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 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

 + + + + +

 FRUIT AND VEGETABLE INDUSTRY

 ADVISORY COMMITTEE

 + + + + +

 TUESDAY, 

 OCTOBER 25, 2016

 The meeting came to order at 8:00 a.m. in

the Potomac V Conference Room of the Hyatt

Regency Chrystal City, 2799 Jefferson David

Highway, Arlington, Virginia, Beth Knorr, Chair,

Presiding.

COMMITTEE ATTENDEES:

BETH ANN KNORR, Chair, Cuyahoga Valley

 Countryside Conservancy

ROBERT NOLAN, Vice Chair, Deer Run Farms, LLC

MARK ALLISON, The Cheesecake Factory

CHRISTIE BALCH, Crossroads Community Food Network

VIRGINIA BARNES, Barnes Farm, LLP

CATHERINE BURNS, Produce Marketing Association

CARLOS CASTANEDA, Castaneda & Sons

HELEN DIETRICH, Ridgeview Orchards

KRISTINE ELLOR, Phillips Mushroom Farms

RICHARD HANAS, A. Duda & Sons, Inc. 

MICHAEL JANIS, San Francisco Wholesale Produce 

 Market

HOLLIE MANIER JOHNSON, Bay Baby Produce 

ROLAND McREYNOLDS, Carolina Farm Stewardship 

 Association

MARK NICHOLSON, Red Jacket Orchards

DANIEL SUTTON, Pismo Oceano Vegetable Exchange

HARRY (BRUCE) TALBOTT, Talbott's Mountain Gold,

 LLP

JORGE VAZQUEZ, Latin Specialties, LLC

LUCY WHITTEMORE, WP Distributor, LLC

THOMAS WILLIAMS, Coborn's

DAVID YANDA, Lakeside Foods, Inc.
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USDA STAFF:

GREG ASTILL, ERS

DEVONIA BETTS, Management Analyst, FVIAC Travel

 and Expenses, AMS Specialty Crops Program

LINDA CALVIN, NASS

MICHAEL DURANDO, Director, MOAD Division

ANDREA HUBERTY, Ph.D., Senior Policy Analyst, 

 Livestock, Poultry and Seed Program

TERRY LONG, Director, Market News Division

RANDY MACON, Associate Director, SCI Division

JODY McDANIEL, EED Branch Chief, NASS

TRAVIS MINOR, ERS

CHARLES PARROTT, Associate Deputy Director,

 AMS/FVP

KEN PETERSEN, Branch Chief, USDA SCP Audit

 Programs Branch

PATTY PETRELLA, Associate Director, PED

CARL PURVIS, AMS, Public Affairs

JUDY RUDMAN, Director, PACA Division

PAM STANZIANI, Designated Federal Official

ELANOR STARMER, AMS Administrator

CHIP TAYLOR, Associate Director, SCI Division

SUZANNE THORNSBURY, ERS

ANDREW TOBIN, Assistant Director, USDA Office of 

 Ethics

LORENZO TRIBBETT, Director, SCI Division

NATHANIEL WARENSKI, ERS

SHAREEFAH WILLIAMS, ERS

GUEST SPEAKERS:

STEPHEN HUGHES, Fresh Produce Branch, Division of 

 Produce Safety, Office of Food Safety,

 CFSAN, FDA

MICHAEL MAHOVIC, Ph.D., Fresh Produce Branch, 

 Division of Produce Safety, Office of Food 

 Safety, CFSAN, FDA

JENNIFER THOMAS, Director, Compliance, Policy,

 Staff, Office of Compliance, Center for Food

 Safety and Applied Nutrition, U.S. Food and

 Drug Administration, Co-Chair, FSMA Produce

 Safety Workgroup
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ALSO PRESENT: 

MICHAEL J. AERTS, Director, Production & Supply

 Chain Management, Florida Fruit & Vegetable 

 Association

DIANE CURLEY, U.S. Apple Association

SARAH HOSTETTER, Regulatory and Technical Affairs 

 Specialist Intern, American Frozen Food 

 Institute
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 C-O-N-T-E-N-T-S

New Member Welcome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Presentation by USDA Ethics Office . . . . . . . .18

 Andrew Tobin

Administrative Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . .42

 Devonia Betts

Specialty Crops Program Presentations. . . . . . .47

Full Committee Convenes 

Introduction of Committee Member . . . . . . . . 132

 Beth Knorr

Introduction of AMS Administrator. . . . . . . . 138

 Charles Parrott

Welcoming Remarks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

 Elanor Starmer

Observer Introductions & Comments. . . . . . . . 157

Meeting Reconvenes - Elections . . . . . . . . . 159

 Beth Knorr

USDA GMO Registration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

 Andrea Huberty

Presentation - FSMA/Food Safety

 Ken Petersen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

 Jennifer Thomas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Observer Comments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

Economic Research Service. . . . . . . . . . . . 260

 Greg Astill
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 CONTENTS

National Agriculture Statistics Survey

 Jody McDaniel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274

Recommendations Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

 Charles Parrott

Working Group Focus Areas. . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Observer Comments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358

Adjourn. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
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1 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S

2 (8:07 a.m.)

