 MS. BARNES: My name is Virginia

6 Barnes. But I like to be called Gin. Virginia I

7 feel like I'm in trouble. I work for my family's

8 fifth generation farm in Florida. And right now

9 we are growing solely cabbage, 1,000 acres, which

10 is a lot.

11 And a fun fact, I used to travel with

12 a Blue Grass festival. So, I've been to every

13 state except Alaska. And I'm going next June.

14 MR. MALDONADO: Good morning. My name

15 is Martin Maldonado. I am from Miami, Florida. 

16 Don't hate me. We grow and market berries,

17 mostly blackberries, raspberries, and

18 blueberries.

19 A fun fact, I grew up right across the

20 river in Washington, DC. And I want to go look

21 at the house where I grew up 35 years ago,

22 tomorrow afternoon. So, I'll let you know how it
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1 looks.

2 MS. KNORR: Good morning. I'm Beth

3 Knorr. I'm the Director of Summit Food Coalition

4 in Peninsula, Ohio. And a fun fact, I really

5 love pie, did not get enough of it in my life. 

6 So, I have decided to tackle the art of making

7 crusts in 2017.

8 MR. NOLAN: I'm Bob Nolan, owner of

9 Deer Run Farms. It's a fourth generation

10 vegetable farmer from Long Island. Former Long

11 Islander here.

12 And we grow lettuce, like eight or

13 nine different types of lettuce, spinach,

14 escarole, chicory. We got into some of the

15 herbs, basil, arugula, stuff like that. So,

16 trying to market more locally, and take advantage

17 of that.

18 Fun fact, I used to referee high

19 school basketball, but I gave it up. So, I don't

20 need ibuprofen. So --

21 MR. MCREYNOLDS: Good morning,

22 everybody. My name's Roland McReynolds. I'm
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1 Executive Director with the Carolina Farm

2 Stewardship Association.

3 We're a member organization,

4 representing farmers and businesses in North and

5 South Carolina that are in the markets for local

6 and organic foods, and especially crops, major

7 products that our folks produce. We're based in

8 Pittsboro, North Carolina, in the Raleigh,

9 Durham, Chapel Hill area.

10 And a fun fact, I lived in France for

11 a year with my family, back in 2005. My daughter

12 was actually born while we were over there. And

13 my son went to preschool over there. So, he used

14 to speak French.

15 MR. ROGERS: Hi. My name is Patrick

16 Rogers. I prefer to be called Mack. I'm from

17 Tennessee. After hearing your nice operations I

18 realize I'm the minority representative on this

19 Board. We're probably the smallest farmer

20 around.

21 But we're here, I'm here because of

22 the United States Sweet Potato Council. And
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1 that's what I've been a part of for several

2 years. And we're here basically to make all our

3 potato farmers rich.

4 Interesting fact about me, we were

5 doing great until about two weeks ago. Our

6 family was on CBS news. We received five and a

7 half inches of hail, and six inches in 15

8 minutes, and six inches of rain in 24 hours.

9 So, count your blessings when you see

10 a hailstorm at somebody else's place. That's our

11 biggest claim to fame lately.

12 MS. ELLOR: Tina Ellor, Phillips

13 Mushroom Farms. I think this is my last meeting,

14 unless we re-up, which I guess we have the

15 opportunity to do that if we want to.

16 I worked with the American Mushroom

17 Institute, the whole time of it in the mushroom

18 industry. Fun fact, I'm also married to a

19 mushroom grower. Mushrooms 24/7.

20 MR. NICHOLSON: Good morning. I'm

21 Mark Nicholson with Red Jacket Orchards. The

22 farm's located in Geneva, New York. I'm third
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1 generation. I have a twin brother in the

2 business.

3 People who attend industry meetings,

4 or even USDA staff, way back when, when I was an

5 intern in college, I was followed the immediate

6 summer by my brother in the exact same branch,

7 which created a little confusion. And they still

8 remember us.

9 We're 450 acres of fruit. And we have

10 a juice processing facility as well. I guess my

11 fun fact is two things. One, if you see me

12 waking around in a Cub Scout uniform later today,

13 it's because I have, I'm the Cub Master for a

14 local pack here, even though I live, even though

15 the farm's in New York, I live here in Mt.

16 Vernon, Virginia. So, after this meeting I will

17 be running that in uniform.

18 The other fun fact is, let's see, my

19 daughter stole my phone, and I can't figure out

20 how to get the, you can't see it now because a

21 text came up. There's a chubby unicorn on here. 

22 So, if anybody knows how to get these changed,
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1 let me know.

2 MS. BETTS: Well, thank you,

3 everybody. And I think we might as well take the

4 time to go around the room. So, if you guys,

5 Leanne, if you could go to the mic and introduce

6 yourself, and Laura, and everybody kind of peel

7 off and just introduce yourselves. That would be

8 awesome.

9 MS. SKELTON: Yes. So, good morning,

10 everybody. I'm Leanne Skelton. I'm with

11 Specialty Crop Program. Worked in Erin's office. 

12 And I'm the liaison to FDA on FSMA kind of stuff.

13 If you still want a fun fact, I am a

14 sports fan. But that's not really the fun part. 

15 It will be fun later this week. But, yes, when

16 the Cavs win. I'm actually a shirttail, or

17 shoestring relation to Red Skelton.

18 MS. PHELPS: I'm Laura Phelps. I'm

19 with the American Mushroom Institute. And I'm

20 chairman of the Tina Ellor fan club. And to

21 follow on Tina's remark about 24/7 mushrooms, I

22 just got back from a three week trip to Africa.
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1 And we went on a safari. And the

2 guide one night looked at me. And he said, can

3 you put me in touch with someone who can teach me

4 how to grow mushrooms? And I'm like, oh, why

5 can't I get away from this? But anyway.

6 MS. MANES: Hi. I'm Julie Manes with

7 United Fresh Produce Association, here in D.C. 

8 Thanks.

9 MR. PURVIS: Hi. I'm Carl Purvis. 

10 I'm with the AMS Public Affairs Office.

11 MR. ASTILL: Hi. I'm Greg Astill. 

12 I'm an economist with the USDA Economic Research

13 Service. And I've been there just over a year

14 now. I got thrown into a lot of stuff about

15 produce and food safety. And I've been really

16 enjoying it.

17 Last year we went on a trip to

18 Michigan, talked to growers there. And I've just

19 been planning a trip to southern California, and

20 then we're going to go to Florida also this

21 summer.

22 MS. VANCE: I am Shontai Vance. I am
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1 in intern on behalf of Schramm, Williams and

2 Associates. A fun fact about me, I have been in

3 D.C. for less than a week. And so, I'm also new

4 in town. And I also can speak Chinese.

5 MS. BETTS: I think that's everybody

6 around the room. The other guy behind me that's

7 running all the show is our court reporter, Sam. 

8 So, thank you everybody for introducing

9 yourselves. And I think with that I'm going to

10 pass it over to Erin Morris. And she will be

11 introducing our next speaker.

12 MS. MORRIS: Yes. Maybe I can just

13 yell from here. So, anyway I know we just did

14 introductions. But I will take a moment just to

15 introduce Bruce Summers again, who is no stranger

16 to the produce folks in his little over 20 years

17 with AMS.

18 He spent most of it in what was

19 formerly known as Fruit and Vegetable, now

20 Specialty Crops. I still have to work on that,

21 by the way. I'll be saying that five years from

22 now.
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1 But we feel very, very fortunate to

2 have Bruce in both of his roles as Associate

3 Administrator, and certainly Acting

4 Administrator. He's very familiar obviously with

5 most of the issues that are near and dear to your

6 hearts. So, we find that that's really helpful

7 to us. And without further ado, Bruce.

8 MR. SUMMERS: Thanks, Erin. So, Erin

9 and I both have the same title. So, you know,

10 I'm the Associate Administrator, she's the

11 Associate Administrator. And so, I like to say,

12 I'm Darryl, and this is my sister, Darryl. If

13 you're old enough to remember that show on TV,

14 right.

15 So, hey, it's really good to be here

16 with you. And I appreciate the invite from

17 Melissa and Erin to come over and talk to you. 

18 There's probably a word you're going to hear a

19 little bit this week, or the next two days. And

20 Melissa already said it once. And that's

21 transition.

22 So, you know, we are in the middle of
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1 a transition. And I imagine as you talk to a

2 number of the other career Government folks who

3 are going to roll through over the next day and a

4 half, you're going to hear a lot about

5 transition.

6 And we are very much in the middle of

7 the transition, or towards the end of the

8 transition, or at the beginning of the

9 transition. We're not really sure. But we are

10 definitely in transition.

11 You know, I started my job as the

12 Associate Administrator basically the 1st of

13 November. And a week later we had an election. 

14 And then the transition started, as we started to

15 work to, you know, move the folks who have been

16 here, a lot of them for eight years, out, and

17 then in January the new folks in.

18 So, I really have no idea what my real

19 job is going to be like. Because I've been in

20 transition since about the sixth day I got the

21 job. So, but you're going to hear a lot about

22 transition.
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1 And I have a few remarks I thought I'd

2 provide. And I'm not used to giving a speech

3 sitting down. And I'm not used to giving a

4 speech where I can't see everybody. So, if I get

5 up and start pacing you'll understand why.

6 But, you know, I have a few remarks I

7 wanted to give. If you have questions, I'm happy

8 to try and answer them, as far as what's going on

9 at AMS and at USDA.

10 But it is an interesting time. It's

11 been the first transition I've been at a level

12 where I really noticed. And it's kind of been a

13 kind of fun process. But it's interesting to see

14 how the U.S. Government works in the middle of

15 transition. And it works.

16 You know, we are across the board

17 USDA. But with respect to AMS, you know, we're

18 out there. We're creating product. We're

19 issuing Market News reports. We're holding

20 advisory committee meetings.

21 We're doing this one this week. A

22 couple of weeks ago we did the National Organic
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1 Standards Board. You know, the point is, you

2 know, we're operating, you know. It's up. It's

3 running. We're doing things we have to do.

4 There's some things we're holding off

5 on while we wait for the political leadership to

6 get in place. That makes sense. They get to,

7 you know, set priorities and establish some of

8 the things that they want to do.

9 But the long and short of it is we're

10 still delivering the services that are kind of

11 the bread and butter of what AMS does. So, I

12 think it's important that everybody knows that

13 that's what's going on.

14 So, two weeks ago, two weeks ago today

15 actually, you know, we marked a really important

16 milestone in the transition, because Sonny Purdue

17 arrived at the USDA on the Tuesday morning. And

18 he talked about, in his remarks to the staff, how

19 important it is for USDA to provide high quality

20 essential services and products to our

21 stakeholders.

22 He talked about the need to make
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1 everyone, or make sure that everyone has a seat

2 at the table. And I don't think he was

3 necessarily envisioning this advisory committee

4 when he said that. But that's really what this

5 advisory committee is about, making sure that

6 everybody has a seat at the table.

7 And that's why it's really important

8 to have an advisory committee like the USDA Fruit

9 and Vegetable Industry Committee that you all are

10 a part of. You're representing diverse

11 backgrounds, interests. You provide an insight

12 on to how USDA can best help the produce industry

13 running vital, right. That's what we're about.

14 AMS is about facilitating, marketing

15 of agricultural products. This committee is part

16 of helping us do that. We need to hear from you

17 all, so that we can provide the best products

18 possible, the best services possible to help the

19 produce industry remain vital.

20 So, I don't necessarily think he was

21 looking at you all when he said that. But that's

22 really what he was talking about. So, I want to
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1 congratulate you all for being a part of this

2 committee. I want to welcome the new members. 

3 And I want to thank all of you for your service.

4 A little bit about my background, you

5 know, as Erin alluded to. I spent a long time in

6 the Fruit and Vegetable Program. And then after

7 I left they changed the name. I don't know why. 

8 So, I left, they changed the name.

9 But I was, years ago I spent a lot of

10 time with this committee, different people, but

11 this committee, when I was working running the

12 PACA program, the Perishable Agriculture

13 Commodities Act.

14 And when I was the director of that

15 program we received a ton of support from the

16 advisory committee. We were, at a time that we

17 were trying to kind of right size the program,

18 there had been a lot of changes in the industry,

19 not a lot of changes in the bureaucracy, so to

20 speak.

21 And so, we were looking at, you know,

22 what's the right size that the PACA Program
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1 should be with respect to number of employees,

2 number of offices? We kind of had the same setup

3 for years and years. And what should the fee

4 levels be? Because we were looking at, you know,

5 trying to address funding issues.

6 And so, we spent the better part of a

7 year, maybe a year and a half with the advisory

8 committee. And meetings like this, and

9 subcommittee meetings, and lots of discussions. 

10 Came up with a plan that was really instrumental

11 in what the PACA Program looks like today.

12 Again, could we have done it without

13 the Committee? Yes, maybe. Probably so. Would

14 it have been a good plan as it was? No,

15 absolutely not. We really, really, really,

16 relied on the industries' feedback, suggestions,

17 ideas on what it should look like.

18 And if you, you know, how much this

19 committee has looked at the PACA Program as it is

20 today. But it's basically, what you have today

21 is what that Advisory Committee helped us design

22 about ten years ago.
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1 The funding level hasn't changed. The

2 offices, it's a very stable program now. And a

3 lot of that has to do with the decisions that

4 were made and influenced by the Fruit and

5 Vegetable Industry Commodity, Fruit and Vegetable

6 Industry Advisory Committee.

7 So, what you're doing is important. 

8 What you're doing can have long lasting impacts. 

9 I want you to know that.

10 I just want to kind of step back and

11 talk a little bit about Agriculture Marketing

12 Service. You know, we take a lot of pride in

13 working together with our industry stakeholders

14 to craft solutions to problems that you all bring

15 to us.

16 You won't often hear AMS going out to

17 industry and saying, we figured out what you all

18 need. It's usually not how it works, almost

19 never works that way at AMS. If you look at what

20 AMS does most of our programs are voluntary. 

21 They're user fee funded.

22 And to the extent that they involve
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1 regulatory requirements, it's usually another

2 agency or another country that's imposing the

3 regulatory requirements. And generally what

4 we're doing is trying to help the industry

5 demonstrate that they're in compliance with those

6 requirements.

7 An example of that would be, you know,

8 our export verification programs. So, we have

9 worked with industry to develop export

10 verification programs from everything to dairy,

11 poultry, meat, and for you guys, almonds,

12 pistachios, peanuts, and orange juice.

13 Again, those are all requirements we

14 didn't impose. Those are, for the most part,

15 requirements imposed by foreign countries.

16 The industry will come to us and say,

17 boy, we need to get a product into Korea, say for

18 example, orange juice, which was a big one we

19 worked on a few years ago. And there was a huge

20 tariff on orange juice going into Korea if we

21 couldn't demonstrate that all the orange juice we

22 were exporting was from the U.S.
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1 We worked with the industry. We set

2 up a program. South Korea now takes U.S. orange

3 juice at very, very low import duties. Again, a

4 problem brought to us by industry. We worked

5 with the industry to try and solve that problem,

6 so they can facilitate their products, or their

7 movement of their product.

8 So, those are some of the specific

9 ways, you know, we like to work with industry, we

10 like to work with the Advisory Committee. But

11 there is beyond just specifics.

12 If you just think about other import

13 and benefits of a committee like this, you know,

14 the more you know about us, and the more we know

15 about you, the better we can work together.

16 So, even if we're not, I mean, just

17 what we did right now, going around the table and

18 introducing ourselves, and fun facts. The more

19 you know us, and the more we know you, the better

20 we can work together.

21 And so, even if we don't have a

22 specific issue to work on this morning, coming
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1 together, meeting, letting us hear about your

2 concerns, your challenges, us tell you about the

3 services we can provide, and how we might be able

4 to help is still very, very, beneficial.

5 I want to open it up for questions. 

6 But let me just finish by saying, thank you,

7 thank you, thank you, for taking time away from

8 your businesses, your families. At least you

9 still get to go to your Cub Scout meetings. 

10 You're cheating.

11 But I just want you to know, you know,

12 we take the input and the advice that we receive

13 from the Committee. And we really, really do

14 rely on it. And so, we really thank you for your

15 time. Appreciate you coming all the way to

16 Washington, DC for those who traveled, well, a

17 pretty long way from Alaska. But we really do

18 appreciate it.

19 So, before I introduce Erin, are there

20 any questions? Anything folks are wondering

21 about what's going on in Washington, DC? What is

22 going on in Washington, DC? How's that for an
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1 open ended question?

2 (Off microphone comment.)

3 MR. SUMMERS: No. But Erin does.

4 MR. NOLAN: I just have a quick

5 question.

6 MR. SUMMERS: Shoot.

7 MR. NOLAN: Last week I was -- last

8 week or two weeks ago. I don't know. Time

9 flies. There was some farmers met with the

10 President and the Secretary. Would you be able

11 to tell us, you know, what came out of that

12 meeting, or just some of the highlights? Or, you

13 know, a status?

14 MR. SUMMERS: So, here's a fun fact

15 about that meeting. So, the Secretary, you know,

16 went over with a handful -- a pretty big handful

17 of industry over to the White House, and met with

18 the President.

19 Two people in that group were former

20 Fruit and Vegetable Industry Advisory Committee

21 members. So, that's pretty cool. So, you guys

22 could be with the next President.
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1 Now, I didn't get any specific

2 feedback on that. I think it was kind of a

3 general discussion of the challenges, you know,

4 the things they had to talk about, right, labor,

5 trade. The AG was there from California. You

6 know he talked about water, right.

7 But I think it was a fairly general

8 discussion. But it, I mean, the important thing

9 is, hey, day 1, new Secretary, you're in at the

10 White House. Pretty cool, yes. And I think that

11 may have played into some of the discussions

12 about what happened with NAFTA last week, as in

13 not pulling out.

14 MR. NOLAN: Okay.

15 MR. NICHOLSON: Just a quick question

16 as well. Mark Nicholson. It's probably one you

17 can't answer. But is there a sense of timeline

18 for getting in the political leadership at the

19 levels, and allowing you to return to you day to

20 day?

21 MR. SUMMERS: No. There isn't a

22 timeline. I mean, you know, getting the
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1 Secretary onboard, obviously hugely important. 

2 And we're looking to see what happens with the

3 Deputy.

4 You know, we're not yet, if you go

5 back eight years, we kind of got spoiled over the

6 last eight years. Because at USDA is was really,

7 really a stable political workforce, you know.

8 The Secretary was one of the longest,

9 well, in modern time he's the longest serving

10 Secretary, you know, the full seven years, or

11 whatever it was.

12 But we're really not that far behind

13 on things like appointments for the

14 Administrator. At this time eight years ago we

15 did not have an AMS Administrator. So, but we

16 don't have a timeline. We're not panicked yet

17 either. Well, I'm not, they are.

18 MR. VAZQUEZ: I got a question. How's

19 the funding looking for the USDA under the new

20 administration?

21 MR. SUMMERS: So, we did really well

22 in the FY '17 budget. You know, we were
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1 operating under what they call a continuing

2 resolution for the first half of this fiscal

3 year. So, we got our final numbers for Fiscal

4 Year '17 a week ago, two weeks ago.

5 And we're funded right where we need

6 to be. The administration's proposal for Fiscal

7 Year '18, and our Fiscal Year starts on October

8 1st. Probably everybody knows that now, because

9 of all of the discussions about shut downs over

10 the last ten years.

11 But those numbers will come out on the

12 week of May 22nd. And the Secretary will be

13 testifying on the Hill about that either that

14 week or the week after. So, we're waiting for

15 those final numbers for Fiscal Year '18. Won't

16 be long now.

17 MR. MCREYNOLDS: And for, Roland

18 McReynolds. Just to follow up on that, the

19 President's skinny budget is a pretty hefty cut

20 from current funding levels. Obviously that was

21 done without Secretary Purdue in place to sort of

22 talk, advocate, you know.
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1 Any sense of Secretary Purdue's stance

2 about the cuts that were proposed, and how me

3 might address that in the final version of the

4 budget?

5 MR. SUMMERS: I mean, he has made some

6 public comments. And certainly I think

7 supportive of what the administration proposed. 

8 Not too surprising.

9 I would say, with AMS the thing to

10 remember, and I kind of alluded to it in part of

11 my remarks. Two-thirds, almost 70 percent of

12 AMS's budget is generated though user fees.

13 So, you know, when we're talking about

14 the budget for AMS, the appropriated amount, the

15 discretionary amounts are a much, much smaller

16 portion of AMS's operating funds. So, we tend to

17 be a little insulated at AMS from some of the ups

18 and downs of the appropriation process.

19 So, you know, inspection, the GAP

20 Programs, things like that, all user fee funded. 

21 So, not impacted by the budget discussions on the

22 Hill.
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1 All right. Good questions all. I

2 really appreciate your time. And, what time is

3 it, 9:30 a.m.? I think I'm, I think I used up

4 all of Erin's time.

5 MS. MORRIS: That's okay. I'll be

6 brief.

7 MR. SUMMERS: So, I get to introduce

8 Erin. So, my other colleague, Darryl. So, there

9 are other associate administrators. So, Erin and

10 I work really closely together in helping to run

11 this big organization called Agriculture

12 Marketing Service. And Erin has worked in a

13 number of different program areas, livestock,

14 poultry --

15 MS. MORRIS: Dairy.

16 MR. SUMMERS: Dairy. And as part of

17 the transition last fall Erin agreed to help out. 

18 We were trying to cover a lot of different things

19 at one time. So, Erin moved over and started

20 helping with the Specialty Crop Program.

21 And it's been almost six months now. 

22 And I think she's gotten her written notes. Now
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1 that you've seen all of the other commodity

2 programs, no pressure. But Specialty Crops is

3 pretty good, right?

4 MS. MORRIS: Absolutely. It's the

5 best.

6 MR. SUMMERS: There you go. Had to

7 push that out. Anyway, so Erin, I'll give you

8 the floor. And if you want me to move a seat,

9 sit comfortably at that microphone? How about

10 that? I don't think that cord's going to reach.

11 MS. MORRIS: I'm not nearly as funny

12 as he is. But I'm sure if you have any questions

13 after I talk he'll be happy to answer them.

14 So, again, just welcome to everybody. 

15 And I just want to echo, we can't thank you

16 enough for really investing your time and energy

17 in this Committee. It really does make a

18 difference.

19 And we really do look to this

20 Committee to give us the valuable input that we

21 need about our programs and services, and just

22 making sure that each and every day, that we out
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1 there sort of making a difference, and helping

2 you all solve some of your challenges.

3 And I want echo Melissa's thanks to

4 Marlene. She really has just stepped into this

5 role seamlessly. And we can't thank her enough

6 for all the time and energy, in addition to her

7 day job, that she has put into this.

8 So, as Bruce alluded to, you know, the

9 Specialty Crop industries is so keenly important

10 to USDA's overall success with fruit and

11 vegetables representing over $45 billion dollars

12 in annual sales, which if you stop to think about

13 it for a minute, you know, that's really

14 incredible.

15 As Bruce alluded to with Mr. Purdue

16 just being onboard now for just a couple of

17 weeks, we haven't yet had the chance to sit down

18 and talk with him, and learn more about what his

19 interests are.

20 But he has certainly hit the ground

21 running. And has already made a few visits to

22 various places. And has indicated that at USDA
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1 we're going to be literally rolling up our

2 sleeves, and trying to ensure that we have a

3 customer service focus.

4 I like to think in AMS that, more so

5 than any other agency, not that I'm biased. We

6 really, really do have a customer service focus. 

7 And we're very fortunate with the statute that we

8 have that that really does give us a lot of

9 latitude to do a lot of incredible things, and

10 really work with you all to help solve problems

11 and challenges.

12 I always like to joke that if there's

13 something going on in the Department, some kind

14 of need that's identified, and it doesn't have a

15 stated home, then it almost always comes to AMS.

16 So, we like to think that we have

17 built a culture and environment of having staff

18 and employees who are really willing to go above

19 and beyond whatever is necessary. And to really

20 come up with, as Bruce said, some creative

21 solutions.

22 So, I just want to talk for a few
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1 minutes to his some highlights about what's going

2 on in the Specialty Crops Program. Bruce talked

3 a little bit about PACA. We have five divisions,

4 including PACA, that, and we have about 1,000

5 full time, full and seasonal employees who help

6 us carry out that work.

7 We are well represented here today by

8 most of our divisions, as Marlene mentioned. 

9 She's from the Promotion and Economics Division,

10 which kind of has two parts to it.

11 One is overseeing 17 Research and

12 Promotion Boards, which Marlene can attest to,

13 keeps our folks very, very busy. All of those

14 Boards have a lot of great programs going on that

15 are trying to help their various industries.

16 And there's also an economic piece to

17 that, as Chris mentioned. A lot of that group's

18 time is spent helping to do some economic

19 analysis for the various industries. Certainly

20 when folks are coming in and asking for surplus

21 removal requests, and then also doing some other

22 general things to help provide support.
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1 We also have our Marketing Order and

2 Agreement Division, which is helping to oversee

3 all of our Marketing Order Boards and Committees,

4 which again is chiefly important.

5 And when you look at the MOAD Boards

6 and the Promotion, Economic, and Research Boards,

7 the Research and Promotion Boards, I think a lot

8 of times, you know, we still work on the

9 education component with folks, to just help them

10 understand what those programs are all about, how

11 they're similar, how they're different, how

12 they're funded and structured.

13 As Chris mentioned, we also do

14 purchase about a half a billion dollars in fruits

15 and vegetables for our surplus removal programs,

16 again which is a great opportunity for the

17 Specialty Crops industry.

18 And obviously we have a great story,

19 in that, you know, these foods provide such a

20 nutritionally valuable component to our school

21 kids, and a number of our other nutrition

22 assistance programs.
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1 And then at PACA, as Bruce mentioned,

2 is another one of our, I think great stories

3 where, you know, we're out there each and every

4 day helping to, you know, settle disputes,

5 working with folks. And I think we give kudos to

6 those folks on a daily basis for really being of

7 value to the industry.

8 So, looking at this particular

9 Committee, and as Melissa said, we want to get

10 sort of more structured in terms of responding to

11 your recommendations.

12 I did want to just touch on a couple

13 of the things that we have been working on in

14 part, because of the previous input that we've

15 gotten from you all.

16 So, part of that is working on the

17 implementation of FDA's FSMA. As Leanne

18 introduced herself, we do have that liaison

19 position, which, you know, we hear time and time

20 again how the produce industry values that

21 position, and really trying to provide some of

22 the technical expertise to FDA as they work to
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1 implement their rule.

2 We're also, on that vein, taking steps

3 to help with training and education. Making sure

4 that all the industry members are getting the

5 training that they need to help meet FSMA's

6 requirements. We've hosed a myriad of different

7 webinars, again, trying to really promote

8 education.

9 I think as most of you know we are a

10 key cooperator with the Produce Safety Alliance,

11 along with FDA and Cornell. And training has

12 really been a huge focus. To date PSA has almost

13 950 PSA trainers, and well over 100 PSA lead

14 trainers to support this effort.

15 So, again, we recognize that this is

16 of key concern to the industry. And we're trying

17 to make sure that everyone feels like they have

18 the opportunity to participate in some of these

19 training sessions, so that they can truly

20 understand what they need to do to comply.

21 Another way we're working to help

22 producers of all sizes is through our group GAP
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1 Program. And as Melissa mentioned, we will have

2 Ken Petersen here talking with you all later this

3 afternoon, who is the head of our audit program.

4 We've talked about group GAP with you

5 all in the past. I'm pleased to report, so, in

6 2016 we certified eight groups, which represents

7 just over 300 growers. In 2017 we've had four

8 new groups apply, which represents another 55 or

9 so growers. And then, we still expect to get

10 another seven, sort of over the course of the

11 next year or two.

12 So, we've seen some incredible growth

13 in that program. And again, that's just another

14 way that, you know, we've tried to identify

15 solutions of how we can help the produce

16 industry.

17 I also want to touch briefly in ITDS,

18 the International Trade Data System. Hopefully

19 you all are familiar with that. I know sometimes

20 in the Government we do have a way of getting

21 carried away with our acronyms. So, forgive us.

22 But over the years we've heard from
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1 the Committee that you really wanted us to

2 strengthen our relationship with the Customs and

3 Border Protection folks. Obviously there are a

4 lot of different fruits and vegetables that are

5 imported. And that number continues to grow.

6 And with all of the requirements that

7 are out there, this is a keen example of how we

8 have tried to be more efficient to cross

9 Government, and kind of moving with the digital

10 age.

11 So, we did have a successful pilot

12 program using our, I'll spell it out, and not use

13 the acronym, Compliance and Enforcement

14 Management System, otherwise known as CEMS, as we

15 call it. And CBP's Automated Commercial

16 Environment, otherwise known as ACE.

17 And again, you know, we're trying to

18 facilitate electronic reporting there to meet the

19 different requirements. And trying to make

20 things more efficient. And we will continue to

21 work in that effort.

22 I did also want to just briefly touch
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1 on our user fees. Bruce mentioned our agency is

2 predominantly funded by user fees. And again,

3 based on a 2015 recommendation that came out of

4 this Committee, just last week we sent to you a

5 notice indicating that we were raising our fees

6 again this year.

7 We did have another increase the year

8 before. Hopefully that should take care of us

9 for several years. But we did find ourselves in

10 a position, after really not raising our fees for

11 the previous ten years, that we had some catching

12 up to do. So, we appreciate your support in that

13 effort.

14 And lastly, I just wanted to close by

15 saying again that, you know, the work that you

16 all are going to do here over the next day and a

17 half is really, really important.

18 We're invested and committed to your

19 success. And we know that you are too. And that

20 you all are here, again, representing the entire

21 fruit and vegetable industry. And through the

22 Committee's work we'll continue to make sure that
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1 producers across the country are more successful.

2 I think, you know, this Committee and

3 our partnership really helps ensure that we do

4 have those direct ties, and kind of the direct

5 voice to what's going on out there. And again,

6 trying to make sure that, you know, the things

7 that we're doing in AMS are relevant, and are

8 what's needed.

9 So, thank you again for coming. And

10 with that, I think we'll continue along, so we

11 can hopefully keep you guys on track and on time

12 today, so we can get you out of here on time, and

13 off to your Cub Scout meeting.

14 I'll digress and say that I have two

15 Boy Scouts now, so thank you for your service. 

16 It's not easy, I know. I've been there.

17 MS. BETTS: Okay. Well, thanks, Erin. 

18 I guess next on the agenda we will do a little

19 bit more housekeeping, in terms of travel. I

20 know Devonia Betts normally does that. But she

21 entrusted Melissa and I to tag team if needed, to

22 walk you through the travel information.
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1 So, if you could pull that information

2 out of your folder, there's some basic

3 information in there. And then the standalone

4 page that it is clipped to is your travel

5 reimbursement form.

6 So, we ask that you keep your

7 receipts, except for the meals. But, you know,

8 any parking receipts, taxis. Make sure you get

9 your receipt for the hotel. And submit all of

10 those receipts with this form to Devonia by the

11 26th, as it says at the very bottom.

12 Her email address is there. Her phone

13 number is at the bottom on Page 2, if you need to

14 contact her. Or, I know some folks have gone

15 through me. And I have forwarded information to

16 Devonia.

17 But if you fill all of that out and

18 submit all of your receipts, and get that to

19 Devonia, she will complete the voucher and email

20 back to you. Because I think you have to do some

21 kind of an electronic signature.

22 And once that gets returned back to
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1 Devonia, then you should receive your

2 reimbursement within I think ten business days, I

3 believe she said. So, if you have any questions,

4 or need any walk through, the Betts ladies will

5 take care of it, either myself of Devonia. We

6 got you covered.

7 So, I know it's real quick. I think

8 it's very basic information that we need. Just

9 be sure to keep any receipts. And then we'll

10 circle back. And if you have any questions,

11 again, don't hesitate to let us know.

12 So, I think with that, that gets us to

13 what, public comment. Does anybody have anything

14 around the room? Or are there any comments that

15 need to be spoken? Okay. I guess, hearing none,

16 I guess at this point in time we turn it over to

17 Beth, who's your chairperson, to kind of chair

18 the meeting.

19 I don't see Ken here yet. So, I will

20 let Beth and Bob either introduce themselves, or

21 we can take a break. Or I will leave it in your

22 capable hands. But thank you so much. And if
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1 you need anything I am here and at your service.

2 MS. KNORR: Thank you, Marlene and

3 Melissa. We really appreciate all the help that

4 you've given us since the fall meeting. And look

5 forward to the next couple of days working with

6 everybody.

7 I don't really have any comments to

8 start, other than to again thank everybody for

9 taking time out of your busy schedules to be

10 here, and to make recommendations and statements

11 to the Secretary. I really do hope that we can

12 formulate some recommendations that we can all

13 feel confident in over the next couple of days.

14 One think I would suggest with regards

15 to the agenda, is that tomorrow a lot of time is

16 set aside for working groups. So, I think

17 between now and then, give some consideration,

18 especially to new members, what committees you

19 want to participate in.

20 But also, if there are other

21 committees, or other areas that you're feeling

22 need to be discussed, give that some thought, so
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1 that we can raise those as potential additional

2 committees, and start forming groups around those

3 to discuss recommendations and/or statements.

4 So, that's all I have. Bob, do you

5 have --

6 MR. NOLAN: No, I'm good. I'll yield

7 my time to the good of the order.

8 MS. KNORR: All right.

9 MS. BETTS: Okay. I don't think, Ken

10 Petersen is our first speaker out of the block. 

11 So, why don't we take at least a ten, maybe 15

12 minute break. There's coffee, there's water. As

13 I said, the facilities are out in the hallway if

14 you need anything.

15 And when Ken gets here we'll get

16 things loaded up, and we'll get started. So,

17 thank you so much.

18 (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter

19 went off the record at 9:44 a.m. and resumed at

20 10:13 a.m.)

21 MS. BAILEY: Okay, this is Melissa,

22 we're going to get started in just a minute. If
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1 you came in since the break and you have not

2 signed in, there is a guest sign-in sheet outside

3 the door. If you can please put that in your

4 affiliation, that would be helpful to us as we

5 keep the record of whose attended.

6 MS. BETTS: Okay, I guess with that we

7 will go ahead and get started working into the

8 Food Safety Agenda. And our first speaker is Ken

9 Petersen.

10 And he's going to give us a status of

11 the Global Food Safety Initiative. And so we'll

12 have Ken speak and answer any questions and we'll

13 kind of go from there. So, Ken, take it away.

14 MR. PETERSEN: Great, thank you very

15 much. I'm not used to standing at a podium here.

16 So as Marlene mentioned, I'm providing

17 an update on where we're at with the global food

18 safety initiative project. So certainly I've got

19 some news to share since the last advisory

20 committee, GFSIs made some decisions and is

21 moving forward with some different things.

22 So, just to give a quick background. 
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1 We have been engaged with GFSI over the past five

2 years, to gain some sort of recognition of the

3 USDA GAP&GHP Program.

4 And unfortunately, there were some

5 significant challenges for government owed

6 systems, due to the incompatibility of how

7 governments operate, versus what GFSI had in its

8 benchmarking requirements. And we just weren't

9 able to come to any resolution on resolving those

10 particular issues. But we certainly stayed

11 engaged with GFSI.

12 And really the marketplace has evolved

13 over the last several years. And GFSI has made a

14 concerted effort to reach out to governments, in

15 looking at ways that they can partner and

16 collaborate with government entities, in the

17 realm of food safety.

18 So back in June of 2015, as I had

19 reported at the last advisory committee meeting,

20 GFSI had developed a taskforce that was looking

21 at providing a recommendation back to the board

22 of directors, on a way to recognize government
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1 based programs.

2 And really the impetus behind that was

3 the China HACCP Program. GFSI was trying to make

4 in-roads within China, and essentially China

5 said, you need to work with us or we're not going

6 to do anything with you. So that really kind of

7 kicked them into gear and, like I said, put the

8 taskforce together in developing that

9 recommendation.

10 In early 2006 that taskforce came out

11 with a draft of technical equivalence for

12 government certification programs. That was

13 shared with the Board.

14 They looked at a number of other

15 options as well. And they kind of took the tack

16 that they were going to incorporate those

17 requirements into the developing revision of

18 their benchmarking document, Version 7. Which is

19 what the schemes under GFSI have to abide by when

20 they go through the benchmarking process.

21 So that, unfortunately, took a lot

22 longer than they had originally anticipated. Due
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1 to a number of different thing.

2 They were reaching out to FDA on

3 trying to align with some of the FSMA

4 requirements. They were working with the schemes

5 to try to make sure that they incorporated a lot

6 of the changes that they were looking for.

7 In particular, around primary

8 production. GFSI really got its start as a

9 manufacturing processing system and they tried to

10 kind of shoehorn in the primary production, which

11 in some cases didn't really work well.

12 So, they tried to make a concerted

13 effort to incorporate those requirements into

14 Version 7 as well.

15 So I'm pleased to say that in March,

16 at their annual conference in Houston, they

17 officially released Version 7. And have since

18 then released Version 7.1.

19 But in that Version 7, there is a

20 section on technical equivalence for government

21 certification programs. Which outlines what

22 government based systems need to do in order to
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1 align with their requirements and go through the

2 technical equivalence process.

3 And really, the requirements are

4 similar to those used by the current

5 certification program owners. A little

6 vernacular here, I called them schemes a little

7 bit early, at March they changed it from schemes

8 because in North America scheme intends to be a

9 bad world, so they went to certification program

10 owners, which I'm still getting use to saying and

11 doesn't roll off the tongue.

12 So those requirements for technical

13 equivalence are similar to what the certification

14 program owners go through. The major difference

15 being that the technical equivalency only

16 assesses the governments food safety standard, it

17 does not address the operational management, the

18 governance of the certification program. Any of

19 the kind of the nuts and bolts portion of the

20 GFSI benchmarking process.

21 Because they realize that it's hard to

22 tell the government program how to run their
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1 business.

2 There are regulations, there's laws

3 and things like that, that put a lot of what we

4 do in place. And those were some of the things

5 that we weren't able to overcome previously.

6 So again, it really just focuses on

7 the food safety standard. And for AMS, that's

8 going to be the produce GAPs harmonized food

9 safety standard.

10 The other big piece, with the

11 technical equivalence, is that buyers may choose

12 to recognize technical equivalence or not. It is

13 ultimately up to the buyer to determine whether

14 or not they want to take that technical

15 equivalence in lieu of a full certification under

16 one of the GFSIs benchmark schemes.

17 And we have been talking with a number

18 of the major buyers in the U.S. about whether or

19 not they would accept USDA technical equivalence. 

20 And every indication that I got from Walmart,

21 Wegmans, you name it, that they are going to be

22 accepting the technical equivalence through the
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1 USDA.

2 Matter of fact, I've got a meeting in

3 two weeks with Costco to talk to them about

4 recognizing the technical equivalence as well.

5 So really looking at next steps, we're

6 in the process of performing a GAPs analysis of

7 the food safety requirements within Version 7.1

8 of the benchmarking document. In making sure

9 that the harmonized standard aligns with those

10 requirements.

11 We have identified a couple of areas

12 where the harmonized standard doesn't quite go

13 far enough or doesn't explicitly address those

14 particular issues. Especially around the areas

15 of food fraud and food defense.

16 So those are things that we got to

17 look at on how we're going to incorporate those

18 into the USDA harmonized standard audit that

19 we'll be offering. So we're doing that GAPs

20 analysis, we're going to then identify a plan on

21 how we're going to address those, as well as a

22 timeline for potential implementation of those
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1 changes.

2 Ultimately that will be run up through

3 the program, to the agency, when the agency is

4 fully staffed with the appropriate level

5 administrator and everything, to get the sign off

6 on moving forward. We can then submit an

7 application to GFSI to go through the technical

8 equivalence process.

9 So the steps, and these are kind of

10 high level steps, we would submit a formal

11 application to the GFSI. At that point, they

12 would post our application on their website for

13 public consultation.

14 It's up for 30 days and really anybody

15 has the opportunity to comment on the

16 applicability of accepting that application,

17 within the GFSI system. AMS would need to sign

18 an MoU with GFSI that outlines the terms of

19 technical equivalence, of how it's used, that

20 kind of thing.

21 GFSI then convenes an expert panel

22 that reviews the application and essentially goes
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1 through and looks at it line-by-line. What's the

2 GFSI food safety requirements, how does our

3 standard meet those requirements.

4 They then get back with us and give us

5 an opportunity for corrections. Based on that

6 analysis and that review, we have the opportunity

7 then to provide additional documentation to make

8 our case on why we think it aligns.

9 Or in the case that it may not align,

10 we have the opportunity to make changes, in order

11 to get it aligned. Go through that review

12 process again.

13 And then ultimately, that expert panel

14 will make a recommendation to the GFSI board of

15 directors on whether or not to accept that

16 application.

17 So that's where we're at with the GFSI

18 process. Again, we're excited. This has been a

19 long time coming and a log slog.

20 I know Lorenzo and Chip, at times,

21 have kind of questioned whether or not this has

22 been worth the effort as we've gone along in the
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1 process, but ultimately, I think, with the

2 industry support and certainly the support of the

3 Advisory Committee over the last couple years to

4 keep this moving, I think the goal is within

5 sight and we're going to be able to do this.

6 So with that, I'll open it up to

7 questions. Yes.

8 MS. ELLOR: Tina Ellor. So was it

9 your impression that the large buyers will wait

10 for this process to go through before they start

11 accepting the GAP or will some of them, based on

12 your interactions with them, go ahead and start

13 accepting the GAP --

14 MR. PETERSEN: Yes. So certainly,

15 many of them already accept a USDA GAP audits,

16 under certain conditions. Generally it's in

17 their small developing supplier program where

18 they'll take that, our audit.

19 Some will take it for what they would

20 consider low risk commodities. If it's a fresh

21 cut salad facility they're going to look for a

22 GFSI audit, but if it's a whole potato or a whole
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1 onion or something like that, they've made the

2 decision that our audit is acceptable for their

3 purposes.

4 So again, we've worked with Walmart,

5 with Target with Aldi's, Wegmans, Cisco. There's

6 a number of the big national and regional buyers

7 that we've, over the years, cultivated

8 relationships with in recognizing our program.

9 And many of them are also now on the

10 GFSI board of directors and have been supportive

11 of us getting this technical equivalency so that

12 they can accept our audit for more than just what

13 they're currently utilizing it for.

14 MR. MCREYNOLDS: Ken, Roland

15 McReynolds. You mentioned food defense as one of

16 the things where there's a potential kind of GAP

17 analysis there. And it's also one of the things

18 that, from a farmers' perspective, is perhaps the

19 least applicable about GFSI to their operations

20 because it's unlikely the terrorists will come

21 out to Fayetteville, Tennessee to poison anyone's

22 crops.
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1 So any, I mean, obviously you're early

2 in the process, but any insights on how you'll go

3 about that analysis, how you'll kind of work with

4 industry to come up with appropriate ways to

5 handle those GAPs?

6 MR. PETERSEN: Certainly. Thank you,

7 McReynolds.

8 So currently we do offer a food

9 defense audit that is used at the farm level. 

10 And you're right, I mean, when you look at food

11 defense, you've got this big open field, how are

12 you possibly going to protect that.

13 So really, for farming operations,

14 production operations, when we look at food

15 defense, we tend to look at things that are

16 within your control. You know, if you've got a

17 packing house, if you've got facilities where

18 you're storing your chemicals and other types of

19 things, to ensure that those are being protected.

20 And ultimately, it's not just a

21 terrorist, it also could be a disgruntled

22 employee that is an insider that could
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1 potentially do harm. So what are your controls

2 on the farm to ensure that you're taking that

3 into consideration as well.

4 MR. MCREYNOLDS: Thank you.

5 MR. NOLAN: Ken, I have a question. 

6 Bob Nolan. It's not really on this topic, but

7 group GAP, I think you're the guy for group GAP. 

8 Can you just give me a quick explanation, a quick

9 overview of what that is and how that works?

10 MR. PETERSEN: Certainly. So as many

11 of you are aware, last April of 2016, we formally

12 launched the group GAP certification program. 

13 Which really is just an extension of GAP

14 certification.

15 I just looks very specifically at, as

16 opposed to single farm getting a GAP audit, it' a

17 group of farms that undergo certification.