3 MS. STANZIANI: Thank you everybody

4 for coming. We have predominantly new members,

5 welcome. And we do have a sprinkling of some of

6 our existing members. The rest of them, of

7 course, will come at 10:30 because this is your

8 orientation to the Fruit and Vegetable Industry

9 Advisory Committee.

10 I'm Pam Stanziani. If I haven't

11 introduced myself, here I am. Chuck Parrott,

12 he's the Deputy Administrator. He is the

13 Committee Manager. And we are going to start

14 right off because we've got a lot to get in

15 before our Administrator, Elanor Starmer, comes

16 and gives a few welcome remarks.

17 Beth Knorr, she was our Vice Chair

18 last session and she is serving as our Chair for

19 at least the afternoon, this morning and then the

20 afternoon. And basically the Chair and the Vice

21 Chair will be voted on by the committee after

22 lunch. And that's why you all have to have lunch
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1 together so you get to know each other a little

2 more.

3 But for now, Beth is going to keep us

4 in line basically. So I'm going to actually turn

5 this meeting over to Chuck for now, Chuck

6 Parrott.

7 MR. PARROTT: Well, good morning again

8 everyone and welcome. You know, I know I sent

9 you a letter. But I really want to congratulate

10 you on being selected. You know, this committee,

11 you probably know, consists of 25 people so

12 that's not a whole lot. 

13 And really the charter, you know,

14 you're here to advise the Secretary in the

15 Department of Agriculture on how we can better

16 serve the fruit and vegetable industry. And each

17 of you represents -- you know, with only 25

18 people in the whole produce industry, the

19 Secretary works very hard to try to make sure

20 that we select, you know, everyone is represented

21 to some extent.

22 So we have big growers, we have small
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1 growers. We have wholesalers, we have retailers. 

2 We have food service. We have restaurants. We

3 have brokers. We have importers, we have

4 exporters. And we have all parts of the country

5 represented. And you know, big and small.

6 So you know, you bring something

7 unique to the table and that's important to us. 

8 Because we're here to serve the whole industry. 

9 You'll hear from people who work for me later

10 today, kind of a brief presentation on what we

11 do.

12 But let me just kind of go over really

13 quickly --

14 MS. STANZIANI: Chuck, can I just ask

15 you --

16 MR. PARROTT: Yes.

17 MS. STANZIANI: One thing that we need

18 to do is make sure that because we have the

19 meeting minutes recorded --

20 MR. PARROTT: You need to be speaking

21 into the microphone.

22 MS. STANZIANI: Everybody needs, when
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1 they do speak, to speak into the microphone. And

2 these are a little different than the others. 

3 You have to press the button in the front there. 

4 They're mobile so we all share them. But just

5 make sure when you're speaking at any time, you

6 press the button and you speak into the

7 microphone.

8 MR. PARROTT: Great.

9 MS. STANZIANI: Sorry about that.

10 MR. PARROTT: Now you can hear me. 

11 And plus I get to sit down so that's a good

12 thing. So briefly I oversee the Specialty Crops

13 Program. It used to be called the Fruit and

14 Vegetable Program. But we changed it because we

15 deal with a number of commodities that aren't

16 necessarily fruits and vegetables, things like

17 honey and spearmint oil. And softwood lumber we

18 have now. And it goes on and on.

19 But the bulk of what we do, about

20 probably 95 percent are fruits and vegetables. 

21 And within that spectrum, I oversee the

22 inspection and grading service. So you know, we
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1 have graders out there at terminal markets. We

2 have them at shipping point, other places doing

3 grading loads of produce. We do auditing, things

4 like gap auditing, other types of audits to

5 verify that things are what they say they are.

6 We oversee the market news division

7 which reports, you know, market prices every day. 

8 It's available, it's free, it's online. You can

9 get prices at shipping point. You can get prices

10 at terminal markets. You can get prices at

11 retail. 

12 And we keep expanding that because

13 there's a lot of demand for that information. 

14 And it's so important because it provides

15 transparency to the marketplace which really

16 creates a more fair trading environment.

17 I oversee the PACA, the Perishable

18 Agricultural Commodities Act. That's a Fair

19 Trade law that regulates the fruit and vegetable

20 industry. And ensures that people live up to the

21 terms of their contracts. That, you know, if you

22 sell a load of produce and you don't get paid or
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1 they cut your invoice by $5,000, you can file a

2 complaint under PACA. And we resolve millions of

3 dollars' worth of those claims every year.