18 And the way it works is that there is

19 some sort of a central entity. Whether it's a,

20 it could be a food hub, it could be a

21 cooperative. There is really any number of

22 central entities that could be considered the
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1 manager of the group.

2 But then that central entity then

3 develops a quality management system on how they

4 want their group to work, how their producers

5 will comply with food safety requirements. And

6 again, using one of the standards that USDA

7 audits do.

8 And as well as the requirements for

9 their internal auditors, verification that their

10 internal auditors are properly trained, meet our

11 requirements. And then the application of that

12 food safety standard on all the growers.

13 How the group is going to handle

14 nonconforming product, members that may not

15 comply to the food safety requirements. You

16 know, it's a pretty comprehensive quality

17 management system that they develop.

18 So then the group does internal audits

19 of all of its members to verify conformance to

20 the food safety standard. And then we come in

21 and audit the group.

22 So we look at their QMS. Are they
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1 doing what they said they were going to do in

2 their QMS, are they meeting the requirements that

3 we've set forward in the group GAP certification

4 requirements. If there are nonconformances, how

5 are they addressing those nonconformances.

6 And then we go out and look at the

7 square root of the number of growers in the

8 group. So if there's a hundred growers in the

9 group, we go out and spot check and look at ten

10 of those growers.

11 Again, it's to verify that those

12 growers are adhering. Also, to look at how those

13 internal auditors apply the standard to ensure

14 that it's being applied properly.

15 We use our audits and compare it to

16 the audit that internal auditor did as a kind of

17 a check and balance to verify that they're doing

18 their job properly. But then ultimately, if they

19 meet all of our requirements and do everything

20 that they need to, then we would issue

21 certification to the group.

22 So last year we had eight groups that
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1 applied -- underwent certification. We issued

2 certification to seven of the eight.

3 MS. HERRON: I just have a follow-up

4 to that. Johanna Herron.

5 So in your situations where you're

6 looking at groups or pockets in communities that

7 are so small, that they have maybe five growers

8 in a food hub, I assume you didn't, are you

9 inspecting one or is there a threshold that a

10 minimum is just not worth it for group GAP?

11 MR. PETERSEN: So that's a great

12 question, and it's something that we've been

13 working with groups on. We don't limit the size.

14 I mean, if it's a group of five and

15 they want to undergo group certification, they

16 certainly can do so.

17 We certainly share with them some of

18 the research that's done by some of the external

19 certification programs and the Wallace center and

20 others, that kind of show that breakeven point of

21 how many growers you need a group to really

22 offset the costs of developing the group and
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1 going through the training and everything else

2 that's associated with that.

3 And that number, it depends on which

4 study you look at, but that number is somewhere

5 between 20 and 30. Again, just depending on the

6 size and complexity of the group.

7 So those smaller groups, it is a much

8 longer return on investment that you're looking

9 at. As far as the up-front costs and developing

10 the program and everything.

11 (Off microphone comment.)

12 MS. KNORR: Sure, but could you come

13 up to the mic please?

14 MS. WASSERMAN: Have you ever run

15 across the issue, it's more of a legal type

16 question, but when the government would be

17 competing with the private auditors, is that ever

18 an issue?

19 MR. PETERSEN: Well --

20 MS. KNORR: Sorry, can you just please

21 introduce yourself?

22 MS. WASSERMAN: I'm sorry. Jessica
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1 Wasserman, Wasserman & Associates.

2 MR. PETERSEN: Yes. So our program is

3 offered on a voluntary user fee basis. So

4 growers are free to choice to utilize us or other

5 private certification bodies that are out there.

6 You know, ultimately, yes, it's a

7 decision by the grower. And in looking at what

8 typically their buyers are asking them to do.

9 There are some buyers out there that

10 don't accept our audits, so the growers then

11 would use one of the approved certification

12 bodies that that buyer has put in place.

13 But we got into this space, originally

14 back in the early 2000's, at the specific request

15 of the industry. Because they valued our

16 impartiality and the ability to provide this

17 service.

18 MS. WASSERMAN: Yes, maybe. It's just

19 an odd coincidence that I represented when I was

20 at a law firm, into it. This was a number of

21 years ago and they were in the tax business, you

22 know. Tax.
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1 And when the government got into, the

2 IRS, got into that same business, there was a

3 huge kerfuffle about all of it. And so it just

4 reminds me of that. But maybe it's different

5 because voluntary. I'd have to think it through. 

6 But anyway --

7 MR. PETERSEN: Yes.

8 MS. WASSERMAN: -- thank you very

9 much.

10 MR. PETERSEN: You're welcome. I

11 think, Roland.

12 MR. MCREYNOLDS: Sure. Ken, this is

13 always not subject of your presentation, but to

14 follow-up on the new audit fees, which we made a

15 recommendation in the past about recovery of cost

16 and that sort of thing, so maybe that was up, I

17 didn't see that listed as something you'll talk

18 about, but if that's what you're going to talk

19 about, then tallyho.

20 (Laughter.)

21 MR. PETERSEN: Just that I am an Eagle

22 Scout so I am prepared. So certainly, as I think
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1 --

2 MR. MCREYNOLDS: I'm sorry --

3 MS. KNORR: Hold on one --

4 MR. MCREYNOLDS: -- if I'm skipping

5 around and, if we have --

6 MS. KNORR: -- second, before you get

7 into --

8 MR. PETERSEN: Yes.

9 MS. KNORR: -- I think Tina wanted to

10 do --

11 MR. PETERSEN: Okay.

12 MS. KNORR: -- GFSI before you get

13 into the --

14 MR. PETERSEN: Yes.

15 MS. ELLOR: This is my third year on

16 the committee and I think for the first two years

17 we did have recommendations surrounding the USDA

18 being more of an advocate for your food safety,

19 I'll call it a scheme because I can't remember

20 what that was --

21 MR. PETERSEN: Yes. Certification

22 program owners.
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1 MS. ELLOR: -- certification program

2 owners.

3 MR. PETERSEN: Yes.

4 MS. ELLOR: So, it sounds like, going

5 out to see those large buyers, that you're really

6 fulfilling some of that original intention and

7 recommendations of this group. So is that part

8 of what you're doing?

9 MR. PETERSEN: Certainly, yes. I

10 mean, a lot of my time is actually devoted to

11 outreach and on the phone with buyers. Whether

12 it's on the phone, whether it's at meetings that

13 I'm at. Talking with the buyers if they come

14 into D.C., being able to sit down and talk with

15 them.

16 But we, again, the grower community

17 asked us to do that. You have asked us to do

18 that. So we want to make sure that our services

19 fulfill the need of the industry. Because that's

20 ultimately what we're here for is to facilitate

21 marketing of products.

22 All right, so I'll take just a couple
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1 of seconds to go through the financial update. 

2 And again, I kind of thought this was coming so I

3 put together just a few slides.

4 So as Roland mentioned, back in

5 September of 2015, this committee made a very

6 specific recommendation to the Secretary that we

7 needed to setup a fee structure that allowed us

8 to recover the cost of providing this service. 

9 Because up to this point we have not.

10 So looking at the AMS fee formula that

11 was published in November of 2011, the agency did

12 an analysis in the Federal Registry Notice, that

13 came out yesterday and today, the hourly rate for

14 audit services is going up to $108 an hour. It

15 was $92. So it's about a 17 percent increase. 

16 That will go into effect on October 1st of this

17 year.

18 The other piece that we have talked to

19 you about, over the last year, is part of our

20 challenge is that, particularly with our

21 fed/state partners, when the state employees go

22 out and do audits on our behalf, they charge for
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1 their time and expenses to do that audit, but

2 they don't charge for my staff's time in the

3 audit process. You know, reviewing the audit,

4 making certification decision, posting the

5 information on the web, issuing a certificate and

6 all that outreach and everything that we just

7 talked about.

8 So we are going to be working with our

9 states here over the next month and letting them

10 know that we plan to implement a four hour charge

11 that covers all of those activities that I just

12 mentioned, in addition to any of the pre-audit

13 and onsite activities that are happening.

14 And by doing so, that allows us to

15 completely recover the cost of providing this

16 service, so that we can remain a viable option to

17 the industry. Because ultimately without this,

18 we couldn't continue to sustain the losses that

19 we were incurring, to manage and run this

20 program.

21 MR. MCREYNOLDS: And so that's a $432

22 fee that will be in addition to the 17 percent
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1 increase?

2 MR. PETERSEN: Yes.

3 MR. MCREYNOLDS: That farmers will

4 pay.

5 MR. PETERSEN: Yes.

6 MR. MCREYNOLDS: Okay. That wasn't as

7 clear from the materials that were shared with us

8 before. Thanks for -- that's a lot. That's a

9 big jump.

10 MR. PETERSEN: Yes. We've incurred

11 close to a million dollars in loses each of the

12 last three years. So in order to make that up,

13 this is the number that we need to collect in

14 order to recover those costs.

15 We looked at this the last two, three,

16 four years. And no matter which way we ran the

17 math, it basically, this is the number.

18 You know, we work with our states. 

19 After our meeting with our states back in

20 December, we formed a technical advisory group

21 that was made up with representatives from AMS,

22 special crops program and 12 of our state
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1 partners that are heavily involved in auditing.

2 And again, we looked at the numbers,

3 we looked at a number of different options that

4 we could consider. But ultimately it came down

5 to this was the only way that we could make this

6 work, within the scope of the fee structure that

7 we operate in.

8 MR. MCREYNOLDS: This is Roland. So

9 in our area, typically its about $900 to $1,000. 

10 Now we're talking about $1,500 to $1,600. A 50

11 or 60 percent increase.

12 That's pretty substantial, especially

13 for the smaller scale producers who've been

14 trying to take advantage of the program.

15 MR. PETERSEN: Yes. So one of the

16 things that we'll be doing, in working with our

17 states is, certainly we can't dictate to the

18 states what they do, but encouraging states

19 through specialty crop block grants or other

20 types of cost share programs, to implement some

21 changes.

22 There's a number of other types of
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1 groups that are outside of AMS, are looking at

2 potential ways that they could find sources of

3 cost share money and things like that, to help

4 offset the burden, to the small producer.

5 But ultimately from our perspective,

6 on the back-end, when we receive an audit, it

7 generally takes the same amount of time for us to

8 process an audit of a one acre as it does a

9 thousand-acre farm. We've got some pretty set

10 fixed costs on our side.

11 So again, this was really the only way

12 that we could make the math work to be able to

13 keep this program viable and operating.

14 Any other questions? All right. 

15 Well, thank you very much.

16 MS. BETTS: Thanks, Ken.

17 (Applause.)

18 MS. BETTS: Go ahead, Melissa.

19 MS. BAILEY: This is Melissa. I

20 noted, between the break and now, we've had a

21 number of new visitors that came in the room. So

22 for those who have not introduced themselves
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1 previously, so we're not going to go around the

2 table here, but for those that did arrive, if you

3 could just go around the room and have folks

4 speak into the mic and introduce who they are.

5 There is a mic at the end of the table

6 or there is mine right here that you can use. 

7 Thanks.

8 MR. MERRILL: Yes, I'm Maximilian

9 Merrill with the National Farm to School Network.

10 MS. GRETHER: Erin Grether with the

11 United Fresh.

12 MR. MINOR: Hi, my name is Travis

13 Minor, I'm with USDA's Economic Research Service.

14 MR. ASSAR: Good morning, my name is

15 Samir Assar. I am the director for the Division

16 of Produce Safety at FDA.

17 MS. THOMPSON: Good morning, my name

18 is Kimberly Thompson, I'm here with Food

19 Directions.

20 MS. CARLSON: My name is Jan Carlson,

21 I'm with CFSAN at FDA.

22 MS. KOVACS: Hi, I'm Tricia Kovacs
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1 with USDA and you'll hear from me shortly.

2 MR. TRIBBETT: Lorenzo Tribbett,

3 director of Specialty Crops Inspection Division.

4 MR. TAYLOR: Good morning, Chip

5 Taylor, associate director of operations,

6 Specialty Crop Inspections, USDA.

7 MS. BETTS: Okay, I think with that,

8 Samir, if you're ready, the floor is yours.

9 MR. ASSAR: Good morning, again. I

10 think this is the third time I've had the

11 opportunity to talk to the advisory committee. I

12 appreciate another opportunity.

13 And I'm here to talk about the produce

14 safety rule and kind of where we are now and

15 generally where we're going.

16 I think a lot of you are in-tune with

17 some of the press that's come out with respect to

18 the rule. Hopefully a lot of you are hooked into

19 our Listserv, our Food Safety Modernization Act

20 Listserv.

21 Through that Listserv you can get

22 regular updates on our progress on various
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1 things. I would encourage you to sign up for

2 that Listserv if you're not already signed up for

3 it.

4 So where we are now. We issued the

5 rule, as you know a few years ago, and our first

6 compliance date hit with respect to sprout

7 production or sprout requirements, that sprouters

8 are subject to.

9 And before that first compliance date,

10 we issued a draft sprout safe guidance, that is

11 currently open for comment. And we've received a

12 number of comments to that guidance so far.

13 The sprout guidance is very much heavy

14 on the sprout section of the produce safety rule. 

15 And although sprouters are also subject to other

16 areas of the rule as well.

17 In addition to this guidance, we have

18 a compliance and implementation guidance that's

19 in the queue for other produce besides sprouts. 

20 And we're aiming to issue that guidance, ahead of

21 the first compliance date that's associated with

22 other produce, if you will. Which will be coming
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1 up in January '18.

2 Now, most of you have probably heard

3 that we are reconsidering or considering

4 revisiting water, based on some visits that we

5 did after the final rule. We also, through other

6 engagements, such as meetings that were held that

7 we were part of, we had heard concerns about the

8 water requirements and the burden that growers

9 would face in implementing the water

10 requirements.

11 So we're carefully looking at those

12 water requirements and considering whether or not

13 to revise the watering requirements based on the

14 concerns that we've heard.

15 And I would say some of the top

16 concerns are around the methods that were

17 included in the final rule. And the fact that a

18 lab, some labs are not able, a lot of labs are

19 not able to accommodate that method. So we're

20 looking at that.

21 Also, the sampling regime that's

22 associated with the produce safety rule. The
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1 frequency of sampling.

2 And tailored or around the issue of

3 that growers can have multiple water sources. 

4 And in order to develop a water quality profile,

5 as the rule is written, the profile would need to

6 be representative of the water that's used. So

7 there is a lack of clarity about what that means

8 exactly.

9 Does that mean that you need to

10 collect water samples for every single water

11 source that you may use on your farm? And we've

12 heard cases where there are, you know, we've even

13 heard cases that there are hundreds of water

14 sources that farmers could utilize on one farm. 

15 So we're looking at that.

16 Also, with respect to the complexities

17 associated with calculating the geometric mean,

18 which is one of the criteria. The other criteria

19 is the statistical threshold value that's aimed

20 at measuring the variability in your water

21 source.

22 There were concerns that this would
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1 not be a straightforward calculation for farmers

2 to do.

3 So, again, looking at how all of that

4 can be readdressed. Moving forward, whether it's

5 readdressed through more specific guidance or

6 detailed guidance, exploring the flexibility

7 that's in our rule or possibly going through

8 rulemaking and putting forth a new set of

9 proposed requirements. Water requirements.

10 And those proposed requirements would

11 be open for comment as well. So it's not like we

12 would jump right into a final rule.

13 So one of the, we recognize that

14 compliance dates associated with, even for water,

15 even though there's a delayed set of compliance

16 dates associated with the water requirements,

17 those dates are fast approaching and growers want

18 to know, what can I do now? What can I do now?

19 And we recognize that. And so we

20 recognize that it will take some time to think

21 through what we need to think through to revise

22 the water requirements. Along with that, we
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1 understand that growers want to know what they

2 need to do.

3 So that will also be considered as our

4 approach rolls out. And I would just say, stayed

5 tune.

6 And again, the FSMA Listserv will be

7 a valuable resource to get an update on our

8 progress, with respect to any developments with

9 respect to water. 

10 We are, throughout this process, I've

11 mentioned the methods issue, and throughout this

12 process we've understood that there are

13 stakeholders out there that are meeting on a

14 regular basis. And we had the opportunity to

15 participate in meetings around water.

16 There was one meeting that was held by

17 the Center for Produce Safety a month ago, or so,

18 maybe a month and a half ago, to talk about the

19 methods issue. And again, the complexities

20 associated with methods.

21 And one the purposes of the meeting

22 was to determine whether or not further research
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1 is needed to provide more options for growers to

2 use to comply with the rule as it currently is.

3 And again, we were there at the table

4 to provide technical assistance. It was a very

5 fruitful engagement.

6 They of course, CPS hosted the

7 conference, and we look forward to any products

8 that are generated through that forum. And of

9 course, that will be valuable information, as any

10 information is that is emerging on this topic, as

11 we consider rulemaking.

12 So as we're, talked a little bit about

13 compliance dates and guidance and rulemaking, I

14 want to get into, while we're doing all of this

15 work, we're also moving forward with developing

16 strategies for implementing the produce safety

17 rule. This is as important as the rulemaking

18 itself. As the rule, itself.

19 How is this going to play out, what

20 are the enforcement strategies, how are we going

21 to view this deviation, if you will, or this

22 factor versus the other factor in terms of what
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1 we might find out on the farm.

2 And so that's all being strategize and

3 developed. And we have a cooperative agreement

4 with the National Association for the State

5 Departments of Agriculture, to help us develop

6 implementation strategies around the produce

7 safety rule. We meet on a regular basis.

8 And so, again, we are committed to

9 making sure that, as we move forward with

10 implementing the rule, that it's done in a right,

11 in a proper way, that accounts for the diversity

12 and the multiple factors that need to be

13 accounted for in developing such approaches.

14 We have started to move forward with

15 some of the strategies that have been developed

16 through this workgroup. One of the areas that

17 we've implemented is that we formed a produce

18 safety network.

19 And this network is comprised of 18

20 members that include field staff, as well as

21 staff that would do, provide technical assistance

22 to the community in complying or supporting
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1 compliance with the produce safety rule.

2 And so the field staff would be more

3 focused on investigations and would primarily

4 focus on the foreign arena in doing inspections

5 of a foreign production areas, whereas the

6 subject matter experts, or the technical experts,

7 would be participating in various meetings that

8 are held throughout the regions. These are set

9 up as regional PSNs, so they're housed throughout

10 various regions within the U.S.

11 And the goal is for them to be in-tune

12 with the on goings, with respect to produce

13 safety within those regions, identify the needs

14 through meetings/discussions forum, and then

15 raise those needs to a higher level so that those

16 needs can be addressed through our policy making,

17 through our educational efforts, research, all of

18 the tools that we have to address the needs out

19 there.

20 And so we're really excited about

21 that. There's a lot of great relationships that

22 are already forming through the produce safety
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1 network.

2 They've done a good job of, first,

3 connecting with the state authorities, also

4 cooperative extension that exists within those

5 regions. And they're starting to extend beyond

6 and really connect with the industry in those

7 regions as well.

8 And this again, is all about

9 supporting compliance with the produce safety

10 rule. And we've always said that that's our

11 first focus, is educating before and while we

12 regulate.

13 We don't want to, and it's not

14 appropriate for us to go out with a regulatory

15 hammer on this. We want to help growers comply

16 with the produce safety rule.

17 And we've dedicated also resources in

18 that regard. Not only with respect to forming

19 these PSN, but also in the various education and

20 training cooperative agreements that we've also

21 instituted.

22 And some of you may know about these
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1 cooperative agreements. We are working with USDA

2 to address the needs that are out there.

3 And we understand, just like with

4 rulemaking, that one size does not fit all. 

5 Training is also another situation where one size

6 does not fit all.

7 So, we've developed cooperative

8 agreements with entities that can educate target

9 audiences that have special requirements or

10 special needs, that are not part of the normal

11 training regime. They're just a different target

12 audience. There are cultural differences, there

13 are regional differences.

14 And those we understand should be

15 accommodated in training. Moving forward with

16 training.

17 I won't get into that a whole lot

18 because I know you'll hear from Tricia about

19 that. And she's heavily involved in what we're

20 doing on training, with respect to working on a

21 collaborative food safety, FSMA food safety

22 training forum. And she's one of the chairs for
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1 that.

2 But we're really excited about how all

3 of that is ramping up. Primarily the education

4 training groups that we've provided funds to, are

5 still working on setting up infrastructure to do

6 training.

7 I would say for the most part that's

8 what they're doing. And hopefully within the

9 next few months there will be more conversation

10 over to actual training.

11 Training that is happening currently

12 is being done through the produce safety

13 alliance. And they've made a lot of progress in

14 the number of training the trainers that they've

15 done. And obviously they train the trainers,

16 lead to grower trainings, all throughout the U.S.

17 There have been about 26 train to

18 trainer sessions and 110 grower trainings held. 

19 And now there almost 827 trainers and close to

20 100 certified lead trainers that are able to do

21 training, all throughout the U.S., and abroad as

22 well. We've got some trainers that are from
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1 international communities that are doing

2 trainings as well.

3 So we're really excited about the

4 progress that's going on through the PSA. The

5 Produce Safety Alliance.

6 And so I'll just quick close about

7 another very important implementation aspect that

8 we're undergoing currently. Which is consistent

9 what we've said, again, from the very get go of

10 working on a regulation.

11 You know, we can't do it on our own. 

12 We know that there is an existing landscape out

13 there. We need to work with an existing

14 landscape to make all of this happen.

15 And we know that the states have a lot

16 of institutional knowledge on produce safety. 

17 And we've setup cooperative agreements with 42

18 different states to utilize their ability to have

19 more of an on ground, or a closed presence, to

20 the farming community that they serve actually.

21 And so we've provided funds to these

22 states to do inspections and education. And for
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1 the most part, so those funds currently are being

2 dedicated to infrastructure development as well. 

3 Currently.

4 And then in the next year there will

5 be more work towards actually getting to do

6 education and some of the things that need to be

7 done as part of the Corps of the cooperative

8 agreements. And eventually they will be doing

9 inspections as well.

10 We're going to be relying on them to

11 be doing inspections. And we're, domestically,

12 we are only going to inspect under for cause

13 situations, or situations that involved an

14 imminent public health concern, or if in the case

15 that a state doesn't want to do their own

16 inspection or we don't have a cooperative

17 agreement, in those cases we might do inspections

18 as well. Our staff would do inspections. FDA

19 staff.

20 But we really want to reply on the

21 states. We've provided a lot of funds, we're

22 working with them to make sure that inspections,
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1 and anything that they do, is consistent and

2 uniform.

3 The goal of the rule is a level

4 playing field that includes our domestic arena as

5 well as international. It's across the board.

6 We want to establish a level playing

7 field. And a consistency and uniformity with

8 respect to how this program rolls out is

9 critical. We get that.

10 So that is my talk. Are there any

11 questions? Yes, Dan.

12 MS. HERRON: Johanna Herron. Oh,

13 sorry. Go ahead.

14 I was just curious if you had an

15 update on the financials? I know that I had

16 heard, or thought I heard somewhere that, for the

17 cooperative agreements, that you may not have the

18 funds there for both regulatory competition A and

19 B moving forward. I'm just wondering if you have

20 an update on that?

21 MR. ASSAR: I don't have an update

22 that I can share at this moment. Sorry.
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1 MR. SUTTON: Dan Sutton. Can you, and

2 your best guess would be fine, but what kind of

3 timeline are we looking at for some type of

4 closer to final guidance on the water issue?

5 I know there's a lot to look at. I

6 mean, I --

7 MR. ASSAR: Yes.

8 MR. SUTTON: -- and I guess, I'm

9 asking for your best guess.

10 MR. ASSAR: Yes.

11 MR. SUTTON: Is it three months, six

12 months, a year, when do you think there will be

13 some conclusion to all that?

14 MR. ASSAR: And I definitely

15 appreciate that question. And I understand the

16 concern.

17 We're kind of in an awkward state

18 right now. And it's all of us, quite frankly. 

19 We're looking through the water requirements,

20 we're developing options.

21 We want to make a decision, the

22 appropriate decision, as quickly as possible, to
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1 get that information out there. So, growers know

2 what they need to do to move forward. I mean,

3 that's really what they're looking for at this

4 point.

5 And so I'll just say that, if we were

6 to go through the rulemaking process, I hate to

7 put it like this, but we can control we can

8 control. Meaning, FDA can control what we can

9 control.

10 And our timelines are maybe, you know,

11 even if we included an ambitious timeline, we're

12 just not certain that we could move forward with

13 that timeline. Just given the other clearances

14 that need to happen before something would issue

15 through the CFR.

16 So it's tough to say. I can tell you

17 one thing, we are absolutely taking this very

18 seriously. We want to make this work.

19 And we are working very hard. I have

20 a staff that's, I mean, every single day we're

21 working through this issue and we're trying. We

22 want to get it resolved as quickly as possible to
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1 kind of figure out a way to move forward on

2 water.

3 And so I would, again, stay tuned. 

4 Because there's a lot that's around water. Not

5 just the requirements, there is compliance dates

6 and so forth. So just, I would definitely stay

7 tuned.

8 And hopefully soon we will have

9 something for you to work with. I apologize

10 though. Yes.

11 MR. MCREYNOLDS: Roland McReynolds. 

12 Samir, thanks very much for being here with us

13 and taking through all this.

14 MR. ASSAR: Certainly.

15 MR. MCREYNOLDS: A couple of

16 questions, if you'll permit. First, on the

17 water.

18 In terms of the issues that you

19 highlighted --

20 MR. ASSAR: Yes.

21 MR. MCREYNOLDS: -- that you're

22 looking at, you talked about the issue of the
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1 complexity of calculating the geometric mean and

2 the statistical threshold value, but what about

3 the actual benchmarks for those, is that part of

4 the analysis as well?

5 MR. ASSAR: We are looking that as

6 well. The actual criteria is what we call it in

7 the rule. The values, yes.

8 And we've received a lot of comments

9 during the rulemaking process. And there were

10 other considerations that came about after the

11 final rule was issued. And so we are taking a

12 look at, I would say across the board, the water

13 requirements.

14 There's nothing in that set of

15 requirements that we're not looking at very

16 carefully.

17 MR. MCREYNOLDS: Terrific. Thanks for

18 that clarification.

19 The other piece, or question I had, in

20 terms of implementation. And your work in the

21 cooperative agreements right now, with the

22 states, as far as their development of these
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1 foreign inventories.

2 MR. ASSAR: Yes.

3 MR. MCREYNOLDS: The information that

4 you're asking the states to collect, and share

5 with FDA, I mean, it goes to the level of dollar

6 value of sales of crops grown, of markets into

7 which people sell and to actually, I mean, it's

8 like the senses of agriculture in terms of its

9 scope.

10 So it's more than just name and place

11 of the farm. You know, people fill out their ag

12 census knowing that there is confidentiality in

13 protecting that. But this is going to FDA for

14 your all sort of big list of farms.

15 So it's, I would say there probably

16 would be some concern, from the farming

17 community, about the scope of what's being

18 requested, to be supplied to FDA. Can you

19 comment on how that process is developed?

20 MR. ASSAR: Yes. So, as you point

21 out, one of the elements that needs to be

22 achieved, through the cooperative agreement, is
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1 to develop a farm inventory. And for a variety

2 of reasons.

3 And the level of detail is not

4 actually specified within the cooperative

5 agreement, it's just, you know, there are needs

6 that the states have themselves to be able to

7 implement the inspection or education programs. 

8 And that's based on their kind of vision or view

9 on how to move forward with implementation of the

10 rule.

11 So we recognize the need, just

12 broadly, to have some semblance of, what are the

13 farms that are out there. And that's not only

14 for purposes of inspections, it's also for

15 purposes of understanding how to dedicate our

16 educational training resources as well.

17 But in terms of moving forward with

18 inspections, by the states in this case, since

19 these are states that are asking for this

20 information or looking for this information,

21 they're looking for a level of information that

22 will allow them to dedicate their resources to
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1 where they need to focus their inspectional

2 efforts.

3 They want to ensure that they're not

4 focusing on farms that are exempt or not covered

5 by the produce safety rule. They want to make

6 sure that they target those that are covered by

7 commodity or other. So yes.

8 MR. MCREYNOLDS: So it's the states

9 that have been asking to collect this level of

10 detail?

11 MR. ASSAR: Well, there's flexibility

12 in the cooperative agreement, from FDA, as to the

13 level of information that would be needed to

14 satisfy the cooperative agreement. And the

15 states can, they each are handling it in a

16 different way.

17 I mean it's, there is some, you know,

18 we want to institute uniformity and consistency,

19 but some states are looking for information that

20 other states are not looking for.

21 And I would just say that we're still

22 kind of in the early discussions on farm
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1 inventory with the states, through the

2 cooperative agreement. And we're going to be

3 working with them on what they've obtained so

4 far.

5 I don't know about any specific

6 requests that have been made by the states, to

7 fill out their farm inventory obligation, but

8 that's something that I can, I will find out as

9 we move forward with this cooperative agreement.

10 MR. MCREYNOLDS: Yes, I think that

11 would be very much appreciated.

12 MR. ASSAR: Yes.

13 MR. MCREYNOLDS: Because certainly the

14 impression I'm getting from states, is that they

15 are having to move forward and implement. And

16 the cooperative agreement is, their outreach

17 people are now being charged to start coming up

18 with this list --

19 MR. ASSAR: They do. They do, yes.

20 MR. MCREYNOLDS: Yes.

21 MR. ASSAR: That is true. Yes.

22 MR. MCREYNOLDS: So for them to be
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1 capturing data about acres of production and

2 particular practices and dollar value of sales,

3 you know, sensitive information for --

4 MR. ASSAR: Right.

5 MR. MCREYNOLDS: -- individual farms,

6 it puts them in an interesting position to be out

7 there in people's fields and asking for this.

8 MR. ASSAR: Yes. No, I definitely

9 understand that.

10 MS. HERRON: Just a follow-up or

11 clarification. Johanna Herron.

12 So, 99 percent of the growers in my

13 state will probably fall into the qualified

14 exempt, and that puts the two, or however few

15 that is, at a very clear, clearly everyone in

16 Alaska knows who they are, and we do not export

17 any covered commodities from our state. I guess,

18 could you speak to, with the farm inventory then,

19 if they're qualified exempt, does that mean that

20 they do not need, we do not need to collect the

21 farm inventory information on that, just the

22 covered farms?
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1 MR. ASSAR: So, and again, and this is

2 a discussion that we're having currently with the

3 states, in terms of what exactly they're

4 collecting and what needs to be collected or

5 what, I guess, what their vision is for

6 collecting information or what would be useful to

7 them and what will satisfy the cooperative

8 agreement, I can't say definitively.

9 You would need to know, have some

10 understanding of whether or not the farm is

11 exempt or not, right. It meets that qualified

12 exemption.

13 So if there was information outside of

14 like farm inventory information that could

15 support that so and so many farms are qualified

16 exempt, then perhaps that would, there would be

17 no need to collect their farm inventory. But I

18 can't speak to the specifics on that.

19 MS. HERRON: So if they don't export

20 outside of the state, then that would be one,

21 correct?

22 MR. ASSAR: Actually, the rule does
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1 cover intra-state commerce.

2 MS. HERRON: Within 275 miles?

3 MR. ASSAR: Actually, even --

4 (Off microphone comment.)

5 MR. ASSAR: Yes. So there is the

6 exemption that you're talking about, within 275

7 miles, but outside of that, if there is a farm

8 that is of a greater size than the exemption, and

9 they're doing intra-state commerce, then they are

10 subject to the produce safety rule.

11 There is no intra-state, like flat out

12 across the board intra-state exemption. We do

13 have intra-state authority on produce.

14 MS. HERRON: Okay, thank you.

15 MR. ASSAR: Yes.

16 MS. ELLOR: Tina Ellor. So, from the

17 FDA's point of view, what is the minimum, or what

18 is the requirement that you have for cooperating

19 states? What's a requirement for the information

20 they need? What do you ask them for?

21 MR. ASSAR: So it's a very --

22 MS. ELLOR: The minimum.
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1 MR. ASSAR: So we discuss, in the

2 cooperative agreement itself, that farm inventory

3 information needs to be collected.

4 MS. ELLOR: And what would that, would

5 that just be the name of the farmer and the

6 address?

7 MR. ASSAR: I'd have to go back and

8 look exactly how else we described that

9 particular item in the cooperative agreement, but

10 it's a very, very high level.

11 And it's up to, the next step is for

12 the state to determine, they do a needs

13 assessment, they determine what is the farm

14 inventory information that they need to carry out

15 their cooperative agreement, to do inspections

16 and education and so forth.

17 MS. ELLOR: And that's different for

18 every, that can be different, potentially, for

19 every state?

20 MR. ASSAR: It can be potentially

21 different for every state. Yes.

22 MS. ELLOR: And the farmers would not
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1 have the option to opt out of any of that state

2 requirement, just to go with the FDA requirement,

3 because that would --

4 MR. ASSAR: I'm not clear --

5 MS. ELLOR: See what I mean?

6 MR. ASSAR: -- no.

7 MS. ELLOR: So if there's a minimum

8 that the FDA is asking for --

9 MR. ASSAR: Okay.

10 MS. ELLOR: -- across the board --

11 MR. ASSAR: Right.

12 MS. ELLOR: -- can farmers just supply

13 that? Do they have the option to?

14 MR. ASSAR: So for the -- well, yes. 

15 There's no requirement.

16 The state cannot, okay, I don't want

17 to get too far ahead here because this is kind of

18 developing. Again, the states are more focused

19 on kind of ramping up and developing strategies,

20 I don't want to speak too far ahead of what

21 they're doing.

22 But one of the areas that they're
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1 exploring, and looking to develop, is the

2 authority to do produce safety inspections. Some

3 of them don't have that authority currently. 

4 Some do, some don't. Some have certain aspects

5 of it.

6 So they're all over the place on that. 

7 And again, to get a level playing field, they're

8 supposed to, if they are being awarded funds for

9 doing inspections, they either have to get that

10 authority or they have to work with us, be

11 commissioned to be able to do the inspectional

12 work.

13 And so in the case, I'm not sure where

14 their authorities are with respect to collecting

15 information from the farms. We don't have a

16 registration, FDA does not have a registration

17 requirement for farms. For unregistered or

18 facilities that are not required to register. 

19 And farms, your traditional farm, is not a

20 facility that's required to register.

21 So we won't require that. But I'm

22 saying states, I don't know where they are with
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1 their authorities and so forth. And I'm not sure

2 what they can require and can't.

3 MR. MCREYNOLDS: But just to follow-up

4 on that point. I mean, if the FDA doesn't have a

5 registration list of farms, but the cooperative

6 agreement does require the states to --

7 MR. ASSAR: Collect them.

8 MR. MCREYNOLDS: -- have an inventory

9 --

10 MR. ASSAR: That's correct. Yes.

11 MR. MCREYNOLDS: -- and share that

12 with you.

13 MR. ASSAR: That's correct. Yes.

14 MR. MCREYNOLDS: So I mean, the

15 distinction between whether it's a registry, like

16 for food facilities and not --

17 MR. ASSAR: Right.

18 MR. MCREYNOLDS: -- I mean, is that

19 really the point?

20 MR. ASSAR: Well I mean, again, it

21 depends on what you're looking for, in both

22 cases. In the case of registration versus
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1 inventory information, we take a very light,

2 light touch with respect to the cooperative

3 agreement on what is minimally required I guess.

4 And so, you know, I'm not sure how to

5 address that question quite frankly. They are

6 different, in my view, because one is, a

7 registration requirement is a requirement and you

8 need to provide information, in advance of an

9 inspection, that you are doing this level of

10 business and other information as well.

11 Whereas the inventory information that

12 could be collected by the states and could

13 satisfy the cooperative agreement, may not need

14 that, first of all, it may not be a requirement,

15 as I've just discussed, by the states. So even

16 if the states wanted the information, they

17 couldn't get the information because they don't

18 have the authority to get the information. FDA

19 doesn't have the authority to get the

20 information, so they get what they can get to

21 satisfy the need.

22 And so it's just one of the challenges
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1 in instituting a program that covers so many

2 different farmers and so many different states,

3 that have different levels of purview and

4 jurisdiction. But we do think this is the

5 appropriate approach, I mean, to work with the

6 states.

7 We don't want it to be all about us. 

8 We want to spread it out to the states and work

9 with the states to make all of this happen.

10 And I think that it's a different

11 model than other, some of the other FDA programs

12 that aren't instituted as cooperative. You know,

13 true cooperative programs.

14 MR. NOLAN: Bob Nolan. As a small

15 vegetable grower, I'm kind of interested in the

16 timeline and what are the requirements that I'm

17 going to have to have to comply with the produce

18 safety rule?

19 I understand about the water, but the

20 other requirements, is there a timeline --

21 MR. ASSAR: So --

22 MR. NOLAN: -- and are there guidance
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1 documents out there as to what I'm going to have

2 to do?

3 MR. ASSAR: So the timeline for the

4 rule, the first compliance date is for large, it

5 starts January 2018. And then the next

6 compliance date is 2019, for what we call small. 

7 There's, yes, small. And then 2020 for the very

8 small.

9 And then on top of that, currently, we

10 have staggered implementation compliance dates

11 associated with water. So tack on two years,

12 additional years, to meet the water requirements

13 associated with those dates.

14 So for the large, they wouldn't need

15 to comply with the water requirements until 2020. 

16 For small, 2022, so on and so forth.

17 And one, in terms of complying with

18 the rule, I would say water is certainly an area

19 where we understand there's a lot of guidance

20 needed to understand how to comply and implement

21 the rule.

22 And however, in some of the other
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1 areas, provision areas, there is a lot of

2 information within the rule itself. It's very

3 direct, it's very JMP like. It tells us, this is

4 what you need to do, this is what.

5 And in the areas where we talk about

6 adequate, nobody likes the word adequate. In the

7 preamble of the rule, which is like the part of

8 the rule that kind of rationalizes the

9 requirements and addresses the comments

10 associated with the rule, that's where there's

11 information about our thinking with respect to

12 what adequate could mean. Examples of what

13 adequate is or what adequate isn't.

14 So a lot of the information is within

15 the rule itself. And I would encourage you to

16 look at that. Yes.

17 And I would say, one of the first

18 stops would be to find a rule with the preamble

19 information, where we have addressed comments. 

20 People are asking, how do I, they ask questions

21 like, how do I comply with this. And we may

22 address it in that area. Or, what is your
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1 thinking about complying with this or how would

2 this carry out. We would address it in the

3 comment response, possibly.

4 There's a chance we could also defer

5 some of that to guidance as well. But we

6 understand the importance of guidance, we want to

7 get that out there as soon as possible. Ahead of

8 the first compliance date. The 2018 compliance

9 date.

10 Yes, Jessica?

11 MS. WASSERMAN: Hey, Jessica

12 Wasserman. Just wondered whether you could do

13 the water issues through guidance instead of the

14 --

15 MR. ASSAR: That's certainly an

16 option.

17 MS. WASSERMAN: -- rulemaking?

18 MR. ASSAR: That's certainly an

19 option. And I'm, yes, that's certainly an

20 option. How to do address the water requirements

21 in guidance.

22 MS. KNORR: Not to keep you in the hot
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1 seat too much longer, Samir, I appreciate your

2 time and --

3 MR. ASSAR: Sure, no problem.

4 MS. KNORR: -- your willingness to --

5 MR. ASSAR: I'm used to it.

6 MS. KNORR: -- field these questions. 

7 But going back a little bit to the farm inventory

8 information, is there any way that we could

9 receive the information? Like the minimum

10 required information that the FDA is requesting.

11 MR. ASSAR: So the cooperative

12 agreement is, I believe that all that information

13 is publicly available.

14 MS. KNORR: Okay.

15 MR. ASSAR: I'm not a grants person

16 or, but I believe all of that information is

17 publicly available.

18 MS. KNORR: Okay.

19 MR. ASSAR: And so --

20 MS. KNORR: Yes. If we could get a

21 copy of that, I think that would be very helpful

22 for our information.
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1 And also, is there some sort of a

2 confidentiality agreement that's part of these

3 farm inventories and that kind of thing?

4 MR. ASSAR: I'm not exactly sure about

5 that.

6 MS. KNORR: Okay.

7 MR. ASSAR: I am not the best person,

8 I am not in charge of the cooperative agreement

9 so I can't answer that question.

10 MS. KNORR: Okay.

11 MR. ASSAR: I believe there would be. 

12 Yes.

13 MS. KNORR: All right. And then

14 finally, I mean, I understand that states are

15 probably excited to be able to use this as a

16 vehicle to gather information for their

17 educational programs, I'm just wonder whether or

18 not this is the appropriate vehicle for them to

19 do that?

20 I mean, if they are gathering this

21 information for food safety requirements, then

22 perhaps FDA should be encouraged to encourage the
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1 states to look at separate vehicles for gaining

2 the information that they want to --

3 MR. ASSAR: Yes.

4 MS. KNORR: -- obtain for their

5 educational purposes and their service purposes.

6 MR. ASSAR: Yes. And I should say

7 that, and again, I'm not the expert on this, but

8 we have granted an award, and we are working with

9 a certain organization, I believe I can announce

10 that, Dan & Bradstreet, to collect a level of

11 information. They don't have, I mean, it's

12 really information that they already have. It's

13 not any new information. So, yes.

14 MS. BETTS: Okay, seeing no more

15 questions I guess we will thank you, Samir, for

16 your time.

17 MR. ASSAR: Certainly.

18 (Applause.)

19 MS. BETTS: With that, we'll ask Jan

20 to come up. And she's going to give us a little

21 status on some of the other produce rules. The

22 foreign supplier and the third-party rule.
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1 MS. CARLSON: So good morning, my name

2 is Jan Carlson and I am a special assistant in

3 the Office of the Center Director at CFSAN at FDA

4 and I'm happy to be with you today. Thank you

5 for having me.

6 I am here to talk about non-produce

7 rule topics. My subjects are more import

8 related. It's the Food Safety Modernization Act

9 Rules on Foreigner Supplier Verification

10 Programs, or FSVP, as well as the third-party

11 certification program.

12 So I'll start with FSVP, as that's a

13 slightly, has slightly broader application. The

14 foreign supplier verification programs will play

15 an important role in the risk-based prevention

16 oriented approach that FDA is implementing under

17 the new FSMA statute.

18 And FSVP is particularly important,

19 because for the first time it requires importers

20 to take certain actions to verify that the food

21 that they're importing, into the U.S., has been

22 produced in a manner that meets the applicable
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1 FDA food safety standards.

2 And the FSVPs are risk-based in so far

3 as they take into account different types of

4 hazards, different types of importers and

5 different types of suppliers.

6 So under FSVP, the importers are

7 required to develop these verification programs

8 to provide assurance that their foreign suppliers

9 are using processes and procedures, that provide

10 at least the same level of public health

11 protection, as are required under the FSMA

12 preventative controls and produce safety

13 regulations. As well as that the food is not

14 adulterated or misbranded regarding allergens.

15 And again, the requirements in the

16 FSVP program apply to importers. The importer is

17 the U.S. owner, or consignee of the food, at the

18 time of entry.

19 Which means it's the person in the

20 United States, who at the time of entry, either

21 owns the food, has purchased the food of has

22 agreed to purchase the food. And if there is no
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1 U.S. owner or consignee of the food at the time

2 of entry, then the importer is the U.S. agent or

3 representative of the foreign owner or consignee.

4 The salient point here though is that

5 the importer is someone in the United States, who

6 bears responsibility of the safety of that

7 imported food.

8 So what does an importer have to do

9 under the foreigner supplier verification

10 program? First, they must analyze the hazards in

11 the food that they are importing. And once the

12 hazards are identified, they have to evaluate the

13 foreigner suppliers' performance.

14 For example, what does the foreigner

15 supplier have in terms of food safety procedures,

16 what is their history of compliance, have they

17 been the subject of an import alert or a warning

18 letter. And then the importer also has to

19 analyze what risk is posed by the food.

20 So based on their analysis of the

21 hazards and their evaluation of the supplier and

22 the risk, the importer than determines what
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1 verification activities will be appropriate and

2 how often those activities have to be conducted.

3 So possible verification activities

4 include onsite auditors of the suppliers,

5 sampling and testing, as well as review of the

6 suppliers records.

7 And note that the regulation makes

8 annual onsite auditing the default approach, when

9 there is a hazard that can result in serious

10 adverse health consequences or death to humans or

11 animals.