4 A few other things I deal with,

5 marketing order. They're a little bit more

6 obscure but we have 28 of them, 29. We just

7 started a new one for pecans. But they allow

8 producers and handlers to overcome some marketing

9 problems by working together that they couldn't

10 individually.

11 We also oversee research and promotion

12 programs. Those are the generic advertising

13 programs. You're probably familiar with some of

14 the big ones like the milk mustache or, you know,

15 beef it's what's for dinner.

16 But we have 17 of them for fruits and

17 vegetables. There's the blueberry, Highbush

18 Blueberry one. There's a watermelon one. We

19 have one for avocados which is our biggest one. 

20 In fact, the Mexican avocado group has a Super

21 Bowl ad this year. So they have some money. But

22 you know, the purpose of those programs is to
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1 generically promote the product to increase

2 consumption.

3 So that's -- and then we also purchase

4 like a half a billion dollars' worth of produce

5 every year for school lunch and for a number of

6 other domestic feeding programs, food banks. 

7 We do, I was talking to some folks

8 earlier, we do what are called bonus buys. So if

9 an industry is in excess one year because of, you

10 know, a variety of issues, our economists analyze

11 the situation. And if it's warranted, the

12 Secretary can use what are called, it's not tax

13 dollars, it's called Section 32 funds to purchase

14 some of that product to put supply and demand

15 back in balance. It's all domestically produced

16 product. And that gets donated typically to food

17 banks around the country. So we do that as well.

18 So that's kind of in a nutshell who we

19 are and what we do. But again, from you the

20 Committee, you know, you're here to really

21 provide us not only with input on those programs

22 but really anything that the government can do to
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1 help the fruit and vegetable industry.

2 And different committees choose

3 different topics. It's really up to you as to

4 what you see as an issue that needs to be

5 tackled. You have a lot of flexibility here. So

6 we're just here to ensure that you operate, you

7 know, within the parameters of the -- what does

8 FACA stand for? The Federal Advisory Committee

9 Act. There we go.

10 But again, Pam and I are always here. 

11 Our administrator, Elanor Starmer, is going to be

12 coming by later this morning to greet you all. 

13 And then we'll have an opportunity for a photo. 

14 And then this afternoon, really we get

15 down to business and start forming, you know,

16 what topics you want to cover. You'll also get

17 to vote for the Chair of the committee. That's

18 up to you all to decide.

19 So I think that's it. Pam?

20 MS. STANZIANI: Did you talk about the

21 charter?

22 MR. PARROTT: Well in your packet, I
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1 will mention there is a charter. It's very easy

2 to read actually. But it just, you know, this

3 kind of outlines who you are as a group and what

4 you do.

5 MS. STANZIANI: It'll be on the right

6 side. Should be on the right side at least.

7 MR. PARROTT: And again, just to

8 reiterate, the purpose of the committee is to

9 examine the full spectrum of fruit and vegetable

10 issues and provide recommendations and ideas to

11 the Secretary on how the U.S. Department of

12 Agriculture can tailor programs to better meet

13 the needs of the U.S. produce industry.

14 So that's really the -- I think if I

15 had to pick out one sentence from the charter,

16 that's the key thing. But again, you all have

17 been selected by the Secretary. It's quite an

18 honor. And I look forward to working with all of

19 you.

20 MS. STANZIANI: All right. I am just

21 going to give you a little extra and then we can

22 move on, just some logistical things. First of
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1 all, in your packet you have the agenda that

2 should be for both days. Of course, tomorrow we

3 will probably only meet for at the most an hour

4 here before we take our educational field trip.

5 So make sure that you do bring your

6 packet with you tomorrow as well just in case. 

7 You can leave them here in the room when we

8 leave.

9 Also there is a list of the members

10 that should be behind that on the right side. 

11 Again, I think I sent a note out but please make

12 sure that I have everything correct. I know I've

13 received a few corrections. So once I get

14 everybody's corrections I will make those. So

15 please take a look at that and make sure that the

16 correct information is listed.

17 Behind that you will see Up Top Acres. 

18 That is where we'll actually be going tomorrow. 

19 Up Top Acres is an urban garden. They have one

20 of several in the Maryland, DC, and Virginia

21 area. Several of them are a couple acres. 

22 So it'll be very, an interesting thing
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1 to see how we're trying to fulfill the food

2 desert issue in the urban areas. And just give

3 everybody, because we bring everybody throughout

4 the entire spectrum of the fruit and vegetable

5 industry, this kind of gives everybody an idea a

6 little bit about other people's worlds and how

7 they live. 

8 Because I know we all have a lot going

9 on in our businesses. And sometimes you're just

10 focused on that one issue or one thing that's

11 really, you know, you need to get solved. But

12 this gives you a better overall feeling for a lot

13 of the issues that are going on.

14 Behind that, again, I have attached

15 the travel guide. I know I probably inundate

16 you. You might be thinking why does she keep

17 giving these things to us? Because at the end of

18 the meeting in about a week, I'll get five phone

19 calls saying how do I do my expenses?