12 So once the verification activities

13 are complete, the importer has to review and

14 assess them. And if the results don't provide

15 adequate assurance, that the hazards are being

16 controlled, then the importer has to take certain

17 corrective actions.

18 For example, working with their

19 supplier to correct whatever problems there are,

20 or if need be, discontinuing use of that

21 supplier, until the problems are resolved.

22 So that's a little about the FSVP in
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1 terms of compliance dates.

2 The date by which importers have to

3 comply with a new FSVP regulations varies,

4 depending on the size of the foreigner supplier

5 and the nature of the importer.

6 But speaking generally for importers,

7 whose foreigner supplier is not subject to the

8 preventative controls or produce safety

9 regulations, their compliance date is coming up

10 at the end of this month. It's May 30.

11 For importers whose foreigner supplier

12 is subject to the preventative controls or

13 produce safety regulations, the importers

14 compliance date is six months after the supplier

15 is required to meet the preventative controls or

16 produce safety requirements.

17 And as Samir said, with regard to

18 produce safety, the same is true for FSVP. FDA

19 is taking a soft launch approach to FSVP

20 compliance, as we are with all the FSMA

21 regulations.

22 We intend to work with stakeholders as
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1 we go forward. And our philosophy is to educate

2 before and while we regulate.

3 So in terms of FSVP guidance

4 documents, we recently issued a draft guidance

5 document on the unique facility identifier that

6 importers have to provide at entry. And the

7 guidance states that the DUNS number is

8 appropriate to use for that purpose.

9 We are working on a broader draft

10 guidance on FSVP more generally. And I am unable

11 to comment on exactly when the broader guidance

12 will issue, but it is in progress.

13 And we will also be issuing a guidance

14 document informing small businesses how to comply

15 with the FSVP.

16 So let me quickly move on to the

17 third-part certification program. Another

18 regulation established under the FSMA.

19 The third-party certification

20 regulation establishes a voluntary program for

21 the accreditation of third-party certification

22 bodies, or auditors, to conduct food safety
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1 audits. And the auditor may then issue a

2 certification of the foreign facility and the

3 food that the foreign facility produces.

4 And the certifications issued under

5 this program have two potential uses. The first

6 is a voluntary use for importers bringing food

7 into the U.S. They may participate in what we

8 call the voluntary qualified importer program, or

9 VQIP.

10 VQIP is like a best importers program. 

11 It requires a higher level of food safety

12 performance. And in exchange for that higher

13 performance, the importers receive expedited

14 entry at the border.

15 The other use for the certifications

16 under the third-party program would be much more

17 limited. There will be a mandatory use.

18 Under FSMA, FDA was given the

19 authority to make a risk-based determination at

20 the border that a food offered for import has to

21 be accompanied by some sort of an assurance that

22 that food complies with our requirements. And
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1 certifications issued under the third-party

2 certification program, will satisfy this FDA

3 requirement. However, these situations are

4 expected to be very limited and their use rare.

5 And I want to stress quickly that the

6 third-party certification program is really

7 entirely distinct from FSVP. There are two tools

8 in our toolbox, but the FSVP audits do not have

9 to be conducted by an auditor accredited under

10 the third-party program.

11 And the FSVP requirements, there's no

12 requirement for importers to use third-party

13 accredited auditors to get certification. So

14 it's not like you have to have one of the third15 party certifications to get your goods in at the

16 border. They really are separate programs.

17 Let me speak just a minute about the

18 framework of the third-party certification

19 program. There is really four levels of actors

20 for that program.

21 The top level can be considered FDA. 

22 We're obviously establishing and organizing the
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1 program. And we will be accepting applications

2 from accreditation bodies who we will review for

3 criteria such as competency and impartiality.

4 So if we're the FDA, at the top, then

5 the next level down are those recognized

6 accreditation bodies that have satisfied the

7 requirements for our program.

8 Those accreditation bodies will then

9 go out and accredit the certification bodies or

10 auditors. And then at the base of the tiers are

11 the actual individual facilities that the

12 auditors will go out and assess and give out

13 certifications for.

14 In terms of compliance dates, the

15 compliance dates for this program are also fast

16 approaching. We're targeting June, so next

17 month, for the rollout of the third-party

18 program. And at that time, we will begin

19 accepting applications from accreditation bodies

20 for FDA recognition.

21 And after we recognize them, those

22 accreditation bodies can go out and start
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1 certifying auditor, or I'm sorry, accrediting

2 auditors. And we believe that by early 2018 we

3 will have accredited auditors in place, ready to

4 start assessing facilities and issuing

5 certifications.

6 So we believe that the VQIP will be up

7 and running early next year.

8 There are some guidance documents

9 associated with this program as well. In

10 November of last year, we issued our guidance on

11 the VQIP program.

12 In December, we issued a guidance on

13 model accreditation standards for the auditors

14 under the program. It addresses things like

15 quality assurance, conflict of interest and

16 technical competency.

17 The model standards were developed

18 using ISO standards as well as industry best

19 practices.

20 And I did want to note that the FSMA

21 requires a user fee program for us to establish a

22 user fee program so that FDA gets reimbursed for
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1 its work, setting up and running the third-party

2 program.

3 The fees will be collected at the time

4 that an accreditation body applies for

5 recognition from FDA. They will also have an

6 annual fee. And there will also be an annual fee

7 for the accredited auditors in the program.

8 Are there any questions? Yes?

9 MS. WASSERMAN: So when you said that

10 there's a May 30 deadline coming up for

11 importers, if the foreign supplier, I guess you

12 would say, is not subject to either produce or

13 preventative controls, what would that be?

14 MS. CARLSON: What would that be? 

15 That would be, I think, goods that fall outside

16 those rules for whatever reason. Maybe the

17 supplier, for whatever reason, doesn't, you know,

18 goods that aren't under the produce rule.

19 I have to admit, I'm having trouble

20 thinking of any right this second, but there

21 certainly are. I can get back to you on that.

22 MS. WASSERMAN: Okay, thank you.
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1 MS. CARLSON: Anything else?

2 MS. BETTS: Any other questions? 

3 Okay, thanks, Jan.

4 MS. CARLSON: Thank you.

5 MS. BETTS: Appreciate it. All right,

6 next up is Tricia Kovacs. And I'm going to pull

7 up her presentation, so.

8 MS. KOVACS: So while she's doing

9 that, I think there's research out there that

10 says you can't possibly pay attention for any

11 longer if you've been sitting here this amount of

12 time, so I encourage you to stand up, get your

13 water, refresh your coffee. Not take a break

14 necessarily, but move around a bit in the room if

15 you want to do that so that you can still think.

16 I hope I haven't opened too much of a

17 can of worms by asking you to stand up, but I

18 really do think that you'll be able to think

19 better. And I'm short, so I'm going to make one

20 big crackle sound while I fix this. There we go. 

21 How's that work, can you hear me? Okay.

22 So, some of you may recognize me, I
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1 talked with some of you on a rooftop last time we

2 met, at Up Top Acres down in Navy Yard, about our

3 local and regional food systems work at USDA.

4 As part of that work, I also work with

5 others here in the room about how food safety

6 standards, whether they are market requirements

7 or FSMA rules or voluntary audit programs, effect

8 producers and how we can help them be ready.

9 Great. So, I'm going to take these

10 notes away because I keep wanting to read them

11 and they're not mine.

12 (Off microphone comment.)

13 MS. KOVACS: So, like I said, what my

14 role and my relationships in this are really

15 about, how do we help farmers and other producers

16 and food businesses be ready to meet the food

17 safety challenges and requirements that are made

18 of them. Whether those are mandatory or

19 voluntary or buyer driven or what, and how are

20 they going to be ready to meet those changes in

21 their market places.

22 One of the ways that I do that is by
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1 working with FDA and with NIFA, which is part of

2 USDA, to convene the FSMA collaborative training

3 forum. And as you heard from Samir, there are a

4 number of people who are in organizations that

5 have cooperative agreements out there to do

6 training.

7 So we know that training is a critical

8 piece of FSMA implementation. We know that USDA,

9 as the agriculture department, and FDA, both play

10 a role in making sure this all works as smoothly

11 as it can, and that there are lots and lots of

12 training options out there for producers. And

13 there have been for a long time.

14 Some of them have been funded by USDA,

15 some of them are now funded through cooperative

16 agreements with FDA and with USDA. And we just

17 wanted to make sure that we are committed to

18 whatever it takes to make sure that those are

19 coordinated and communicating with each other, so

20 that people get what they need.

21 So we're hosting the forum. So the

22 training forum is really just a place for all
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1 those folks who are funded by USDA and by FDA, to

2 implement training programs, to come together to

3 have a dialogue, talk about their programs, what

4 they're doing, how they're doing, where they are

5 in that process, and any issues of common

6 concern.

7 So the goal for that is to eliminate

8 duplication and to make sure that we're using the

9 limited resources as well as we can, across those

10 programs.

11 So I'm going to start by telling you

12 who is in this forum and then I'll tell you a

13 little bit about where we are with it. The short

14 version is that we've just finished our first

15 four calls to hear from each other. And know

16 kind of what we think we need to do going

17 forward.

18 So I'm not going to go into what all

19 these different partners do, but I wanted you to

20 see who's in this group talking to each other

21 about the implementation of training programs.

22 So we have the alliances. The Produce
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1 Safety Alliance, the Sprout Safety Alliance and

2 the Food Safety Preventive Controls Alliance. 

3 These have developed standardized education

4 programs that are now being offered across the

5 country.

6 We have JIFSAN, Joint Institute for

7 Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. And they, in

8 our talk so far, have talked about their

9 international work.

10 One of the things that they brought to

11 the table, that I thought was interesting, is

12 just some experience with online trainings and

13 translated materials versus interpreter given

14 talks. So some perspectives on how those have

15 worked for them.

16 And then we have the national

17 Coordination Center. And this is the

18 International Food Protection Training Institute

19 Based in Battleground, Michigan. And they are,

20 oh sorry, my slides show here and here and I'm

21 sorry guys.

22 So anyway, NASDA. As you've already
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1 heard, again from Samir, they are bringing

2 together, working with the states who have their

3 cooperative agreements to do planning and

4 implementation at the state level, in those 42

5 states.

6 But also, ideally to help all the

7 states kind of know how to move forward in this. 

8 Some of their resources will be available to all

9 states, whether or not that have that.

10 And then they're also working on-farm

11 readiness review. So they have a national

12 consortium for produce safety that allows all

13 those states to talk to each other.

14 Right now, those states are in a

15 planning year, so right now, that will get to be,

16 I think, more robust as they learn from each

17 other, as they start to really implement the

18 rules.

19 They're also working on on-farm

20 readiness review. And again, that will have sort

21 of a document that will be available, a method

22 that they use, and that will be available to
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1 states across the country.

2 And also, one of the things I'm most

3 excited about, is that the on-farm readiness

4 process will provide them some real on-farm

5 experience to feed back into the training

6 programs, that all these other cooperators and

7 other partners around the country are developing.

8 Now we come to the National

9 Coordination Center at the International Food

10 Protection Training Institute in Michigan. And

11 they are tasked with training and education for

12 small and medium sized producers, small

13 producers, small fruit and vegetable wholesalers,

14 and to provide coordination among the regional

15 centers, and others, as we will see.

16 I believe their initial mandate was to

17 work with the regional centers, which are here.

18 So these are the four regional centers

19 around the country and the universities that

20 house them. Each of these has multiple partners.

21 The southern region and western region

22 are funded through USDA and the other two are
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1 funded with FDA. But they all come together.

2 The national coordination center has

3 monthly calls and reporting methods to kind of

4 keep those regional centers coordinated in their

5 work going forward.

6 And then there are a couple of other

7 cooperative agreements that were initially

8 outside. So NCC has a specific regional center

9 coordination role.

10 One of the things we found in our

11 first calls is that the local food safety

12 collaborative and the Native American Food Safety

13 Training Group were not necessarily participating

14 in that, and now they are. Because at the forum

15 we realize that there are a lot of things

16 happening that they also need to be tied into. 

17 And that they need the visibility that is offered

18 by being officially connected to that

19 coordination center.

20 So I think that was one early outcome

21 of it that, even within these cooperative groups,

22 they're coordinating better.
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1 So the local food safety collaborative

2 is led by the National Farmers Union Foundation,

3 and they have multiple partners across the

4 country to help them deliver, develop and

5 deliver, training and technical assistance and

6 support to those in the local food markets around

7 the country.

8 Like many of these, like the states

9 and like many of the regional centers, they are

10 in the process of doing some needs assessment and

11 planning for this. One of the things that I

12 learned from this, is that all these cooperative

13 agreements and cooperator groups, are sort of on

14 different timelines.

15 A lot of these agreements came onboard

16 at different times, and so being able to talk to

17 each other was challenging because they were all

18 at different places. And now they're starting to

19 get to a place where they kind of know what

20 they're about, they know what their, at least

21 their needs assessment is starting to go and look

22 at aligning timelines for different resources
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1 that they're developing. And different outreach

2 mechanisms, assessment tools, so that they can

3 talk to each other about that.

4 So the local food safety collaborative

5 is in that place of looking at needs assessment,

6 developing partnerships and really starting to

7 plan going forward.

8 Similarly, at University of Arkansas

9 Fayetteville School of Law, we have the Native

10 American Tribal Center for food safety outreach,

11 education training and technical assistance. And

12 they are offering training and technical

13 assistance in all regions of Indian Country,

14 which spans 35 states.

15 So they have the task of figuring out

16 how to delivery trainings that are relevant and

17 appropriate and recognize the different levels of

18 jurisdiction that tribes work, tribal producers

19 and food businesses are working under. So the

20 forum has been really useful for them, to let

21 everyone else know that they are there, that they

22 need to partner with them in the different
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1 regions and in the different states, and with

2 different kinds of producers.

3 They'll be doing some webinars and

4 they'll have a hotline interface as well, for

5 producers and food companies in their region. 

6 And again, they're one of the ones that is now

7 tied into the monthly calls with the national

8 coordination center.

9 And then we have, and I won't go into

10 each of these projects, but I mentioned that, so

11 I'm based in AMS, I work across USDA, and one of

12 our partners is NIFA, the National Institute of

13 Food and Agriculture.

14 And they are important in this arena

15 because they are funding the food safety outreach

16 program. So they fund some of the regional

17 centers, but they also fund this grant program.

18 And that grant program has three

19 different types of grants to reach different

20 audiences and different needs. Generally, they

21 are customizing trainings for different

22 audiences.
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1 Small to mid-size farms, beginning

2 farms, socially disadvantaged farmers, small

3 processors and small fresh fruit and vegetable

4 merchant wholesalers.

5 So under the three types we have pilot

6 projects, which are for new and potentially high

7 risk, high impact food safety and outreach

8 programs and local communities that reach

9 specific targeted audiences. Whether they're

10 non-traditional niche, hard to reach audiences

11 that for some reason, maybe it's culture or

12 language barriers, need some specific training

13 developed for them.

14 And then we have community outreach

15 projects. And those are to expand or add

16 additional audiences to existing programs and

17 then multi-state education and training projects.

18 Which are interesting because they

19 are, it doesn't necessarily mean like the pacific

20 northwest is all going to get together to do a

21 multi-state training, it might be that California

22 and Arizona and somewhere else have similar
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1 products or climate needs, or food safety

2 concerns that affect them, and they can

3 coordinate together to try and address those

4 through some training and outreach programs.

5 And here's the exciting part, that's

6 all open right now, so I wanted to highlight

7 right now NIFA's food safety outreach program

8 requests for applications was announced last

9 month. The deadline is June 6th.

10 And I put up here the new project

11 focus. It's the same three categories, the same

12 overall goal as they've had in the past.

13 But then they've got just a little bit

14 of additional target here for pre-imposed

15 harvest, water testing and sampling. Which we

16 know, we've talked about quite a bit today, that

17 we don't know exactly what that's all going to

18 look like. Developing supply chain programs

19 and/or food safety plans.

20 And that they continue with some of

21 the goal to reach bilingual and provide

22 culturally appropriate training resources for
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1 folks. So make a note about that.

2 I have some information here about

3 eligible applicants and all that. It's a pretty

4 broad grant program that many types of entities

5 can apply and get those grants to do that.

6 And while I'm not talking about all

7 the different things that are happening out there

8 in these, this is an area where a lot of the work

9 that's been happening for years, to reach certain

10 audiences for GAP or other food safety, some of

11 those are funded here, under this, to expand

12 those programs and make sure they're FSMA

13 compliant.

14 And it really gets at the diversity

15 that we know we need in the training around the

16 Food Safety Modernization Act. And I'm happy to

17 see that we'll be doing, funding some more again

18 this year.

19 And one of the other things that

20 happened through the forum is, at least for me, a

21 better understanding of how all of these are

22 going to fit into the coordination of this. They
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1 do connect with the regional centers, but for

2 instance, the folks at Arkansas, who are working

3 on the tribal outreach programs, have said, let's

4 make sure that we're connecting to them too

5 because we are across regions, the same for the

6 local food one.

7 So, all of this has to come together

8 in some kind of a knowable thing. Which is

9 challenging.

10 So, I'll tell you where we are with it

11 all now. So, we just completed our initial call

12 series.

13 So, throughout April we had four, two

14 hour WebEx calls with all the entities I've just

15 mentioned. And each of them had a chance to give

16 a presentation on what they're doing. They also

17 provided sort of three-pagers, two-pagers so that

18 we didn't have to go through all the detail of

19 what they're doing in our phone call, but could

20 instead use that call to talk about things we

21 have in common.

22 Whether that is the assessments. 
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1 People are doing different needs assessments. 

2 What are they doing, what have they found, what

3 do they need. Where are areas of four

4 collaboration. Similarly, evaluation, metrics,

5 data collection, reporting.

6 Those things where we know everybody's

7 work has some similarities. Program development,

8 training development, tools, resources.

9 How are they being shared out, where

10 are they being stored. All of those kinds of

11 conversations.

12 So we started to identify some of

13 those themes. And then also highlighted some

14 outstanding questions for FDA and USDA.

15 So these sessions are for them to talk

16 to each other, and for us to kind of get a better

17 picture of how it all comes together. But what

18 we find is that we pull out questions for USDA,

19 some of which you all have raised today, and we

20 take those back to USDA and FDA, to then be able

21 to inform the broader community and these folks,

22 later on.
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1 But that it's not a discussion to tell

2 the federal agencies what they need or where

3 they're going, it's more to understand what's

4 happening in each of their different funded

5 programs.

6 So, we found that we are starting to

7 get a better understand of each other's projects

8 and timelines. And like I said, the timelines

9 are starting to line up a little better, since

10 they have all had their agreements for a little

11 bit of time now. They're starting to get their

12 feet under them.

13 Several ideas for aligning outreach

14 and assessment strategies, and then also just

15 learning from each other's experiences. So I'm

16 trying to think of a couple of examples.

17 So in one case, for instance, there

18 are trainers who are maybe not ready to be lead

19 trainers yet, because they don't have the

20 confidence of the experience in a certain piece

21 of it or a certain part of it. And some regions

22 are pulling together lead trainers from
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1 somewhere, almost in a mentorship program, so

2 that the trainers that they have in their region

3 can hear, watch a lead trainer from somewhere

4 else do it and learn from them and then be able

5 to come lead trainers themselves.

6 So it's not all within its regions, a

7 lot of this work is to make sure that we are

8 using the best resources we have in the different

9 areas. So an expert from one region might be

10 helping another region or another cooperative

11 agreement to what they're doing.

12 And also working to improve outcomes

13 and metrics. We talked a lot about capturing, I

14 think we've all done a lot of capturing the

15 activities that we've done and the inputs that

16 we've put into programs, whether they're grant

17 funded or cooperative agreements, but thinking

18 about how do we get at, are the practices

19 improving, is the food safer, and are we doing

20 what we want to be doing with all of these

21 different programs out there. So starting to

22 think about all of that.
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1 We will have an ongoing forum, which

2 we think will be quarterly calls. And some

3 coordination and communication between the group.

4 And we had so much conversation around

5 the specific presentations that we had that our

6 four, two hour calls ended with, and now we need

7 to have our first quarterly call to be able to

8 process what was got out of this and what we want

9 to do to coordinate. And what we want to do to

10 share out information about what we have learned

11 from each other and what this looks like to the

12 outside world.

13 And then, like I said, the one change

14 that's already happened is that those national

15 coordination center monthly calls now include

16 some of the cooperative agreements that are

17 reaching specific target audiences.

18 So that's what I have today. I don't

19 have a clock so I don't know where we are with

20 time, but I'm pretty sure we have time for

21 questions. Great.

22 MR. SUTTON: I know one of the
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1 challenges in the training has been developing

2 the resources for other languages, rather than in

3 English. I know the PSA has been fairly strict

4 about opening that particular training up,

5 because they didn't want anything lost in

6 translation.

7 Is a little bit of what your program

8 is going to do, is that going to make that

9 happen?

10 Because honestly, I take my foreman to

11 that training. It's in English, they're losing a

12 lot more in translation because they're hearing

13 it in English, so what are we doing to bridge

14 that gap, is that what these programs are about?

15 MS. KOVACS: Well, I think there are

16 a couple of answers to that. I know that the PSA

17 folks are trying to figure out what they can do

18 about getting materials available in other

19 languages. I don't know for sure about the

20 trainer aspect of that. What the status is of

21 that.

22 But the food safety outreach program
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1 grants can be part of bridging that gap. They

2 can provide language specific or culturally

3 relevant or culturally available programs.

4 And those are, it's a grant program. 

5 So it's a matter of chosen among the ones that

6 are proposed there. But I think due to things

7 like this collaborative forum, the projects that

8 are developing the materials and programs, will

9 be shared back out with the rest of the group and

10 available in multiple ways through different

11 programs.

12 And I think, I mean, PSA is definitely

13 part of this collaborative and I think it will

14 feed into the way they're approach it too, but I

15 don't have a specific answer from them. Samir

16 maybe?

17 MR. ASSAR: I can probably, this is

18 Samir, so I can perhaps help. Yes, so PSA is

19 working on the translations and they are looking

20 to issue a Spanish translated curriculum and

21 materials very, very soon.

22 They have the translation, they
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1 piloted the translation, translated materials. 

2 So hopefully within the next week or two those

3 translated materials will be live.

4 Also, I mentioned in my talk that some

5 of, there are international trainers training the

6 trainers and lead trainers that have been

7 certified, and so, yes, the hope is that they

8 will go out and train others and they'll be more

9 lead, international lead trainers and the

10 magnifying effect will start happening. So, it's

11 all starting to roll.

12 In terms of future translations

13 outside of Spanish, we are kind of triaging to

14 prioritize what are the other languages that need

15 to be translated.

16 You know, French is up there. Not

17 because France is producing produce, but there

18 are so many French speaking countries. And there

19 are other translations that are in the queue as

20 well that are being considered.

21 MS. KOVACS: It's interesting, one of

22 the things that I learned from listening to
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1 JIFSAN in these calls is, their experience was

2 that people wanted translated materials, but not

3 interpreted trainings or trainings in their own

4 languages, but that is because a lot of those are

5 training the trainers where their trainees are

6 university educated trainers. And so I do think

7 that there may be more need when we're training

8 producers, informant and farm workers, to meet

9 their needs. Other questions? Yes.

10 MR. MCREYNOLDS: Thanks very much for

11 being with us, Tricia. In terms of lead trainers

12 on the produce safety lines, I know that list is

13 starting to get out, actually be public, and so

14 we know who they are.

15 I guess I'm aware of people who are

16 not working in extension, but with ten years of

17 experience training farmers in food safety,

18 working with USDA to develop the group GAP

19 program, but who are not getting approved as lead

20 trainers and having to spend more money and go

21 through another train the trainer and this sort

22 of thing.
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1 Certainly, anecdotally I feel like

2 this is a trend and a concern from a lot of

3 stakeholders who already have track records of

4 working with these very populations, limited

5 resource populations of producers.

6 Can you speak to anything about how

7 the PSA lead trainer approval process is, the

8 transparency of it and how some of this might be

9 addressed?

10 MS. KOVACS: I am not directly

11 involved with that process so I'm a little bit

12 out of the loop on that right now. I do know

13 that trainers and lead trainers are being

14 approved sort of more quickly at this point.

15 And I guess I would the ask the

16 questions, Samir may be able to answer this or

17 others, but I am not the direct liaison to PSA,

18 except through this.

19 I know that they're also sending back

20 feedback to some of those lead trainer lead

21 applications. And so I don't know, I would be

22 interested to see kind of what the barriers are
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1 to those groups. And I am sure that the PSA

2 folks would as well. Samir, do you want to add

3 to that?

4 MR. MCREYNOLDS: I mean, I've seen

5 some people's feedback and it was dubious. As

6 the term to the reasons for, based on the

7 person's resume.

8 MR. ASSAR: Yes, thank you for asking

9 the question. And we are certainly aware of that

10 issue and we want to work with PSA to get as many

11 lead trainer certified as possible.

12 There is an application process, as

13 you know. And the application process not only

14 gauges your ability to train and your experience

15 in training, it also gauges your ability, or your

16 knowledge, around the produce safety rule.

17 And what we've seen, even from

18 experienced trainers, cooperative extension, is

19 that there have been a number of issues. Whether

20 it, in some cases they have not completed the

21 application form to the extent that they should,

22 to get confidence that they know the rule.
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1 It's evident that they have training

2 experience, but it seems like they're, it's not

3 clear whether they understand the rule itself. 

4 So there is a process to kind of circle back with

5 those lead trainers to find out, to find out

6 whether or not they know the rule or not. 

7 Because that's critical.

8 If you go out and do training and you

9 don't know the rule and you're doing the usual

10 thing, we're convinced you can do more harm than

11 good.

12 And the FSPCA is running into a

13 situation where they've basically opened the

14 gates for a lot of leech trainers to go out there

15 and do training. And now they're having to do,

16 you know, they're seeing inconsistencies and

17 issues, with respect to the training that are

18 being offered. And they're going through a kind

19 of retroactive process to take, to kind of

20 decertify trainers that are not appropriate

21 trainers.

22 So we're working with PSA to get that
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1 balance. That right balance. But the bottom

2 line is, we absolutely want to get as many lead

3 certified trainers as possible.

4 And we're trying to, that list of

5 trainers that are, or potential candidate

6 trainers, lead certified candidate trainers that

7 need to be followed up on, that's taking some

8 time. And we're trying to get that quickly

9 resolved as quickly as possible so that we can

10 get those trainers out there.

11 MR. MCREYNOLDS: I appreciate that. 

12 And certainly recognize the importance of

13 maintaining consistency and everything. With 350

14 words to answer these questions is not a lot to

15 really demonstrate your knowledge of the rule.

16 And I think that's the concern is

17 that, well, you have these very short answers and

18 then who gets the follow-up. If you're an

19 extension person it seems like, well, you don't

20 get follow-up, you're approved. If the answers

21 are close enough.

22 Whereas with private or community
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1 based trainers are getting, well, we need a

2 longer answer from you. And like I say, I'm

3 certainly aware of at least one case where the

4 response back, as to why what areas of the rule

5 they didn't know was, from the legal perspective,

6 not sound.

7 MR. ASSAR: I think I might take that

8 back with the PSA. I do know that there were

9 experience cooperative extension applications

10 that did not get approved.

11 MS. KOVACS: Anyone else?

12 MS. HERRON: I have a question. 

13 Johanna Herron. Hi, Tricia, thank you for

14 everything. I can't imagine that this is an easy

15 task. There is a lot of duplicity. You see that

16 with funding events.

17 So you've got specialty crop, and

18 you've got all these different funding sources,

19 the FDA agreements. And it's unclear sometimes,

20 I think for states, and I don't know if this is

21 totally a question or a comment, but for states,

22 on who is allowed to be doing what.
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1 Certainly, from the farmer

2 perspective, it's all the same to them. Where

3 you have farmers that may be larger and GAP

4 certified or have gone through that process, are

5 now the target. Or not target, but they are the

6 recipient of the new FSMA attention.

7 And so to them they are wanting the

8 two regulatory needs to be met, but their buyer

9 still requires that GAP. And I know they're

10 working together and moving forward together.

11 Is there any end in sight where they

12 would be compatible or one covers the other?

13 I know ones' buyer driven and ones

14 not, but they do overlap so much. I'm just

15 curious if you can speak to that.

16 MS. KOVACS: Well, the GAP standard is

17 a voluntary standard, as you mentioned. It is an

18 audit program and it will never be the inspection

19 for the Food Safety Modernization Act rules.

20 But there is a currently ongoing

21 process to align the standards that they are

22 auditing to, with the FSMA expectations in the
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1 produce safety rule. So that's where we are with

2 that. I think that's where it will continue to

3 go.

4 MS. BETTS: Leanne, did you want to

5 comment too?

6 MS. SKELTON: Yes, let me weigh into

7 this. So, as Tricia said, there's an alignment

8 project going on between, for example, USDA GAP. 

9 I'm sure other audit service providers are doing

10 the same work.

11 But what I know, from my work with

12 FDA, is that, I would say in the best of

13 circumstances, you all might say in the worse of

14 circumstances, FDA just does not have the bodies. 

15 Nor do the state departments of agriculture have

16 the bodies that would be sufficient in number to

17 inspect, that's an FDA term of art, not a USDA

18 term of art in this respect, to inspect every

19 farm.

20 And so they'll never have the right

21 number of people, whatever that is. And so

22 they're looking at whatever else is out there,
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1 that's considered credible, to balance where the,

2 either the state FDA or the federal FDA needs to

3 go.

4 So while, as Tricia said, our GAP

5 audit, for example, from the USDA perspective, is

6 never going to be a compliance function of FDA,

7 we don't want it to be, they don't want it to be,

8 the information from that work could be useful

9 as, whether the federal FDA or the state FDA,

10 figure out how best to use their limited

11 resources. So it's not a guarantee.

12 Any other work that's being done out

13 there is not a guarantee that you'll never see

14 FDA, but it kind of changes the risk profile. If

15 you're doing something proactive, a GAP audit is

16 proactive. A solid educational program is kind

17 of a proactive kind of thing.

18 So not a guarantee, but it helps FDA

19 better figure how to use their limited resources.

20 MS. KOVACS: But it also, we've also

21 seen already that buyers are getting ahead of the

22 compliance dates for FDA and starting to ask
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1 producers already, about what they're doing and

2 are they in compliance. And to some degree, with

3 the water standards and things, that it's not

4 always clear, even to the producer yet, whether

5 they're in compliance.

6 But the audit programs being more

7 closely aligned over time will help them answer

8 that question with, I haven't been inspected and

9 I'm following the rules and I did pass this

10 audit. So it will help with some of that where

11 the buyers are getting out ahead of the farmers.

12 MS. BETTS: Okay, I think I'm going

13 to, I know there's some good discussion, but I

14 think I need to shut it down because it is noon

15 and we do have a reservation upstairs at the, I

16 think it's called the Cinnabar, up on the second

17 floor.

18 So you can take the elevators up to

19 the second floor or you can take the series of

20 escalators up to the second floor. And just tell

21 them you're with the Fruit and Vegetable

22 Industry.
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1 They have plenty of space up there so

2 if any of our guests along the outside need a

3 space, there is amply space. So please feel free

4 to do that, or go wherever. But we could like to

5 start back at 1 o'clock.

6 We've asked Samir and folks to stay

7 for any discussion for the afternoon, and they

8 need to leave by 1:30. So we are trying to stay

9 to that time schedule. So if you could be back

10 by 1 o'clock, we greatly appreciate it. And we

11 appreciate all your questions and attention.

12 Thank you, Tricia, for a great first

13 half of the day. And you can, yes, I'll be here

14 in the room. They're going to come in and do a

15 refresh, but I will be here, I have to upload

16 some more presentations and what not.

17 So don't leave purses and phones and

18 stuff like that, but certainly papers and pens

19 and things of that nature, because I'll be kind

20 of in and out. So don't leave anything of great

21 value.

22 (Off microphone comment.)
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1 MS. BETTS: Yes. Thank you, and we'll

2 see you all at 1:00.

3 (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter

4 went off the record at 12:05 p.m. and resumed at

5 1:08 p.m.)

6 MS. KNORR: Okay, thanks for coming

7 back. We have a couple people here that can only

8 stay until 1:30, both Samir and Jan, so I'd like

9 to move the Food Safety Working Group discussion

10 forward so that we can ask them any questions

11 while we still have them available.

12 So, Roland, I know that you and your

13 group have been diligently working on some draft

14 recommendations, so if you would like to share a

15 little bit about those with us I would appreciate

16 that.

17 MR. MCREYNOLDS: Thank you very much. 

18 And, you know, both our Committee Chair, Cathy

19 Burns, and our Vice Chair, Lorri Koster, were not

20 able to be at this meeting today, so I am your

21 third string committee chairperson.

22 So, you know, I think just by way of
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1 background for folks new to the Committee, you

2 know, food safety has been a top issue for this

3 Committee since 2015 when this Board was

4 reconstituted.

5 We have had recommendations over the

6 past two years on many of the things that we have

7 heard about being reported on already today,

8 audit harmonization, GAP/GHP fees, GFSI

9 recognition of the USDA program, support for

10 extension in industry to do food safety training,

11 inclusion of USDA GAPs in FDA's implementation

12 strategy, education about the value, education to

13 buyers about the value of the USDA audit program,

14 because it is, you know, friendly and useful for

15 producers, especially the small and medium sized

16 producers.

17 So there is a long, you know, sort of

18 history of engagement on FSMA and food safety in

19 general.

20 So in terms of what our Committee has

21 been working on since our last meeting, the

22 issues that we sort of tagged at our last meeting
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1 as areas of investigation for possible future new

2 recommendations were the issues of training and

3 that the training programs for FSMA, in

4 particular, that are available, the importance of

5 continuing the USDA/FDA liaison position that

6 Leanne has so ably fulfilled over the last how

7 many long years at this point. Since 2007, '06?

8 MS. SKELTON: Three months, eight

9 years.

10 MR. MCREYNOLDS: Okay.

11 (Laughter.)

12 MR. MCREYNOLDS: And then the water

13 rules, which, again, we discussed, got an updated

14 briefing on earlier.

15 So you have copies of the draft

16 statements that our Committee reviewed or

17 discussed at our last working group meeting and

18 this, you know, we sort of researched, engaged,

19 talked among ourselves, and sought out other, you

20 know, expertise to lead to the development of the

21 proposed recommendations that you've got in front

22 of you.
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1 So I will just quickly try to

2 summarize the main points here and, first,

3 looking at the training recommendation.

4 You know, the fundamental question, or

5 concern, that I think a lot of producers, you

6 know, surfaced, and have surfaced, you know, to

7 members of this Committee as time has gone along,

8 is that you've got an 8-hour PSA curriculum that

9 is the required curriculum, or that is the only

10 curriculum that's been approved so far for FDA to

11 demonstrate compliance with the education and

12 training requirement for a supervisor on your

13 farm.

14 The challenge is that it is a

15 generalized training. The challenge that we

16 particularly discussed in the Committee is that

17 it is not specific to particular commodities and

18 that -- So, therefore, it is not necessarily

19 ideal for some producers to have to spend eight

20 hours of their supervisor's time and money to go

21 to a training that isn't going to give them the

22 specific information to help them handle the
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1 particular food safety and FSMA issues with their

2 particular crops.

3 So our recommendation is, and, again,

4 this is in the context of sort of our charge as a

5 Committee, as the Fruit and Vegetable Industry

6 Advisory Committee, to make recommendations to

7 USDA about things that are within its power to

8 do.

9 And part of being within USDA's powers

10 is they are represented as part of the Produce

11 Safety Alliance. They are serving on the Produce

12 Safety Alliance.

13 Leanne is a representative, Tricia

14 attends those meetings as well, and so our intent

15 with this recommendation is to encourage USDA as

16 a part of its interaction with the Produce Safety

17 Alliance to, number one, collaborate with

18 industry to develop specific trainings that will

19 be recognized as equivalent to PSA so I don't

20 have to take a training on peaches and take a

21 training on the PSA.

22 So, you know, actually having one
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1 training that is FSMA for peaches, for example,

2 that would allow a producer to save the time and

3 money of a training that is not, not specific to

4 the concerns of their farm.

5 So equivalency, the PSA working with

6 industry to establish some equivalent training

7 types. Second, the PSA, as the question that we

8 talked about earlier, a variety of languages. We

9 feel like it's -- I am very glad to hear about

10 the progress on Spanish, you know, Hmong, and

11 various Burmese languages, and French.

12 There is a huge other range of

13 languages that is going to be important to have

14 these curriculums available in to ensure that

15 farm supervisors across the country can get

16 benefit out of this training.

17 So we want to encourage, and that

18 USDA, too, continue to engage with PSA to

19 diversify the language options and, of course, do

20 all this, you know, quickly, because farmers need

21 to get this training soon.

22 At the beginning of next year large
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1 farms will have the obligation to have this

2 supervisor, someone who has gone through this

3 training.

4 Dan, do you want to offer any further

5 comments about this particular recommendation?

6 MR. SUTTON: Thanks, Roland. I mean

7 Roland covered most of it, but, you know, I think

8 what partly was eluded to in the conversation

9 this morning was is that even though the training

10 has been rolled out in English here for a while

11 they are running into some obstacles with that

12 and as we look to expand these into different

13 languages and other things like that it's going

14 take time, but we are nearing a compliance date

15 for a large sector of our industry in six months.

16 And I will speak on behalf of the

17 industry that I am in and I represent, we're kind

18 of -- There is a push and I have sent Hispanic

19 folks to this training and they are not getting

20 the information, but it's all that is available.

21 So part of this is is we want to try

22 to get this in a very timely manner to get this
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1 rolled out and to get these curriculums a little

2 more industry-specific and language-specific so

3 that we are better prepared as an industry to

4 meet these obligations that are coming.

5 MR. MCREYNOLDS: So I know we want to

6 have discussion but we are on a tight timeframe,

7 so I am just going to continue just overviewing

8 the recommendations, if that makes sense, and we

9 can kind of do questions after or at a later part

10 of the meeting if that is what is necessary.

11 So secondly I would address your

12 attention to the USDA food safety liaison

13 position recommendation and, you know, the

14 fundamental issue here being that, you know, FDA,

15 the Food and Drug Administration, is coming up

16 with, has come up with, is in charge of enforcing

17 these rules, but it obviously directly impacts a

18 stakeholder to USDA, the fruit and vegetable

19 industry in particular.

20 And, indeed, FSMA does specifically

21 require that FDA coordinates its enforcement

22 efforts with USDA, that USDA has a role, and the
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1 role of the USDA/FDA liaison position has been

2 critical to USDA's ability to stay involved in

3 FDA's regulatory processes and guidance

4 processes, and that is crucial for our industry

5 to continue to have that designated and high

6 level, you know -- I don't know if Leanne was

7 describing it just to a few of us or to

8 everybody, but, you know, she sort of sits

9 outside of other divisions of USDA and so it is a

10 high-level pipeline into FDA's processes.

11 So we recommend the strongest possible

12 terms that this continue to happen, that the work

13 continue to happen, and that USDA and FDA

14 prioritize a continuation of this staff position

15 at least through 2022 when the current compliance

16 dates are expected.

17 And, you know, we would encourage USDA

18 to get funded by FDA to receive funding by FDA,

19 from FDA, to extend this charge. So that's the

20 liaison position recommendation.

21 Finally, we have the water

22 recommendation. As we had, you know, an
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1 extensive conversation earlier about the concerns

2 and the problems that people are running into in

3 the practical implementation or conceiving of the

4 practical implementation of the water rules.

5 Again, given that Congress has

6 authorized USDA to be involved and be coordinated

7 with in the development of rules and given that

8 FDA has come out and said, and as we heard some

9 here describe, you know, all options are on the

10 table in terms of how the water rule might be

11 reshaped, including potentially revising or

12 publishing a new regulation.

13 And our Committee's recommendation,

14 you know, based on the key points that we outline

15 in the background information, including the

16 question of are the microbial water criteria

17 valid at all or sufficiently valid, are the

18 testing frequencies scientifically valid, are the

19 processes for farms to get valid samples and get

20 sent in, all of these are scientific questions

21 that are not established right now.

22 And when you talk to water
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1 researchers, when you talk to the scientists who

2 are part of the regional centers who are charged

3 with doing this training and who have been

4 researching water quality in particular they will

5 tell you that none of these issues are

6 scientifically defined, you know, determined to

7 be the right approach, the right approaches

8 aren't known.

9 And, also, you know, we heard about

10 the fact that the laboratory testing protocol is

11 not even one that is widely used in the water

12 testing industry, so it's a major problem.

13 So based on these conditions what our

14 working group wants this Committee as a whole to

15 consider is this recommendation that this USDA

16 input on the implementation of the rule advocate

17 for the withdrawal of the current water

18 standards, to go back to the drawing board, and

19 to follow the same process that they are doing

20 with soil amendments, of actually waiting until

21 they research what the right things are to do

22 before writing rules that tell us what the right
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1 things are to do.

2 You know, that process is already

3 underway with soil amendments of animal origin. 

4 The rule recognizes the need to have a process

5 because the scientists have determined the same

6 issue exists here in water and so we would

7 strongly urge that USDA advocate for, as part of

8 its interaction with FDA, for the withdrawal of

9 the rule as it is and undertake a scientific

10 process drawing on USDA's technical resources to

11 demonstrate, okay, what should be, what is the

12 real science that we can be certain of when it

13 comes to the use of agricultural water and the

14 risks that it does or doesn't present in

15 different parts of the country.

16 So I think we've got a little time for

17 questions, to start having questions before we

18 get to our speakers, so I think our Committee

19 would be glad to field any questions. I would be

20 glad to field any questions on any of these

21 recommendations or we can move to a vote.

22 MS. HERRON: I had one. I feel like
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1 I am talking too much. This is really awesome. 

2 I am amazed at all the great work that has gone

3 behind this.

4 Two comments on the, or thoughts, I

5 had on the liaison position. Typically you are

6 going to want to just name the position instead

7 of the person because that can change and I think

8 what's going to be important is the quality of

9 the person in that position and what they would

10 entail. That was one thing I noticed.

11 And then, also, just that, you know,

12 if FDA has a mission, USDA has a mission, you see

13 that at the State level, too, with the differing

14 missions and the FDA's reliance on the States to

15 create a program that is going to be successful

16 with the State I wonder if it could also be a

17 recommendation that States follow suit with that

18 liaison role because I think there is a number of

19 States that are struggling with that, because I

20 think that's going to be critical for the success

21 of it at a State level.

22 MR. MCREYNOLDS: So I appreciate both
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1 of those points. Can you elaborate a little bit

2 on what USDA's, what we should be recommending

3 UDSA's role be in having those State liaison?

4 MS. HERRON: I don't think you can do

5 a lot to mandate or anything like that, but I

6 think with the fact that there are these

7 cooperative agreements out there, a strong

8 recommendation or advisory point would be that

9 the States also follow suit and have an advisory

10 role or liaison between the Departments of Ag

11 versus their Health Department.

12 MS. KNORR: Do we have any other

13 questions or comments from anyone at this point?

14 (No audible response.)

15 MS. KNORR: I feel like given the

16 scope of all of these recommendations, you know,

17 we should allot some time in tomorrow's agenda to

18 have a little bit more of a robust conversation

19 about all of them so that we can get all of the

20 Full Committee's questions answered and then take

21 action on them tomorrow.

22 MR. MCREYNOLDS: Terrific. Well, that
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1 concludes our report then but we'll look forward

2 to having a more in-depth conversation tomorrow.

3 MS. KNORR: Any questions or comments

4 from any of the observers? I don't know if any

5 of our FDA friends here want to chime in on any

6 of them.

7 (No audible response.)

8 MS. KNORR: No, okay. All right,

9 thank you. Thank you, seriously, for all of the

10 hard work. Clearly, a lot of it did go into

11 these recommendations and we appreciate that

12 work.

13 Next up is our Produce Consumption

14 Working Group and Christie has chaired that group

15 and we are going to do a little flip-flopping of

16 our speakers there. So Sasha Bard --

17 (Off microphone comment.)

18 MS. KNORR: Hi. Is going to be our

19 first speaker this afternoon to talk a little bit

20 about Team Nutrition. Thank you.