20 And this is very important for you to

21 hold onto. Devonia Betts will be here to give

22 you just a very brief administrative overview. 
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1 Some of you may have talked to Devonia on the

2 phone. She handles all of our travel, our

3 expenses, everything. So she'll just go through

4 that briefly with you.

5 On the left side of your packet are

6 the minutes from the last meeting. These are

7 here basically for the new members just to give

8 you an idea to read through and hear a little bit

9 about the process of how we do things here, how

10 we develop recommendations and vote on them.

11 These will be voted on by the existing

12 members via email. We're not going to take the

13 vote here at the meeting. I just wanted to make

14 sure that everybody had a chance to review them

15 first.

16 And then behind that are copies -- I

17 know some of you have asked me about what

18 recommendations did come out of the last

19 committee. And so the documents that you have on

20 the left side behind the previous meeting minutes

21 are the recommendations that were forwarded to

22 the Secretary from this committee over their last
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1 two year term. So that should give you a little

2 reading to do too.

3 All right. I think that's it. I do

4 want to introduce Andrew Tobin. Andrew is the

5 Deputy Director of the USDA Office of Ethics. We

6 have to be very careful that we follow strictly

7 the FACA rules and regulations which includes

8 training on ethics. I'm going to let Andrew go

9 through everything with you. But if you would

10 welcome Andrew forward.

11 MR. TOBIN: Good morning everybody. 

12 Is this supposed to work?

13 MS. STANZIANI: No. I guess I'm going

14 to have to do it for you.

15 MR. TOBIN: Good morning everybody. 

16 My name is Andrew Tobin like Pam just said. The

17 Office of Ethics for USDA is a group of 21 that

18 essentially serves everyone from the Secretary on

19 down including our committee members and you

20 folks. So we have a relatively large charge.

21 Since you guys have a very broad

22 portfolio but you're going to be making broad
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1 based recommendations on policy changes, you're

2 not one of the sort of high risk committee that

3 we have around here which tend to involve

4 committees that are making decisions on grants or

5 recommendations on how to move forward with

6 contracts, those kinds of things.

7 So what I sort of want to do is just

8 give you a general overview of what a federal

9 advisory committee is. And kind of how the

10 ethics rules work. This won't take very long. 

11 But if you have questions as we go, please don't

12 hesitate to raise your hand. And we can kind of

13 walk through them with you.

14 Here's what an advisory committee is. 

15 It has a sort of -- our executive branch

16 officials have sort of a lot of leeway to

17 establish one on their own. Or they can be

18 established by statute, by act of Congress.

19 And the idea is that advisory

20 committees are here to give us perspective we

21 wouldn't have on our own here in the federal

22 government. So we'll move to the next slide Pam.
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1 More specifically, what the Government

2 Accountability Office which is the sort of

3 watchdog wing of Congress that sort of looks at

4 executive branch programs and how they're being

5 administered. 

6 In 2004 they came out and basically

7 said that the executive branch agencies were not

8 doing a good job of making sure that advisory

9 committees were being established appropriately. 

10 The ethics rules weren't being applied. And

11 you'll see there's sort a tripartite structure

12 for appointing folks. And that we just weren't

13 doing what we were supposed to be doing.

14 Thankfully we've gotten much better,

15 I believe, at USDA especially. And now the

16 ethics office is at these kind of meetings to

17 meet with you.

18 Going backwards, during the Kennedy

19 administration basically the Kennedy

20 administrative felt that as talented as federal

21 employees are and, you know, how many different

22 perspectives we bring, often times it's really
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1 important to bring in experts and representatives

2 from the private sector to come tell us how to

3 best administer our programs.

4 Like Chuck said a few minutes ago,

5 that's really your job here. Is that you're

6 representing sort of a very broad swatch of the

7 ag industry. And your job is to sort of let us

8 know how we can better serve you folks as

9 industry representatives and ultimately, the

10 American public. So it's a very broad mission. 

11 But essentially, in 1962 the Kennedy

12 administration devised sort of this tripartite

13 structure you'll see on the next slide. 

14 Basically for federal advisory committee members,

15 you can sort of go into one of three doors.

16 The first are your federal employees

17 like Pam, Chuck, and I. Second are

18 representatives like all you folks here on this

19 committee. And the third is sort of a hybrid

20 category. We'll talk about it a little bit just

21 so you have some background. 

22 But these folks are special government
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1 employees. They are experts in a particular

2 field here to solve a particular problem and

3 represent their own interests. So go to the next

4 slide.

5 Federal employees, these folks, like

6 I said, are those of us who work on a full time

7 basis. We are compensated for our work by the

8 federal government. We work more than one half

9 of the year. And therefore, we owe a duty of

10 loyalty to the U.S. Government because you're

11 serving in public trust positions. 