21 MS. BETTS: Come on up, Sasha, I'm

22 trying to get you set up here. Okay, and so you
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1 can just -- this is --

2 MS. CHAMBERLAIN: Click through with

3 the --

4 MS. BETTS: Yes. You can go up or

5 down, page up, you can go back and forth.

6 MS. CHAMBERLAIN: Can you guys see me

7 yet?

8 MS. BETTS: It's just kind of warming

9 up and it will come right up, so you're ready.

10 MS. CHAMBERLAIN: Perfect, thank you. 

11 Hi, everybody, thank you for having me here after

12 lunch. My name is Sasha Bard Chamberlain and I

13 work with the USDA Child Nutrition Programs.

14 Earlier this year I had the

15 opportunity to speak with the Subcommittee, so I

16 am excited to have the opportunity to come here

17 today and address the Full Committee.

18 What they were interested in learning

19 about was USDA's nutrition education efforts and

20 how that might impact fruit and vegetable

21 consumption in the K through 12 setting.

22 And I am definitely passionate about
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1 nutrition education. I am a registered dietician

2 by trade and before working with the USDA at the

3 national office I was a SNAP Ed Nutrition

4 Educator out in Washington State, specifically in

5 Snohomish County working with a lot of tribal

6 communities.

7 I have now been working with the USDA

8 for almost five years. My first four years was

9 at the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion,

10 and so CNPP if you are not familiar.

11 I did mostly nutrition marketing and

12 communications for My Plate, so material

13 development, outreach, and partnerships.

14 I moved over last May, so May of 2016,

15 to the Child Nutrition Programs, and am now the

16 team lead in the Nutrition Education and

17 Promotion Branch, which is known to the public as

18 Team Nutrition, and you'll learn a lot more about

19 Team Nutrition as I go through my slides.

20 I also wanted to share that I spent

21 six months at the White House as the Associate

22 Director for Let's Move in the office of First
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1 Lady Michelle Obama.

2 And in that role I managed programs

3 and partnerships, a lot of cross-agency

4 collaborations throughout the federal government

5 as well as private and public partnerships.

6 So, let's see. I might actually

7 juggle things just a little bit. All right. So

8 this slide tells you a little bit more about what

9 Team Nutrition is, and, again, it's okay if you

10 haven't heard of us.

11 Team Nutrition is an initiative of the

12 USDA child nutrition programs and we support the

13 child nutrition programs by providing resources

14 free of charge to schools, childcare centers, and

15 summer meal sites that participate in the USDA

16 programs.

17 So we develop everything from

18 curriculum to posters, digital interactive games,

19 stickers, parent handouts, you name it. So if

20 you are a school that participates in the

21 National School Lunch Program you are eligible to

22 receive our resources free of charge and many of
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1 our materials are available to the broader public

2 through our website.

3 Child Nutrition Programs you are

4 likely most familiar with are the National School

5 Lunch and School Breakfast Programs, and the

6 stats here on the slide give you an idea of their

7 scope and reach.

8 And the call-out box is a good

9 reminder that many of the meals that are provider

10 through the National School Lunch Program and

11 School Breakfast Program are provided at little

12 to no cost to the family.

13 So in Fiscal Year 2016 73 percent of

14 school lunches were free and reduced price and 85

15 percent of school breakfasts were free and

16 reduced price.

17 USDA also operates a special Milk

18 Program and a Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program. 

19 These are our two other school-based programs. 

20 So the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program would

21 likely be of interest to this group and FFVP

22 operates nationwide in elementary schools that
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1 have a high rate of free and reduced priced

2 lunches.

3 And the funding through FFVP is

4 awarded to States and it helps schools purchase

5 fresh fruits and vegetables that are used outside

6 of the typical meal time, so not during breakfast

7 and not during lunch, but typically provided as

8 snacks.

9 This, of course, expands the variety

10 of fruits and vegetables that kids are getting

11 exposed to during the school day and studies have

12 shown that children participating and schools

13 that are part of FFVP have an increased

14 consumption of fruits and vegetables.

15 So a sample school day, you think a

16 child might go to breakfast and have a banana

17 with their breakfast meal and during lunch they

18 might choose sweet potato and go to the salad

19 bar, and then in the afternoon they might be able

20 to sample blueberries as part of the FFVP snack,

21 so lots of opportunities for kids to try

22 different fruits and vegetables.
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1 USDA also operates community-based

2 programs through the child nutrition programs,

3 Child and Adult Care Food Program, CACFP, is for

4 our youngest kids in the childcare setting, and

5 then the Summer Food Service Program, which

6 hopefully you are familiar with as well, which

7 helps to fill in the gaps during the summer

8 months. So, again, you can see the reach of

9 these programs.

10 So I think, again, it's important to

11 remind everybody of the breadth of the programs

12 that child nutrition operates, but for our

13 conversation today, again, we are focusing on the

14 K through 12 settings, so mostly school lunch and

15 school breakfast.

16 Again, as most of you likely know, the

17 updates were made to meal patterns and nutrition

18 standards for our school meal programs as a

19 result of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of

20 2010, and these updates support an increase of

21 fruits and vegetables in both school lunch and

22 school breakfast.
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1 So the new policies weren't

2 implemented until School Year 2012 and 2013,

3 which means we are in our fifth year of

4 implementation now, and today over 90 percent of

5 schools report that they are successfully meeting

6 the updated nutrition standards.

7 And I know there has been some, you

8 know, things in the news, which I am happy to

9 talk about. You know, none of the announcements

10 that the Secretary made directly relate to fruits

11 and vegetables, but if you saw in the news there

12 were some updates regarding flavored milk, sodium

13 limits, and whole grains, and when we get to Q&A

14 if you want to talk more about that I am happy

15 to.

16 So how exactly are we providing more

17 fruits and vegetables in our meal programs? 

18 Under the new meal patterns the USDA requires

19 that schools offer both fruit and vegetable

20 choices at lunch.

21 And previously it was fruits and

22 vegetables as a single component, so by
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1 separating out those components we are making

2 sure that there is more variety offered.

3 Schools are now also required to offer

4 one cup of fruit or vegetable instead of a half a

5 cup at breakfast, so we increased that amount,

6 and USDA sets weekly requirements for vegetable

7 subgroups to make sure kids are being served a

8 variety of different types and colors of

9 vegetables throughout the week.

10 So by increasing variety and quantity

11 of fruits and vegetables within the program we

12 have positively impacted the amount of fruits and

13 vegetables children who participate in our

14 programs are selecting and consuming.

15 And according to the Dietary

16 Guidelines for Americans, I was looking at the

17 stats this morning, potatoes and -- Let's see,

18 potatoes and tomatoes are the most commonly

19 consumed vegetables, accounting for 21 and 18

20 percent of all vegetable consumption.

21 Lettuce and onion are the other

22 vegetables that make up more than 5 percent each
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1 of total consumption. And so as you can see

2 while those are great choices we want to make

3 sure that there is more of a variety, you know,

4 that kids are being exposed to through the school

5 meal patterns.

6 So things that we require now are dark

7 green, red, orange, beans and peas, starchy,

8 these are some of the vegetable subgroups.

9 So let's look at some of the

10 statistics. According to the CDC 80 percent of

11 schools are offering two or more vegetables at

12 lunch as a result of the updated meal patterns.

13 A study by the Harvard School of

14 Public Health shows that vegetable consumption

15 has increased by 16 percent and the same study by

16 the Harvard School of Public Health showed that

17 23 percent more students selected fruits at

18 school meals.

19 And so while students -- Let's see. 

20 While students may not be consuming more fruits,

21 if more students are selecting fruits and the

22 consumption rates are the same that were across
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1 students then we are seeing an overall increase

2 in consumption. I had to talk that one through a

3 little bit.

4 But good news, the meal patterns have

5 impacted both fruit and vegetable consumption

6 positively, which was the goal, but even though

7 this is great news we want to continue to see

8 those numbers rise. 

9 As the Dietary Guidelines show, you

10 know, kids are not meeting the fruit and

11 vegetable requirements. So children age 4 to 18

12 are not getting the required recommended amount

13 of vegetables with the lowest consumption among

14 boys 9 to 13 years and girls 14 to 18 years, and

15 only children in the 4 to 8 age group are

16 consuming the recommended amount of fruits.

17 So we still have a lot of work to do,

18 and these were the 2015 2020 Dietary Guidelines

19 that just came out.

20 So what is FNS doing to support the

21 new standards? We are doing a lot. Within my

22 division we provide training and technical
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1 assistance to child nutrition professionals to

2 enable them to prepare and serve meals that

3 appeal to children.

4 So it's not just enough to put it on

5 the menu, but we want to make sure that the staff

6 that is preparing those meals know how to make it

7 tasty and that it's something kids want to eat.

8 We also want to help children have the

9 knowledge, skills, and motivation to make healthy

10 food choices, and we do that through nutrition

11 education, which is going to be mostly what I

12 will focus on in these slides.

13 And we want to build support for

14 healthy school environments that encourage

15 nutritious choices, and we'll talk more about

16 what that school environment looks like.

17 So here is one slide. When we think

18 about the school environment, you know, it's not

19 just the food that is served at lunch and at

20 breakfast.

21 That's a piece of it, but then there

22 is other food that is available throughout the
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1 school day, so through vending machines, through

2 school parties and events, through fundraising

3 opportunities.

4 You also think about the nutrition and

5 health messages that kids receive at school. 

6 This is, you know, a good piece of where

7 nutrition education comes in.

8 And then you have got food and

9 beverage marketing. So according to a study by

10 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation 70 percent of

11 elementary and middle school students are exposed

12 to some kind of food and beverage marketing

13 through school and many of these advertisements

14 are for less-healthy products.

15 So the local wellness policy

16 regulations now make sure that any food marketing

17 to students during the school day meet consistent

18 nutrition standards.

19 And then, again, we've got physical

20 activity opportunities, recess, PE, sports, so

21 these are all inputs that are going to influence

22 a child's eating habits and physical activity
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1 habits.

2 Another way to think about the school

3 environment is to consider all the ways that kids

4 receive messages about food and physical

5 activity. So in the cafeteria, in the classroom,

6 and through school events, at home, community,

7 and through the media.

8 So in Team Nutrition we use multiple

9 communication channels and target a variety of

10 settings and audiences with our messages so that

11 we can increase the number of times and the

12 number of ways that children receive nutrition

13 messages, and the more times kids hear these

14 messages the more likely they are to act upon

15 them.

16 Another thing we strive to do is

17 ensure that we are putting out high quality

18 nutrition education materials. Research shows

19 that quality nutrition education programs include

20 some or all of the following elements, that it

21 allows children to practice new skills, that it

22 builds self-efficacy, that it includes
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1 observational learning, is interactive and

2 inquiry-based, includes positive reinforcement

3 and includes taste testing and food preparation

4 elements.

5 We also do early concept testing and

6 test our resources through focus groups

7 informative research to make sure they resonate

8 with the target audience.

9 So we are not just creating something

10 and putting it out there. We are being, you

11 know, we are looking at the latest research to

12 make sure that it is impactful and we are testing

13 it with our audiences.

14 All right, now let's jump into some of

15 the materials that we produce so you can see some

16 of them. We talked about nutrition education in

17 the classroom being one place for this.

18 So we want to make sure that nutrition

19 education is easy for schools to provide. 

20 Teachers have a lot on their plate, I think we

21 are all aware of that, so we want to make sure

22 nutrition education isn't just one more thing
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1 that they have to do, but that it helps teachers

2 meet the goals and standards that they are

3 already being held accounted for.

4 So when possible we integrate the

5 nutrition education into core subject areas, like

6 math, English, language arts, and science, and

7 this is really easy to do. We also work to align

8 our curriculums to national education standards.

9 And so even at the youngest level we

10 are able to integrate nutrition education into

11 core subjects. This slide shows a young student

12 with one of our emergent readers, and this is

13 part of the Discovery My Plate curriculum for

14 kindergarteners, and there is six emergent

15 readers offered through that curriculum.

16 So these easy-readers are common in

17 kindergarten classrooms and are characterized by

18 the repetition of simple sentences. They feature

19 kindergarten-level sight words and help students

20 build literacy skills, which in this case they

21 are learning about the five food groups and My

22 Plate, so a win-win, nutrition education
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1 literacy.

2 This shows, you know, a highlight of

3 one of the books. So illustrations are used to

4 help the children learn new vocabulary. At the

5 end of the lessons the emergent readers are sent

6 home so kids can continue practicing their

7 reading skills with their families and the

8 teachers have a large, full-size version of the

9 book in the classroom when they are reading aloud

10 to the students.

11 Serving up My Plate is another one of

12 our standards-based nutrition education

13 curriculums. It is available in three level,

14 Grades 1 and 2, Grades 3 and 4, and Grades 5 and

15 6, and each comes with these elements that are

16 listed on the slide.

17 We even have a CD of original songs

18 all about healthy eating and nutrition. So I can

19 distribute copies if you are interested.

20 We also develop a lot of garden-based

21 nutrition education curriculums. So garden-based

22 nutrition education is a great way to offer
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1 hands-on experiential learning that supports the

2 science, the math, the language arts, and the

3 health studies.

4 And a recent review of garden-based

5 nutrition interventions with kids suggest that

6 these programs have the potential to improve

7 students' vegetable intake, willingness to taste

8 a wider variety of fruits and vegetables, and

9 preferences for them.

10 It also works with adults. I started

11 gardening with my husband and now he eats way

12 more vegetables than he did when I first started

13 dating him.

14 We talked about the cafeteria being

15 another setting in the school environment where

16 there is an opportunity for nutrition education,

17 but, again, cafeterias can be a little hectic.

18 If you have been to one recently

19 during a lunchtime there is a lot of kids that

20 are coming through those doors, so this isn't the

21 setting where you are going to do a full-on

22 activity or a nutrition education lesson, but
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1 there are moments and there are opportunities to

2 engage students and reinforce nutrition and

3 health messages.

4 These are examples of some of our

5 posters. So posters and signage are an easy way

6 for schools to reinforce nutrition messages and

7 the meal standards.

8 Another great one that we see in

9 cafeterias is doing taste tests, that's a real

10 easy thing as kids are coming through the door.

11 Okay, another topic when we think

12 about cafeterias is food waste, which is why Team

13 Nutrition developed this brochure, you'll see it

14 here on the slide, that addresses the concern and

15 offers tips for school staff, parents, and

16 students to help reduce food waste at school.

17 For school nutrition professionals,

18 some like ideas of content you will find in here,

19 we encourage that they engage students in menu

20 planning and taste test new menu items.

21 We were just talking about that, it

22 was a great way to get the buy-in from the
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1 students about the new foods.

2 Cutting fruit into smaller pieces, and

3 this may not sound like a novel idea, or maybe it

4 is, but especially for the younger kids, eating a

5 whole apple or having to peel that orange is

6 going to take them a lot of time when they've got

7 a short lunch period. It's things like this that

8 will increase the consumption and help prevent

9 the waste.

10 Giving kids a choice, so using a salad

11 bar is one technique that we found gives kids a

12 wider variety of fruits and vegetables and they

13 are able to select the ones that they prefer.

14 For school administrators some tips to

15 help prevent food waste is to give students more

16 time to eat. Extending the lunch period from 20

17 to 30 minutes has been shown to reduce waste by

18 nearly one-third.

19 So we know that's a struggle, but if

20 schools can make it happen then they can help

21 with this food waste, and scheduling recess

22 before lunch.
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1 So this has also been shown to reduce

2 plate waste by as much as 30 percent. So, again,

3 it kind of makes sense, kids get to run around,

4 they work up an appetite, they come in hungry,

5 and more willing to eat a wider variety of foods

6 and try new foods.

7 Family engagement, we talked about the

8 home being an important, you know, aspect in the

9 big picture here, and so we want to make sure

10 that through our resources we are also engaging

11 the parents and the families.

12 This is -- So with each of our

13 curriculums we have at least one parent

14 engagement resource. This was with our Discover

15 My Plate curriculum and it just shows some of our

16 parent handouts that the teachers can send home

17 to let the parents know what their kids are

18 learning about in school, help the parents learn

19 about the new meal patterns, and so that they can

20 help reinforce at home as well.

21 Okay, school-wide events. So Team

22 Nutrition's Popular Events Idea booklet offers
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1 creative ideas and instructions for 20 themed

2 events on nutrition and physical activity.

3 It is designed for elementary and

4 middle schools and shows easy ways to include

5 these ideas into existing school activities and

6 holiday observances.

7 So if any of you have kids you know

8 that there is often school events, we want to

9 make sure that schools have ideas for how they

10 can make those a little bit healthier to

11 reinforce the healthy eating and the physical

12 activity.

13 There is also real life examples of

14 Team Nutrition schools across the country that

15 are in the booklet so that schools can learn from

16 each other about what is working and what they

17 have done.

18 And one of my favorite examples is

19 from El Monte School District, which is out in

20 California, and they have a bring your parents to

21 breakfast event and it's a superhero theme, so

22 it's called Superheroes Eat Breakfast, Too, and
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1 for the breakfast the parents and the kids, their

2 families, are encouraged to dress up as their

3 favorite superhero, and the school nutrition

4 staff is there dressed up as superheroes as well,

5 and they play games and win prizes and they've

6 got some physical activity stuff.

7 Of course, they all enjoy a healthy

8 breakfast together, and they get to talk to the

9 families and to the kids about why a daily

10 breakfast is important for their bodies and for

11 their academic success.

12 Through USDA's local school wellness

13 policy schools are required to engage parents,

14 students, and community members in the annual

15 development and assessment of local school

16 wellness policies.

17 So these policies guide a school

18 district's efforts and part of that is to set the

19 stage for their nutrition education. States and

20 local communities have the flexibility to develop

21 a policy that best works for them, but we, of

22 course, want to support them in those efforts,
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1 and so Team Nutrition developed a local wellness

2 policy toolkit that is available online, and a

3 lot of this is grab-and-go content that they can

4 customize for their school district of their

5 school.

6 And so examples of who you would

7 engage, and when you are, again, talking about

8 the larger community, school nurses, PE teachers,

9 the school principal, teachers, you want to have

10 buy-in on all levels and you want everybody to

11 know how they can be a part of making sure that

12 the school environment is healthy for all

13 students.

14 These are some examples of the content

15 that is provided through the digital toolkit and

16 I thought would be a good slide to end on because

17 it reminds us that we are all part of the larger

18 community that is impacting the school

19 environment for our kids across the country.

20 So hopefully this quick overview gave

21 you all a better understanding of Team Nutrition

22 and the work we do and specifically how we are
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1 supporting and increased consumption of fruits

2 and vegetables in the K through 12 setting.

3 In summary, we provide high-quality

4 nutrition education materials free of charge to

5 schools that participate in our programs and we

6 seek to address the whole environment in the

7 school setting from all angles.

8 Oh, and one last thing I wanted to

9 also say, I didn't create a slide for it, but to

10 mention that we do all this great work at the

11 national level but there is so much great work

12 happening at the local level, too, and we support

13 that work through Team Nutrition training grants.

14 And so the applications for this next

15 grant cycle are due on May 22nd, but we are

16 expected to award up to $5.6 million to State

17 agencies so that they can help train their staff,

18 help implement nutrition education efforts, and

19 so there is a lot of great ways that the local

20 States have been using this funding for a number

21 of years and we want to encourage and continue to

22 do that.
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1 So I am happy to address any questions

2 that you all have now. My colleague, Erin Healy,

3 is going to follow up and speak about Farm to

4 School Programs, so I can jump back up and answer

5 questions after her as well.

6 MS. KNORR: Anyone have any questions

7 or comments?

8 MS. BALCH: This is Christie Balch. 

9 Thanks so much for your presentation. I have a

10 couple questions.

11 So the first is do you have a rough

12 percentage of like what's the percentage eligible

13 schools that participate in Team Nutrition?

14 MS. CHAMBERLAIN: I think it's about

15 50 percent currently. So, of course, there are

16 schools that do not participate in the USDA

17 school lunch and school breakfast program --

18 MS. BALCH: Right.

19 MS. CHAMBERLAIN: -- but we are at

20 about 50 percent right now.

21 MS. BALCH: Okay.

22 MS. CHAMBERLAIN: So we could
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1 definitely use to get more awareness out there.

2 MS. BALCH: What are the barriers that

3 prevent you from being higher?

4 MS. CHAMBERLAIN: Probably, let's see,

5 I think awareness is probably one of them. I

6 think there is some States who get more education

7 funding, so they might not think that they need

8 to look for free resources.

9 But just because they have the money

10 to go buy nutrition education resources doesn't

11 mean that they are getting the quality ones, if

12 that makes sense.

13 So even the schools where funding is

14 not a barrier could still benefit from learning

15 about our resources and utilizing them.

16 MS. BALCH: Great. And then a similar

17 question for the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable

18 Program, what percent of eligible schools are a

19 part of that and then what are the barriers to

20 increasing -- I am guessing that one is more

21 funding related, but --

22 MS. CHAMBERLAIN: Right. I don't know
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1 the percent of that one but I am happy to look

2 into it and get back to you.

3 MS. BALCH: Great, thank you.

4 MS. DISOGRA: Sasha, can --

5 MS. CHAMBERLAIN: Oh, you can.

6 MS. DISOGRA: Hi, it's Lorelei DiSogra

7 --

8 MS. CHAMBERLAIN: Lorelei.

9 MS. BETTS: Lorelei, can you come up

10 to the mic, please.

11 (Off microphone comment.)

12 MS. DISOGRA: Hi. I am Lorelei

13 DiSogra from the United Fresh Produce

14 Association. It's great to see you all here and,

15 Sasha, you did a great job.

16 MS. CHAMBERLAIN: Thank you.

17 MS. DISOGRA: And, also, I should just

18 say that Sasha was our liaison at the White House

19 for like the last year on Let's Move Salad Bars

20 to Schools, so we got to work with her really

21 closely.

22 For FFVP the program is funded this
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1 year, this school year which is coming to an end,

2 at $184.5 million. Yes, so that in most States

3 that funds the absolutely highest poverty

4 elementary schools in the State.

5 In many of those States, unless the

6 school is 90 to 95 percent free and reduced,

7 there isn't enough -- you know, that would be the

8 group that would be funded. There isn't enough

9 money to fund the schools from 50 percent on up.

10 So it is funding just really a small

11 amount of the total, even the total low income

12 elementary schools that could be funded. To fund

13 all of them, the last time I did the math, would

14 scare everybody, it was about $2 billion.

15 So it's a good question, Christie. 

16 You know, the Farm Bill is -- The FFVP is funded

17 in the Farm Bill and this would be the

18 opportunity to try to increase the funding for

19 the program.

20 So if you guys want to make that

21 recommendation I strongly support you. And I

22 guess there was one other, you had one other
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1 question for FFVP, Christie?

2 MS. BALCH: Just what are the barriers

3 to increasing it?

4 MS. DISOGRA: The barriers are money. 

5 I mean, you know, in every State there is a long

6 waiting list of schools that would like, even

7 very low income schools that would like to

8 participate, so the only barrier is federal

9 funding. Thank you.

10 MS. BALCH: Thanks.

11 MS. CHAMBERLAIN: That was a

12 lifesaver, thanks, Lorelei.

13 MS. DISOGRA: I'm always here to help

14 you, Sasha.

15 MS. CHAMBERLAIN: Always. Any other

16 questions?

17 MS. KNORR: I have a quick question. 

18 What kind of marketing activities do you do to

19 help reach out to the schools and that kind of

20 thing to let them know about this program and

21 what kind of parameters -- I don't know what kind

22 of parameters USDA has on allowable marketing
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1 activities in terms of, you know, increasing

2 knowledge about the programs, but I think that

3 that's been kind of a consistent theme across

4 various programs in USDA.

5 You have wonderful programs but people

6 just don't know about them. So I am curious not

7 just about your particular program but in general

8 what are the marketing practices that USDA is

9 using to help increase awareness of these

10 wonderful resources for people?

11 MS. CHAMBERLAIN: Yes, thanks for that

12 question. You know, at the USDA level as far as,

13 you know, what's allowable and what's not I

14 probably shouldn't speak that, I can follow up

15 with you, but I can just say for our program we

16 definitely leverage a lot of different channels.

17 So social media is one that is great

18 and that's free, so we have a Team Nutrition

19 Twitter account and we share messages that way,

20 promote our resources that way.

21 A lot of what we do to get the word

22 out is conferences. So Team Nutrition
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1 specifically attends a lot of conferences

2 throughout the year, so we've got, you know, the

3 Food Nutrition Conference, which is the big one

4 with registered dieticians, we've got the School

5 Nutrition Association, the Society or Nutrition

6 Education Behavior, we go to PTA, we are going to

7 the School Nurses Association, we were accepted

8 to speak at that one at the end of June.

9 So we try to get into -- And Shape

10 America is another one that is big with physical

11 education PE educators. So we try to hit, you

12 know, not just in the nutrition bubble, but try

13 to hit outside that kind of primary bubble as

14 well so that we are talking to folks in all

15 sectors.

16 So I think that's a primary channel. 

17 So through the expo, you know, exhibit hall

18 booth, and through presentations that we give at

19 various conferences is a great way to promote.

20 MS. KNORR: So aside from the PTA is

21 there any way that you reach out to parents to

22 help let them know about these programs? I think
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1 that's one avenue to, you know, encourage schools

2 to participate in these things.

3 MS. CHAMBERLAIN: Yes, that's a great

4 question. At the national office, you know, I

5 think it would be hard-pressed to say that we are

6 direct to parents.

7 You know, I'm trying to think of

8 examples where that might be the case. We have

9 strong relationships at the national office child

10 nutrition programs with the regional USDA offices

11 and so we have liaisons at the regional offices

12 who are then working with the States and it kind

13 of filters down that way.

14 You know, is there room for

15 improvement in more direct communication? 

16 Probably, but that's kind of how the setup is

17 right now.

18 MS. KNORR: Great, thanks so much. 

19 Anybody else have any other questions?

20 MR. VAZQUEZ: Hi, Sasha, this is Jorge

21 Vazquez with Latin Specialties.

22 MS. CHAMBERLAIN: Hi.
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1 MR. VAZQUEZ: Thank you for your

2 wonderful presentation. Do you have any

3 statistics on the average cost of a school meal

4 and what percentage of that would go for fresh

5 fruits and vegetables?

6 MS. CHAMBERLAIN: Yes, percentage that

7 goes to fresh fruit and vegetables I don't know,

8 and I was just looking at the allowed

9 reimbursement rates for lunches earlier. I'm

10 trying to see if I have it in front of me.

11 I don't have it in front of me so I

12 will have to follow up with you on that, but it's

13 not a lot. It's, you know, we're talking under

14 $3 for lunch and that's for a free meal, and that

15 would be, the reimbursement I think is $2-

16 something.

17 I can follow up with specifics and

18 share with the group, but, you know, it's a small

19 budget.

20 MS. KOVACS: From my former job

21 working in Farm to School the number that we had

22 school nutrition directors telling us was that
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1 they had about 20 to 30 cents per meal for the

2 side produce, which was the fresh produce in our

3 conversation, and that was even a little bit

4 high, that was if they are pushing it a little

5 bit.

6 (Off microphone comment.)

7 MS. CHAMBERLAIN: Yes, and I don't

8 think at the -- Go ahead, Lorelei.

9 (Off microphone comments.)

10 MS. DISOGRA: Yes, so it's pretty

11 consistent that schools budget between 20 and 30

12 cents for each serving of the fruit and

13 vegetable.

14 So, you know, right now they have to

15 do a fruit and a vegetable and that amount

16 increases as the kids, you know, go from

17 elementary, middle school, and high school.

18 So right now most schools budget

19 someplace between 20 and 30 cents. So since they

20 have to serve both the fruit and a vegetable and

21 they are supposed to be doubling consumption, you

22 know, you have to times that by two, yes.
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1 MS. KOVACS: Thanks.

2 MS. CHAMBERLAIN: Yes, and so, of

3 course, we don't regulate how they divide out

4 their budget at the national level, so that's

5 kind of up to the local school district and

6 school to kind of figure out how they are going

7 to divide out their budget, but that's great

8 insights.

9 And Erin probably has some great

10 information, too, about how local foods can help

11 with their fruit and vegetable budget. Okay, I

12 will pass the mic to Erin, but, again, if there

13 is any other question I'm happy to pop back up

14 after.

15 MS. KNORR: Fantastic. Thank you so

16 much, Sasha.

17 MS. CHAMBERLAIN: Thank you all.

18 MS. KNORR: And next up we have Erin

19 Healy to speak to us a little bit about the Farm

20 to School Programs.

21 MS. HEALY: Thank you. Can everyone

22 hear me? Yes. My name is Erin. I am really new
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1 to USDA. I have only been here about 2-1/2

2 months, I am the new Director of the Office of

3 Community Food Systems.

4 My background is mostly non-profit

5 work. I was a Farm to School manager at one

6 point, but public health, international, domestic

7 work, and then I moved into the food realm about

8 nine years ago and worked on school gardens, Farm

9 to School, food justice, and local food system

10 and food policy change work, but I am here today

11 to talk about Farm to School.

12 So our work in our office has three

13 main pillars. So we have a grant program, we

14 provide training and technical assistance, and

15 then we also do research and data collection, so

16 I will talk to you about those three pillars of

17 work.

18 And just to give some background,

19 because I do get a lot of questions about what's

20 going to happen to our program. So our program

21 is protected, it's a congressional mandate, it

22 was through the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of
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1 2010, that we get $5 million every year to give

2 out in grants from Congress and that has to be

3 spread equally across the nation, across urban

4 and rural areas, and goes mostly to schools for

5 planning, implementation, and training around

6 Farm to School.

7 So I have mostly pictures in my

8 presentation because this work lends itself

9 really well to great pictures. But Farm to

10 School includes lots of different activities,

11 it's not just incorporating more local foods in

12 the school lunch program, it's anything that goes

13 along with the education around where the food

14 comes from.

15 So the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable

16 Program, for instance, providing snacks, that

17 could be a locally-procured snack, a farmer

18 coming in to talk to kids in the classroom about

19 where their food comes from or what their daily

20 work is like, getting kids to try new types of

21 produce and foods through school gardening

22 programs, nutrition education in the classroom,
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1 going out to visit farms.

2 So this is a great picture because it

3 is showing the corn, you know, in its natural

4 state, it's not already shucked, so that's just a

5 fun activity for kids to start understanding the

6 natural state of their foods.

7 And these are actual school lunch

8 photographs, and you can see how nice they look

9 and when you are able to really incorporate some

10 fresh, locally harvested produce it really makes

11 a difference with what the meal looks like and

12 how appealing it is for kids.

13 As I mentioned, school gardens is a

14 big component of our work, so getting kids

15 outside, getting them excited about where their

16 food comes from, them understanding the full life

17 cycle of a plant, being able to see what they

18 grew in the garden actually go into the salad

19 bar.

20 Research has shown that this really

21 increases consumption in kids' willingness to try

22 new foods and be excited about eating healthy.
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1 And Sasha mentioned in one of her

2 slides the need to cut fruits up, especially for

3 smaller kids, so any type of tactile hands-on

4 education and activities around local produce and

5 getting them to just handle the food a little bit

6 more and be more comfortable with different types

7 of fruits and vegetables helps.

8 So this is an example of kids going

9 out to visit a farm and seeing where their food

10 comes from and talking to the farmer.

11 So we did some research, and I will go

12 into more depth into our census, but some of the

13 benefits that school food service directors have

14 mentioned is that kids are more willing to try

15 new foods when there is a Farm to School program

16 in place.

17 There is an increased consumption of

18 fruits and vegetables and there is an improved

19 knowledge and awareness regarding where their

20 food comes from.

21 And there have been some studies that

22 have even linked school garden programs, for
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1 instance, to higher test scores and improved

2 behavior in the classroom.

3 Summer is a great opportunity for more

4 Farm to School efforts, and this is something

5 where we have been trying to work on and focus on

6 more in the last couple of years.

7 As you can imagine most of the country

8 summer is when especially produce harvest is at

9 its best and that's when school is out, so we are

10 trying to incorporate or really weave Farm to

11 School efforts into summer meal distribution as

12 well.

13 And this is also a great opportunity

14 for local producers to have an increased market

15 opportunity and I think, again, exposing kids at

16 younger ages has increased markets throughout the

17 life cycle of consumers.

18 So the same goes for pre-K, we are

19 trying to do more to get Farm to School rolled

20 all the way down into pre-K settings. Studies,

21 again, have shown that the earlier you introduce

22 young children to new foods the more willing they
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1 are to try different foods and the more willing

2 they are to eat healthy diets throughout their

3 life.

4 One of our priority areas, especially

5 in our grant program, is working with tribal

6 communities. So they are a priority applicant in

7 our grant program, but tribal communities have a

8 lot of questions about incorporating local foods

9 as it pertains to their particular culture and

10 their geography, so we do a lot of training and

11 technical assistance around these types of

12 questions.

13 We have a toolkit and we have a fact

14 sheet on our website. It's particularly

15 important for these communities to be able to

16 incorporate this very culturally-appropriate

17 food, such as bison and wild rice and certain

18 traditional and heirloom varieties of corn and

19 squash, and that is all allowed and encouraged.

20 And Farm to School is very important

21 for these communities because it's also a way to

22 connect kids with their history, their culture,
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1 the way ancestors used to eat, and passing on the

2 knowledge of how to preserve those varieties of

3 fruits and vegetables, how to prepare those types

4 of foods.

5 So I mentioned earlier research is one

6 main pillar of our work and we do this in a few

7 different ways. We conducted a Farm to School

8 census in 2013 and then again in 2015 and the

9 census went out to school food service directors

10 but through the State agency and questions were

11 answered at the district level.

12 We got a great response rate, 72

13 percent actually responded to the survey, and of

14 that 72 percent 42 percent said they participated

15 in some type of Farm to School activity.

16 So, again, that includes school

17 garden, nutrition education, farmers coming in,

18 going out to the farms, actually increasing local

19 food in the school meals, and that doesn't just

20 have to be produce, it could be meat, it could be

21 seafood, it could be grains.

22 So the census of all of the people
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1 that responded, it represented over 5000

2 districts, 42,000 schools, and over 23 million

3 children.

4 It was self-reported data, but school

5 food service directors did say that in total they

6 spent over $789 million on local products, and

7 that was in 2013.

8 Over 7000 school gardens were counted,

9 but we actually think that's an underestimate,

10 it's probably many more, so we are thinking about

11 gearing up for our next census, which will

12 probably happen in 2019, but we are thinking

13 through a lot of the research collection and

14 making sure that we are going to be able to

15 collect the most accurate data, because we are

16 always asked these difficult questions about

17 percentages and numbers and it's just very

18 challenging to get some of that data because each

19 school district is different and they are not

20 standardized in terms of the type of information

21 they are collecting and how they are collecting

22 it.
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1 But we did find -- So going back to

2 the benefits listed by the survey respondents,

3 and this was really interesting because, again,

4 we hear a lot of about food waste and we hear the

5 myths that increasing fruit and vegetables at

6 school lunches increases food waste, but actually

7 with Farm to School we found that when a school

8 has a program in place food waste is actually

9 reduced.

10 So 18 percent said that they noticed

11 a reduction in food waste when they started

12 incorporating local and fresh foods.

13 Lower school program meal costs, this

14 is another myth, oh, it will be more expensive if

15 we use local food. Not necessarily. If it is in

16 season a lot of times it's even cheaper than

17 imported produce.

18 So these are some of the things that

19 we do in our training and technical assistance is

20 to help those doing procurement to understand

21 that these are myths and that's not always true

22 and we help them understand the regulations and
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1 how to source locally within the regulations.

2 I always like to include this slide

3 because I think it's really important to show how

4 much interest and support and buy-in there is for

5 Farm to School.

6 This is an easy win for everyone. 

7 It's one of the feel good stories that is never

8 contentious. I mean everyone, no matter what

9 side they are coming from, loves Farm to School.

10 The schools are buying into it, the

11 schools want to be doing more. It's just the

12 question of there is limited support, there is

13 limited funding available.

14 So we only have $5 million a year to

15 give out in grants for the entire country, and

16 there is an overwhelming demand for these

17 programs.

18 There is also an overwhelming demand

19 for more data. this is a fairly new topic,

20 probably in the last ten years. Our office is

21 only five years old and data collection,

22 especially nationwide, it's a huge lift and we
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1 only have five staff, half of whom are new at our

2 national office, and we have seven regional leads

3 out in the different regional offices.

4 So it's a lot of work and we do need

5 additional support from stakeholders to be doing

6 the data collection and to be providing support

7 to stakeholders around Farm to School.

8 So this data does not include our

9 current grant cycle, which we just finished

10 selection but it's not yet ready to be announced,

11 it's not yet approved.

12 So this was just from the beginning of

13 Farm to School from this office and the grant

14 program up until the last fiscal year. So we

15 funded over 300 projects in all States, D.C., and

16 the Virgin Islands, we actually will be funding

17 Puerto Rico this year as well, and we distributed

18 $20 million in funding.

19 But just to give you an indication of

20 the demand versus supply, there were over 1300

21 applications asking for almost $100 million. So

22 we're really only able to meet 21 percent of the
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1 demand for this grant program.

2 And we fund planning grants, we fund

3 training and implementation. We fund schools,

4 non-profits, State agencies, tribal groups, and

5 producers.

6 And I should mention to you all that

7 producers are among the lowest rates of

8 applications that we receive. I don't know if

9 they just aren't aware that they are eligible for

10 these grants or if they are being funneled to

11 other parts of USDA for grants, but that is an

12 applicant poll we are always looking to increase,

13 to spread the word about our RFA among producers.

14 So in this current fiscal year we

15 received 1609 applications requesting $117

16 million and, again, we only are able to give out

17 $5 million.

18 These are some examples of some

19 programs we have funded. So this is Edible

20 Schoolyard in New Orleans. Has anyone heard of

21 Edible Schoolyard?

22 (No audible response.)
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1 MS. HEALY: Okay. So it was started

2 by a chef in the Bay Area and it now has

3 affiliates in different cities throughout the

4 country and she basically turned a blighted

5 schoolyard into a huge, beautiful, edible garden

6 that incorporated that produce into the school

7 lunch program.

8 So now they are trying to do this in

9 different cities. This is in New Orleans so they

10 want to grant from us to basically roll out

11 something very similar in New Orleans at a school

12 that had a high rate of free and reduced price

13 lunches.

14 So they incorporated school gardens

15 and they had both students, teachers, and parents

16 working in the garden to incorporate that produce

17 into the school meals.

18 This is an example from Vermont, they

19 were a grantee, and you can see this is a really

20 beautiful school lunch, it's very colorful, lots

21 of variety, and this is incorporating a lot of

22 local produce.
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1 So I think a lot of times school lunch

2 gets a really bad rep and I like to show pictures

3 like this because I would pay for this, I would

4 totally eat this lunch. I think it looks great.

5 And so there is a lot of food service

6 directors that just need that extra support to

7 incorporate some local and fresh produce into the

8 school lunches, but they are very interested,

9 they are very committed to this, to making this

10 food look appealing, and students really react to

11 this.

12 So they incorporated -- They actually

13 hired a Farm to School coordinator and they

14 incorporated not only an increase in local food

15 procurement but they weaved it throughout the

16 curricula in the school as well.

17 And this is a final example, this was

18 a planning grantee in New Jersey, and we offer

19 planning grants because we understand that it's

20 very difficult to suddenly jump into

21 implementation and sometimes schools or non22 profits need some extra help and some staff time
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1 to be freed up to do the research of finding

2 local foods and finding producers and

3 distributors, to developing new recipes, to

4 talking to different parts of the administration

5 within a school to make sure that this works.

6 And we prioritize grants that work

7 with multiple schools or districts or even multi8 State grants. We definitely want to have the

9 most reach as possible for a grant program.

10 So the third pillar of our work as I

11 mentioned is training and technical assistance

12 and we do this in a variety of ways.

13 We have a lot of toolkits and fact

14 sheets on our website. We receive a lot of

15 questions, especially as it pertains to USDA

16 regulations in the school meal program, so these

17 fact sheets are directly responding to the

18 majority or the most common questions that we

19 receive.

20 We do in-person trainings, especially

21 around local procurement. We have a Farm to

22 School planning toolkit that has a 11 modules and
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1 walks grantees or stakeholders through an entire

2 process of how to start a Farm to School Program.

3 We also do webinars, so we have a

4 whole series of webinars that are available on

5 our website of well.

6 And if you are curious about who we

7 are we are five people at the national office and

8 we have seven regional leads located throughout

9 the country and they are really the boots on the

10 ground, they are going to the local conferences

11 and workshops and trainings and meetings and they

12 are doing a lot of the connecting and the

13 partnership building and training and technical

14 assistance.

15 We have an e-newsletter if you are

16 interested, it's called The Dirt, and our website

17 is USDA.gov/farmtoschool, and as I mentioned

18 earlier we always need help promoting our

19 resources and our RFA among produce groups

20 specifically. That's it. Thank you.

21 (Applause.)

22 MS. KNORR: Thank you, Erin. Does
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1 anybody have any questions or comments for Erin?

2 MS. HERRON: Sorry, me again, Johanna

3 Herron. I have a strong appreciation for

4 everything you just spoke about. My past life

5 was Farm to School, I ran the State program in

6 Alaska and my Master's degree looked at using

7 Farm to School as a health promotion strategy,

8 and so I have nothing but complete support for

9 that as a strategy, I think it does amazing

10 things.

11 My question is when you are

12 sustaining, and I understand that part of the

13 sustaining of the Farm to School grant program is

14 that a school would receive money and build a

15 relationship, and so when the funds are gone they

16 hopefully can maintain those relationships, but

17 often you do find that they struggle with after

18 the money is gone they can't continue forward

19 with some of that because it is a challenge, they

20 are more likely to sustain it if they are plugged

21 into the State programs that are around that have

22 been around longer than the USDA grant program,
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1 and just like NFSN, for example, the National

2 Farm to School Network, is great for having

3 evaluation success with those kinds of programs,

4 is there any goal or thought about having an

5 accreditation system or possibly using the census

6 data, I know a lot of censuses are used to

7 determine, especially crop funds for a State, for

8 example, is there any goal to moving that

9 direction with Farm to School?

10 MS. HEALY: Not that I know of but I

11 will mention that State agencies were a priority

12 in our last funding cycle and we will continue to

13 keep that in the next funding cycle because we

14 understood that that helped with capacity

15 building and sustainability.

16 So that will continue to be a strategy

17 but I don't have any information beyond that.

18 MR. NICHOLSON: A question, this is

19 Mark Nicholson. The Child Nutrition Re20 Authorization that is coming up is --

21 MS. HEALY: I don't think there are

22 any plans for it any time soon. That would
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1 probably be at least a year or two, I think,

2 before we hear anything about that. So we have

3 just been on a continuing resolution this whole

4 time.

5 MR. NICHOLSON: Are these programs

6 managed by that or impacted by that?

7 MS. HEALY: We are under the Child

8 Nutrition Re-Authorization, but because we are a

9 congressionally mandated program we will continue

10 to receive the same budget every year.

11 We will continue to be able to do our

12 work. If there are drastic changes in the future

13 I don't know how that might impact our work, but

14 I don't think we are going to see that come to

15 Congress for a while.

16 I think there may be some impacts

17 within the next Farm Bill, we are waiting to see

18 what might happen with that.

19 MS. KNORR: Any others with questions

20 or comments?

21 (No audible response.)

22 MS. HEALY: Thank you.
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1 MS. KNORR: Thank you. I'd like to

2 turn it over a little bit to Christie for a few

3 moments to share a little bit, the working group

4 on Produce Consumption did get together since our

5 last meeting. So, Christie, if you can bring us

6 up to speed on the conversations there.

7 MS. BALCH: Sure. So in February --

8 And if anyone wants to see notes from any of

9 these past meetings I am happy to share them. In

10 February we heard from Dave Tuckwiller of AMS's

11 Commodity Procurement Program and that is where

12 we learned about how AMS buys a lot of produce

13 for schools and a lot of other places as well and

14 that USDA is looking for more produce suppliers.

15 And we also learned about DoD's Fresh

16 Produce Program and we learned a little bit about

17 the USDA's Unprocessed Fresh Fruit and Vegetable

18 pilot program.

19 So we might want to discuss those a

20 little bit more, but I don't know, I don't have

21 that many details on them. I'm not sure if I am

22 the right person, so I will just kind of run
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1 through what we have done and then we can discuss

2 it a little bit more.

3 And we also heard from Cathy, who is

4 on our Committee, about PMA's Eat Brighter

5 campaign, which is what they use Sesame Street

6 characters to market produce.

7 So that was our February meeting and

8 I think we came out that with not really any

9 recommendation ideas but just learned a lot,

10 which was great.

11 And then in March we heard from Sasha

12 Bard Chamberlain, who is from FNS, and a lot of

13 it was what we just heard about Team Nutrition

14 and all the resources that they provide for free

15 to schools that participate in the National

16 School Lunch Program, and then I think just

17 adding on to that more today about the Fresh

18 Fruit and Vegetable Program.

19 So those are the things that we are

20 sort of up to speed on, but some of the

21 recommendation ideas that have been floating

22 around are things like how to help facilitate
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1 more outreach about some of the existing

2 resources, like Team Nutrition. That's all I

3 have for now.

4 MS. KNORR: Yes, thank you, Christie. 

5 I think here is definitely some opportunity. I

6 don't know if the group wants to take just a

7 couple of minutes now or if we want to set some

8 time aside tomorrow to come together and discuss,

9 you know, what kind of a recommendation can we

10 actually formulate.

11 Just talking with my co-chair, you

12 know, certainly putting together some kind of a

13 recommendation in support of Farm to School or

14 even a statement of the importance of Farm to

15 School with its clear impacts on increasing

16 consumption of fruits and vegetables could also

17 be an opportunity there.

18 So I am going to ask for feedback from

19 all of you whether you want to tackle that, you

20 know, just briefly now or just wait until

21 tomorrow to really get into the nitty-gritty.

22 MS. BALCH: I did want to just ask a
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1 kind of clarifying question. So we heard the

2 comment about how the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable

3 Program is funded through the Farm Bill and my

4 understanding is that this Committee can't really

5 make recommendations about that, it's more like

6 what the USDA staff can implement. Can you

7 clarify that a little bit more?

8 MS. KNORR: I think that's a question

9 for Melissa and Marlene.

10 (Laughter.)

11 MS. BAILEY: Thanks, Beth. This is

12 Melissa. Yes, I mean I think what we were

13 focusing on in the Subcommittee and, you know, in

14 terms of advisory committees in general, it's

15 often the easiest path to affect change is the

16 things that we have under our direct purview,

17 right, and at the Department those are going to

18 be things we can do often administratively to

19 improve program efficiency.

20 One conversation that came up with

21 respect to this Subcommittee, or Working Group,

22 was, you know, Ag Marketing Service has a pretty
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1 big reach when it comes to stakeholders and doing

2 outreach and whether some of the work that FNS

3 has done on Team Nutrition could be pushed out

4 through the fact that we have this huge

5 stakeholder base and maybe they are just not

6 aware, as you heard, of the information, only 50

7 percent of those eligible are participating.

8 So that's something -- Again, that's

9 sort of like the path of least resistance, things

10 we can get done and deliver on. When it comes to

11 Farm Bill things it's just a more challenging

12 landscape because they are not within our direct

13 control as the Department.

14 I mean as you know that is Congress is

15 developing kind of what their priorities might be

16 and certainly that is influenced by the landscape

17 we operate in, but a much more difficult path.

18 MR. NICHOLSON: Mark Nicholson here. 

19 But it's in our purview to emphasize areas that

20 we as an industry want to see supported, correct,

21 so that if we find these areas of great interest

22 to the industry we can do a supportive, positive
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1 statement on that and encourage AMS to find ways

2 to support those programs, is that reasonable?

3 MS. BAILEY: I think it's reasonable. 

4 I think that it just needs to come with the

5 understanding that, you know, we can carry that

6 message as through the charter up through our

7 Under Secretary for marketing regulatory programs

8 and I think it does help to understand where the

9 industry is on many of these programs, which are

10 set up through, of course, the Farm Bill and the

11 budget process, but at the same time an

12 understanding that we don't always directly

13 control the outcomes of that process, that

14 sometimes it does take Congress to weigh in and

15 we are not them, so -- Yes?

16 MS. KNORR: I do think given that, you

17 know, our recommendations go to the Secretary it

18 is very important for us to let the Secretary

19 know what we feel is of value to the industry

20 regardless of what that, you know, implies for

21 the Farm Bill.

22 If we let the Secretary know that
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1 these kinds of programs and these efforts have a

2 real impact on farmers and, you know, the

3 businesses that operate with fruits and

4 vegetables in our industry, I think that that's

5 something that we are obligated to do.

6 We have been invited here to share our

7 opinions and, you know, for better or worse, we

8 can offer them. So I think it's important for us

9 to take advantage of doing that.

10 And, of course, we understand that the

11 Farm Bill process is a long, complicated process,

12 but if we don't let the Secretary know what's

13 important to us as an industry then there is, you

14 know, no chance that those are going to be

15 supported long term. So that's just my two cents

16 on that.

17 So right now it's about 20 after 2, so

18 we are a little bit ahead of schedule. I don't

19 know how people are feeling, if you all want to

20 take a quick break, maybe.

21 I was going to suggest getting a cup

22 of coffee, but, you know, maybe running upstairs
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1 to get a cup of coffee, or taking a break, or if

2 you want to just power through and, you know,

3 maybe end a little bit earlier today. Thoughts?

4 Break, all right. Okay, let's say

5 about -- let's say 15 minutes.

6 (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter

7 went off the record at 2:23 p.m. and resumed at

8 2:52 p.m.)

9 MS. KNORR: Okay, so the next working

10 committee that we're going to hear from is the

11 Research and Grants working group. And Roland,

12 once again, is the Chairperson of that. Roland

13 is, you know --

14 (Off microphone comment.)

15 MS. KNORR: So Roland, I don't know if

16 you want to update folks on your conversations

17 before we get into our speakers, or if you want

18 us to just plow ahead with our speakers.

19 MR. MCREYNOLDS: Yes, maybe it might

20 be helpful just in terms of setting stage for our

21 speakers. So yes, so the research grants and

22 infrastructure working group, you know, has been
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1 again a part of our sort of portfolio of working

2 groups since 2015 when we reconstituted this

3 committee.

4 And our past, you know, our previous

5 recommendations that came out of this working

6 group and past and accepted by the full committee

7 in the past have been around two issues. One has

8 been the support and investment in public

9 breeding for regionally adapted plant varieties.

10 I mean, we just, we know how critical

11 that is for growers across the country to have

12 fruit and vegetable varieties that are adapted to

13 the climate conditions and pest pressures that

14 exist in specific regions.

15 And you know, that this is critical

16 for the continued growth of the fruit and

17 vegetable industry that public plant breeding

18 programs that are focused on regional varieties,

19 you know, continue to thrive.

20 There's been a lot of atrophy of the

21 university systems' capacity to, you know, the

22 number of plant breeders is going down, the
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1 number of plant breeding programs is going down.

2 I don't know if you just saw, I mean, I can't

3 tell, does UC Davis have a strawberry breeding

4 program or not? You know, maybe they do, maybe

5 they only do if they need to sue an exhibit

6 faculty member.

7 So you know, but the point is it's a

8 primary area of concern for our industry. So

9 we've made recommendations on this in the past. 

10 The other has been around enhanced coordination

11 of the USDA and interagency response to exotic

12 plant pest problems.

13 And really, our key recommendation has

14 been having one point of contact, one agency

15 within APHIS in all likelihood that is

16 responsible for coordinating across multiple

17 agencies the response to novel plant pests when

18 they're developed.

19 And you know, our cautionary tale that

20 drove this area of recommendation was of course

21 citrus greening and just the very long, long lag

22 time between identifying it's a problem and
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1 marshaling resources to actually address it.

2 And now, you know, that horse is out

3 of the barn by a long shot, and our Florida

4 citrus industry has been devastated by that. So

5 that is the areas that have been the subject of

6 our recommendations in the past.

7 The issue of fruit and vegetable

8 marketing infrastructure has been added to our

9 portfolio really from the perspective that, you

10 know, it's also a grant. Often there are grant

11 funding opportunities for enhancing fruit and

12 vegetable distribution infrastructure, and so

13 that made sense for us to incorporate into our

14 work plan as well.

15 So we got presentations in our working

16 group meeting, and I don't remember the dates and

17 I don't have the minutes in front of me. But we

18 had a conference call where we got, we had two

19 conference calls to set an agenda for speakers

20 and then when we actually got some speakers from

21 AFIS who gave us an update, it's pretty similar

22 to the update that we received back in our
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1 September meeting in terms of the status of the

2 response to our recommendations as far as

3 enhancing coordination and again, accountability

4 for responding to that.

5 But we wanted to have it in terms of

6 presenting information to the full committee

7 here, we wanted to try to get speakers to address

8 again, the plant breeding priorities and that's

9 why we've got Dr. Kaleikau. Thank you, all

10 right, good, here to speak with us to give us an

11 update on funding priorities with respect to

12 plant breeding, genetics, and genomics.

13 And then here from both USDA Rural

14 Development and AMS on varieties of

15 infrastructure grants and funding available

16 through USDA programs to promote market

17 infrastructure.

18 So I'm looking forward to our

19 speakers, and we'll look forward to your comments

20 back about any next areas of response that are

21 committee can continue to look at.

22 MS. KNORR: Thank you for setting the
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1 stage for us, Roland. And so our first speaker

2 on these topics is Ed Kaleikau from NIFA. Thank

3 you so much for joining us this afternoon.

4 MR. KALEIKAU: Well, thank you for

5 having me today. It's a real pleasure to be

6 here. Again, my name is Ed Kaleikau, I'm a

7 National Program Leader with USDA's National

8 Institute of Food and Agriculture.

9 Been with the Agency for a long, long

10 time, back when it was CSRS, CSRES, now NIFA. So

11 I've seen the evolution over time. I've seen

12 some of the changes that have occurred in the

13 science, particularly in the area of genomics,

14 genetics, and breeding which is my background.

15 So really what I wanted to try to

16 accomplish today was to just give the group a

17 broad brush stroke of what NIFA is doing in the

18 area of genomics, genetics, and breeding with

19 some emphasis more on the breeding component

20 since that's really what this group is interested

21 in.

22 A lot of the work that I'm going to
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1 present, again, is just a brush stroke, but it

2 represents work that we do collegially with other

3 national program leaders there at NIFA that

4 include my colleagues Shing Kwok, Liang-Shiou

5 Lin, Jeff Steiner, Mat Ngouajio who runs our

6 organic research and extension initiative, as

7 well as Tom Bewick which I hope many of you know

8 runs our specialty crops research initiative.

9 And if he hasn't spoken to this group,

10 I think it would be good to have Tom come in and

11 address the group.

12 So again, I'm going to give you a

13 broad brush stroke of what NIFA does. So we

14 have, within NIFA there are four institutes,

15 there are the bio energy, climate, and

16 environment food production and sustainability

17 which is the one that I'm in.

18 Each of the institutes has their own

19 deputy director. Another one is the Youth Family

20 and Community, and the International Programs

21 Centers. And there's also Food Safety and

22 Nutrition which didn't make it up on the slide
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1 because it's covered by some other words up

2 there.

3 But you know, within NIFA we have

4 about 300 employees. It's led by Sonny Ramaswamy

5 who has been our director for the last three to

6 four years. He's been quite effective, very

7 dynamic speaker. And he's really pushed us, I

8 think, to the next level on where we need to be.

9 So just briefly, what NIFA's mission

10 and vision is, we consider ourselves USDA's

11 primary extramural agency to advance food and

12 agricultural sciences. So we don't conduct

13 research as I think you know. We fund research,

14 and we consider ourselves to be a science agency.

15 And our national program leaders and

16 staff, we lead and fund a variety of different

17 initiatives. And over the last I would say five

18 years, we've really heard from our stakeholders

19 that plant breeding is a priority for the exact

20 same reasons that were spoken a little bit

21 earlier, the downsizing of plant breeding

22 programs at land grant universities, the fewer
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1 plant breeders that are coming out of programs

2 because there aren't programs to train them.

3 So we have tried to get our programs

4 aligned with what our stakeholders believe are

5 important. So we fund initiatives that ensure

6 the long term viability of agriculture. We

7 support research, education, and extension

8 activities.

9 We partner with institutions across

10 the US and globally. One of our major partners

11 of course is the land grant university system. 

12 We also provide support for, work with other

13 universities, colleges, governments.

14 One of our main government research

15 agencies is the agricultural research service

16 which is a real good coordinating opportunity for

17 our, to work within their strategic goals. We

18 work with other governments, private, and non19 profit organizations. We're a $1.5 billion

20 agency. But our major strength we see is really

21 connecting partnerships.

22 Okay, what do we do? NIFA provides
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1 competitive grants. We provide support for

2 basic, from the very fundamental research to

3 applied research in the plant breeding area. We

4 really see our niche as focusing on the

5 translational transfer of information from the

6 basic sciences into application, into the

7 development of cultivars that growers can use,

8 farmers can grow.

9 And so that's where we see our niche.

10 There are other agencies that do more at the

11 front end work as I call it, the more basic work.

12 DOE, the Department of Energy, National Science

13 Foundation, we work with them as well, jointly.

14 So we integrate, we fund projects and

15 integrate research education and extension

16 functions. We also provide support for capacity

17 grants. And so those are distributed funds by

18 formula at the land grant universities, schools

19 of veterinary medicine, and other partners to

20 maintain the capacity to conduct research and

21 extension.

22 Twenty five percent of those funds go
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1 to multi-state research committees, and I'll talk

2 a little bit more, give you a couple examples of

3 how we're targeting, or how the capacity funds

4 are being used to support plant breeding.

5 And then finally, we also have

6 programs and non-competitive grants which are

7 directed by Congress and were designated to

8 specific institutions.

9 So we cover many topics. I think

10 you're familiar with it, we cover advanced

11 technologies, education, we have an animal

12 breeding, animal health, animal production which

13 is really very similar to what we're doing in our

14 plant sciences programs as well.

15 We cover work in the environment,

16 climate, business economics, farming, and

17 ranching. There are other topics on food

18 science, natural resources, health, people,

19 international. We try to work across our

20 institutes where we see it feasible, able to do

21 that.

22 But today I want to focus on that last
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1 one, plants and specifically plant breeding. So

2 we have a number of funding programs that can

3 make awards in plant breeding. I'll go over

4 that.

5 We feel that our stakeholders are very

6 important. They're the ones that help drive what

7 priorities we have set within our programs. Of

8 course, one of our limits is the limitation in

9 funding that we have.

10 Many of our competitive programs can

11 only fund in some cases five percent of the

12 awards, others are ten, fifteen percent. I would

13 say on average 15 percent. So you know, we build

14 up a lot of, there's a lot of momentum out there,

15 there's a lot of research capacity to get the

16 work done, but the funding isn't there to support

17 it.

18 Many of our success stories in plant

19 breeding are typically funded by a combination of

20 funding sources. So we don't say it's just NIFA,

21 of course not. I just said we don't have enough

22 funding to do it all. We work with other
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1 agencies, DOE, NSF, and so forth, but we try to

2 target our money in areas that can meet our

3 mission goals.

4 So here is basically an outline of

5 what the portfolio, of how the portfolio is

6 developed. We believe that we're addressing

7 regional, national, and global needs, and that

8 primarily it must be in alignment with the 2014

9 Farm Bill, it must be in alignment with the USDA

10 RE Action Plan, it must be in alignment with our

11 internal NIFA strategic plan. And I'll show you

12 on the next slide what those priorities are.

13 And then again I said we work closely

14 with USDA ARS, particularly in the plant breeding

15 area because of the USDA ARS laboratories that

16 are working in genetic resources, genomics, and

17 genetic improvement.

18 So we believe our investments are

19 responsive to stakeholder critical needs. We

20 work hard to ensure that one of the areas that

21 we're trying to build on is trying to decrease

22 the time by which a variety is released. And
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1 there are certain ways and methods that that can

2 be done.

3 So we support various innovative

4 breeding methods, we support work on data mining

5 from existing databases, we try to develop

6 bioinformatic tools. We support knowledge in

7 molecular and biological process because it all

8 feeds into the plant breeding process.

9 But ultimately, our goals are to

10 improve the production efficiency, yield

11 sustainability, resilience, helpfulness, product

12 quality, and value for US agricultural plants.

13 So this is the basic structure that we

14 build our priorities on. It goes by the Farm

15 Bill, 2014 Farm Bill, priority area and plant

16 health, and production of plant products. It had

17 seven areas that we wanted to try to target.

18 Again, there's limited funding to get

19 all of this done, but we have I think been very

20 successful in plant genome structure and

21 function. Probably ten years ago we emphasized

22 that component quite a bit, and it continued on.
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1 We have now moved more into probably

2 sub-priority three which is conventional

3 breeding. We're focused more on cultivar and

4 breed development within our competitive programs

5 which we weren't doing prior to this.

6 We focus on work that targets

7 selection theory, applied quantitative genetics,

8 breeding for improved food quality, and so forth. 

9 And then there are some other areas that are

10 targeted. But the main one is conventional

11 breeding for cultivar and breed development.

12 They have to align under the REE

13 action plan. I think all of you are aware that,

14 so REE is the Research, Education, and Economics

15 action plan. We assure that all of our

16 priorities fall under those sub little categories

17 there.

18 And then it must align under the

19 strategic plan goal one. So for NIFA. So

20 throughout the year we worked together as a

21 collaborative group to try to identify the

22 priorities within a given program area when it's
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1 developed.

2 So here is just an example of what

3 we're currently doing in plant breeding. It

4 covers everything from applied plant breeding to

5 phenomics, high throughput phenotyping,

6 development of new technologies. It focuses on

7 developing varieties that improve, that show

8 improved resilience to climate change, drought,

9 extreme weather, so forth.

10 And then we also do a lot of work with

11 international agencies now. Again, stretching

12 our investments, leveraging what other groups can

13 do. We have on in the international wheat yield

14 partnership which we just initiated this year,

15 and that one focuses on breakthrough enabling

16 technologies such as gene editing and unmanned

17 aerial vehicles development of hybrid wheat.

18 So we're trying to break through on

19 some of, take advantage of the basic knowledge

20 that's been discovered over the years and

21 incorporated into our applied programs.

22 I'm not sure if you can see that very
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1 well, but this is an example of an AFRI project

2 on national serial germplasm genotyping. It's

3 one of our large, multi-investigator, multi4 institutional grants. It was a $25 million

5 project, it involved over 50 institutions

6 including ARS.

7 May of the land grant universities

8 that are involved in wheat and barley breeding,

9 they were able to release over 80 varieties in

10 germplasm lines from the coordination of this

11 group. They were able to train over 100 students

12 through their plant breeding training network.

13 So we were trying to target these

14 areas where stakeholders said we need to do a

15 better job at. And so by what we're finding is

16 that by providing funding in these, in this kind

17 of research, I think it's reinvigorating perhaps

18 administrations at the land grant universities

19 would say there is a place for plant breeding to

20 get additional funding from.

21 And so it's not a lot, but it's a good

22 start. Again, and this is just a brush stroke. 
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1 We have special research grants program in potato

2 breeding research which works with state,

3 federal, industry resources to accelerate the

4 development of superior performing varieties that

5 produce greater benefits to the potato industry.

6 We support multi state research

7 projects that bring together teams of

8 investigators that include the agriculture

9 experiment stations at land grant universities to

10 solve really complex problems.

11 So this is, you know, self-initiated

12 within the land grant system of experiment

13 stations. So examples are corn breeding research

14 where they're looking to facilitate multi15 location testing of breeding techniques.

16 Now, these multi state projects do not

17 necessarily fund research, but they help to

18 coordinate the research. And by better

19 coordination of the research, then the

20 researchers can come into our competitive grants

21 programs and other programs at NSF and DOE and so

22 forth.
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1 Over I would say the last five years

2 we're starting to invest a little bit more into

3 database resources for crop genetics, genomics,

4 and breeding. The major players in that area

5 have always been NSF and DOE.

6 And so we're beginning to see that the

7 land grant system, the researchers would like to

8 see more of our resources perhaps targeted in

9 databases, particularly computational informatics

10 to tease out that information and use it for

11 breeding.

12 And then of course there's a specialty

13 crops research initiative that addresses critical

14 needs for the specialty crop industry. Tom

15 Bewick is our lead on this, and it was

16 authorized, initially authorized in the 2008 Farm

17 Bill.

18 There is a specific priority within

19 that competitive program on research and plant

20 breeding, genetics, and genomics to improve crop

21 characteristics, and there's a list of

22 characteristics that have been targeted.
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1 Since 2012, SCRI has funded 31

2 projects. And I believe it's about 35 million

3 have gone into specifically research and plant

4 breeding, genetics, and genomics. Or of these 31

5 projects, they contained some component that's

6 related to breeding.

7 So a good example there is the

8 rosaceae breeding coordinated agricultural

9 project where they're looking at combining

10 disease resistance and horticultural quality and

11 new rosaceous cultivars. So again, it's bringing

12 the community of researchers involved in apple,

13 which are the rosaceae family, apple, blackberry,

14 peach, pear, rose, strawberry, sweet cherry, and

15 tart.

16 And they're working together and

17 sharing resources, building a database, using the

18 most modern genomic and genetic tools in order to

19 develop new varieties that are disease resistant

20 and market essential for horticultural quality.

21 It involves over 25 collaborators

22 across North America. It also includes
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1 international researchers in Europe and

2 Australia. And through that sort of partnership

3 and funding that has been provided by NIFA and

4 many others, they're beginning to see a real I

5 think resurgence in this area of breeding,

6 particularly for these crops here.

7 So just a few potential future areas

8 of research. We see that there are still even

9 more enabling technologies that are coming out. 

10 I had mentioned genome editing as one of them

11 where specific defined genetic changes can be

12 made, and it can be used to breed for nutritive

13 foods for human health benefits, crops that are

14 more tolerant to adverse environmental

15 conditions.

16 There's a lot of emphasis being shown

17 in remote sensing, unmanned aerial vehicles to

18 monitor traits in field plots to better generate

19 more germplasm testing and accelerate their

20 breeding schedule and improvement.

21 And then NIFA initiated a new

22 initiative called FACIT which is the Food and
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1 Agriculture Cyber Informatics and Tools

2 initiative to again begin looking at big data,

3 having its impact within the breeding programs

4 that we're currently supporting.

5 So again, that's just a real brief

6 brush stroke of what we're doing. We're focusing

7 on sort of high throughput phenotyping and

8 genotyping technologies. We're supporting

9 training and workforce development of breeders,

10 we are supporting multi state coordination

11 projects as well as special grant projects.

12 And with that, I think I'll go ahead

13 and stop. I would be happy to take some

14 questions.

15 MS. KNORR: Does anybody have any

16 questions for Mr. Kaleikau?

17 MR. MCREYNOLDS: Doctor, thank you

18 very much for the presentation. I was wondering,

19 we sort of in our committee have sort of randomly

20 kind of dug through RFAs and RFA announcements to

21 kind of calculate dollars. Do you have, like,

22 current dollars maybe for the plant health RFAs
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1 to sort of give an illustration of the trend of

2 dollars that are being spent on breeding programs

3 through various NIFA tracks?

4 MR. KALEIKAU: Yes, the funding that

5 is going into plant breeding and genetics has

6 been going up over the last three years. There

7 are reports that we have to provide to Congress

8 who are asking those exact same questions like

9 how are we redirecting funds to better support

10 plant breeding.

11 So we are doing that. In the AFRI

12 program, those who can remember, we supported

13 really big projects, the CAP projects. These are

14 multi, multi-million dollar. We now understand

15 that that may, that some of that funding could be

16 redirected to say smaller grants for single

17 investigators or smaller groups to work.

18 So I think we're finding that balance

19 between having large projects, small projects,

20 and the very large CAT projects will be fewer in

21 the coming years. And more of that will be

22 probably directed to smaller size projects.
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1 MR. MCREYNOLDS: So there are, you

2 know, reports that have been shared with

3 Congress. I mean, I guess, you know, is there

4 information like that with the dollar amounts

5 just that we can sort of see these trend lines,

6 you know, the data itself?

7 MR. KALEIKAU: Yes.

8 MR. MCREYNOLDS: Terrific. We would

9 appreciate that if we could be --

10 (Simultaneous speaking.)

11 MR. KALEIKAU: So these reports are

12 given to the secretary who then reports out on

13 behalf of the Agency to Congress.

14 MR. MCREYNOLDS: Okay. So maybe that

15 would be something we can get our hands on.

16 MS. BETTS: Absolutely. You can send

17 them to me if that's public information. This is

18 Marlene.

19 MR. KALEIKAU: Okay.

20 MS. BETTS: And I can share it with,

21 at least with the working group, and then they

22 can determine how to go forward from there.
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1 MR. KALEIKAU: Yes, I'll check with

2 our folks first and then --

3 MS. BETTS: Right, exactly. Okay,

4 thank you.

5 MR. KALEIKAU: -- we'll do that.

6 MR. YANDA: Doctor, this group has

7 spent time the last couple of years, a lot of

8 time discussing the citrus problem in Florida. 

9 Wonder if you could give us a very brief overview

10 of where you see that today. Do you see any

11 other threats on the horizon anywhere near the

12 scope of that?

13 MR. KALEIKAU: That is definitely on

14 the radar screen. There's been a lot of

15 investment in that area. Tom Bewick has been

16 leading that for us. And actually, he would be

17 the best person to address where that's at right

18 now.

19 MS. KNORR: Other questions or

20 comments? Okay, thank you very much.

21 MR. KALEIKAU: All right, thank you.

22 MS. KNORR: Okay, next we're going to
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1 be joined by Arthur Neal and his team at AMS. 

2 And they're going to take a slightly different

3 format than normal, they're going to join us here

4 at the table and just share what's -- unless you

5 want to --

6 (Off microphone comments.)

7 MS. KNORR: Okay, fantastic.

8 MR. NEAL: Well, good afternoon,

9 everybody.

10 MS. KNORR: But we need a mic.

11 MR. NEAL: Oh, they can't hear?

12 MS. KNORR: Yes, we need the mic for

13 the -- does this mic work?

14 MR. NEAL: We'll sing a duet or a

15 quartet, whatever. Yes, yes. Can you hear us

16 okay on the mic?

17 (Off microphone comments.)

18 MR. NEAL: But I only sing for money

19 now. So we want to say thank you for the

20 invitation to be before you today. We are the

21 four musketeers. And but seriously though, we

22 come to you because we've heard that there was a
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1 conversation you guys would like to have about

2 infrastructure and ways that USDA can support

3 infrastructure development.

4 So I'm Arthur, Arthur Neal, the Deputy

5 Administrator for the Transportation Marketing

6 Program which is in the Agriculture Marketing

7 Service. I've got Ken Keck here with me who's my

8 Director for Marketing Services in our program. 

9 Closer to the mic. And we've got Andy

10 Jermolowicz here from Rural Development. And

11 we've got Ron Batcher here who's our architect in

12 our Marketing Services Division.

13 So we felt that it was best for us to

14 address you collectively than individual agencies

15 because that's how we're kind of working

16 nowadays. We're working more collectively and

17 collaboratively versus individually.

18 We recognize that there are a lot of

19 issues that arise across the country, and we can

20 better address those issues together than apart.

21 So what I guess we would like to go is first kind

22 of hear from you, for those who kind of wanted to
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1 hear from us, what were some of the challenges

2 that you would like for us to address.

3 As we share with you what we have

4 available, we can kind of tailor our responses to

5 make sure that it meets your need. We want this

6 conversation to be active, not us talking to you.

7 We want to have an active dialogue.

8 We know that you've talked to our

9 grants division I think earlier, and they shared

10 with you about our specialty crop block grant and

11 farmer's market and local food promotion program,

12 and those programs don't necessarily meet your

13 need.

14 But we've got some other services that

15 we provide that can be supportive, and Rural

16 Development does as well, that's why Andy's here.

17 So without further ado, we would just like to

18 hear from you some of the thoughts that you have

19 about infrastructure challenges.

20 MR. JANIS: Well, I think I'll lead

21 off. I'm Michael Janis, I'm with the San

22 Francisco Wholesale Produce Market. And Arthur
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1 and your team, we really appreciate you being

2 here. Let me just see if I can move this a

3 little bit.

4 And in the working group, while the

5 discussion focused mostly on wholesale market

6 infrastructure, I think it expanded really into

7 infrastructure within the fruits and vegetable

8 industry from farming level through distribution,

9 all the way through the markets, be it wholesale

10 markets, be it retail markets, be it food hubs.

11 And I will speak from, again a way of

12 teeing it up, from a wholesale market standpoint.

13 As many of you know, many of the wholesale

14 markets were of this era were built in the late

15 '50s, early '60s where a lot of land uses

16 changed, where markets moved from urban areas to

17 outside those deep urban areas.

18 And many of the markets in the country

19 like ours in San Francisco are very, still very,

20 very viable. Businesses are continuing to grow.

21 Probably our biggest challenge is we don't have

22 enough space, yet we have aging infrastructure.
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1 And that infrastructure is aging, and

2 there's demand for the space. So many of us in

3 the country are very engaged in rebuilding our

4 markets or expanding our markets, and we seem to

5 be all sort of reinventing the wheel.

6 We're all doing this independently,

7 many of these projects are significant dollars. 

8 Ours for example is about $150 million project. 

9 As we all know, Hunts Point is that times how

10 many points over.

11 And so we find ourselves all sort of

12 independently within either our cities or our

13 regions working very, very independently, sort of

14 learning to be developers, learning about food

15 infrastructure. And the question we keep raising

16 is is there a way that perhaps through USDA there

17 are some resources that can help us through these

18 journeys together through best practices,

19 learning, thinking about the markets more as a

20 national food resource.

21 So with that then, I think on the

22 committee level, spreading the conversation
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1 beyond the wholesale markets to that broader

2 fruit and vegetable distribution chain.

3 MR. NEAL: Thank you for that. Andy,

4 you want to start off?

5 MR. JERMOLOWICZ: I'll let you.

6 MR. NEAL: Okay.

7 MR. JERMOLOWICZ: Okay, no. I'm from

8 rural development, and we work very closely with

9 Arthur and his team, and Tricia over there for

10 trying to collaborate more. We're basically a

11 program delivery agency. We are 47 state

12 offices, 400 area offices.

13 So one of our strengths in terms of

14 delivery is the connection of people. We have

15 staff in national office who look at more policy

16 type issues, and maybe some national programs. 

17 But our strength is in your communities.

18 So we have that our limitation was

19 going to be here as on some of the terminal

20 markets, some of the urban markets, that we're

21 being by law, by statute we don't work in. We

22 work in rural communities.
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1 So I think by definition our largest

2 community is cities and towns of 50,000 or less

3 which, you know, may seem small but we've had, I

4 think we've always done a lot of fruit and

5 vegetable work, but we probably didn't really

6 start tracking it until the 2008 Farm Bill where

7 it became, the USDA got a challenge to support

8 local and regional food systems.

9 And so we actually had that as a set

10 aside in some of our programs. So that's when we

11 started taking, doing some accounting. And I

12 think, Tricia, correct me if I'm wrong.

13 I think RD's number for this past

14 fiscal year was over 350 projects, but the more

15 important piece of well over $150 million of

16 investment into, may not be all exclusively fruit

17 and vegetable infrastructure or businesses, but a

18 sizable chunk of our program dollars have been

19 going into communities to support the fruit and

20 vegetable food infrastructure, value chain

21 development.

22 We've worked closely with Arthur's
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1 group on developing our background information on

2 food hubs. We put out that series where we're

3 trying to do more of an education piece, a

4 resource piece for people across the country.

5 One of our more innovative things was

6 last year we again collaborated with the value

7 chain coordinators. So we've got a few dollars

8 that we identified some regions across the

9 country where we have an individual on the ground

10 kind of working with that local regional team to,

11 you know, it's all food system based.

12 Okay, and again, different areas are

13 going to have different needs. Some of them have

14 more, are far ahead of the curve, some are

15 developing. So really what I'm here is to tell

16 you we have a portfolio I think the rural

17 development overall portfolio is $220 billion, we

18 would be the equivalent of a mid-sized bank.

19 We have an array of probably between

20 30 and 40 different programs basically probably

21 starting from our community facilities program

22 which can support, that would be with the
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1 municipality or a local government to support

2 essential community infrastructure which again

3 is, use your imagination.

4 But where it's relevant here is we've

5 done things with a lot of farmers markets, so we

6 can actually do some of the infrastructure. We

7 can actually do the bricks-and-mortar for and

8 provide the financing for a farmers market.

9 The programs that are probably more

10 relevant are on our business program side. We

11 start with our business and industry guaranteed

12 loan which is essentially we work with a bank and

13 a project, but USDA can come in there and

14 guarantee that loan and that can be, you know,

15 pretty much for any for profit type business.

16 And we've done there, again we've done

17 food hubs, we've done aggregation centers, we've

18 done processing centers, we've done grocery

19 stores. So again, we have a wide range of

20 projects that we can support.

21 We have a program that we very near

22 and dear to our hearts. It's called Value Added
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1 Producer Grant. It actually works with the

2 agricultural producers or co-ops or producer

3 groups that assist people from taking, just from

4 being just supplying, like, being a commodity

5 supplier to taking whether it is turning tomatoes

6 into ketchup, apples into juice, whatever it is,

7 we can provide the planning and working capital

8 to take that in.

9 There is a portion of that program,

10 it's referred to as mid-tier value chains where

11 we try to support the value chain that we're

12 looking to support that center with or taking on

13 a group of wheat producers who are aggregating

14 and maybe doing some processing, you know,

15 milling the flour, maybe making pizza dough or

16 something and then selling into a much more

17 lucrative retail market.

18 So there's a lot of little pieces

19 there that we do. We've got, we don't have one

20 program that will probably address many of your

21 needs. We've got a lot of programs. And the

22 challenge, that's what I'm here for too, is to
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1 help you maybe navigate our array, our portfolio

2 of programs to see where you can plug in for some

3 financing.

4 MR. NEAL: Thanks, Andy. So one of

5 the, for a wholesale market -- oh, Tricia?

6 MS. KOVACS: I just wanted to

7 highlight one thing, Andy, about the B&I loan

8 guarantees. You talked about the programs in

9 rural development are almost all for rural

10 communities.

11 But there is sort of an exception in

12 the B&I loan guarantee where some of the money,

13 you can get some of those loan guarantees if

14 you're working in underserved communities and if

15 you have a farm benefit or community economic

16 development benefit. So there are some that can

17 do urban projects if they meet those criteria.

18 MR. JERMOLOWICZ: Yes, and I was just

19 trying not to hog all of Arthur's time. I can

20 just go on forever. But there is a, that came in

21 in the 2008 Farm Bill, but there's an exception.

22 Well, I shouldn't say exception. There's an
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1 opportunity to use the business and industry

2 guarantee loan program in an urban area if it is

3 supporting a local and regional food system.

4 It's usually addressing a food

5 insecurity issue. It gets a little complicated,

6 this is something we can, we would be happy to

7 follow up on. We can do a webinar, we can do

8 whatever you want to, if there's interest in that

9 to bring them on.

10 I should also mention, since you

11 brought it up, Tricia, the Value Added Producer

12 Grant program is not subject to the rule of

13 definition and is subject to the are you a

14 producer.

15 So if you are doing hydroponic in the

16 City of Chicago, or you're doing something there

17 where you are meeting USDA's definition of

18 producer, you are eligible for that program. And

19 since they gave me a little bit of extra time

20 here, we are also in rule business.

21 We deliver USDA's renewal energy

22 programs. And so that can run the gamut where on
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1 the one end we're doing advanced bio fuel,

2 renewal chemical things. These are major, non3 corn based ethanol type next generation non4 petroleum based fuels, that's one aspect of it.

5 But we also have a Renewable Energy

6 for America program we refer to as REAP, or

7 Section 9007. This is for energy efficiency,

8 energy improvements. It can be used to do some

9 energy generations so we've used it to put on

10 solar arrays in places, sometimes anaerobic

11 digester.

12 But the big use of it is, again, it's

13 for ag producers and rural, small businesses. 

14 But the examples for the fruit and vegetable or

15 the food system industry are endless. We've seen

16 solar panels put on greenhouses, they can use it

17 to, if you've got a facility, you need to upgrade

18 your heating HVAC system, you're looking to do on

19 a greenhouse, you're looking to upgrade the fans,

20 more efficient fans.

21 Again, eligible purpose. I had a good

22 one, I dropped it. But just there's just a
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1 number of -- oh, you're doing, you have it there,

2 instead of fluorescent or incandescent lighting,

3 you know, replace all your stuff with LED

4 lighting.

5 From a production side, if they're

6 looking to more efficient irrigation equipment,

7 all these things are eligible. And again, it's

8 for ag producers and real small businesses. But

9 again, the ag producer, if you're in an urban

10 area, you can meet that definition and you would

11 be eligible for REAP.

12 MR. NEAL: Thanks, Tricia. I was

13 about to bring him back up to clarify that too. 

14 So on our side of the house, ag marketing, as we

15 stated earlier, we've already talked to some of

16 our grants folks and we don't have a lot.

17 None of our grants can be used at AMS

18 for building. For our farmers market and local

19 food promotion program, we can support the

20 purchasing of equipment, but a lot of those

21 projects are focused on moving locally sourced

22 product into local markets.
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1 However we've got in our marketing

2 services division a plethora of activities and

3 support programs that we offer, and I'm going to

4 bring Ken up to share those with you.

5 MR. KECK: So our friend in San

6 Francisco, you mentioned capacities and perhaps

7 redundancies that might be out there. So I just

8 wanted to mention a project that we worked on in

9 the last couple of years looking at some of these

10 potential redundancies as the -- has anyone

11 worked closely with the Philadelphia Wholesale

12 Produce Market?

13 Okay, so essentially with kind of the

14 food hub craze and the food hub building craze

15 kind of going on in the last ten years or so, we

16 wanted to take a look at whether existing

17 wholesale and terminal markets were handling

18 locally identified product already, and could

19 capacity within existing markets serve the

20 purpose of the aggregation purpose and the

21 wholesale purpose that food hubs might otherwise

22 serve.
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1 So in conjunction with market news, we

2 got up to the Philadelphia Wholesale Market and a

3 partner there on site to try to identify today

4 what essentially is moving through that market,

5 whether they are necessarily valuing the local

6 designation or not.

7 Any guesses on a percentage of a total

8 year's volume that moves through that market? 

9 Just defined as essentially the five surrounding

10 states. So I'll go ahead and -- what was that?

11 (Off microphone comments.)

12 MR. KECK: So it was at 11 percent. 

13 The management of that market of several years

14 ago wanted to present itself as the source for

15 local, for restaurants, for grocery, et cetera.

16 But our study found that there was an

17 extreme disconnect between the producers that

18 were supplying the market thinking they weren't

19 going to get premium pricing, or their local

20 designation wasn't going to be valued, and then

21 over on the market side, the wholesale folks

22 thinking that the farmers weren't going to supply
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1 their best stuff to the market.

2 So we presented this study to the

3 Philadelphia Wholesale Market Management, and

4 we're ready, willing, and able to take a look at

5 these kinds of questions in the infrastructure

6 and capacity world.

7 Now as Arthur said, we don't have a

8 lot of money to throw at if you've got crumbling

9 sidewalks and buildings and roofs and so forth,

10 but we can certainly help study some of these

11 capacity issues.

12 Speaking of buildings and sidewalks

13 and so forth, so Ron Batcher I know, our San

14 Francisco got to know maybe a little bit out at

15 the NAPM meeting.

16 So we hope to re-engage our

17 architectural services with the terminal and

18 wholesale market community because he's been, or

19 this function has been concentrating on more the

20 local and regional, but certainly ready, willing,

21 and able to get back into as was historically the

22 case into the terminal and wholesale markets.
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1 But Ron, I don't know if you have any

2 thoughts from that meeting. Was it a wild bunch

3 out there?

4 MR. BATCHER: It was good.

5 MR. KECK: Okay, what happens in San

6 Francisco stays in San Francisco. But thank you

7 very much for the opportunity.

8 MR. NEAL: So one of the things that

9 we also do, we try to look at innovations that

10 are current. In the past, I guess our program

11 used to be called Wholesale and Alternative

12 Market Development.

13 And so there was a rich relationship

14 between AMS and the wholesale marketing community

15 for a number of years where we used to go in and

16 do feasibility assessments, do site assessments

17 and things of that nature.

18 All of that is still possible. So we

19 may not be able to play the full financing role

20 in helping markets expand, but we can certainly

21 play a role to help alleviate some of the costs.

22 The other part of it is that we love
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1 to engage in problem solving. We love coming

2 together with our stakeholders to think through

3 how can we help you solve this problem. So the

4 reality is that there are other types of groups

5 financing projects across the country, not all

6 federal. Some of them philanthropic.

7 However, there are always caveats to

8 things, there are goals that they're trying to

9 fulfill. How does your operation meet those

10 goals. How do you fit. It may not be the whole

11 operation, it may be a component of your

12 operation.

13 Thinking through strategies to access

14 different pots of money, you know, we love to do

15 that. That's why RD is here as well, because

16 they have different components. So local is a

17 part of the Farm Bill, Farm Bill, the 2014 Farm

18 Bill. That's what some of our programs fund.

19 The reality, the issue that we're

20 looking at with Philadelphia Wholesale Market, we

21 were trying to figure out how do you take

22 advantage of the local label because we know that
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1 you're moving some product.

2 I know San Francisco is moving

3 product. I'm not sure who else here is moving

4 local product. But there are programs to support

5 your efforts to move that locally sourced product

6 into local markets that can help you gain access

7 to some infrastructure compliments such as

8 refrigeration, such as lighting and things like

9 that such as IT systems that help you track your

10 product and develop your business procedures more

11 effectively.

12 We would love to sit down and talk

13 about how we can help you think through those

14 challenges. There's another thing that we love

15 to do because we don't fully understand all of

16 the challenges that you have, we would love to

17 talk to you on a more regular basis.

18 When you have these types of issues

19 that pop up, just sharing them so that we can be

20 aware of them and engage other people across USDA

21 and other federal agencies. One of the things

22 we're going to be doing pretty soon is engaging
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1 the Small Business Administration so that we can

2 promote their programs to our stakeholders

3 because people may not be aware of them.

4 So if we become more learned in what

5 they have to offer, we can share them with you as

6 well. So when we talk to them, we'll be thinking

7 about that wholesale market need to expand their

8 infrastructure because their resources can be

9 brought to bear to support that effort.

10 MS. KNORR: Okay, does anybody have

11 any further questions or comments?

12 MS. HERRON: This is Johanna. I know

13 that Farm to School a year ago I want to say

14 created this great funding resource that kind of

15 walked you through if you were a state agency. 

16 Do you have it with you?

17 Anyway, I'm just wondering because I

18 know that not all of the grant programs you

19 referenced were in that resource. But is there

20 any sort of one stop shop where you could be like

21 I'm a farmer, these are the ones that apply to

22 me, that kind of thing?
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1 MS. KOVACS: So in your packet you

2 have this one which is a cross agency, all the

3 programs they talked about and more from those

4 two agencies are also listed on here.

5 This one is USDA programs in the local

6 food supply chain, specifically. And it's

7 organized by where in that supply chain you are.

8 So from land conservation to production to

9 processing, aggregation, distribution, and

10 markets. And then there's a section for research

11 education and technical assistance for producers

12 down at the bottom.

13 It's color coded by which agency those

14 different programs live in. And we will email it

15 out afterwards. Yes, we can email it out

16 afterwards and it's clickable, so you can get

17 directly to the program pages to learn more about

18 those.

19 The one you referenced about FNS is

20 organized by who you are and whether you can get

21 those grants for Farm to School. We can send

22 that one out too. It's a little, it's helpful to
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1 look at if you're a non-profit, you qualify for

2 these, you're eligible to apply.

3 And we have talked about in my little

4 working group with local and regional food

5 systems, doing a hybrid which is essentially all

6 the USDA local food programs organized not by

7 where in the supply chain but by what kind of

8 entity you are. So stay tuned, we will be

9 working on something like that.

10 (Off microphone comments.)

11 MS. KOVACS: Yes, so also this website

12 at the bottom here is AMS.USDA.gov/localfood. On

13 that site we also have the local food compass map

14 which is basically a map of the United States

15 where we have put several different things.