12 That means that we have conflict of

13 interest rules we need to abide by. We have a

14 whole standards of ethical conduct that we need

15 to abide by in terms of gift rules and rules on

16 outside employment and all these different

17 things.

18 Representatives are the folks in this

19 room. You're committee members. You folks are

20 not considered to be federal employees obviously. 

21 You are not compensated from the federal

22 government but for reimbursement for expenses. 
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1 So we really do appreciate you taking time out of

2 your busy lives and full time jobs to be here to

3 provide that perspective to us that we wouldn't

4 otherwise have.

5 And again, you're here to represent

6 the interests of your outside group as specified

7 in the charter, the produce industry. And again,

8 the purpose of representatives is to represent

9 that outside group and to provide outside

10 perspective for folks.

11 Although you folks may be experts, you

12 are not here to provide your independent

13 expertise. You are here to represent the views

14 of the industry. You're here to represent.

15 Although you may be experts in your

16 field and I'm sure that you are highly educated

17 and have very sort of expert level knowledge in

18 your industry, you are not here to speak on your

19 own behalf. You're here to speak on behalf of

20 the industry itself and sort of how USDA can

21 better deliver services to you.

22 And again, the idea here is that
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1 you're providing a perspective that we don't

2 otherwise have. Often times the federal

3 government can be something of an echo chamber in

4 that, you know, a lot of times we're focused in a

5 particular geographical area. We may meet with

6 each other. 

7 And this is a means to really have a

8 focused and specific set of time for your folks

9 to come here and provide us a perspective, let us

10 know how we're doing. It sort of opens up the

11 communication channels. 

12 And the work you're doing here is

13 very, very important. And like I said, we really

14 do appreciate your taking the time out of your

15 busy lives to be here.

16 In terms of the ethics rules, since

17 you folks are here to sort of present a biased

18 perspective, we don't expect you to be unbiased. 

19 We don't expect you to serve sort of the

20 government first the same that we are, even

21 though you are ultimately here to make sure the

22 government is delivering services in the best
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1 possible way.

2 But as representatives you are not

3 subject to the criminal conflict of interest

4 statutes. You're not subject to the

5 representational statutes. You don't have post

6 employment bans. All these things are good news

7 for you.

8 But essentially we'd like you be aware

9 of sort of any potential appearance concerns

10 associated with your service. Where this comes

11 up occasionally is that for advisory committees,

12 you folks are here during these meetings to

13 provide your perspective. You're going to make

14 recommendations at the end of your service to the

15 Secretary on how we can deliver services. 

16 That is kind of the limits of your

17 duty here. So be very careful. We've seen folks

18 sort of fall into hot water in the past by doing

19 some extracurricular stuff representing the

20 advisory committee up on the Hill or to other

21 groups. 

22 I would encourage you to sort of stay
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1 within those bounds. And focus your activities

2 on making recommendations to the Secretary to

3 make the programs better if that makes sense.

4 In terms of appearance, again, this is

5 not the kind of committee that we get worried

6 about having any conflicts of interest because

7 you're really there to make broad based

8 recommendations on behalf of the produce

9 industry. So even if you wanted to engage in

10 some self-dealing, I don't think that would even

11 be possible.

12 But if you're concerned about

13 appearances, please let Pam know. She's your

14 designated federal official. She is in charge of

15 administering the committee and making sure

16 everything runs on time. She's doing a great job

17 so far.

18 They're not required -- we may

19 recommend a recusal in certain cases. And like I

20 said, this is not the kind of committee that's

21 really going to be a problem from our

22 perspective.
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1 Here's an example of the kind of thing

2 we might make a recommendation for recusal on. 

3 Let's say Susan serves on the Advisory Committee

4 on Minority Farmers which is administrated by the

5 Office of Advocacy Outreach. 

6 In that capacity she is asked to

7 review grant applications for the outreach and

8 assistance for socially disadvantaged farmers and

9 ranchers competitive grant program which is

10 actually a program that exists with a very long

11 name.

12 Let's say her husband applies for such

13 a grant. We would recommend that Susan,

14 obviously, recuse herself from consideration of

15 that application. Because the appearance is

16 she's using her position on that board to benefit

17 someone very close to her, obviously.

18 So that's sort of the first two

19 categories. The third one, like I said, is sort

20 of a hybrid. It's a special government employee. 

21 This is a class of employee created in Title 18

22 of the U.S. Code. And we'll sort of talk about
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1 what that means on the next slide.

2 An SGE is someone who is here to

3 provide independent advice based on their

4 personal expertise. A lot of times this comes up

5 for medical experts in HHS. If there is a

6 particular disease outbreak, we may not have the

7 expertise in house. We bring in these folks to

8 provide their expert opinion on this particular

9 matter. 

10 In that case, they're representing

11 themselves and not any sort of outside

12 organization. They're speaking based on their

13 education and their particular experience that we

14 need here. 