16 One is food systems assets. So their

17 meet processors, farm to school sites, farmers

18 markets and food hubs, things that come out of

19 the voluntary local food directories that the AMS

20 team there works on.

21 So that's there, and you can kind of

22 see what's happening in your area. And also it
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1 lists projects and programs that are funded

2 through USDA programs, many of which are here,

3 the grant program specifically, and some that are

4 even with other agencies that are relevant to

5 local and regional food systems.

6 So you can do that by state, you can

7 also look at tribal zones, you can look at

8 congressional districts, you can sort of mix and

9 match it in different ways.

10 I use it frequently if someone calls

11 me looking for local resources to see what's

12 happening, who's active there, what funding they

13 have, and what kinds of projects they're working

14 on. So that is also, you find that through the

15 same website. Thanks.

16 MR. MCREYNOLDS: Thanks again very

17 much for this presentation and for this great

18 handout. And I did note several of the programs

19 that you mentioned that are listed on here,

20 particularly, you know, business industry,

21 guaranteed loans, community facilities grants,

22 cooperative development grants, business
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1 development grants, value added producer grants,

2 which it's my understanding from taking a look at

3 other people's analyses are things that are

4 getting zeroed out in the proposed budget, the

5 President's skinny budget.

6 And so I was hoping that you could,

7 you know, obviously the actual budget is going to

8 be coming out soon. But that seems to be sort of

9 potentially ripping some pretty big holes in this

10 support effort.

11 MR. NEAL: That is proposed in the

12 President's budget. Budget hearings will start,

13 we'll all find out what's going to happen in due

14 season. Until then, we're going to continue to

15 operate as we have been.

16 You know, we've got missions to meet,

17 programs to deliver. And that's what we're

18 primarily focused on. So until we hear clearly

19 what's going to happen, we're operating from the

20 standpoint that these programs are still in play.

21 MR. JERMOLOWICZ: And I, you know,

22 again speaking from a profit agency that I'm not
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1 sure I'll have a job next year, right now we were

2 very happy with what Congress returned for us for

3 the 2017 full year CR, all the programs that you

4 referenced, all the programs that have been

5 proposed at zero were fully funded.

6 We took no CHIMP or recision on any of

7 it. So you know, whether I've got a -- you smack

8 me if I'm standing out of the parameters of what

9 I can say. But no, we were pleased with what,

10 and we kind of took it as maybe a little signal

11 from the Hill that, you know, we got your back.

12 MS. KNORR: Anyone else with questions

13 or comments? Thank you very much, gentlemen.

14 MS. KOVACS: I just wanted, while we

15 have a second here in between things, I chatted

16 with Ed briefly. Another resource on plant

17 breeding research that I just wanted to mention

18 is the Foundation for Food and Agriculture

19 Research which was also in the Farm Bill.

20 It partners with USDA and with

21 industry on research that is relevant to industry

22 needs. Those projects are funded half by an
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1 industry partner, or a partner of any kind, and

2 half by FFAR. So that's worth looking at. I

3 don't know a lot, but I do know that they do some

4 research in produce.

5 MS. KNORR: Thank you. So Roland, I

6 don't know if you all have any draft

7 recommendations at this point to share or what

8 the status is.

9 MR. MCREYNOLDS: Yes, we had not

10 formed particular recommendations, you know,

11 really been more in a fact finding mode. I mean,

12 I do think this issue of the upcoming budget and

13 the importance of the Secretary, you know, the

14 importance of explaining to the Secretary the

15 importance of these programs to our industry

16 might be something that we want to consider given

17 that, I mean, it was certainly good news that the

18 Congressional budget maintained a level and even

19 increased funding for some of these programs in

20 the current year budget.

21 But you know, the, again that's, this

22 is halfway through it. I mean, they've already
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1 spent the money anyway, right, to some extent. 

2 So for next year, it does seem like this could be

3 a significant issue and concern.

4 So I would, you know, suggest that if

5 it would be the group's pleasure, perhaps our

6 working group could work on something brief that

7 we could bring for consideration tomorrow if that

8 might be something that we would want to --

9 because obviously the time is now to get a

10 recommendation out on negotiations for next

11 year's budget, and particularly since we don't

12 know if we're going to meet again. So that would

13 be one reason perhaps for us to have a

14 recommendation in this area.

15 MS. HERRON: One thing often that gets

16 considered is your level of success at dispensing

17 your funds. I'm not familiar with -- yes, could

18 you speak to that?

19 (Off microphone comments.)

20 MS. HERRON: Yes, because I know, yes,

21 do you get rid of all of the funds you have

22 available, or is there some leftover?
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1 MR. JERMOLOWICZ: We, on an annual

2 basis, get rid of everything. The majority of

3 the programs that I spoke about we refer to as

4 being oversubscribed where that, you know, demand

5 greatly exceeds the supply of dollars. So we are

6 getting every dollar out the door.

7 MR. NEAL: And that's the same for

8 marketing services programs. For the farmers

9 market and local food promotion program we had

10 $26 million last year. We had a request for $200

11 million. So we got all of it out the door.

12 MR. JERMOLOWICZ: Yes, and to give you

13 an example, because I always mention with our

14 business and industry guaranteed loan program,

15 our funding authority on that is probably up to a

16 billion dollars. Just a couple clicks below that

17 we will obligate that full amount this year.

18 We're already well on our way. And if

19 it's a grant program, you know, yes, those

20 dollars are gone.

21 MS. HERRON: Thank you.

22 (Off microphone comments.)
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1 MR. VAZQUEZ: A couple of questions.

2 When you guys have multiple obligations, you said

3 that the demand exceeds the supply. So how do

4 you guys determine which project is going to get

5 funded, you know, versus the other? And also,

6 how difficult is the application process? I

7 mean, to apply for this grant?

8 MR. JERMOLOWICZ: For grants I'm sure

9 it's the same with Arthur. I mean, we'll put out

10 a public notice. And in outlining there's a

11 regulation for the program. The notice, the

12 public notice will tell you what needs to go into

13 that application.

14 It will actually outline for you what

15 the scoring will be, it will give you, you know,

16 that's one thing I think we do fairly well. It's

17 pretty clear that, you know, 20 points for this,

18 10 points for this. It will give you what it is.

19 So on a lot of them that for RD we

20 have some programs that are national, so all

21 those applications come in. They're basically

22 scored, ranked, and you just start chopping down
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1 that list until you run out of money.

2 Some of our programs in rural

3 development, I mentioned our 47 state offices. 

4 Some of those are allocated where we will take,

5 you know, Congress will give us a pot of money

6 that we in turn then take portions of that and

7 divide it up between all the state offices.

8 So then there is a competition

9 essentially at the state office. So they, you

10 know, again, that's one of the things with rural

11 development, if you're in a particular state, is

12 get to know that state office, get to know that

13 state director.

14 Let him or her know that you've got a

15 project or whatever. It can help because in some

16 cases the, you know, the administrator or state

17 director could have some, can add some additional

18 points.

19 In terms of complexity, you know, I

20 stand before you and tell you yes, in certain

21 cases they can be tough. We've tried to work

22 with Arthur on some of the cases there. It's not
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1 just USDA or rural development. You know, we're

2 prescribed certain things that you've got to

3 register with the systems award management, you

4 have to have a DUNS number, you've got to go

5 through a lot of hoops to go through.

6 We try to provide information. We

7 have some programs that people would say are

8 relatively easy. One that I am particular very

9 sensitive to is our Value Added Producer Grant is

10 frequently, it's overly complicated.

11 We've worked to try to provide anybody

12 who's interested a template, a kind of just like

13 a hand-hold, walk you through, we view it as a

14 living document. We update that thing every year

15 trying to take in account where you, someone like

16 you tells me it's like, you know, Andy, this is a

17 pain in the butt. This is impossible to figure

18 out.

19 So we continue to try. I mean, we

20 need to hear that feedback from you. I don't

21 mind. I get beat up on a daily basis about how

22 complicated the programs are and all the hoops
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1 you have to jump through.

2 But your voice there is going to get

3 my undersecretary or the secretary's office to

4 put a thumb on me and say make that program more

5 accessible.

6 MR. NEAL: And so from my perspective

7 at AMS, we try to make the process as easy to

8 understand as possible. The documents are fairly

9 lengthy. And that's because we have to follow

10 federal regulations, the Office of Management and

11 Budget.

12 And the systems that Andy mentioned

13 earlier that you have to register, we find that a

14 lot of applicants will say our processes are too

15 involved because they wait until the day before

16 the application is due to apply.

17 That's -- last year we had a very high

18 rejection rate because they did not get through

19 the system, because they tried to apply for those

20 required credentials the day before the

21 application closed.

22 So then it became a very complicated
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1 process for them. Because they didn't get in.

2 But if you start early enough, we

3 gave, I think, we gave 75 days or something for

4 people to apply this year. If you start early

5 enough, I think it's fairly simple.

6 The primary thing is making sure that

7 folks connect the project with the mission of the

8 program. And clearly, because our programs,

9 we're trying to have an impact on farmers and

10 ranchers through marketing.

11 So how does the project enhance the

12 local marketing opportunities for farmers and

13 ranchers. So establishing that clear line back

14 to the farmers and ranchers and establishing the

15 need.

16 Making sure the reviewers -- because

17 we work with over a hundred reviewers across the

18 country, excuse me, to review these, as external

19 reviewers, to make sure that they can see that

20 there's an established need for this project. 

21 And help them believe that this is important for

22 the farmers and ranchers. That's what's key.
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1 It can't be about the individual

2 business. It's got to be making sure that we're

3 creating economic opportunities for farmers and

4 ranchers through marketing projects. And

5 sometimes through educational and technical

6 assistance projects.

7 MR. JERMOLOWICZ: And I just have to

8 echo that. You know, when the notice comes out,

9 it pretty much gives you the guide of how to

10 develop that application.

11 You know, it's don't read too much

12 into it. I mean, we've -- we're the government. 

13 And we've got to go through multiple lawyers and

14 everything.

15 It has to be clear. If it says do

16 this, do that. Don't try to interpret things. 

17 People, I think I've found where people have took

18 the more keep it simple, have had the strongest

19 applications.

20 We get some in there, they're sending

21 us, you know, a hundred and some pages, maps

22 this. And it's like, you know, it's irrelevant.
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1 You know, you spent a lot of time, you

2 know, just as Arthur mentioned, if it asks you

3 how many producers are you going to help, or can

4 you demonstrate the value here, just put that

5 down and, you know, just -- my recommendation to

6 a lot of people is always just -- just try to

7 keep it simple.

8 And for rule development programs,

9 really we do encourage people to make contact

10 with that State office. There is program

11 specialists there that they can walk you through

12 some of these things.

13 A lot of times if they're, you know,

14 not overly stretched, you can shoot by, draft

15 applications. You know, and ask them, it's like,

16 you know, hey do I have all my ducks in a row? 

17 They can give you, you know, it's like hey, no. 

18 I would do something there.

19 So we can do some feedback. We're

20 always available again, if resource is existing. 

21 If there are some groups, you know, we will do

22 some training on particular programs on how to
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1 apply.

2 MR. BATCHER: So, aside from the

3 grants programs, I just wanted to mention that

4 the Architectural Technical Assistance Program is

5 not in relation to our grant's program. So that

6 technical assistance, you can contact our

7 division and we can supply that without any grant

8 application.

9 So you can just contact us directly. 

10 We will assist with local markets, food hubs,

11 farmers' markets, and of course historically we

12 dealt a lot with wholesale markets. And we'd

13 like to reestablish that connection.

14 MR. HANAS: Rick Hanas with Duda. Let

15 me ask a question. You all have enlightened me

16 quite a bit here. And I appreciate it.

17 Is -- when you talk about filing these

18 applications, is there a deadline specific for

19 each one of these applications? And is that

20 printed somewhere?

21 Is that on the USDA site? Or where is

22 that located?
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1 MR. JERMOLOWICZ: It's probably the --

2 we are driven or to utilize -- you're going to

3 hate -- I hate -- I can't even believe I'm going

4 to encourage you to do this.

5 (Laughter.)

6 MR. JERMOLOWICZ: But go to

7 grants.gov. It is the system that all federal

8 funding that needs to be announced. And the

9 portal for electronic applications, you can sign

10 up there for -- on specific programs.

11 It will give you all that information

12 on when the program -- or you can get a notice

13 when the program opens. Get those due dates.

14 Do we have -- it's actually not a bad

15 thought. We don't have that in rule development.

16 We'll probably have a web page for

17 each one of those programs that will either

18 probably tell you if the program is currently

19 open. Here's the amount of money that's

20 available. Here is the application due dates. 

21 Here is our kind of expected time when we'll make

22 awards.
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1 So that information is out there. I

2 won't say that it's always the easiest to find. 

3 But, that's something we can work with this

4 group. We can, you know, share resources with

5 you.

6 But, on the question, a lot of those

7 programs, well yes, there will be multiple --

8 they don't all come due at the same time. Or we

9 actually tried to spread those out so we can kind

10 of try to have a work flow.

11 If we had the due date all the same

12 for each program, we would just get overwhelmed

13 with having to try to process everything at one

14 time. So we try to parse them out throughout the

15 year.

16 MR. HANAS: Thank you.

17 MS. KOVACS: Yes. That's a really

18 good question. And as someone who works across

19 agencies, I get that question periodically.

20 You do have to basically go to each

21 project site. Because even the same grant

22 program doesn't come out at the same time every
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1 year necessarily.

2 There tend to be seasons. But for

3 various reasons, a lot of factors go into when --

4 what the timing is for each one.

5 I have been asked if I could make a

6 schedule for when they all come out. But it

7 would be a whole job to kind of keep track of

8 them all in one calendar and make sure that it's

9 right.

10 Because what we don't want to do is

11 put together an annual calendar and have it

12 mislead people and have them miss deadlines. So

13 the closest we could come so far is this document

14 where you can click on the one you're interested

15 in and learn.

16 And people do make their own calendars

17 for the ones they know they're interested in. 

18 But keeping one across all agencies at USDA has

19 so far proven too time consuming for what we have

20 to offer for that.

21 MR. JERMOLOWICZ: Regrettably, I think

22 there's people who have a profession that that's
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1 their job. Is to follow the Federal Register

2 and, you know, track when these announcements

3 come out. And you know, with due dates and all

4 that kind of stuff.

5 So, as a taxpayer as well, I apologize

6 to you.

7 MR. SUTTON: Dan Sutton. I just want

8 to circle back around to affirm kind of Roland's

9 thought.

10 But, I think it would be good if we

11 could develop some type of statement to encourage

12 these programs stay funded moving forward. 

13 However, we can do that in our capacity.

14 But, I don't know, if we could work

15 some language up tonight, and maybe all review

16 that tomorrow. But I think it's important.

17 Without infrastructure we don't move

18 any of our products, so.

19 MR. VAZQUEZ: Could you guys repeat

20 the dollar value of the programs in general?

21 MR. JERMOLOWICZ: Okay. For us I'll

22 say our business and industry guarantee loan
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1 program, typically, you know, we've done well. 

2 We've made good investments.

3 So that program's typically annually

4 at about a billion dollars. Our Value Added

5 Producer Grant Program, we're probably in the 25

6 million dollar a year. That's a grant program,

7 25 million dollar a year appropriation.

8 Renewable energy is -- again, that's

9 both a grant and a loan program. So, they're in

10 the hundred plus million dollar area.

11 I can follow up with the lead here and

12 give you some of our program levels. You know,

13 at least what we have, you know, for this year. 

14 And kind of it would give you a good example

15 historically of where we are.

16 MR. NEAL: And for the Specialty Crop

17 Block Grant Program, it's authorized that 72.5

18 million through '17. And then from 2018, it's

19 been authorized for 85 million in perpetuity.

20 Then for the Farmers Market and Local

21 Food Promotion Program, it's authorized at 30

22 million until 2018. So that's just an idea.
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1 MS. KNORR: Anyone else with questions

2 or comments?

3 (No audible response.)

4 MS. KNORR: I'd like to make mention

5 of just a couple of things with regards to the

6 grant programs. It does seem to me, with regard

7 to the Federal Register and how they're announced

8 and that kind of thing, for many organizations

9 that I've worked with in the past, if you don't

10 have your partners and your project idea already

11 together to a certain extent when that

12 announcement comes out, you really can't apply. 

13 The time frame just doesn't allow.

14 And I understand that you're on a time

15 frame. But, for anybody who's considering doing

16 those, you really have to have your act together

17 before the grants are even announced. So that

18 you have a good chance.

19 One of the other things that I hear

20 from smaller nonprofits across our State in Ohio

21 is that, you know, if you're -- you're a small

22 organization, the chance of you getting funding
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1 versus the chance of our land grant university

2 getting funding is, you know, there's just -- you

3 don't have a fighting chance.

4 The universities have professional

5 grant writers who are spending all of their time

6 doing this. Is there anything that you all do to

7 help mitigate to make sure that some of those

8 funds are disbursed to the smaller organizations

9 who really are active in the communities and

10 doing really solid work but don't maybe have

11 quite the ability to have such a polished

12 application?

13 MR. McREYNOLDS: And don't charge 40

14 percent overhead.

15 MR. NEAL: Right. No, no. That's a

16 Catch 22. So, for pretty much the existence of

17 the Farmers Market Promotion Program and then

18 even when it came to the local food promotion

19 component in 2014, we were awarding approximately

20 320 projects a year to ensure that regional and

21 national diversity.

22 That's almost impossible to manage. 
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1 Not only that, not everybody can handle the

2 funds. Because they are small.

3 And so you spend, you know, with a

4 staff of four people you may spend the entire

5 time chasing down money. Because they could

6 never handle it in the first place.

7 So, we tried that model. And it

8 didn't work for us. So we had to change our

9 model to increase our award amounts.

10 So we went from one hundred thousand

11 dollars being the max for our Farmers Market and

12 Local Food to five hundred thousand being our

13 max. Because we need impacts. Because if we

14 can't have impacts, we don't keep a program.

15 So, I understand the need to get the

16 money out to, you know, the people out on the

17 ground. But if the people out on the ground don't

18 give us return on investment, we lose our

19 program.

20 And so we, I guess in 2014 we also did

21 national trainings to help folks on the ground

22 understand how to apply for the programs. We did
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1 over 126 physical workshops in every State and

2 some of the territories across the country.

3 Just so they knew how to access our

4 programs. Because our objective is to make sure

5 it gets on the ground.

6 So what we did, we bifurcated our

7 program. We now have grant projects that are

8 called capacity built. To still fund the smaller

9 groups.

10 But those smaller groups have got to

11 have their partnerships in place. They've got to

12 show that the community is behind the project. 

13 That the local government is behind the project. 

14 Because we want success.

15 We just don't want to say hey, we've

16 got your hundred thousand dollars or 250 thousand

17 dollars here. That's not what we're looking for. 

18 We're looking for a return on ROI.

19 And so we've -- we're in the process

20 of analyzing the impact of our Farmers Market and

21 Local Food Promotion Program for 2014. And thus

22 far, we're showing that for every dollar that
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1 we're putting in, we're getting about a 60 cent

2 return for every dollar.

3 Which is pretty good. And for the

4 Local Food Promotion alone, just this far, we've

5 still got some more projects, we're looking at

6 2.40. So that's pretty significant.

7 And so that's what we're looking for

8 across the country from investments that are

9 being made.

10 MS. KNORR: Well, and I think those

11 trainings that you've offered are very high

12 quality and very helpful. And I do appreciate the

13 fact that working with some smaller

14 organizations, sometimes that return is not

15 there.

16 I think my final comment would be to

17 make sure to encourage the universities to

18 partner with some of those smaller scale

19 organizations. Because sometimes universities,

20 while we value the work that they do, sometimes

21 they're not necessarily engaged in the

22 communities that really have the best idea or the
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1 best opportunities for those growers.

2 So, really encouraging them to forge

3 their owner partnerships with community

4 organizations, I think is a very important. 

5 Especially in those two programs that you just

6 mentioned.

7 MR. NEAL: And just a comment, those

8 -- some universities get Farmers Market and Local

9 Food Promotion grants. The majority of them do

10 not.

11 The majority of our awards go to the

12 organizations on the ground, to nonprofits, to

13 businesses that are working with farmers and to

14 local governments.

15 MR. JERMOLOWICZ: And it would be very

16 similar for rural development. And again, you

17 know, we've got a -- just a slightly bigger

18 portfolio of programs.

19 And so again, it's becoming, you know,

20 where certain of our programs are probably

21 directed to some of the smaller organizations. 

22 Whereas other ones maybe, you know, require that
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1 a university or a larger, you know, applicant is

2 going to get there.

3 Again, it's looking at the notices

4 there. Sometimes it's either through Congress,

5 or it could be the Administration will emphasize

6 some type of priority in a particular program

7 that an applicant that meets certain criteria, or

8 a project that's serving a particular audience

9 will get a priority score for that applicant.

10 Look for those things. I can't speak

11 on AMS, but I can tell you in our D Programs,

12 that when there are program notices come out

13 where they are indicating that there is a

14 priority, you need to try to get that priority.

15 Because it has a, you know, a

16 significant impact on the score and your

17 probability of being funded.

18 MS. BALCH: I just wanted to add one

19 comment about the grants. I have found that it's

20 a lot easier to apply under the AMS Grant

21 Programs, the Farmers Market Promotion Program

22 and the Local Food Promotion Program, compared to
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1 some of the NIFA grants like the Community Food

2 Projects, competitive grants is okay.

3 But the Food and Security Nutrition

4 Incentive one is really a pain. So, I just

5 wanted to say. There's a lot of difference

6 between the different programs.

7 MS. KOVACS: And I was going to say in

8 relation to that that I think several, but not

9 all, grant programs across USDA have gone towards

10 having a contract or some trainings around the

11 country. Webinars, I know the Farm to School

12 Grants that you heard about earlier, they do a

13 number of webinars before.

14 So, if you're watching for the RFAs to

15 come out, there usually some kind of an education

16 process that goes with that for each one of them. 

17 And it's true, some of them are more complicated.

18 And as Andy said, sometimes that's

19 because that's the way the program is designed by

20 -- that's the guidelines and authorizations we're

21 given at the different agencies.

22 And sometimes it's just because
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1 they're trying to do something very specific. Or

2 be able to capture the outcomes. And they can

3 make it pretty complicated. We know that.

4 MS. KNORR: Great. Thank you so much,

5 gentlemen. We appreciate it.

6 (Applause.)

7 MS. KNORR: So we are still running

8 ahead of schedule. Our next working group is the

9 Market News Working Group.

10 Tom, do you want to share a little bit

11 about what's been happening in that group? And

12 set the stage for our speaker here.

13 MR. WILLIAMS: This is Tom Williams

14 from Coborn's. We really as a group, there's

15 three of us on our committee. So, we're always

16 looking for additional committee members.

17 (Laughter.)

18 MR. WILLIAMS: And it's a very short

19 term committee. Because really what our intent

20 was, is to be able as a group, to put forth a

21 statement in asking for continued appropriation

22 for the market news.
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1 Because my understanding from the last

2 presentation that we did have, is this is funded

3 through an appropriation. It is not funded

4 through user fees.

5 And so in order for this to continue,

6 which I believe -- and Terry will be able to

7 speak to this much better then I will be able to,

8 it will -- is the funding through October of this

9 year or next year?

10 (Off microphone comment.)

11 MR. WILLIAMS: September 30. So it's

12 September 30 of this year. So, a statement, a

13 timely statement I believe is worthwhile.

14 Because we had new members on here, I

15 wanted Terry to be able to have a presentation

16 for those that had missed it. Or to refresh the

17 memory for those that are here.

18 There was a webinar that they did

19 have, that the Market News Group did have, for

20 different stakeholders that I did participate on. 

21 And it was very, very informative.

22 And I had asked that Terry come here
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1 and do something similar to give us some more

2 information about Market News and the importance

3 of it to us, to our industry. And we are not

4 prepared at this moment to give a recommendation. 

5 But my hopes are is by tomorrow that we would be

6 able to.

7 MR. LONG: All right. Thank you, Tom. 

8 I told my colleague I was coming here and I'm the

9 last person on the agenda. And they said, oh

10 boy, I hope you've got some funny stories.

11 Four o'clock, there are no stories

12 that funny.

13 (Laughter.)

14 MR. LONG: But I do have one I will

15 tell you. My mother was 89 the other day. And I

16 went down this weekend to visit.

17 And she says, well, how are things at

18 work? And I said, well, you know, there was this

19 application process. And we wanted to apply, but

20 we didn't get it in on time. But it wasn't our

21 fault.

22 And my mother goes, of course it
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1 wasn't your fault. Okay. Right? Okay. So, my

2 mother knows it's not my fault.

3 Anyway, again this is basically the

4 same presentation we did before. But I did want

5 to go through it quickly, because again, there

6 are new people.

7 And basically, the Market News is the

8 eyes and ears of American Agriculture. For this

9 particular group, the eyes and ears of the

10 produce industry.

11 Again, our mission is very simple,

12 apply timely, accurate and unbiased information. 

13 And again, our motto, get it. Get it right, get

14 it out.

15 That information, not getting it to

16 people when they need it, in the form they need

17 it, is as hurtful as not having any information

18 at all or even worse.

19 The main levels of the markets we

20 cover, we're covering shipping point or FOB,

21 terminal or wholesale markets, retail. Again,

22 these are only weekly advertised specials we're
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1 talking, but the retail section.

2 And farmers' markets and farmers'

3 auction on a limited basis. Other products you

4 may not be aware of, apple juice concentrate, in

5 fact the industry came to us and asked us to

6 create that report.

7 They wanted to build a futures market. 

8 And they needed USDA data to match up against

9 that. So actually, that was a report we created

10 at the request of the industry.

11 Apples for processing, international

12 markets of interest, I think we're tracking about

13 16 or 18 international markets. And honey as a

14 product and bee keeping as an industry.

15 On the movement side, again, a big

16 part of what we do, one of the most tracked, I'd

17 say, shipments domestic. Again, truck and rail,

18 crossings in Mexico, boat, air, and truck of

19 course.

20 Imports, in our last count we had 63

21 countries. And we're tracking produce imports or

22 flowers into the U.S. Again, air, truck and boat.
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1 Just an assortment of some of our

2 major national level reports most closely

3 watched, the weekly shipping point trends, we'll

4 look at that. The retail report, we'll talk

5 about that. Truck rate, the same thing.

6 The daily movement report. We're

7 aggregating all the movement we've captured for

8 the United States for the produce and cut flower

9 industry. Put it in a single report. So if all

10 you're tracking is movement, trucking company for

11 example, it's in one location.

12 The Mexican crossings report. 

13 Obviously this time of year the Mexican crossings

14 are a big part of our fresh fruits and

15 vegetables.

16 Specialty crops, organic summary. 

17 Again, a recent report we added. And again, the

18 summary includes all of the organic data we're

19 capturing, shipping point, any of the wholesale

20 markets, or all of the wholesale markets I should

21 say, as well as the retail. Again, all in one

22 location as well as organic movement where we
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1 have it.

2 Talking about the national retail

3 report. This is a quick glance out of it. We're

4 tracking 410 major supermarket chains comprising

5 just over 30 thousand individual stores.

6 We're doing this on a weekly basis. 

7 Practically every reporter in Market News is

8 helping to capture this data. And again, weekly

9 advertised specials. Very widely tracked. And

10 continues to grow.

11 People say, well you know, we'd like

12 some of these lively processed apples -- I mean,

13 products like sliced applies in the store,

14 chopped watermelon, et cetera, et cetera. So we

15 continue to try to grow this report in response

16 to customer demand.

17 Again, the truck rate report, most of

18 the major shippers in the country, if not all of

19 them, cooperate with this, as do the truck

20 brokers, trucking companies. Very closely

21 watched by the industry.

22 Again, a very high level of
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1 cooperation nationwide. Again, we're trucking --

2 I'm sorry, tracking the trucks, the available

3 supplies by each of the major shipping districts.

4 And of course the districts change as

5 the seasons change. So we're following the truck

6 movement throughout the United States for

7 primarily the fresh fruit and vegetable industry.

8 The trends for those of you that

9 follow that, again, this is a weekly snapshot of

10 commodity groups and then specific deals. The

11 berries, blueberries, what are the districts

12 we're tracking? What are the markets for each of

13 those districts?

14 There's three data sets there, the

15 movement of blueberries from central and northern

16 Florida, three weeks ago movement, two weeks ago

17 movement, last week's movement. And here is what

18 we're seeing trading today, active, slow, et

19 cetera, et cetera. 

20 So, it gives you a glance now, and

21 that three-week period. And again, for seasonal

22 deals that move around, very important and very
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1 closely watched.

2 Again, this is the most recent count,

3 1,453 markets. Again, New York City might be

4 five markets, fruits, vegetables, potatoes, and

5 onions, blah, blah, blah.

6 And all the shipping point deals. 

7 Four thousand individuals separate contacts in

8 the industry. And again, total count, 411

9 commodities. And again, apples is a commodity. 

10 Apples for processing is a commodity.

11 That list there says we're currently

12 covering 133. I forgot to update. We're at 141

13 and growing.

14 EViews. EViews is an aggregation of

15 hits, downloads, accesses, not just views, and

16 not just hits. I'll get it right in a minute,

17 but page views.

18 Real things they've gone into our

19 sites and looked at data or pulled data out. 

20 Fifty-four million times last year they went to

21 the Market News site to pull data. Fifty-four

22 incidences of actually pulling or looking at
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1 data.

2 What's next? That was our topic here. 

3 MARS is our new data-based system. The system we

4 have is Oracle. It was built in 1992. We're

5 limping along.

6 We've been several years at this

7 effort. It should be, at least the first phases

8 of it, available in January of '18.

9 Now the big deal about MARS is, big

10 data, open data. Now, for those of you who used

11 our data routinely and go to the portal, you're

12 limited to doing a couple of years at a time. 

13 Again, you know, it's a 20-year old system.

14 With MARS you'll be able to pull,

15 okay, I want everything you have on apples. 

16 International, domestic, shipments, process. You

17 could pull every bit of that with that one key

18 phrase. You know, so you'll be able to pull vast

19 quantities of data.

20 It also allows us to capture data. 

21 And I'll talk a little bit more about that. But

22 again, the tool was built to both make big data
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1 available, open data. And, to allow data from

2 other locations to come in and be available to

3 our customers.

4 Organic data initiative. And again,

5 we've talked about this. We're about, I guess, a

6 year and a half in. I'm sorry, a half a year

7 into the two-year project.

8 The plan was, in the original write up

9 for that money in the farm bill, we'd add ten

10 market reporters and grow our coverage. With the

11 hiring challenges and freezes, et cetera, we have

12 not yet hired any of those people.

13 We still have a plan. We still hope

14 to do that. We have the farm bill money. But,

15 you know, we need hiring authority and get those

16 people onboard.

17 There's clearly data out there. 

18 There's markets we aren't covering. Again,

19 resources are the key.

20 Now this is what I want to talk a

21 little bit about, the Market Information

22 Organization of the Americas. Again, these are
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1 Market News partners in the other 32 countries

2 within the hemisphere.

3 I was just down at the executive

4 committee meeting in Ecuador. And we have made

5 great strides in building, or working towards

6 standards for how we manage our data.

7 Now what this leads to is, as we build

8 MARS, we'll be able to start accepting this data

9 freed from our key trading partners. So you as a

10 customer from Market News, going to the portal,

11 will also be able to access these other key

12 trading partners around the hemisphere.

13 Again, we're doing bilateral capacity

14 building and training in those countries. We're

15 working regionally to develop like in the case of

16 the Caribbean, a cloud-based system.

17 We'll get them all normalized. We'll

18 have access to that data. And when we have

19 access, of course, we make the public have -- or

20 allow the public to have access.

21 And again, here we believe that market

22 transparency benefits all market participants. 
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1 Level the playing field.

2 Again, this is the message we've been

3 selling throughout the hemisphere. Again, the

4 better we do at covering our markets, the better

5 the industry can use the data and make the right

6 decisions.

7 Again, this is my thing. And I

8 wondered if they had told you that our new

9 Secretary, Secretary Perdue, has recommended a

10 new model for USDA. I don't know if you all had

11 heard that.

12 It's do right and feed everyone. So,

13 that's the Secretary's new motto for USDA.

14 So, with that, I would thank you for

15 your attention. And ask if you have any

16 questions.

17 MS. KNORR: Questions or comments for

18 Mr. Long?

19 MR. NICHOLSON: Well, I guess on the

20 funding. Just could you talk a little bit about

21 how you guys are funded?

22 And I guess was there a decision made
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1 a long time ago that no one is going to pay for

2 this information necessarily? And that's not the

3 appropriate way to handle it.

4 MR. LONG: All of Market News money

5 comes to AMS as a block. Something like 33

6 million dollars, I believe. And that's each of

7 the Market News programs, livestock poultry and

8 grain, dairy, cotton and tobacco, and specialty

9 crop market news.

10 So, we're a part of that pool that

11 comes to AMS as an appropriation. Several years

12 ago back, well, a couple decades ago, we were

13 mailing, oh my gosh, untold hundreds of thousands

14 of market reports to people.

15 It was deemed or ruled at that time

16 that having market news, having people collect

17 information, make it publically available, is in

18 the public good. The fact that we print and mail

19 it to your business, is in your good.

20 So, we went to a user fee basis for

21 mailing market reports. So everyone had to pay a

22 subscription to get their market news.
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1 Now, of course this was before the

2 days of the internet. So, yes, having market

3 news and collecting all this data to boarders and

4 the market, that was deemed by Congress to still

5 be in the public good.

6 But special services you would have to

7 pay for. So, to this day, if I do a dedicated

8 run for you, go into my database and do multiple

9 years, I am required to charge you like 25

10 dollars a year.

11 Interesting thing, when we started

12 charging people for market reports, initially the

13 number of reports we mailed, dropped by 90

14 percent. I mean, you wanted the information, but

15 hell, you can call market news and get it rather

16 than pay all year long for that time you needed.

17 Obviously we have the internet and not

18 a lot of mailed reports go out. That number came

19 back up to about 30 percent, you know, dropped to

20 like 10 percent and went back up to about 30.

21 So, some percentages of people did

22 decide they were willing to pay for it. You
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1 know, listening to a phone recorder of me, my

2 voice, you don't want to do that too often.

3 So does that cover it more?

4 MR. WILLIAMS: And so Terry, it's

5 September 30?

6 MR. LONG: Yes, sir.

7 MR. WILLIAMS: Is when the funding

8 does go out. Now, in the webinar that your group

9 did, it kind of talked about all the enhancements

10 to the online and everything.

11 MR. LONG: Right. Right.

12 MR. WILLIAMS: Is that currently

13 funded?

14 MR. LONG: Through January '18. We're

15 -- to that point we're good.

16 MR. WILLIAMS: Okay.

17 MR. LONG: At least to the development

18 of MARS. So, with that I thank you for your

19 attention. And the one thing we know in Market

20 News, is we work for you.

21 So, please cooperate with us when you

22 call. Call us down when you think we're not
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1 right. And call me if you see things that we can

2 do to help you. So, thank you.

3 (Applause.)

4 MS. MORRIS: So, I just wanted to

5 clarify one thing about the funding. So, AMS

6 does have a, as Bruce talked about earlier,

7 predominantly 70 percent of our budget is user

8 fee.

9 And the other 30 percent, including

10 Market News, is an annual appropriation. So, it's

11 not that we expect that we're not going to get

12 any funding for Market News after September 30.

13 It's just that you know, obviously at

14 this point, the President's budget for next year

15 hasn't been released yet. And ultimately as we

16 all understand, it's up to Congress.

17 We are expecting, as I think every

18 federal agency is, some cuts to be made for sure. 

19 But, you know, Market News continues to be one of

20 the agency's top priorities.

21 So, you know, while it's fair to say

22 there will probably be some reduction, I don't
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1 want anybody to be, you know, left with the idea

2 that we're saying that, you know, we expect

3 Market News won't be funded moving forward.

4 MR. WILLIAMS: This is Tom Williams

5 again. I'll just read something that -- on the

6 website where it just talks about, where it kind

7 of explains Market News.

8 It says for 100 years AMS has provided

9 free, unbiased price and sales information to

10 assist in the marketing and distribution of farm

11 commodities. Each year Market News issues

12 thousands of reports providing the industry with

13 key wholesale, retail, and shipping data.

14 The report gives farmers, producers,

15 and other agricultural businesses the information

16 they need to evaluate market conditions, identify

17 trends, make purchasing decisions, monitor price

18 patterns, evaluate transportation equipment

19 needs, and accurately assess movement.

20 And as Terry did a nice job of

21 explaining, it's a service to all of us as an

22 industry. And so what my group is tasked to do,
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1 and would welcome any input that you have, is put

2 together just a statement proposing and

3 advocating that we do have -- that we do continue

4 the funding.

5 MS. KNORR: Thank you. So, we are

6 ahead of schedule. But I wanted to share a

7 little -- some bits of information before we

8 close for the day.

9 And if I'm correct, the happy hour so

10 to speak, is from 5:00 to 7:00 up in the lobby

11 bar. Is that correct? Okay.

12 But, particularly for the new members,

13 I really encourage you to take a look at, you

14 know, in your packet is the list of the various

15 working groups. And really decide which one you

16 feel most compelled to contribute to.

17 If there's not a group on here that

18 you feel compelled to contribute to, please give

19 some thought to, you know, what are pressing

20 issues that you are facing with your work that

21 you think others maybe facing with their work, to

22 form an additional group.
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1 If you choose one of the existing

2 groups, please let the chair or the acting chair

3 know. And then also communicate that information

4 to Marlene so she can add you to the roster.

5 And make sure that when the conference

6 calls that are coordinated between our in person

7 meetings, that you're on that list and can

8 actively participate. So, again, you know, let

9 the chair know and let Marlene know.

10 Again, think about the other programs

11 or issues that are of import to you. And how we

12 can make, you know, recommendations or statements

13 in support of those programs. Or to make

14 suggestions about how we think that they could

15 work better for the fruit and vegetable industry.

16 I am also going to encourage you, you

17 know, with the exception of the food safety

18 group, we don't have any recommendations at this

19 point. So, please get your wheels turning, on

20 how -- you know, what we can pull together.

21 And we do have quite a bit of time

22 dedicated tomorrow to meet with our groups. But
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1 get your wheels turning now.

2 There's opportunities again, over

3 happy hour. And also, you know, going out to

4 dinner with our colleagues to discuss, you know,

5 what we think. What we have floating around in

6 our minds to make suggestions on.

7 Because we do have some draft

8 recommendations from the food safety committee. 

9 And they are quite meaty.

10 If you have not read them already,

11 please do so this evening. So that we can have a

12 robust conversation about them.

13 And hopefully leave --

14 MR. McREYNOLDS: I would say they're

15 pulpy more then meaty.

16 (Laughter.)

17 MS. KNORR: Thanks. Noted. Yes,

18 please, you know, take some time to read those

19 over so that we can have a good discussion about

20 that. And come to some sort of resolution.

21 It would be wonderful if we could

22 leave at the end of tomorrow's session with, you
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1 know, having made some recommendations both with

2 food safety and with other groups.

3 Robert, do you have anything to add

4 before we adjourn today?

5 MR. NOLAN: I think you've done a

6 great job, Beth.

7 MS. KNORR: Thank you. Thank you very

8 much.

9 MR. NOLAN: I've got your back.

10 MS. KNORR: And Marlene, I'm sure you

11 have a few things to add.

12 MS. BETTS: Yes. Just one other

13 thing, Beth. It was kind of a quagmire trying to

14 find and make sure I got all of the working

15 groups.

16 Obviously the ones that we had met

17 with, they were kind of in forefront. And you

18 know, I put the other two on for tomorrow

19 morning.

20 I don't know if there are other groups

21 that I may have missed that might want to

22 participate. I know there was mention about a
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1 broadband technology type of a group.

2 Again, I don't think there were many

3 people that I saw that were on the working group

4 and got kind of no feedback when I kind of threw

5 out the lifeline to ask what other working groups

6 were.

7 So, certainly, if -- like you're

8 saying, if there are other groups that I have

9 missed, if people need time to speak or whatever,

10 please feel free in that allotted time. Or I

11 don't know if you want to address that now or

12 whatever.

13 But I apologize if I have missed any

14 groups.

15 MS. KNORR: Yes. Helen and I both

16 participated on a broadband working group. But,

17 have not make much headway in that regard. So,

18 we can just state that we're on hiatus for now.

19 So, yes. I don't have anything else. 

20 If Melissa or Marlene?

21 MS. BETTS: Oh, and one other thing on

22 working groups. Because I think there was
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1 another working group that was mentioned at the

2 last meeting.

3 I think it was the Tropical Products

4 Grade Standards Group. Or something of that

5 nature. And I reached out to Lucy. And I forget

6 if it was Carlos or George. Jorge?

7 MR. VAZQUEZ: Yes. That was me and

8 Lucy was the chair. And I never heard from her. 

9 So, I -- again, I think it's just kind of like in

10 limbo at his moment, so.

11 MS. BETTS: Yes. And I think that

12 would be something that could be worked closely

13 with the Specialty Crafts and Inspection Program. 

14 If there is any specific need.

15 So, I kind of dropped that one off. 

16 I don't know if that one's just kind of on hold

17 or how you all want to handle that one either.

18 But that is why I didn't list that

19 one. Because I didn't hear back from Lucy

20 either, so.

21 MR. VAZQUEZ: Is she still part of the

22 advisory board?
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1 MS. BETTS: Yes. She had a personal

2 commitment that she couldn't make it to this

3 meeting. Leanne, did you want to say something?

4 MS. SKELTON: Yes. The only thing

5 I'll say, if you go back probably a decade or

6 more. I'm aging all of you.

7 (Laughter.)

8 MS. SKELTON: Thank you. There was a

9 recommendation at that time to review all the

10 different grade standards for fresh fruit and

11 vegetable.

12 And the way that worked out was

13 essentially the committee, as Marlene just

14 pointed out, the committee said to specialty crop

15 at the time was fresh products branch, take a

16 look at what's still relevant and what's outdated

17 and needs to be updated.

18 And then one by one by one, go through

19 that and work that process. And so they did

20 that, of course, with the committee knowing

21 what's going on.

22 In this case you might want to try
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1 that same route. It worked pretty well. A lot

2 of the standards were revised, brought up to

3 date, that kind of thing.

4 MS. KNORR: And I just do want to give

5 a little bit of a nudge. I think most of our

6 working groups do a good job of this.

7 But, you know, make sure that you

8 actively reach out to Marlene and to the others

9 on your committee to start scheduling those

10 conference calls and that kind of thing. So

11 that, you know, when we meet next we do have, you

12 know, some idea of what we need to discuss.

13 And how we can -- if we have drafts to

14 work from, that's usually very helpful to, you

15 know, have the full group discuss those potential

16 recommendations.

17 So, jut encouraging everybody, giving

18 you a gentle, loving nudge, to make sure you're

19 communicating with Marlene, to make sure that

20 those groups are meeting in between. Okay.

21 MR. NICHOLSON: Beth, I just want to

22 make one quick comment. I apologize. I'm going
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1 to have to leave before the other business

2 section tomorrow.

3 And I just wanted to mention a

4 conversation that's going on. It's more RMA

5 related. You know, in the east and obviously

6 other regions, we are facing -- continuing to

7 face a lot of weather challenges.

8 Our farm in particular in 2012 lost

9 three-quarters of our apple crop. This past

10 season we lost two thirds of our apple crop due

11 to the drought. 

12 And there's obviously in other

13 regions, these kind of more frequent losses. The

14 conversation that's going on right now is, well,

15 now the east coast apple program may be looking

16 at not being -- having enough funding.

17 And they're having to look at what we

18 actually are paying now in crop insurance

19 premiums. And they could be looking at a

20 doubling of those.

21 So, it's, you know, not AMS, it's RMA. 

22 But it is a topic that affects all of us. And I
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1 just wanted to mention it because I don't know if

2 other regions are having those conversations with

3 RMA.

4 And that we've got a lot of loss here

5 now in other areas too. So, just a comment, a

6 topic to be aware of. And maybe at some point

7 we'll be having more conversations on it.

8 I guess that's how we start happy

9 hour.

10 (Laughter.)

11 MS. KNORR: Well, before we fully

12 adjourn, I wonder if anybody else has any topics

13 that they've been kind of holding onto that they

14 think are ones that the group should discuss?

15 The crop insurance? Yes. I think

16 that that's -- yes.

17 MS. HERRON: I would say that we need

18 to revive the labor committee as well.

19 MS. KNORR: Okay. Well, if nobody

20 else has anything for the good of the cause, then

21 we should adjourn for the evening. And we'll see

22 everyone back here at 8:30 tomorrow morning.
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1 Check out is at 11:00?

2 MS. BETTS: I think that is right. 

3 Let me double check.

4 MS. KNORR: I think checkout is at

5 11:00. So if you want to do that before you come

6 down here, or during a quick break tomorrow, just

7 keep that in mind.

8 MS. BETTS: And maybe with everybody

9 having flights and stuff out in the morning,

10 instead of having the photograph at the end,

11 maybe we can do it in the beginning.

12 MS. KNORR: Okay.

13 MS. BETTS: Get that knocked out. And

14 then people can get on their way.

15 MS. KNORR: Yes. Wonderful.

16 MS. BETTS: We need a new picture on

17 our website.

18 MS. KNORR: Wonderful. Thanks

19 everybody, have a good night.

20 MS. BETTS: Thanks for everything.

21 (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter

22 went off the record at 4:38 p.m.)
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229:19 233:5 249:2,3

249:16,20 250:2

252:7 255:18 256:3

263:20 266:2 269:22

274:2 284:3 292:19

297:14 317:16 331:10

340:17,21 341:21

343:20 350:21 356:5

bits 349:7

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blah 339:5,5,5

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283:10 322:17 344:5

Blue 31:12

blueberries 31:18

199:20 338:11,15

board 8:7,10 22:8 28:15

33:19 41:16 42:1

72:21 73:13 79:14

81:10 112:5 116:12

123:12 125:10 181:3

190:18 354:22

boarders 345:3

Boards 59:12,14 60:3,5

60:6,7

boat 335:18,22

Bob 4:7 15:8 19:15

23:19 32:8 68:20 70:4

83:6 129:14

bodies 88:5,12 141:22

144:2,6,8,9,19,22

176:14,16 216:10

body 146:4

bolts 75:19

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143:16

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Bradstreet 135:10

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355:15

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96:20 147:13 255:20

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199:6,16,17 200:15

200:22 202:5 205:20

215:21,22 216:1,8,10

219:17

breakfasts 198:15

breakthrough 271:15

breed 270:4,11 276:12

breeders 257:22 264:1

277:9

breeding 17:14,15

257:9,17 258:1,3

260:8,12 261:14,18

261:19 263:19,21

265:3 266:4,12 267:1

267:3,19 268:14

269:4,8 270:3,8,11

271:3,4 272:8,12,19

273:2,13,15 274:4,11

274:20 275:4,6,8

276:5,20 277:3 278:2

278:5,10 306:17

bricks-and-mortar

289:7

bridge 166:13

bridging 167:1

brief 15:4 18:3 55:6

277:5 280:9 308:6

briefing 182:14

briefly 15:2 63:17 64:22

251:20 263:9 306:16

Brighter 250:4

bring 10:22 15:17 17:21

18:3,7 21:7 46:14

215:20 249:5 273:7
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28:6 38:15 39:2,7

57:8,15 58:20 59:2

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272:22 277:6

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54:4,12,14,21 227:19

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342:5,14

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326:8 340:4,22

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76:1 88:21 89:2

128:10 266:16 289:10

289:11,15 292:1,20

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239:4

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148:19 175:8,13

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81:6 88:8,9 91:5,11

91:13 177:21 178:11

181:13

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C

C-O-N-T-E-N-T-S 4:1

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CACFP 200:3

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cafeteria 207:5 211:14

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212:12

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116:1

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California 23:13 27:19

29:12 37:19 51:5

158:21 215:20

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90:19 116:6 130:6

142:8 161:11,19,20

165:7 259:18 265:11

345:15 346:22,22

347:1

call-out 198:8

called 31:6 33:16 55:11

75:6 178:16 215:22

245:16 276:22 289:22

298:11 326:8

calls 16:19 17:12

150:15 154:3,11

157:7 161:14 165:2,6

165:15 169:1 259:19

304:10 350:6 356:10

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CAP 278:13

capable 68:22

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capacity 247:14 257:21

265:16,20 266:3

267:15 295:19 297:6

297:11 321:13 326:8

342:13

capital 290:7

capture 331:2 337:8

340:20

captured 336:7

capturing 121:1 164:13

164:14 336:19

care 65:8 68:5 200:3

career 40:2

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Caribbean 342:16

Carl 3:14 37:9

Carlos 1:17 27:19 354:6

Carlson 3:4 4:9 97:20

97:20 136:1,2 146:14

147:1,4

Carolina 2:4 20:16 33:1

33:5,8

carried 63:21

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254:5

case 79:8,9 111:14

118:18 126:13 127:22

163:17 174:3 209:20

226:8 297:22 342:15

355:22

cases 74:11 101:12,13

111:17 127:22 171:20

267:11 311:16,21,22

Castaneda 1:17,17

27:18,19

CAT 278:20

Catch 324:16

catching 65:11

categories 159:11

270:16

Cathy 180:18 250:3

cause 111:12 358:20

cautionary 258:19

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Cavs 36:16

CBP's 64:15

CBS 34:6

CD 210:17

CDC 203:10

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census 117:12 233:12

236:8,9,22 237:11

247:5

censuses 247:6

cent 327:1

center 86:19 103:17

136:3 151:17 153:9

154:2,8,19 156:10

157:8 165:15 196:9

290:12

centered 19:6

centers 153:15,17,18

154:4 155:9 157:17

161:1 190:2 197:14

262:21 289:17,18

central 83:19,22 84:2

338:15

cents 228:1,12,19

255:15

CEO 2:19 26:13

certain 80:16 114:12

126:4 135:9 136:20

139:16 160:9 163:20

163:21 191:12 235:17

269:1 311:20 312:2

323:11 328:20 329:7

certainly 14:4 39:3 54:6

57:20 59:19 71:18

72:10 80:2,14 82:6

83:10 86:16,17 89:22

91:9 95:17 115:14

120:13 130:18 132:15

132:18,19 135:17

146:21 170:1 171:9

173:12 174:3 175:1

179:18 251:12 253:16

297:10,20 298:20

307:17 353:7

certificate 93:5

certification 73:12

74:21 75:5,9,13,18

76:15 83:12,14,17

85:3,21 86:1,2,15,19

88:5,11 90:21 91:1

93:4 136:11 141:17

141:19,21 142:2

143:2,6,13,18 144:9

certifications 142:4,15

143:1,15 144:13

145:5

certified 63:6 109:20

168:7 171:11 173:3,6

175:4

certifying 145:1

cetera 296:15 337:14

337:14 338:19,19

341:11

CFR 114:15

CFSAN 3:3,4 97:21

136:3

chain 2:2 7:13 159:18

286:2 287:20 288:7

290:11 302:6,7 303:7

chains 290:10 337:4

chair 1:12,13,14 4:6,7

15:7 23:3 68:17

180:18,19 350:2,2,9

354:8

chaired 17:10 194:14
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57:2 58:11 72:5

128:22 148:17 166:1

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Chamberlain 3:5 4:12

195:2,6,10,12 219:14

219:19,22 220:4,22

221:5,8,16 223:11,15

224:11 226:3,22

227:6 228:7 229:2,17

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132:4 161:15 255:14

323:18,22 324:1,3

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78:1 79:10 95:21

148:20 177:14 248:12

261:12 276:11

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Chapel 33:9

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274:22

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93:2,10 134:8 184:4

187:16 188:19 197:14

197:22 218:4 324:13

345:9

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charter 7:14 8:21 9:15

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359:1,3

checkout 359:4

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Chicago 27:11 292:16

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197:12,13 198:3

199:16 200:2,3,12

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248:7

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202:13 204:11,15

205:3,8 207:12,21

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Chip 3:15 79:20 98:4

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205:10,15

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350:1

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219:8 222:15 223:1

249:2,5 251:4

CHRISTOPHER 3:13

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Cinnabar 178:16

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321:8

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176:14

Cisco 81:5

cities 242:3,9 285:12

287:2

citrus 258:21 259:4

280:8

City 292:16 339:3

claim 34:11

clarification 116:18

121:11

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347:5

clarifying 252:1

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classroom 207:5

208:17 210:9 231:18

231:22 234:2

classrooms 209:17

clear 94:7 121:15 125:4

172:3 178:4 251:15

310:17 314:13 315:15

clearances 114:13

clearly 121:15 194:10

305:18 314:8 341:17

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clickable 302:16

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262:15 266:16 271:8

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close 65:14 94:11

109:19 110:6 173:21

349:8

closed 110:19 313:21

closely 55:10 178:7

221:21 268:13 286:8

287:22 295:11 336:2

337:20 339:1 354:12

closer 113:4 282:9

closest 320:13

Closing 4:21

cloud-based 342:16

club 36:20

CNPP 196:10

co-chair 15:7 251:11

co-ops 290:2

Co-Owner/Manager 2:6

Coalition 32:3

coast 357:15

Coborn's 2:18 24:2

331:14

cocktails 6:17

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255:22 256:1

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184:17 286:10

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149:2 154:12 155:1

156:4 167:7,13

270:21

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colleague 55:8 219:2

333:8

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collect 94:13 101:10

117:4 119:9 121:20

122:17 127:7 135:10

237:15 344:16

collected 122:4 124:3

128:12 146:3

collecting 122:4,6

126:14 237:21,21

345:3

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237:13 239:21 240:6

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267:19

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20:8 29:8 39:17 47:16

53:11 58:20 72:9

81:20 82:4 84:20

87:12 91:13 98:17

135:20 150:2 153:8

154:1 161:7 164:5

179:14 187:16 189:8

194:21 195:9,16

214:4 221:9 248:14

251:8 254:4 262:10

273:20 281:22 289:13

303:18 310:21 319:8

319:22 320:6,13

321:3 329:12 330:15

332:22 341:2 351:20

359:5

comes 58:15 162:17

191:13 206:7 210:15

231:14,19 232:16

233:10,20 253:1,10

315:8 323:12 344:5

344:11

comfortable 233:6

comfortably 56:9

coming 5:16 6:9 15:14

16:18 19:21 24:19

48:22 49:15 59:20

66:9 79:19 92:2 99:22

120:17 140:9 146:10

180:6 187:4,15

211:20 212:10 222:1

231:18 236:17 239:9

247:20 264:1 276:9

278:21 299:1 305:8

333:8

comment 6:4 50:2
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179:22 194:17 221:11

228:6 252:2 256:14

327:16 328:7 329:19

332:10 356:22 358:5

commentary 15:1

comments 4:5,20 15:5

18:21 29:20 54:6

68:14 69:7 99:12

116:8 131:9,19 186:5

192:4 193:13 194:3

219:7 228:9 246:1

248:20 260:19 280:20

281:6,17 296:11

301:11 303:10 306:13

308:19 309:22 323:2

343:17

commerce 123:1,9

commercial 29:2 64:15

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commitment 19:20

355:2

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149:17 243:9

committee 1:3,10 4:6

7:22 8:12 9:3 10:16

12:12,18 13:2,8,12

14:12,19 15:7,20 16:4

16:8,11,21 17:7 18:5

18:9 19:11,17 23:3

26:16 30:18 41:20

43:3,5,8,9,15 44:2,10

44:11,16 45:8,13,19

45:21 46:6 48:10,13

49:13 50:20 56:17,20

61:9 64:1 65:4 66:2

71:20 72:19 80:3

90:16 92:5 98:11

180:18,21 181:1,3,20

182:16 183:7,16

184:5,6 190:14

191:18 195:17 250:4

252:4 256:10 257:3,6

260:6,21 277:19

285:22 331:15,16,19

342:4 351:8 355:13

355:14,20 356:9

358:18

Committee's 65:22

189:13 193:20

committees 23:17 60:3

69:18,21 70:2 252:14

266:1

commodities 24:22

44:13 80:20 121:17

183:17 339:9 348:11

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56:1 119:7 249:11

290:4 338:10 339:9

339:10

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209:16 244:18

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356:19

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207:9 226:15

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communities 27:10

86:6 110:1 158:8

196:6 216:20 235:6,7

235:15,21 286:17,22

287:19 291:10,14

324:9 327:22

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91:16 105:22 110:20

117:17 158:14 162:21

173:22 207:6 216:14

217:8,18 230:3

262:20 275:12 287:2

288:21 289:2 291:15

297:18 298:14 304:21

326:12 328:3 330:1

community-based

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337:20

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145:16

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311:8

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267:10 270:4 273:20

274:19 330:2

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246:8

completed 161:11

171:20

completely 93:15

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103:19

complexity 87:6 116:1

311:19

compliance 47:5 64:13

99:6,9,18,21 102:14

102:15 104:13 106:1

107:9 115:5 130:4,6

130:10 132:8,8

138:16 140:1,9,14,20

144:14,15 177:6,22

178:2,5 183:11

186:14 188:15

compliant 160:13

complicated 255:11

292:5 312:10,22

313:22 330:17 331:3

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comply 62:20 84:5,15

104:2 107:15 129:17

130:15,20 131:21

140:3 141:14

complying 105:22

130:17 132:1

component 60:9,20

201:22 232:14 261:19

269:22 275:5 299:11

324:19

components 202:1

299:16

comprehensive 84:16

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113:16 117:16 150:6

170:2 173:16 183:5

212:14 258:8 308:3

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100:16 101:22 159:2

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190:13 257:13 276:15

348:16

conduct 141:22 263:12

265:20

conducted 139:2 143:9

236:7

conference 74:16 104:7

225:3 259:18,19

350:5 356:10

conferences 224:22

225:1,19 245:10

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171:22

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134:2

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Congress 189:5 231:2

248:15 253:14 254:14

266:7 278:7 279:3,13

306:2 311:5 329:4

345:4 347:16

congressional 230:21

304:8 307:18

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235:22 314:7

connected 154:18

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245:12 264:21

connection 286:14

317:13

consequences 139:10

Conservancy 1:14

conservation 302:8

consider 80:20 95:4

104:11 190:15 207:3

263:10,14 307:16

consideration 69:17

83:3 308:7

considerations 116:10

considered 83:22 103:3

143:21 168:20 177:1

308:16

considering 100:3,12

323:15

consignee 137:17

138:1,3

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119:18 173:13

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206:17 224:3 228:11

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203:20 204:16 320:19

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16:15 17:1 23:4

194:13 195:21 199:14

202:20 203:1,14,22

204:2,5,13 213:8

218:1 228:21 232:21

233:17 249:4 251:16
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contained 275:5

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217:3,14

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continue 19:3 64:20

65:22 66:10 93:18

159:20 176:2 185:18

187:7 188:5,12,13

204:7 210:6 218:21

246:18 247:12,16

248:9,11 257:19

260:21 305:14 312:19

332:5 337:15 349:3

continued 257:16

269:22 331:21

continues 64:5 337:10

347:19

continuing 53:1 182:5

248:3 284:20 357:6

contract 330:10

contractor 27:20,22

contribute 349:16,18

control 82:16 114:7,8,8

114:9 253:13 254:13

controlled 139:16

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140:8,12,15 146:13

151:2

convene 149:2

convenes 4:6 78:21

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165:4 186:8 189:1

193:18 194:2 200:13

228:3 252:20 282:1

283:6 285:22 351:12

357:4,14

conversations 162:11

249:6 256:16 358:2,7

convinced 172:10

COO 30:2

cool 50:21 51:10

cooperate 337:19

346:21

cooperating 123:18

cooperation 338:1

cooperative 83:21

105:3 107:4,20 108:1

108:7 110:17 111:7

111:16 112:17 116:21

117:22 118:4 119:12

119:14 120:2,9,16

122:7 124:2,9,15

127:5 128:2,13

129:12,13 133:11

134:8 149:5,15 152:3

154:7,21 155:12

164:10,17 165:16

171:18 174:9 193:7

304:22

cooperator 62:10

155:13

cooperators 153:6

coordinate 159:3 165:9

273:18

coordinated 149:19

154:4 189:6 275:8

350:6

coordinates 187:21

coordinating 154:22

258:16 264:16

coordination 151:17

153:9,14 154:2,9,19

157:8 160:22 165:3

165:15 258:10 260:3

272:10 273:19 277:10

coordinator 243:13

coordinators 288:7

copies 182:15 210:19

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(202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com

Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc.

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(202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com

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Koster 180:19

Kovacs 3:8 4:10 7:11

97:22,22 147:6,8

148:13 166:15 168:21

170:10 174:11 175:16

177:20 227:20 229:1

291:6 302:1 303:11

306:14 319:17 330:7

KRISTINE 1:19

kudos 61:5

Kwok 262:4

L

lab 100:18

label 299:22

labor 18:17 27:20,22

51:4 358:18

laboratories 268:15

laboratory 190:10

labs 100:18,18

lack 101:7

ladies 68:4

Lady 197:1

lag 258:21

Lake 28:9

Lakeside 2:19 26:13

land 263:22 264:11

265:18 272:7,18

273:9,12 274:7

284:15 302:8 324:1

landscape 110:12,14

253:12,16

language 158:12 167:2

185:19 209:6 211:2

321:15

language-specific

187:2

languages 166:2,19

168:14 169:4 185:8

185:11,13 186:13

large 80:9 91:5 130:4

130:14 185:22 186:15

210:8 272:3 278:19

278:20

larger 175:3 217:8,17

329:1

largest 287:1

lasting 46:8

lastly 65:14

late 284:14

lately 34:11

latest 208:11

Latin 2:15 30:15 226:21

latitude 58:9

Laughter 89:20 182:11

252:10 318:5 331:17

333:13 351:16 355:7

358:10

launch 140:19

launched 83:12

Laura 3:13 36:6,18

law 88:20 156:9 286:21

laws 76:2

lawyers 315:13

lead 62:13 109:16,20

163:18,22 164:3,5

168:6,9,9 169:11,19

170:7,13,20,20

171:11 172:5 173:2,6

182:20 196:16 263:16

274:15 283:20 322:11

Leader 261:7

leaders 262:3 263:15

leadership 10:13 23:16

42:5 51:18

leading 18:15 280:16

leads 240:2 245:8 342:7

Leanne 3:14 36:5,10

61:17 176:4 182:6

184:13 188:6 355:3

learn 57:18 152:16

164:4 196:18 210:4

214:18 215:15 302:17

320:15

learned 155:12 165:10

168:22 249:12,15,16

250:9 301:4

learning 12:17 29:7

163:15 195:18 208:1

209:21 211:1 214:18

220:14 285:14,14,19

leave 18:20 68:21 179:8

179:17,20 351:13,22

357:1

led 16:16 155:2 263:4

294:3

leech 172:14

left 6:7,7 26:19,21 44:7

44:8 348:1

leftover 308:22

legal 87:15 174:5

lends 231:8

lengthy 313:9

less-healthy 206:14

lesson 211:22

lessons 210:5

let's 6:10,22 27:8 35:18

161:3 196:22 197:6

202:17 203:9,19

208:14 220:4 221:19

256:4,5

letter 138:18

letting 49:1 93:9

lettuce 32:12,13 202:21

level 41:11 46:1 78:4,10

82:9 106:15 112:3,6

117:5 118:3,21 119:9

119:13 124:10 126:7

128:9 135:10 137:10

142:11 143:21 144:5

152:4 188:6 192:13

192:21 209:9 210:13

218:11,12 224:12

229:4 236:11 263:8

284:8 285:22 307:18

308:16 336:2 337:22

343:1

levels 45:4 51:19 53:20

129:3 143:19 156:17

217:10 322:12 334:19

leverage 224:16

leveraging 271:12

liaison 36:12 61:18

170:17 182:5 187:12

188:1,20 192:5,18

193:3,10 221:18

liaisons 226:11

Liang-Shiou 262:4

library 28:15,16

lieu 76:15

life 32:5 215:13 232:16

234:17 235:3 246:4

lifeline 353:5

lifesaver 223:12

lift 239:22

light 128:1,2

lighting 294:2,4 300:8
(202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com

Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc.

379

likelihood 258:15

likes 131:6

limbo 354:10

limit 86:13

limitation 267:8 286:18

limited 142:17 143:4

150:9 170:4 177:10

177:19 239:12,13

269:18 335:3 340:12

limits 201:13 267:8

limping 340:5

Lin 262:5

line 14:18 163:9 173:2

314:13

line-by-line 79:1

lines 169:12 272:10

279:5

linked 233:22

list 11:20 117:14 120:18

127:5 169:12 173:4

223:6 274:21 311:1

339:11 349:14 350:7

354:18

listed 89:17 210:16

238:2 302:4 304:19

listening 168:22 346:1

lists 9:15 304:1

Listserv 98:19,20,21

99:2 103:6

literacy 209:20 210:1

literally 58:1

little 7:8 8:19 9:7 20:1

25:7 27:1 29:1 35:7

38:16 39:19 44:4

46:11 54:17 59:3

66:18 75:5,6 104:12

133:7 135:20 139:22

150:13 159:13 163:9

163:10 166:7 170:11

180:15 187:1 191:16

193:1,18 194:15,19

197:7,8 198:11 204:3

211:17 215:10 228:3

228:4 229:19 233:5

249:2,3,16,20 250:2

252:7 255:18 256:3

263:20 266:2 270:16

274:2 284:3 290:18

292:5,19 297:14

302:22 303:3 306:10

331:10 340:21 341:21

343:20 349:7 356:5

live 35:14,15 168:3

302:14

lived 33:10

lively 337:12

livestock 55:13 344:7

living 312:14

LLC 1:15,19 2:3,16

LLP 1:17 2:14

loaded 70:16

loan 289:12,14 291:7

291:12,13 292:2

309:14 321:22 322:9

loans 304:21

lobby 6:16 349:10

local 23:8 33:5 35:14

148:3 154:11 155:1,6

156:4 158:8 161:6

206:15 216:12,15,20

217:1 218:12,19

229:5,10 230:9

231:11 233:4 234:14

235:8 236:18 237:6

238:12,15 242:22

243:7,14 244:2,21

245:10 283:11 287:8

288:10 289:1 292:3

294:18,22 296:5,15

296:19 297:20 299:16

299:22 300:4,6 302:5

303:4,6,13,19 304:5

304:11 309:9 314:12

317:10 322:20 324:18

325:12 326:13,21

327:4 328:8,14

329:22

locally 32:16 232:10

239:1 294:21 295:18

300:5

locally-procured

231:17

located 34:22 245:8

317:22

location 273:15 336:11

336:22

locations 341:2

log 79:19

long 3:9 4:19 18:2

23:19,20 32:10,10

42:9 44:5 46:8 49:17

53:16 79:19 149:13

181:17 182:7 223:5

255:11,15 258:21,21

259:3 261:9,9 264:6

333:7,14 343:18

344:1,4 345:16 346:6

346:11,14,17

longer 73:22 87:8 133:1

147:11 174:2 246:22

longest 52:8,9

look 14:9 31:20 45:17

46:19 56:19 60:5 69:4

77:17 80:21 82:10,14

82:15 84:22 85:6,9,12

87:4 104:7 113:5

116:12 124:8 131:16

135:1 155:21 159:18

186:12 194:1 203:9

220:8 221:1 232:8

243:10 260:19,21

286:15 295:16 297:4

298:9 303:1 304:7,7

305:2 329:10 336:4

349:13 355:16 357:17

looked 37:2 45:19

73:14 94:15 95:2,3

246:6 339:19

looking 22:16 43:21

44:21 45:4 52:2,19

61:8 72:15,20 74:6

77:5 86:6 87:8 88:7

92:10 96:1 100:11,20

101:15 102:3 113:3

113:19 114:3 115:22

116:5,15 118:20,21

119:19,20 126:1

127:21 156:5 167:19

176:22 183:3 202:16

208:11 227:8 241:12

249:14 260:18 273:14

275:9 277:2 290:12

293:18,19 294:6

295:9 299:20 304:11

307:2 326:17,18

327:5,7 329:3 331:16

339:22 357:15,19

looks 13:22 32:1 45:11

79:1 83:15 165:11

205:16 232:11 243:4

loop 170:12

Lorelei 3:5 221:6,8,9,12

223:12 228:8

Lorenzo 3:16 79:20

98:2

Lorri 180:19

lose 325:18

loses 94:11

losing 166:11

loss 358:4

losses 93:18 357:13

lost 166:5 357:8,10

lots 5:20 45:9 149:11

149:11 199:21 231:10

242:20

love 23:5 24:5,10 26:8

30:21 32:5 298:22

299:1,14 300:12,14

300:16

loved 26:5

loves 30:6 239:9

loving 356:18

low 48:3 80:20 222:11

223:7

Lower 238:13

lowest 204:13 241:7

lucrative 290:17

Lucy 354:5,8,19

lunch 6:12 15:18,22

195:12 197:21 198:5

198:10 199:7,17

200:14,21 201:20

203:12 205:19 213:7

213:16,22 219:17

227:14 231:12 232:7

242:7,20 243:1,4

250:16

lunches 198:14 199:2

227:9 238:6 242:13

243:8

lunchtime 211:19

M

machines 206:1

Mack 33:16

magnifying 168:10

mail 344:18

mailed 345:13,18

mailing 344:13,21

main 183:2 230:13

236:6 264:14 270:10

334:19

maintain 246:16 265:20

maintained 307:18

maintaining 173:13

major 33:6 75:14 76:18

190:12 264:10,20

274:4 293:2 336:2

337:4,18 338:3

majority 244:18 309:2

328:9,11

making 32:6 43:5 56:22

57:1 62:3 77:8 93:4

105:9 106:16 149:10

202:1 217:11 237:14

243:9 290:15 314:6

314:16 315:2

Maldonado 2:2 8:9

31:14,15

manage 93:19 324:22

342:6

managed 197:2 248:6

management 64:14

75:17 84:3,17 296:13

297:3 312:3 313:10

manager 1:16,18,21 2:1

2:10 29:10 84:1 230:5

Manager/Supply 2:2

mandate 153:16 193:5

230:21

mandated 248:9

mandatory 142:17
(202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com

Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc.

380

148:18

Manes 3:9 37:6,6

Manitowoc 26:14

manner 136:22 186:22

manufacturing 74:9

map 303:13,14

maps 315:21

marathon 25:4,7 31:4

March 74:15 75:7

250:11

Mark 2:6 21:20 34:21

51:16 247:19 253:18

marked 42:15

market 2:1,1 4:18,18,19

18:2,4,6 23:12 27:4

28:21 31:16 32:16

41:19 148:6,21

234:14 250:6 260:16

275:20 283:11,22

284:5,12 289:8

290:17 291:5 294:18

295:12 296:1,2,4,8,13

296:18,21 297:1,3,18

298:12 299:20 301:7

309:9 322:20 324:17

325:11 326:20 328:8

329:21 331:9,22

332:19 333:2 334:7

335:7 337:7 339:21

341:10,21 342:1,10

342:21,22 344:4,7,9

344:14,16,21,22

345:2,4,12,15 346:19

347:10,12,19 348:3,7

348:11,16

marketing 1:21 17:18

24:15 25:2 27:6 43:14

46:11 55:12 60:1,3

91:21 196:11 206:9

206:12,16 223:18,22

224:8 252:22 254:7

259:8 282:5,6,8,12

294:14 295:1 298:14

309:8 314:10,12

315:4 348:10

marketplace 72:12

markets 17:15 33:5

117:6 155:6 234:16

284:9,10,10,14,16,18

285:4,4,19 286:1,20

286:20 289:5 294:22

295:17,19 297:22

298:20 300:6 302:10

303:18 317:10,11,12

334:19,21 335:2,12

335:13 336:20,20

338:12 339:3,4

341:18 343:4

Marlene 3:2 5:6 11:22

12:15 13:13 14:17

21:13,22 57:4 59:8,12

69:2 71:16 252:9

279:18 350:4,9

352:10 353:20 355:13

356:8,19

Marlene's 13:11 24:22

married 34:18

MARS 340:3,9,14 342:8

346:18

marshaling 259:1

Martin 2:2 8:9 31:15

Maryland 23:1

Master 35:13

Master's 246:6

Mat 262:5

match 304:9 335:8

material 196:12

materials 94:7 151:13

166:18 167:8,21

168:1,3 169:2 198:1

207:18 208:15 218:4

math 28:5 94:17 96:12

209:6 211:2 222:13

matter 70:18 77:2 94:16

106:6 167:5 180:3

239:8 256:6 359:21

Maui 24:10

max 325:11,13

Maximilian 3:10 97:8

McAlister 2:8

McReynolds 2:4 4:10

4:14 20:15,16 32:21

32:22 53:17,18 81:14

81:15 82:7 83:4 89:12

90:2,4 93:21 94:3,6

95:8 115:11,11,15,21

116:17 117:3 119:8

120:10,13,20,22

121:5 127:3,8,11,14

127:18 169:10 171:4

173:11 180:17 182:10

182:12 187:5 192:22

193:22 256:19 277:17

279:1,8,14 304:16

307:9 324:13 351:14

meal 197:15 199:6,17

200:17,18 201:17,18

203:5,12 204:4 212:7

214:19 227:3,14

228:1 232:11 234:11

238:13 244:16

meals 67:7 198:9

203:18 205:2,6

236:19 242:17

mean 29:16,19 48:16

51:8,22 54:5 82:1,10

86:14 91:10 101:9,17

113:6 114:2,20 116:1

117:5,7 119:17

121:19 125:5 127:4

127:14,18,20 129:5

131:12 134:14,20

135:11 158:19 167:12

171:4 186:6 220:11

223:5 239:8 252:12

253:14 257:10 258:2

279:3 307:11,17,22

310:7,9 312:19

315:12 337:12 345:14

Meaning 114:8

means 101:7 137:19

201:3

measuring 101:20

meat 47:11 236:20

meaty 351:9,15

mechanisms 156:2

media 207:7 224:17

medicine 265:19

medium 153:12 181:15

meet 9:3 19:4 62:5

64:18 79:3 84:10

85:19 105:7 130:12

140:15 148:16,20

169:8 187:4 206:17

209:2 240:22 268:2

283:12 291:17 294:10

299:9 303:17 305:16

308:12 350:22 356:11

meeting 1:5 4:3 8:13

9:5,5 11:5,12 13:5,12

13:14 14:2,11,11,14

14:17 15:6 17:13

18:16 19:21 20:11

26:6 34:13 35:16 49:1

50:12,15 66:13 68:18

69:4 72:19 77:2 85:2

94:19 103:13,16,21

180:20 181:21,22

182:17 187:10 201:5

204:10 249:5 250:7

259:16 260:1 292:17

297:15 298:2 342:4

354:2 355:3 356:20

meetings 12:5,9 20:9

35:3 41:20 45:8,9

49:9 91:12 100:6

103:15 106:7 184:14

245:11 249:9 350:7

meetings/discussions

106:14

meets 122:11 136:22

283:5 329:7

Melissa 7:5 8:22 11:16

11:21 12:1 20:15,21

24:14 28:20 39:17,20

61:9 63:1 66:21 69:3

70:21 96:18,19 252:9

252:12 353:20

Melissa's 57:3

member 33:3 258:6

members 1:13 8:9 10:3

23:5,5,6 44:2 50:21

62:4 69:18 84:14,19

105:20 183:7 216:14

331:16 332:14 349:12

memorandum 20:2

memory 332:17

men's 6:5

mention 18:17 218:10

241:6 247:11 292:10

295:8 306:17 309:13

317:3 323:4 352:22

357:3 358:1

mentioned 59:8,17

60:13 61:1 63:1 65:1

71:16 81:15 92:4

93:12 103:11 157:10

161:15 168:4 175:17

232:13 233:1,14

236:5 244:11 245:17

276:10 295:6 304:19

311:3 313:12 316:2

328:6 354:1

mentoring 18:16

mentorship 164:1

menu 205:5 212:19,20

merchant 158:4

Merrill 3:10 97:8,9

message 254:6 343:2

messages 206:5 207:4

207:10,13,14 212:3,6

224:19

met 1:10 12:4 50:9,17

148:2 175:8 352:16

method 100:19 152:21

methods 100:16 103:11

103:19,20 154:3

269:1,4

metrics 162:4 164:13

Mexican 336:12,13

Mexico 335:18

Miami 31:15

mic 6:1 36:5 87:13 97:4

97:5 221:10 229:12

281:10,12,13,16

282:9

Michael 2:1 4:16 23:11

283:21

Michelle 197:1

Michigan 28:13 37:18

151:19 153:10

microbial 189:16
(202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com

Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc.

381

microphone 29:20 50:2

56:9 87:11 123:4

148:12 179:22 194:17

221:11 228:6,9

256:14 281:6,17

296:11 303:10 308:19

309:22 332:10

mics 5:20,21 6:3 11:2

mid-size 158:1

mid-sized 288:18

mid-tier 290:10

middle 24:7 39:22 40:6

41:14 206:11 215:4

228:17

Midwest 26:15

miles 123:2,7

milestone 42:16

milk 198:17 201:12

milling 290:15

million 94:11 218:16

222:2 231:1 237:2,6

239:14 240:18,21

241:16,17 272:4

275:2 285:8 287:15

309:10,11 322:6,7,10

322:18,19,22 339:20

344:6

mind 312:21 359:7

minds 351:6

mine 97:6 148:11

minimally 128:3

minimum 86:10 123:17

123:22 125:7 133:9

mining 269:4

Minnesota 24:3

Minor 3:11 97:12,13

minority 33:18

minute 12:14 57:13

70:12,22 143:17

339:16

minutes 34:8 59:1

213:17 251:7 256:5

259:17

misbranded 137:14

mislead 320:12

missed 332:16 352:21

353:9,13

mission 192:12,12

263:9 268:3 314:7

334:11

missions 192:14

305:16

mitigate 324:7

mix 304:8

MOAD 60:5

mode 307:11

model 129:11 145:13

145:17 325:7,9

343:10

modern 52:9 275:18

Modernization 15:21

98:19 136:8 160:16

175:19

modules 244:22

molecular 269:7

moment 38:14 112:22

333:4 354:10

moments 212:1 249:3

momentum 267:14

money 96:3 169:20

183:20 185:3 220:9

222:9 223:4 246:14

246:18 268:2 281:18

291:12 297:8 299:14

308:1 311:1,5 318:19

325:5,16 341:9,14

344:4

monitor 276:18 348:17

Monte 215:19

month 93:9 103:17,18

140:10 144:17 159:9

monthly 154:3 157:7

165:15

months 5:11 25:17

55:21 109:9 113:11

113:12 140:14 182:8

186:15 196:21 200:8

230:2

morning 7:11,19 15:8

16:13 18:13 23:10

25:9 26:12,20 27:18

28:12 29:9,21 30:14

31:14 32:2,21 34:20

36:9 42:17 48:22

97:14,17 98:4,9 136:1

186:9 202:17 352:19

358:22 359:9

Morris 3:11 10:12 25:19

25:20 38:10,12 55:5

55:15 56:4,11 347:4

mother 333:15,22 334:2

motivation 205:9

motto 334:13 343:13

MoU 78:18

Mountain 2:13

move 14:20 16:14 17:8

40:15 56:8 105:9,14

114:2,12 115:1 118:9

120:9,15 141:16

147:14 152:7 180:9

191:21 196:22 221:19

284:2 300:5 321:17

338:22

moved 55:19 196:14

230:7 270:1 284:16

movement 8:15 10:7

48:7 335:15 336:6,7

336:10,22 338:6,15

338:16,17,17 348:19

moves 296:8

moving 10:6 15:10

18:12 19:16 64:9

71:21 78:6 80:4 102:4

104:15 108:15 112:19

118:17 175:10 247:8

294:21 296:4 300:1,2

300:3 321:12 348:3

Mt 35:15

multi 273:6,16 277:10

278:14

multi- 244:7 272:3

273:14

multi-investigator

272:3

multi-million 278:14

multi-state 158:17,21

266:1

multiple 26:2 101:3

105:12 153:20 155:3

167:10 207:8 244:7

258:16 310:2 315:13

319:7 345:8

municipality 289:1

mushroom 1:20 3:13

34:13,16,17,19 36:19

mushrooms 34:19

36:21 37:4

musketeers 281:21

Mycologist/Technical

1:19

myriad 62:6

Myrtle 22:14

myth 238:14

myths 238:5,21

N

NAFTA 51:12

name 5:6 21:16 27:2

29:9 31:5,14 33:15

44:7,8 76:21 97:12,14

97:17,20 117:10

124:5 136:1 192:6

195:12 197:19 229:22

261:6

name's 27:19 32:22

NAPM 297:15

NASDA 151:22

NATHANIEL 3:15

nation 231:3

national 3:10 24:18

41:22 81:6 97:9 105:4

151:16 152:11 153:8

154:2 155:2 157:7,12

165:14 196:3 197:21

198:4,10 209:8

218:11 226:4,9 229:4

240:2 245:7 247:1

250:15 261:7,7 262:3

263:15 265:12 268:7

272:2 285:20 286:15

286:16 310:20 324:21

325:21 336:2 337:2

nationwide 198:22

239:22 338:1

Native 154:12 156:9

natural 232:3,6 266:18

nature 140:5 179:19

298:17 354:5

navigate 291:1

Navy 148:2

NCC 154:8

Neal 3:12 4:15 281:1,8

281:11,14,18 282:4

286:3,6 291:4 294:12

298:8 305:11 309:7

313:6 322:16 324:15

328:7

near 39:5 280:11

289:21

nearing 186:14

nearly 56:11 213:18

necessarily 43:3,20

147:14 154:13 158:19

183:18 238:15 273:17

283:12 296:5 320:1

327:21 344:2

necessary 58:19

187:10

need 5:22 7:8 11:8,9

32:20 42:22 43:16

46:18 47:17 53:5

56:21 58:14 62:5,20

67:13 68:4,8,15 69:1

69:22 70:14 73:5

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procedures 137:9

138:15 300:10

process 9:9,13 10:2

13:13 41:13 54:18

73:20 75:2,20 77:6

78:8 79:12,18 80:1,10

82:2 93:3 96:8 103:10

103:12 114:6 116:9

117:19 150:5 153:4

155:10 165:8 170:7

170:11 171:12,13

172:4,19 175:4,21

190:19 191:2,4,10

245:2 254:11,13

255:11,11 269:7,8

310:6 313:7 314:1

319:13 326:19 330:16

333:19 340:16 355:19

processed 337:12

processes 137:9 188:3

188:4,10 189:19

313:14

processing 35:10 74:9

289:18 290:14 302:9

335:11 339:10

processors 158:3

303:17

procurement 29:4

238:20 243:15 244:21

249:11

produce 2:1,17 4:11

16:15 23:3,12 24:1

29:2,3,12 30:17 33:7

37:7,15 38:16 43:12

43:19 61:20 62:10

63:15 76:8 97:16

98:13 99:14,19,22

100:22 103:17 104:16

105:6,17 106:1,12,22

107:9,16 109:12

110:5,16 119:5

123:10,13 126:2

129:17 135:21 137:12

140:8,13,16,18

146:12,18 150:22

152:12 168:17 169:12

171:16 176:1 184:10

184:11,16 194:13

208:15 221:13 228:2

228:2 231:21 232:10

233:4 234:8 236:20

238:17 242:6,16,22

243:7 245:19 249:4

249:12,14,16 250:6

273:5 283:22 295:12

307:4 334:10 335:21

336:8

produced 136:22

producer 96:4 178:4

185:2 290:1,2 292:11

292:14,18 294:9

305:1 312:9 322:5

producers 28:8 62:22

66:1 84:4 95:13 148:8

148:15 149:12 153:12

153:13 156:18 157:2

157:5 169:8 170:5

178:1 181:15,16

183:5,19 234:14

241:5,7,13 244:2

290:2,13 293:13

294:8 296:17 302:11

316:3 348:14

produces 142:3

producing 168:17

product 11:6 41:18

47:17 48:7 84:14

269:11 294:22 295:18

300:1,3,4,5,10 335:14

production 74:8,10

82:14 99:7 106:5

121:1 262:16 266:12

269:10,16 294:5

302:8

products 33:7 42:20

43:15,17 48:6 91:21

104:7 159:1 206:14

237:6 269:16 321:18

335:3 337:13 354:3

355:15

profession 320:22

professional 324:4
(202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com

Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc.

386

professionals 205:1

212:17

profile 101:4,5 177:14

profit 264:19 289:15

305:22

profits 243:22

program's 322:3

progress 98:22 103:8

109:13 110:4 141:12

185:10

prohibitive 11:2

project 71:18 159:10

176:8 272:1,5 275:9

285:8 289:13 295:8

310:4 311:15 314:7

314:11,20 319:21

323:10 326:12,13

329:8 341:7

projects 157:10 158:6

158:15,17 163:7

167:7 240:15 265:14

273:7,16 275:2,5

277:11,11 278:13,13

278:19,19,20,22

285:7 287:14 289:20

291:17 294:21 299:5

304:1,13 306:22

315:4,6 324:20 326:7

327:5 330:2

promote 62:7 224:20

225:19 260:16 301:2

promoting 245:18

promotion 22:3,5 25:1

59:9,12 60:6,7 196:9

196:17 246:7 283:11

294:19 309:9 322:21

324:17,18 326:21

327:4 328:9 329:21

329:22

proper 105:11

properly 84:10 85:14

85:18

proposal 53:6

proposed 54:2,7 102:9

102:10 167:6 182:21

305:4,11 306:5

proposing 349:2

protect 82:12

protected 82:19 230:21

protecting 117:13

protection 64:3 137:11

151:18 153:10

protocol 190:10

proven 320:19

provide 10:13 15:1

18:13 41:2 42:19

43:11,17 49:3 59:22

60:19 61:21 79:7

88:16 104:1,4 105:21

128:8 137:8,9 139:14

141:6 153:4,14

159:21 167:2 204:22

208:19 218:3 230:14

250:14 264:12 265:1

265:16 278:7 283:15

289:8 290:7 312:6,11

provided 109:4 110:21

111:21 161:17 198:11

199:7 217:15 276:3

348:8

provider 198:9

providers 176:9

provides 264:22

providing 10:13 11:3

19:18 71:16 72:21

92:8 93:15 197:13

201:16 231:16 240:6

272:16 348:12

provision 131:1

PSA 62:12,13,13 110:4

166:3,16 167:12,18

170:7,17 171:1,10

172:22 174:8 183:8

184:19,21 185:5,7,18

PSN 107:19

PSNs 106:9

PTA 225:6,20

public 1:16 4:5 9:5,5

15:5 37:10 54:6 68:13

78:13 111:14 137:10

169:13 196:17 197:5

198:1 203:14,16

230:6 257:8,17

279:17 310:10,12

342:19,20 344:18

345:5

publically 344:17

publicly 133:13,17

published 92:11

publishing 189:12

Puerto 240:17

pull 67:1 147:6 162:18

339:21 340:14,17,18

350:20

pulled 339:19

pulling 51:13 163:22

339:22

pulpy 351:15

purchase 60:14 137:22

199:4

purchased 137:21

purchasing 294:20

348:17

Purdue 42:16 53:21

57:15

Purdue's 54:1

Purdy 3:13 28:18,18

Pure 2:3

purpose 13:5 141:8

293:21 295:20,20,21

purposes 81:3 103:21

118:14,15 135:5,5

purses 179:17

purview 129:3 252:16

253:19

Purvis 3:14 37:9,9

push 56:7 186:18

pushed 253:3 263:7

pushing 228:4

put 7:12 9:10 11:9 14:5

19:7 29:1 37:3 57:7

71:3 73:7 76:3 88:12

92:3 114:7 159:10

164:16 205:4 288:2

293:9,16 303:15

310:9 313:4 316:4

320:11 331:20 336:9

349:1 352:18

puts 121:6,14

putting 102:8 207:17

208:10 251:12 327:1

Q

Q&A 201:13

QMS 84:22 85:2

quagmire 352:13

qualified 121:13,19

122:11,15 142:8

qualify 303:1

quality 42:19 84:3,16

101:4 145:15 190:4

192:8 207:17,19

220:11 269:12 270:8

275:10,20 327:12

quantitative 270:7

quantities 340:19

quantity 202:10

quarterly 165:2,7

quartet 281:15

question 6:3 50:1,5

51:15 52:18 83:5

86:12 87:16 113:15

116:19 128:5 134:9

171:9 174:12,21

178:8 183:4 185:7

189:16 220:17 222:15

223:1,17 224:12

226:4 229:13 239:12

246:11 247:18 252:1

252:8 285:15 317:15

319:6,18,19

questioned 79:21

questions 4:20 41:7

49:5,20 55:1 56:12

68:3,10 71:12 80:7

96:14 112:11 115:16

131:20 133:6 135:15

146:8 147:2 162:14

162:18 165:21 169:9

170:16 173:14 179:11

180:10 187:9 189:20

191:17,17,19,20

193:13,20 194:3

219:1,5,6,10 223:16

226:19 230:19 235:8

235:12 236:10 237:16

244:15,18 246:1

248:19 277:14,16

278:8 280:19 297:5

301:11 306:12 310:1

323:1 343:16,17

queue 99:19 168:19

quick 50:4 51:15 68:7

71:22 83:8,8 110:6

217:20 223:17 255:20

337:3 356:22 359:6

quickly 14:6 113:22

114:22 141:16 143:5

170:14 173:8,9 183:1

185:20 334:5

quite 18:15 22:8 77:12

113:18 128:5 159:16

263:6 269:22 317:16

324:11 350:21 351:9

R

radar 20:14 280:14

rail 335:17

rain 34:8

raise 70:1 106:15

raised 162:19

raising 65:5,10 285:15

Raleigh 33:8

Ramaswamy 263:4

ramping 109:3 125:19

ran 24:2 94:16 246:5

ranchers 314:10,13,14

314:22 315:4

ranching 266:17

randomly 277:19

range 17:13 185:12

289:19

ranked 310:22

rare 143:4

raspberries 31:17

rate 92:13 199:1 236:12

242:12 313:18 336:5

337:17

rates 203:22 227:9

241:7

ratio's 27:22

rationalizes 131:8
(202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com

Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc.