15 We have a few in USDA, not too many. 

16 Some of them work on crop insurance issues. 

17 Experts in that particular field, they'll come in

18 for a few weeks at a time and work for the

19 Federal Crop Insurance Corporation Board. 

20 But the vast majority of our advisory

21 committees here at USDA are representative based. 

22 Because they really are focused on having folks
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1 in come in from industry and make recommendations

2 to the Secretary as to how we can better deliver

3 our programs to benefit the folks that are coming

4 before us.

5 In terms of Special Government

6 Employees, the Obama administration said that,

7 essentially, lobbyists cannot be appointed as

8 Special Government Employees. They can still

9 serve as representatives. That was something

10 that was a little bit unclear in their initial

11 guidance. Again, it doesn't really affect you

12 folks but something to generally be aware of if

13 you're interested in serving on other committees

14 in the future.

15 SGEs are required to fill out

16 financial disclosure reports. They're required

17 to receive annual training. And these folks are

18 subject to the ethics laws while they're serving

19 on duty. 

20 So again, Special Government Employees

21 are sort of this weird hybrid net. They're not

22 full time employees. But they're also not
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1 representatives that are not subject to the

2 ethics rules. They kind of fall in that middle

3 ground.

4 For SGEs we say that be very careful

5 working on matters that affect the interests of

6 someone close to you who are worried about any

7 overlap between your official duties and

8 financial interests. Again, not a concern here.

9 In terms of relationships that are

10 considered to be so close to you that they are

11 your own, we're talking about your spouse and

12 minor child, your employer, or prospective

13 employer if you are negotiating for employment, a

14 general partner in a general partnership, and any

15 organization where you are an officer, trustee,

16 or general partner.

17 So for those Special Government

18 Employees we make very sure to vet not only their

19 financial interests that they hold but also the

20 financial interests of those of their family

21 members, of their employer, those kind of things.

22 So we often hear that those are
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1 invasive forms. I don't necessarily disagree. 

2 But thankfully, not ones filed by you folks here.

3 In terms of what kind of things to be

4 concerned about, these are the kind of matters

5 that if a committee is working on these kind of

6 things, we get a little bit worried. And want to

7 make sure that we vet them very thoroughly for

8 conflict of interest. 

9 Because we're talking about grants and

10 loan applications, contracts, litigation,

11 judicial proceedings, requests for rulings or

12 determinations. Basically those kind of things

13 where you can tell exactly who you're impacting

14 by your work. Those are the things we get

15 worried about as ethics officials. But

16 thankfully, not here.

17 Here's an example. Jim is a member of

18 the NUCFAC committee which is a committee

19 administered by Forest Service. And their charge

20 is to, essentially, administer a grant program

21 for urban forestry.

22 And let's say that City View, the
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1 company for whom his wife is President of,

2 submits a new application for such a grant. 

3 Should Jim evaluate and score the City View

4 application? The answer is obviously no, as

5 you'll see in the next slide, because it involves

6 the interests of his wife.

7 Second rule is that for SGEs,

8 essentially if you work on a matter like a

9 contract, grant, loan, et cetera, you cannot

10 serve as that outside organization's

11 representative back to the federal government to

12 try to expand the scope of that particular grant

13 or loan. So as the rules that follow with you if

14 you are a Special Government Employee. Again,

15 not an issue for you folks.

16 Gifts, one thing I would caution you

17 is that if you're receiving gifts or being

18 offered gifts based on your work here, which I

19 can't imagine you would be, but if you are be

20 very careful of that. Any gifts, obviously,

21 given to you for reasons other than your service

22 here are not going to be a problem.
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1 Teaching, speaking, or writing, this

2 comes up occasionally for some of our other

3 committees. But the idea here is that Special

4 Government Employees may generally not receive

5 compensation for teaching, speaking, or writing

6 about what they're doing on the committee. 

7 So again, sort of stay within those

8 bounds in terms of your ultimate goal is to make

9 recommendations. And to have sort of robust

10 discussions within this organization before

11 making your recommendations.

12 To determine whether or not something

13 is related to your official duties, we look at

14 this. Basically you teaching, speaking, or

15 writing about the work you're doing here. If

16 you're not, you're in good shape.

17 So here's basically the upshot. 

18 Again, this is just to give you a point of

19 contact in our office. If you have any questions

20 about anything, feel free to give me a call or

21 send me an email.

22 But the idea is that you folks are
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1 really here to benefit us and to benefit the

2 American people. You're going to be making

3 recommendations on very important issues. And

4 really do appreciate the time that you're giving

5 to us and your attention and your willing to be

6 here. So let me thank you very much. I really

7 wish you the best for the rest of your work here. 

8 One other thing, I think I touched

9 briefly on it before but Pam wanted me to talk

10 about lobbying. Again, make sure that the work

11 you're doing is sort of kept here within the

12 advisory committee. And that the ultimate

13 product be made as a recommendation. 

14 You shouldn't be up lobbying members

15 of Congress or other institutions in your

16 capacity as a member of this committee. Anybody

17 have any questions now before you get on to your

18 action packed schedule for the next couple days? 

19 If not, thank you very much. I hope you have a

20 great day.

21 MS. STANZIANI: Thank you very much.

22 MR. PARROTT: Thanks Andrew.
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1 MS. STANZIANI: He told me that the

2 technical way is just to cover it up. I'm going

3 to just elaborate a little bit on that last point

4 that Andrew made. We don't want you to feel as

5 if you can't go up on Capitol Hill as a, you

6 know, an industry representative, you know,

7 representing your business or organization.

8 It's just the one thing that you

9 cannot do is go up on the Hill or even your local

10 member of Congress' office and represent yourself

11 as a member of the advisory committee.

12 I'm going to go through just a couple

13 little things here for you too. Because it has

14 to do with how we operate here. The advisory

15 committee, first and foremost what will probably

16 happen later on this afternoon, we basically

17 decide what issues are important to you guys

18 right now. 

19 And that's kind of the reason why we

20 have new folks coming in every two years, is to

21 kind of get an influx of, you know, how are you

22 viewing USDA's programs and services? What is
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1 affecting your industry in general or

2 specifically? 

3 And what areas, we usually pick five

4 areas or six areas, it just depends on, you know,

5 the scope of work that's involved and how many

6 people are really interested. But the majority

7 of the committee would have to vote on each focus

8 area that's determined.

9 To give you an idea of the previous

10 committee's work, we have the food safety and

11 FSMA working group. That is chaired by Cathy

12 Burns and vice chaired by Lorri Koster who won't

13 be able to, unfortunately, join us this meeting.

14 Second group is the research and grant

15 funding working group. That is chaired currently

16 by Roland McFarland. And we have the

17 agricultural labor working group that is chaired

18 by Carlos Castaneda.

19 And what will be interesting -- and

20 we'll have to talk a little bit about it because

21 we've got a new administration coming in. And I

22 know that that's probably on a lot of people's
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1 minds right now is ag labor.

2 We also have rural broadband and

3 internet connectivity. And I think Beth is the

4 current chair right now. There is issues with

5 broadband in the rural communities and the

6 farming community in general. I know that

7 farmers markets are having a tough time with some

8 of the SNAP and WIC electronic equipment

9 compatibility. So those are some of the issues

10 that are being discussed there. 

11 We have a working group on food

12 deserts and food waste. And then we have a

13 working group on new farmer advocacy, education,

14 and mentoring. That was a new working group as

15 of the last two meetings. And we've actually had

16 some recommendations come out of that working

17 group already that have started to be implemented

18 by the Secretary.

19 Now to give you an idea of -- let me

20 backtrack here a little. We do have two working

21 groups that are dormant right now. And they were

22 voted to not be disbanded but just to lay
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1 dormant. 

2 The education and branding working

3 group, they actually were very active with a

4 recommendation on GMO and GMO labeling. And then

5 the ports of entry inspection delays which was

6 chaired by George right over here. And they

7 actually had several recommendations that went

8 out that I think they're still working on. We

9 work very closely with the transportation and

10 marketing program which is a sister program to

11 the specialty crops program. But right now

12 they've been determined as dormant right now. 

13 They can be reactivated if this group chooses to

14 have that occur.

15 So one of the things that we will do

16 is not only have the working groups and topics

17 decided, you will have to vote within that

18 working group who is going to chair and vice

19 chair if you don't want the current folks doing

20 so.

21 And then you'll have to determine

22 within that focus area -- sometimes as you can
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1 see, like for example food safety, that's a

2 pretty broad focus area. So there will need to

3 be a couple sub topics within there that.

4 You'll see within the recommendations

5 that you have there's a couple real specific

6 recommendations to the Secretary on educating the

7 industry, educating the different sectors of the

8 industry on their specific elements that are

9 related to FSMA, just for example.

10 The working groups, the working groups

11 will meet probably about five or six times each

12 term, maybe more. You meet by teleconference. 

13 And we probably, the Chair will send out an

14 agenda. And we will actually at this meeting

15 determine what kind of research needs that you

16 do, that you need for that group which comes from

17 me. 

18 Tell me what to do basically, what you

19 need, and I'll facilitate that. That could be

20 anything from bringing in a speaker from the Food

21 Nutrition Service or the Foreign Ag Service or,

22 you know, any of the other programs. We have
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1 subject matter experts who have spoken from

2 private entities, the American Farm Trust, the

3 American Farm Bureau. 

4 We have folks, as you can see today

5 from the agenda, coming in from the FDA who will

6 provide us with updates on the implementation of

7 the two rules that have come out already. So

8 that's something to think about.