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RD 299:15 310:19

RD's 287:13

Re- 247:19

Re-Authorization 248:8

re-engage 297:16

re-up 34:14

reach 56:10 72:14

157:19 158:8,10

159:21 160:9 198:7

200:8 223:19 225:21

244:9 253:1 356:8

reached 354:5

reaching 74:2 165:17

react 243:10

read 148:10 315:11

348:5 351:10,18

readdressed 102:4,5

readers 209:12,15

210:5

readiness 152:11,20

153:3

reading 210:7,9

ready 98:8 145:3 148:8

148:16,20 163:18

195:9 240:10 297:4

297:20

real 40:18 68:7 153:4

191:12 212:9 215:13

255:2 261:5 264:16

276:4 277:5 294:8

339:18

reality 299:4,19

realize 33:18 75:21

154:15

realm 72:17 230:7

REAP 293:6 294:11

reason 146:16,17

158:11 308:13

reasonable 254:2,3

reasons 118:2 171:6

263:20 320:3

rebuilding 285:3

receipt 67:9

receipts 67:7,8,10,18

68:9

receive 49:12 68:1 96:6

133:9 142:13 188:18

197:22 206:5 207:4

207:12 241:8 244:14

244:19 246:14 248:10

received 34:6 44:15

99:11 116:8 241:15

259:22

recess 18:10 206:20

213:21

recipes 244:3

recipient 175:6

recision 306:6

recognition 72:2

144:20 146:5 181:9

recognize 62:15 72:22

76:12 102:13,19,20

118:11 144:21 147:22

156:17 173:12 282:18

recognized 144:5

184:19

recognizes 191:4

recognizing 77:4 81:8

recommend 188:11

recommendation 16:11

17:5 18:9 65:3 72:21

73:9 79:14 89:15 92:6

183:3 184:3,15 186:5

187:13 188:20,22

189:13 190:15 192:17

193:8 222:21 250:9

250:21 251:9,13

258:13,20 308:10,14

316:5 333:4 355:9

recommendations 7:17

10:20 16:2,9 19:1,3,8

19:18 20:4,7,19 21:4

61:11 69:10,12 70:3

90:17 91:7 180:14

181:5 182:2,21 184:6

187:8 191:21 193:16

194:11 252:5 254:17

257:5 258:9 259:6

260:2 307:7,10

350:12,18 351:8

352:1 356:16

recommended 204:12

204:16 343:9

recommending 193:2

reconsidering 100:3

reconstituted 181:4

257:2

record 70:19 71:5 180:4

256:7 359:22

recorder 346:1

records 139:6 170:3

recover 92:8 93:15

94:14

recovery 89:15

red 2:7 34:21 36:17

203:7

redirected 278:16

redirecting 278:9

reduce 212:16 213:17

214:1

reduced 198:14,16

199:1 222:6 238:9

242:12

reduction 238:11

347:22

redundancies 295:7,10

REE 270:12,14

reestablish 317:13

refer 293:6 309:3

referee 28:10 32:18

referenced 301:19

302:19 306:4

referred 290:10

refresh 147:13 179:15

332:16

refrigeration 300:8

regard 20:3 107:18

140:17 323:6 353:17

regarding 137:14

201:12 233:19

regardless 254:20

regards 69:14 323:5

Regency 1:11

regime 100:21 108:11

region 153:21,21 157:5

164:2,9,10

regional 81:6 106:9

108:13 148:3 153:14

153:17,18 154:4,8

155:9 157:16 161:1

190:2 226:10,11

240:2,3 245:8 257:18

268:7 287:8 288:10

292:3 297:20 303:4

304:5 324:20

regionally 257:9 342:15

regions 106:8,10,13

107:5,7 156:13 157:1

161:5 163:21 164:6

257:14 285:13 288:8

357:6,13 358:2

register 9:10 10:10

126:18,20 312:3

313:13 321:1 323:7

registered 196:1 225:4

registration 126:16,16

127:5,22 128:7

registry 92:12 127:15

Regrettably 320:21

regular 98:22 103:14

105:7 300:17

regulate 107:12 141:2

229:3

regulation 110:10

139:7 141:18,20

189:12 310:11

regulations 76:2

137:13 140:3,9,13,21

206:16 238:22 239:1

244:16 313:10

regulatory 47:1,3

107:14 112:18 175:8

188:3 254:7

reimbursed 145:22

reimbursement 15:3

67:5 68:2 227:9,15

reinforce 212:2,6

214:20 215:11

reinforcement 208:2

reinventing 285:5

reinvigorating 272:17

rejection 313:18

relate 201:10

related 136:8 220:21

275:6 357:5

relation 36:17 317:5

330:8

Relations 1:17

relationship 64:2

246:15 298:13

relationships 81:8

106:21 148:14 226:9

246:16

relatively 312:8

release 272:9

released 74:17,18

268:22 347:15

relevant 66:7 156:16

167:3 289:4,10 304:4

306:21 355:16

reliance 192:14

relied 45:16

rely 49:14

relying 111:10

remain 43:19 93:16

remark 36:21

remarks 4:21 41:1,6

42:18 54:11

remember 35:8 39:13

54:10 90:19 259:16

278:12

remind 200:11

reminder 198:9

reminds 89:4 217:17

remote 276:17

removal 59:21 60:15

Renewable 293:5 322:8

renewal 292:21 293:2

renewed 10:1,2

rep 243:2

repeat 321:19

repetition 209:18

replace 294:3

reply 111:20

report 63:5 194:1 201:5

335:6,9 336:4,6,9,12

336:17 337:3,15,17

348:14

reported 72:19 181:7

reporter 5:19 38:7

337:7

reporters 341:10
(202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com

Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc.

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reporting 64:18 154:3

162:5

reports 4:4 14:20 41:19

278:7 279:2,11,12

336:2 344:14,21

345:12,13,18 348:12

represent 186:17

representative 33:18

101:6 138:3 184:13

representatives 17:18

94:21

represented 9:17 59:7

88:19 184:10 237:1

representing 21:17

33:4 43:10 57:11

65:20

represents 63:6,8

262:2

request 88:14 309:10

335:10

requested 117:18

requesting 133:10

241:15

requests 59:21 120:6

159:8

require 126:21 127:2,6

187:21 203:6 328:22

required 126:18,20

128:3 133:10 137:7

137:11 140:15 183:9

202:3 204:12 216:13

313:20 345:9

requirement 123:18,19

125:2,2,15 126:17

128:7,7,14 143:3,12

183:12

requirements 47:1,3,6

47:13,15 62:6 64:6,19

72:8 73:17 74:4,13

75:1,3,12 77:7,10

79:2,3 84:5,8,11,15

85:2,4,19 99:7 100:8

100:10,12,13 102:9,9

102:10,16,22 108:9

113:19 115:5 116:13

116:15 129:16,20

130:12,15 131:9

132:20 134:21 137:15

140:16 142:22 143:11

144:7 148:6,17 202:6

204:11

requires 136:19 142:11

145:21 175:9 201:18

research 3:3,11 4:14

17:9 22:5 23:15 37:12

59:11 60:6,7 86:18

97:13 103:22 106:17

147:9 190:21 207:18

208:7,11 230:15

232:20 233:11 236:5

237:13 244:1 256:11

256:21 262:6,8

263:13,13 264:7,14

264:15 265:2,3,15,20

266:1 267:15 270:14

272:17 273:1,2,6,13

273:17,18,19 274:13

274:19 275:3 276:8

302:10 306:17,19,21

307:4

researched 182:18

researchers 190:1

273:20 274:7 275:12

276:1

researching 190:4

reservation 178:15

reshaped 189:11

resilience 269:11 271:8

resistance 253:9

275:10

resistant 275:19

resolution 53:2 72:9

248:3 351:20

resolved 114:22 139:21

173:9

resolving 72:9

resonate 208:7

resource 103:7 170:5

214:14 285:20 288:4

301:14,19 306:16

316:20

resources 1:18 107:17

118:16,22 150:9

152:8 155:22 159:22

162:8 164:8 166:2

177:11,19 191:10

197:13,22 208:6

214:10 220:8,10,15

224:10,20 245:19

250:14 251:2 259:1

266:18 268:16 273:3

274:3,8 275:17

285:17 301:8 304:11

319:4 341:19

respect 41:17 45:1

98:17 99:6 101:16

103:8,9 106:12

107:18 108:20 112:8

126:14 128:2 131:11

172:17 176:18 252:21

260:11

responded 236:13

237:1

respondents 238:2

responding 61:10

244:17 260:4

response 19:19 20:2,18

132:3 174:4 193:14

194:7 236:12 241:22

248:21 258:11,17

260:2,20 323:3

337:15

responses 283:4

responsibility 138:6

responsible 258:16

responsive 268:19

rest 167:9

restaurants 296:15

restroom 6:6

result 139:9 200:19

203:12

results 139:14

resume 171:7

resumed 70:19 180:4

256:7

resurgence 276:5

retail 284:10 290:17

334:21 335:1 336:4

336:21 337:2 348:13

retired 26:13 30:2

retroactive 172:19

retroactively 20:19

return 51:19 87:8

325:18 326:18 327:2

327:14

returned 67:22 306:2

review 79:6,11 139:5,13

144:2 152:11,20

211:4 314:18 321:15

355:9

reviewed 182:16

reviewers 314:16,17,19

reviewing 93:3

reviews 78:22

revise 100:13 102:21

revised 356:2

revising 189:11

revision 73:17

revisiting 100:4

revive 358:18

RFA 241:13 245:19

277:20

RFAs 277:20,22 330:14

rice 235:17

rich 34:3 298:13

RICHARD 1:20

Rick 29:22 317:14

Rico 240:17

rid 308:21 309:2

Ridgeview 1:19

ripping 305:9

rise 204:8

risk 80:20 138:19,22

158:7 177:14

risk-based 136:15

137:2 142:19

risks 191:14

river 28:10 31:20

RMA 357:4,21 358:3

Robert 1:14 206:10

352:3

robust 152:16 193:18

351:12

Rogers 2:8,9 8:7 33:15

33:16

ROI 326:18

Roland 2:4 4:10,14

12:10 16:3 17:10

20:15 23:16 32:22

53:17 81:14 89:11

92:4 95:8 115:11

180:12 186:6,7

256:11,12,15 261:1

307:5

Roland's 321:8

role 13:11 57:5 136:15

148:14 149:10 154:9

187:22 188:1 192:18

193:3,10 197:2

298:19,21

roles 39:2

roll 20:12 40:3 75:11

168:11 242:10

rolled 186:10 187:1

234:19

rolling 58:1

rollout 144:17

rolls 103:4 112:8

Ron 282:11 297:13

298:1

RONALD 3:4

roofs 297:9

rooftop 148:1

room 6:2,10,12 9:12

21:16,22 29:17 36:4

38:6 68:14 96:21 97:3

147:14 148:5 179:14

226:14

root 85:7

rosaceae 275:8,13

rosaceous 275:11

rose 275:14

roster 7:21 8:2,5 10:5

350:4

rough 219:11

route 356:1

routine 19:17

routinely 340:11

row 316:16

rule 62:1 98:14,18 99:5

99:14,16 100:5,17,22

101:5 102:7,12 104:2
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104:17,18 105:7,10

106:1 107:10,16

112:3 116:7,11

118:10 119:5 122:22

123:10 129:18 130:4

130:18,21 131:2,7,8

131:10,15,18 135:22

136:7 146:18 171:16

171:22 172:3,6,9

173:15 174:4 176:1

189:10 190:16 191:4

191:9 292:12,20

316:8 318:15

ruled 344:15

rulemaking 102:8

104:11,13,17 108:4

114:6 116:9 132:17

rules 135:21 136:9

146:16 148:7 152:18

175:19 178:9 182:13

187:17 189:4,7

190:22

run 1:15 27:4 31:2 32:9

55:10 75:22 78:2

87:14 93:19 214:3

249:22 292:22 311:1

345:8

running 25:6 35:17

38:7 42:3 43:13 44:11

57:21 145:7 146:1

172:12 186:11 189:2

255:22 331:7

runs 262:5,8

rural 3:7 17:17 231:4

260:13 282:10 283:15

286:8,22 288:16

291:9,9 293:13 311:2

311:10 312:1 328:16

Russia 30:9

S

safari 37:1

safe 99:10

safer 164:19

safety 1:16 4:8 7:18

15:11,21 23:14 27:5

28:22 37:15 62:10

71:8,11,18 72:17

75:16 76:7,9 77:7

79:2 84:5,12,15,20

90:18 97:16 98:14,19

99:14 100:22 103:17

104:16 105:7,18

106:1,13,22 107:9,16

108:21,21 109:12

110:5,16 119:5

123:10 126:2 129:18

134:21 136:8 137:1

137:12 138:6,15

140:8,13,16,18

141:22 142:11 148:5

148:17 151:1,1,2,7

152:12 154:11,12

155:1 156:4,10

157:15 158:7 159:1,7

159:19 160:10,16

166:22 169:12,17

171:16 175:19 176:1

180:9 181:2,10,18

184:1,11,12,16

187:12 262:21 350:17

351:8 352:2

salad 80:21 199:18

213:10 221:19 232:18

sales 2:6 29:3 57:12

117:6 121:2 348:9

salient 138:4

Salt 28:9

Sam 38:7

Samir 3:3 4:9 97:15

98:8 115:12 133:1

135:15 140:17 149:3

152:1 167:15,18

170:16 171:2 179:6

180:8

sample 199:15,20

samples 101:10 189:19

sampling 100:21 101:1

139:5 159:15

San 2:1 23:11,12,20

27:10 283:21 284:19

295:5 297:13 298:5,6

300:2

Sasha 3:5 4:12 194:16

194:21 195:12 221:4

221:15,18 223:14

226:20 229:16 233:1

250:11

satisfied 144:6

satisfy 119:14 122:7

128:13,21 143:2

save 185:2

saw 201:11 258:2 353:3

saying 38:21 46:17

49:6 65:15 75:10

126:22 348:2 353:8

says 67:11 147:10

315:15 333:17 339:11

348:8

scale 95:13 327:18

scare 222:14

schedule 179:9 255:18

276:20 320:6 331:8

349:6

schedules 69:9

scheduling 213:21

356:9

scheme 75:8 90:19

schemes 73:19 74:4

75:6,7 76:16

school-based 198:19

school-wide 214:21

schools 197:14 198:22

199:4,12 201:5,19

202:3 203:11 208:19

212:6 213:20 215:4,9

215:14,15 216:13

218:5 219:13,16

220:13,18 221:20

222:4,9,12 223:6,7,19

226:1 228:11,18

231:4 237:2 239:10

239:11 241:3 243:21

244:7 249:13 250:15

265:18

schoolyard 241:20,21

242:5

Schramm 3:17 38:1

science 191:12 209:6

211:2 261:13 263:14

265:12 266:18

sciences 263:12 265:6

266:14

scientific 189:20 191:9

scientifically 189:18

190:6

scientists 190:1 191:5

scope 95:6 117:9,17

193:16 198:7 280:12

score 329:9,16

scored 310:22

scores 234:1

scoring 310:15

Scout 35:12 49:9 66:13

89:22

Scouts 66:15

screen 280:14

SCRI 275:1

scuba 31:1

seafood 236:21

seamlessly 57:5

season 238:16 305:14

357:10

seasonal 59:5 338:21

seasons 320:2 338:5

seat 43:1,6 56:8 133:1

second 90:6 146:20

178:16,19,20 185:7

306:15

secondly 187:11

seconds 92:1

secretary 9:13 10:8,13

10:22 50:10,15 51:9

52:1,8,10 53:12,21

54:1 69:11 92:6

201:10 254:7,17,18

254:22 255:12 279:12

307:13,14 343:9,9

secretary's 313:3

343:13

section 27:5 74:20

99:14 293:7 302:10

335:1 357:2

sector 24:17 186:15

sectors 9:16 225:15

Security 330:3

seeing 26:18 135:14

172:16 204:1 233:9

338:18

seek 218:6

seen 27:13 56:1 63:12

171:4,17 177:21

261:11,11 293:15

select 213:13

selected 203:17

selecting 202:14

203:21

selection 240:10 270:7

self-efficacy 207:22

self-initiated 273:11

self-reported 237:4

sell 117:7

selling 290:16 343:3

semblance 118:12

send 13:13 14:5 214:16

279:16 302:21

sending 170:19 315:20

sense 21:2 42:6 51:17

54:1 187:8 214:3

220:12 259:13

senses 117:8

sensing 276:17

sensitive 121:3 312:9

sent 65:4 186:18

189:20 210:5

sentences 209:18

separate 135:1 143:16

339:7

separating 202:1

September 92:5 260:1

332:11,12 346:5

347:12

serial 272:2

series 161:12 178:19

245:4 288:2

serious 139:9

seriously 114:18 194:9

281:21

serve 110:20 205:2

228:20 295:19,22

served 202:7 205:19

service 3:3,11 16:18
(202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com

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390

17:18 24:15 37:13

44:3 46:12 55:12 58:3

58:6 66:15 69:1 88:17

92:8 93:16 97:13

135:5 176:9 200:5

233:13 236:9 237:5

243:5 252:22 264:15

282:7 348:21

services 42:10,20

43:18 49:3 56:21

91:18 92:14 282:8,12

283:14 295:2 297:17

309:8 345:6

serving 52:9 184:11

210:11 228:12 329:8

Sesame 250:5

session 351:22

sessions 62:19 109:18

162:15

set 6:12,14,17,20 42:7

48:1 69:16 85:3 96:9

102:8,15 106:8

116:14 194:22 216:18

251:7 254:10 259:19

267:7 287:9 331:12

sets 202:6 338:14

setting 109:5 146:1

195:21 200:4 211:15

211:21 218:2,7

256:20 260:22

settings 200:14 207:10

234:20

settle 61:4

setup 45:2 92:7 110:17

226:16

seven 24:16 52:10

63:10 86:2 240:2

245:8 269:17

Shape 225:9

share 17:6 19:16 71:19

86:17 95:20 96:3

112:22 117:4 127:11

165:10 180:14 196:20

224:19 227:18 249:3

249:9 255:6 279:20

281:4 283:3 295:4

301:5 307:7 319:4

331:10 349:6

shared 19:14 73:13

94:7 162:9 167:9

279:2 283:9

sharing 275:17 300:19

sheet 71:2 235:14

sheets 244:14,17

shelf 11:10

Shing 262:4

shipments 335:17

340:16

shippers 337:18

shipping 334:20 336:3

336:19 338:3 339:6

348:13

shirttail 36:16

shock 27:1

shoehorn 74:10

shoestring 36:17

Shontai 3:17 37:22

shoot 50:6 316:14

shop 301:20

short 42:9 147:19

150:13 173:17 213:7

331:18

shortly 98:1

shot 259:3

show 38:7 39:13 86:20

151:20 204:9 239:3

243:2 268:11 271:7

326:12

showed 203:16

showing 232:3 326:22

shown 199:12 213:17

214:1 232:20 234:21

276:16

shows 203:14 207:18

209:11 210:2 214:15

215:4

shucked 232:4

shut 53:9 178:14

side 6:2,8 7:16 96:10

228:2 239:9 289:10

294:5,14 296:21

335:15

sidewalks 297:9,12

Siesta 26:19

sight 80:5 175:11

209:19

sign 78:5,17 99:1 318:9

sign-in 71:2

signage 212:5

signal 306:10

signature 67:21

signed 8:11 71:2 99:2

significant 72:5 285:7

308:3 327:6 329:16

similar 60:11 75:4,13

158:22 220:16 242:11

259:21 266:13 328:16

333:1

similarities 162:7

Similarly 156:8 162:4

simple 209:18 314:5

315:18 316:7 334:11

Simultaneous 279:10

sing 281:14,18

single 83:16 101:10

114:20 201:22 278:16

336:9

sir 346:6

sister 39:12

sit 23:14 56:9 57:17

91:14 300:12

site 296:3 298:16

303:13 317:21 319:21

339:21

sites 197:15 303:17

339:19

sits 9:12 188:8

sitting 41:3 147:11

situated 5:4

situation 108:5 172:13

situations 86:5 111:13

111:13 143:3

six 11:8 34:7,8 55:21

113:11 140:14 186:15

196:21 209:14

sixth 40:20

sizable 287:18

size 28:15 44:17,22

86:13 87:6 108:4,5

123:8 140:4 278:22

sized 153:12 181:15

sizes 62:22

Skelton 3:14 36:9,10,17

176:6 182:8 355:4,8

skills 205:9 207:21

209:20 210:7

skinny 53:19 305:5

skipping 90:4

sleep 28:3

sleeves 58:2

sliced 337:13

slide 197:8 198:6

205:17 209:11 210:16

212:14 217:16 218:9

239:2 262:22 268:12

slides 92:3 151:20

196:19 205:12 233:2

slightly 12:21 136:13

136:13 281:2 328:17

slog 79:19

slow 338:18

smack 306:7

small 80:17 86:7 96:4

129:14 130:6,7,8,16

141:14 153:12,12,13

158:1,2,3 181:15

222:10 227:18 278:19

287:3 293:13 294:8

301:1 323:21 325:2

smaller 9:6 54:15 87:7

95:13 213:2 233:3

278:16,17,22 323:20

324:8 326:8,10

327:13,18 328:21

smallest 33:19

smoothly 149:10

snack 199:20 231:17

snacks 199:8 231:16

SNAP 196:3

snapshot 338:9

Snohomish 196:5

soccer 28:11

social 224:17

socially 158:2

Society 225:5

sodium 201:12

soft 140:19

soil 190:20 191:3

solar 293:10,16

solely 31:9

solid 177:16 324:10

solutions 46:14 58:21

63:15

solve 48:5 57:2 58:10

273:10 299:3

solving 299:1

somebody 27:14 34:10

someplace 228:19

somewhat 15:6

son 24:7 33:13

songs 210:17

Sonny 42:16 263:4

Sons 1:17,21 29:22

soon 10:6 115:8 132:7

167:21 185:21 247:22

300:22 305:8

sorry 87:20,22 90:2

112:13,22 145:1

151:20,21 246:2

338:2 341:6

sort 13:6 14:15 15:10

16:3 18:11 19:18

20:18 21:9 53:21 57:1

61:10 63:10 72:2

83:19 89:16 117:14

134:1 142:21 152:20

155:13 161:17 169:21

170:14 181:17,22

182:18 184:4 188:8

250:20 253:9 257:1

276:2 277:7,19,19

278:1 279:5 285:5,11

285:13 291:11 301:20

304:8 305:8 351:20

sought 182:19

sound 147:20 174:6

213:3

sounds 91:4

source 101:11,21 239:1

296:14

sourced 294:21 300:5

sources 96:2 101:3,14
(202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com

Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc.

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174:18 267:20

South 24:4 33:5 48:2

southern 37:19 153:21

space 6:12,14,17,20

88:13 179:1,3,3

284:22 285:2

Spanish 167:20 168:13

185:10

spans 156:14

spare 23:7

speak 5:22 6:1 33:14

38:4 44:20 71:12 97:4

121:18 122:18 125:20

143:17 170:6 175:15

186:16 195:15 219:3

224:14 225:8 229:19

260:10 284:11 308:18

329:10 332:7 349:10

353:9

speaker 17:2 38:11

70:10 71:8 194:19

261:1 263:7 331:12

speakers 15:12 16:17

17:11,20 191:18

194:16 256:17,18,21

259:19,20 260:7,19

speaking 7:11 11:3

15:19 140:6 168:18

279:10 297:12 305:22

spearheading 16:3

special 94:22 108:9,10

136:2 198:17 273:1

277:11 345:6

specialists 316:11

specials 334:22 337:9

Specialties 2:15 30:15

226:21

specialty 3:15 11:18

12:2 18:2 22:4 24:19

25:21 27:5 28:20

36:11 38:20 55:20

56:2 57:9 59:2 60:17

95:19 98:3,6 174:17

262:8 274:12,14

283:10 322:16 336:16

344:8 354:13 355:14

specific 48:8,22 51:1

88:14 92:6 102:5

120:5 154:8 158:9,12

165:5,17 167:2,15

183:17,22 184:18

185:3 257:14 266:8

274:18 276:11 317:18

318:10 331:1 338:10

354:14

specifically 83:15

187:20 196:4 217:22

225:1 245:20 267:1

275:3 302:6 304:3

specifics 48:11 122:18

227:17

specified 118:4

speech 41:2,4

speed 5:12 249:6

250:20

spell 64:12

spend 30:11 169:20

183:19 325:3,4

spending 30:21 324:5

spent 38:18 44:5,9 45:6

59:18 196:20 237:6

278:2 280:7 308:1

316:1

spinach 32:13

spoiled 52:5

spoke 246:4 309:3

spoken 68:15 262:9

263:20

sports 36:14 206:20

spot 85:9

spread 129:8 231:3

241:13 319:9

spreading 285:22

sprout 99:6,7,10,13,14

151:1

sprouters 99:7,15

sprouts 99:19

square 85:7

squash 235:19

squeezed 5:5

stable 46:2 52:7

staff 7:7 35:4 42:18

58:17 105:20,21

106:2 111:18,19

114:20 188:14 205:5

212:15 216:4 218:17

240:1 243:22 252:6

263:16 286:15 325:4

staff's 93:2

staffed 78:4

stage 216:19 256:20

261:1 331:12

staggered 130:10

stakeholder 187:18

253:5 268:19

stakeholders 42:21

46:13 103:13 140:22

170:3 240:5,7 245:1

253:1 263:18 264:4

267:5 272:14 299:2

301:2 332:20

stance 54:1

stand 147:12,17 311:20

standalone 67:3

standard 75:16 76:7,9

77:9,12,18 79:3 84:12

84:20 85:13 175:16

175:17

standardized 151:3

237:20

standards 42:1 84:6

137:1 145:13,17,18

148:6 175:21 178:3

190:18 200:18 201:6

204:21 206:18 209:2

209:8 212:7 342:6

354:4 355:10 356:2

standards-based

210:12

standing 71:15 306:8

standpoint 284:12

305:20

Stanziani 5:8

starchy 203:7

start 10:2 16:8 18:22

20:22 21:21 28:11

41:5 69:8 70:2 74:8

80:10,12 120:17

136:12 144:22 145:4

150:11 152:17 168:10

179:5 191:17 232:5

245:2 272:22 286:4

287:6 289:11 305:12

310:22 314:2,4 342:8

356:9 358:8

started 21:21 40:11,14

40:14 55:19 70:16,22

71:7 105:14 162:12

211:10,12 238:11

242:1 287:11 345:11

starting 27:14 107:5

155:18,21 156:6

163:6,9,11 164:21

168:11 169:13 177:22

274:2 288:21

starts 53:7 130:5

state 1:21 31:13 92:21

94:22 105:4 107:3

111:15 113:17 121:13

121:17 122:20 124:12

124:19,21 125:1,16

152:4 176:15 177:2,9

192:13,16,21 193:3

196:4 218:16 222:4

223:5 232:4,6 236:10

241:4 244:8 246:5,21

247:7,11 273:2,6,16

277:10 286:11 301:15

304:6 311:3,7,9,11,12

311:13,16 316:10

323:20 326:1 353:18

stated 58:15 294:15

statement 251:14 254:1

321:11 331:21 332:12

332:13 349:2

statements 10:21 69:10

70:3 182:16 350:12

states 1:1 33:22 93:9

94:18,19 95:17,18,18

110:15,18,22 111:21

116:22 117:4 118:6

118:18,19 119:8,15

119:19,20 120:1,6,14

122:3 123:19 125:18

126:22 127:6 128:12

128:15,16 129:2,6,8,9

134:14 135:1 137:20

138:5 141:7 152:2,5,7

152:9,13,14 153:1

155:8 156:14 157:1

174:20,21 192:14,17

192:19 193:9 199:4

216:19 218:20 220:6

222:2,5 226:12

240:15 296:10 303:14

336:8 338:6

station 23:9

stations 273:9,13

statistical 101:19 116:2

statistics 203:10 227:3

stats 198:6 202:17

status 50:13 71:10

135:21 166:20 260:1

307:8

statute 58:7 136:17

286:21

stay 115:3,6 179:6,8

180:8 188:2 303:8

321:12

stayed 72:10 103:4

stays 298:6

Steiner 262:5

step 6:2 46:10 124:11

stepped 57:4

steps 20:3 62:2 77:5

78:9,10

Stewardship 2:5 20:16

33:2

stickers 197:19

Stockholm 30:8

stole 35:19

stop 57:12 277:13

301:20

stops 131:18

store 337:13

stored 162:10

stores 24:3,4 289:19

337:5

stories 61:2 239:7

267:18 333:10,11

storing 82:18

story 60:18
(202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com

Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc.

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straightaway 6:6

straightforward 102:1

stranger 38:15

strategic 264:17 268:11

270:19

strategies 104:16,20

105:6,15 125:19

163:14 299:13

strategize 105:2

strategy 181:12 246:7,9

247:16

strawberry 258:3

275:14

Street 250:5

strength 264:20 286:17

strengthen 64:2

strengths 286:13

stress 143:5

stretched 316:14

stretching 271:11

strict 166:3

strides 342:5

string 180:21

strive 207:16

stroke 261:17 262:1,13

272:22 277:6

strong 193:7 226:9

246:3

strongest 188:11

315:18

strongly 191:7 222:21

structure 92:7 95:6

269:13,20

structured 12:21 13:6

14:16 60:12 61:10

struggle 213:19 246:17

struggling 192:19

student 209:11

students 203:17,19,20

203:21 204:1 206:11

206:17 209:19 210:10

212:2,16,19 213:1,15

216:14 217:13 242:15

243:10 272:11

students' 211:7

studies 199:11 211:3

233:21 234:20

study 87:4 203:13,15

206:9 296:16 297:2

297:10

stuff 5:14 32:15 36:12

37:14 179:18 216:6

294:3 297:1 321:4

359:9

sub 270:16

sub-priority 270:2

subcommittee 16:19

17:12 45:9 195:15

252:13,21

subcommittees 18:22

subgroups 202:7 203:8

subject 89:13 99:8,15

106:6 123:10 138:17

140:7,12 146:12

209:5 259:5 292:12

292:13

subjects 136:7 209:11

submit 67:9,18 78:6,10

subscription 344:22

substantial 95:12

success 57:10 65:19

192:20 216:11 247:3

267:18 308:16 326:14

successful 64:11 66:1

192:15 269:20

successfully 201:5

suddenly 243:20

sue 258:5

sufficient 176:16

sufficiently 189:17

suggest 69:14 211:5

255:21 308:4

suggestions 45:16

350:14 351:6

suit 192:17 193:9

summarize 183:2

summary 4:3 13:14

14:11 218:3 336:16

336:18

summer 35:6 37:21

197:15 200:5,7 234:3

234:8,11

Summers 3:15 25:9,10

38:15 39:8 50:3,6,14

51:21 52:21 54:5 55:7

55:16 56:6

Summit 32:3

Sunday 26:20

Sunshine 9:4

superhero 215:21

216:3

superheroes 215:22

216:4

superior 273:4

supermarket 337:4

supervisor 183:12

186:2

supervisor's 183:20

supervisors 185:15

supplied 117:18

supplier 80:17 135:22

136:9,14 138:9,15,21

139:19,21 140:4,7,11

140:14 146:11,17

290:5

suppliers 137:5,8 139:4

139:6 249:14

suppliers' 138:13

supplies 338:3

supply 7:13 125:12

159:18 240:20 296:22

302:6,7 303:7 309:5

310:3 317:7

supplying 290:4 296:18

support 10:14 17:14

18:6 44:15 59:22

62:14 65:12 80:2,2

122:15 155:6 181:9

197:12 200:20 204:20

205:13 216:22 218:12

222:21 239:4,12

240:5,6 243:6 246:8

251:13 254:2 257:8

264:7,12 265:1,16

266:4 267:16 269:3,4

269:6 273:6 278:9

282:2 287:7,19

288:22 289:1,20

290:11,12 294:19

295:3 300:4 301:9

305:10 350:13

supported 9:6 253:20

255:15 278:12

supporting 105:22

107:9 218:1 277:4,8

277:10 292:3

supportive 54:7 81:10

253:22 283:15

supports 211:1

supposed 126:8 228:21

surfaced 183:6,6

surplus 59:20 60:15

surprising 54:8

surrounding 90:17

296:9

survey 236:13 238:2

sustain 93:18 246:20

sustainability 247:15

262:16 269:11

sustaining 246:12,13

Sutton 2:10 29:9,10

113:1,1,8,11 165:22

186:6 321:7,7

sweet 33:22 199:18

275:14

system 20:6 21:1 63:18

64:14 74:9 78:17 84:3

84:17 230:9 247:5

264:11 273:12 274:7

288:11 292:3 293:15

293:18 313:19 318:7

340:3,3,13 342:16

systems 72:6 74:22

148:3 230:3 287:8

300:9 303:5,16 304:5

312:3 313:12

systems' 257:21

T

table 43:2,6 48:17 97:2

97:5 104:3 151:11

189:10 281:4

tack 73:15 130:11

tackle 32:6 251:19

Tacoma 23:1

tactile 233:3

tag 66:21

tagged 181:22

tailor 283:4

tailored 101:2

taken 5:9

takes 48:2 96:7 149:18

Talbot 28:6,6

TALBOTT 2:12

Talbott's 2:13

tale 258:19

talk 5:21 17:3,13 39:17

40:1 46:11 51:4 53:22

56:13 57:18 58:22

77:3 89:17,18 91:14

98:11,13 103:18

112:10 131:5 136:6

150:3 151:8 152:13

155:16 156:3 161:20

162:15 168:4 189:22

190:1 194:19 201:9

201:14 204:2 205:15

216:8 230:11,16

231:18 266:1 300:12

300:17 301:6 317:17

336:4 340:21 341:20

343:20

talked 37:18 42:18,22

51:6 59:2 63:4 92:18

93:7 104:12 115:22

148:1 151:8 159:16

164:13 182:19 185:8

208:16 211:14 214:7

283:8 291:8 294:15

302:3 303:3 341:5

346:9 347:6

talking 43:22 54:13

63:2 76:17 91:13

95:10 123:6 150:20

160:6 192:1 212:21

217:7 225:14 227:13

233:10 244:4 251:11

283:6 335:1 337:2

talks 7:14 151:14 348:6

tallyho 89:19

target 81:5 108:8,11

119:6 159:14 165:17
(202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com

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wheel 285:5

wheels 350:19 351:1

White 50:17 51:10

196:21 221:18

who've 95:13

wholesale 2:1 17:15

23:12 283:22 284:5,9

284:12,13 286:1

291:5 295:11,17,21

296:2,21 297:3,18,22

298:11,14 299:20

301:7 317:12 334:21

336:19,20 348:13

wholesalers 153:13

158:4

wide 289:19

widely 190:11 337:9

wider 211:8 213:12

214:5

wife 30:6

wild 235:17 298:2

Williams 2:17 3:17

23:22 24:1 38:1

331:13,13,18 332:11

346:4,7,12,16 348:4,4

willing 58:18 214:5

233:14 234:22 235:1

297:4,20 345:22

willingness 133:4

211:7 232:21

win 36:16 216:5 239:6

win-win 209:22

Wisconsin 24:3 26:14

26:22

withdrawal 190:17

191:8

women's 6:6

wonder 134:17 192:16

280:9 358:12

wondered 21:6 132:12

343:8

wonderful 224:5,10

227:2 351:21 359:15

359:18

wondering 49:20

112:19 277:18 301:17

Wood 206:10

word 39:18 131:6

224:21 241:13

words 173:14 209:19

263:1

worked 12:6,10 21:5

24:17,18 34:16 36:11

47:9,19 48:1,4 55:12

81:4 151:15 230:8

270:20 287:22 295:8

295:11 312:11 323:9

354:12 355:12 356:1

workers 169:8

workforce 52:7 277:9

workgroup 105:16

works 20:13 41:14,15

46:18,19 83:9,18

149:10 211:10 216:21

244:5 273:2 290:1

303:20 319:18

workshops 245:11

326:1

world 26:9 75:9 165:12

297:6

worms 147:17

worse 176:13 255:7

334:18

worth 29:6 79:22 86:10

307:2

worthwhile 332:13

wouldn't 130:14

write 341:8

writers 324:5

writing 190:22

written 55:22 101:5

wrong 287:12

X

Y

Yanda 2:19 26:12,13

280:6

Yard 148:2

year 9:3 10:4 22:17

24:8 29:15 30:19

33:11 37:13,17 45:7,7

53:3,4,7,7,15 63:11

65:6,7 85:22 90:15

92:17,19 111:4

113:12 145:7,10

152:15 160:18 185:22

195:14 198:13 201:2

201:3 221:19 222:1,1

225:2 231:1 239:14

240:14,17 241:14

248:1,10 270:20
(202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com

Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc.

397

271:14 287:14 288:6

301:13 306:1,3

307:20 308:2 309:10

309:17 312:14 313:17

314:4 319:15 320:1

322:6,7,13 324:20

332:9,9,12 336:13

339:20 341:6,6

345:10,16 347:14

348:11

year's 296:8 308:11

years 24:16 26:4,17

27:21 28:3 29:14 30:1

30:13 31:21 34:2

38:16,21 40:16 44:9

45:3,3,22 47:19 52:5

52:6,10,14 53:10

63:22 65:9,11 72:2,13

80:3 81:7 88:21 90:16

94:12,16 99:5 130:11

130:12 160:9 169:16

181:6 182:7,9 196:8,8

204:14,14 218:21

230:8 234:6 239:20

239:21 263:6,18

269:21 271:20 274:1

278:6,21 280:7 295:9

295:15 296:13 298:15

340:6,12 344:11

345:9 348:8

yell 38:13

yesterday 14:6 26:22

92:13

yield 70:6 269:10

271:13

York 34:22 35:15 339:3

young 209:11 234:22

younger 213:4 234:16

youngest 200:4 209:9

Youth 262:19

Z

Zealand 22:17

zero 306:5

zeroed 305:4

zones 304:7

0

06 182:7

1

1,000 31:9 59:4 95:9

1,453 339:3

1,500 95:10

1,600 95:10

1.5 264:19

1:00 180:2

1:08 180:5

1:30 16:14 179:8 180:8

10 310:18 345:20

10:13 70:20

100 62:13 109:20

240:21 272:11 348:8

108 92:14

11 244:22 296:12

11:00 359:1,5

110 109:18

117 241:15

12 94:22 195:21 200:14

218:2

12:05 180:4

126 326:1

13 26:14 204:14

1300 240:20

133 339:12

136 4:9

14 204:14

141 339:12

147 4:10

15 34:7 70:11 256:5

267:13

150 285:8 287:15

16 203:15 335:13

1609 241:15

169 4:10

17 52:22 53:4 59:11

92:15 93:22 322:18

18 26:3 53:7,15 100:1

105:19 202:19 204:11

204:14 238:10 335:13

340:8 346:14

184.5 222:2

195 4:12

1991 27:20

1992 340:4

1st 40:12 53:8 92:16

2

2 1:10 67:13 210:14

222:14 255:17

2- 227:15

2-1/2 230:1

2.40 327:6

2:23 256:7

2:52 256:8

20 38:16 87:5 213:16

215:1 228:1,11,19

240:18 255:17 310:17

20-year 340:13

200 309:10

2000's 88:14

2005 33:11

2006 73:10

2007 182:7

2008 274:16 287:6

291:21

2010 200:20 231:1

2011 92:11

2012 201:2 275:1 357:8

2013 201:2 236:8 237:7

2014 268:8 269:15

299:17 324:19 325:20

326:21

2015 65:3 72:18 92:5

181:3 204:18 236:8

257:2

2016 4:3 13:14 14:11

63:6 83:11 196:14

198:13

2016-17 4:6,7

2017 1:8 32:7 63:7

306:3

2018 130:5 132:8 145:2

322:18,22

2019 130:6 237:12

2020 130:7,15 204:18

2022 130:16 188:15

21 202:19 240:22

22 324:16

220 288:17

229 4:12

22nd 53:12 218:15

23 203:17 237:2

24 34:8

24/7 34:19 36:21

249 4:13

25 8:2 272:4 275:21

322:5,7 345:9

250 326:16

256 4:14

26 109:17 309:10

261 4:15

26th 67:11

275 123:2,6

2799 1:11

281 4:15

283 4:16

286 4:16

29 26:22

295 4:17

3

3 17:8 28:4 210:14

227:14

3:00 16:14

30 78:14 87:5 140:10

146:10 213:17 214:2

228:1,11,19 288:20

322:21 332:11,12

337:5 345:19,20

346:5 347:9,12

300 63:7 240:15 263:4

304 4:18

31 275:1,4

32 342:1

320 324:20

33 344:5

331 4:18

333 4:19,20

35 31:21 156:14 275:2

350 173:13 287:14

358 4:21

359 4:22

4

4 204:11,15 210:14

4:30 18:1

4:38 359:22

40 288:20 324:13

400 286:12

41 4:4

410 337:4

411 339:8

42 110:17 152:4 236:14

42,000 237:2

432 93:21

45 57:11

450 35:9

46 30:1

47 286:11 311:3

5

5 4:1 28:4 30:12 202:22

210:14 231:1 239:14

241:17

5.6 218:16

5:00 18:10 349:10

50 24:4 95:10 219:15,20

222:9 253:6 272:5

50,000 287:2

5000 237:1

50s 284:15

55 63:8

6

6 210:15

60 4:5 95:11 327:1

60s 284:15

63 335:20

69 4:6

6th 159:9

7

7 28:4 73:18 74:14,17

74:19

7.1 74:18 77:7

7:00 349:10

70 54:11 206:10 347:7

7000 237:8

71 4:8

72 236:12,14

72.5 322:17
(202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com

Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc.

398

73 198:13

75 314:3

789 237:6

8

8 204:15

8-hour 183:8

8:30 1:11 358:22

8:37 5:2

80 203:10 272:9

80s 26:21

827 109:19

85 198:14 322:19

89 333:15

9

9 1:8 204:14

9:30 55:3

9:44 70:19

90 201:4 222:6 345:13

900 95:9

9007 293:7

92 92:15

95 222:6

950 62:13

97 4:9

99 121:12
NEAL R. GROSS

COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 

1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. 

(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 

C E R T I F I C A T E

This is to certify that the foregoing transcript 

In the matter of: 

Before: 

Date: 

Place: 

was duly recorded and accurately transcribed under 

my direction; further, that said transcript is a 

true and accurate record of the proceedings. 

 

 ----------------------- Court Reporter 

399

Fruit and Vegetable Industry

Advisory Committee Meeting

USDA

05-09-17

Arlington, VA