9 And then, of course, I will be in

10 constant contact with everybody via email. And I

11 emphasize making sure that I do have your correct

12 email address. Because that is how we pretty

13 much do all of our communications now. It's

14 faster and it's on the record. And it just makes

15 it easier for us to do things a little more

16 quickly.

17 Working group meetings must, I must be

18 present or Chuck must be present. The group

19 cannot meet independent of one of us. That makes

20 anything that you do a problem with regard to

21 ethics. And it's in the FACA I can probably

22 forward you. 
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1 It's too long for me to -- thousands

2 of pages. And you're not going to want to take

3 that on the plane home with you. So what I'll do

4 is I'll email you a link to the FACA if you have

5 interest in taking a look at it. It will give

6 you some of the rules, you know, the dos and

7 don'ts with regard to what you can do and should

8 do. And my role and Chuck's a little more in

9 detail.

10 Let's see if there's anything else I

11 need to cover. Attendance to the meetings and to

12 the working groups, you as an appointed member of

13 this committee are expected to attend all of the

14 meetings. We do have, typically, a minimum of

15 two in person meetings per year. And then we,

16 again, have five or six or seven teleconference,

17 whatever the need is, teleconference meetings.

18 You're expected also to attend those,

19 attend them based on, of course, the working

20 group will decide what works best for them as far

21 as timing and meeting dates and times. But you

22 are expected to.
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1 If you miss more than two meetings of

2 the physical meetings, you potentially could be

3 replaced and asked to step down. Same with the

4 working group meetings. 

5 So we want to make sure that everybody

6 -- there's a reason why we have every sector of

7 the industry represented here on this committee. 

8 And it's important for you as that representative

9 to bring your group's focal, you know, your

10 group's perspective to whatever is the issue.

11 So if you're not available and you're

12 never there and then a recommendation is made and

13 it's not something you would have wanted to be a

14 part of, that's a problem because you didn't

15 attend the working group meetings.

16 So the working groups, as I mentioned

17 before, we'll do a lot of research. You'll get a

18 lot of presentations or subject matter experts

19 coming to speak to you. You'll be able to ask a

20 lot of questions. 

21 The work that is done in those working

22 groups is done by you. That means the minutes
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1 are taken by the members. The recommendations

2 are physically developed by the members. I am

3 there to help guide you. You know, maybe you

4 want to say it this way. You know, do a little

5 bit of wordsmithing.

6 But this is a hands on committee. So

7 just to make sure you're ready to work.

8 MR. PARROTT: And you may want to

9 mention that when we start full committee at

10 10:30 we'll do introductions once everybody is

11 here.

12 MS. STANZIANI: Oh yes. Well once

13 everybody comes -- we had the new members come

14 for the orientation first. The existing members

15 have heard all this before. But at 10:30 we will

16 have everybody joining us. And that's when we

17 will have a full round of introductions. But I

18 think we do want to have everybody introduce

19 themselves here initially, our new members, just

20 so you guys get to know each other.

21 MR. PARROTT: We're doing it twice

22 then.
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1 MS. STANZIANI: All right. Nevermind. 

2 Okay. Well I'm going to stop at that. And I'm

3 going to introduce, I see Devonia has joined us. 

4 And she's going to give you an overview on the

5 administrative matters, the travel. And some of

6 the stuff that you guys will have to do to get

7 reimbursed if your money is reimbursed.

8 And please, if you have a question,

9 you know, as it. If you don't think of

10 something, email her later. She's very helpful. 

11 Devonia?

12 MS. BETTS: Good morning and welcome. 

13 It's always good to put a face with the names

14 with the emails and everything. So I appreciate

15 you all being here. 

16 Hopefully you found the travel guide

17 helpful. And it was easy to make your

18 reservations. Just want to highlight a couple of

19 reminders. If you could please keep your

20 receipts except meals. We do not need receipts

21 for your meals. But for your parking, for your

22 taxi, and your hotel we do need those receipts.
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1 The receipts along with your

2 reimbursement forms to be submitted to me by

3 November 18th. I will then prepare your travel

4 voucher. I will email or fax it to you for your

5 signature.

6 Once it's returned and input into our

7 electronic system it'll be approved. And you

8 should receive your reimbursement within 10

9 business days. It will be a U.S. Treasury check. 

10 And it'll be processed within 10 business days

11 from the approval in our e-travel system.

12 Are there any questions on the travel

13 guide or the reimbursement process?

14 MS. STANZIANI: The travel guide is

15 that last page -- or the expense form, excuse me,

16 is on the last page of your travel guide. You

17 have a physical copy and you should have an

18 electronic copy of it as well.

19 MS. BETTS: Yes. It's very simple. 

20 It's just basically recording your mileage,

21 parking, and attaching your receipts. The hotel

22 tax is reimbursable. Once you submit your form I
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1 will process your voucher within two days. It's

2 very important that we turn these around quickly

3 and get you your reimbursement so you can pay

4 your credit card bill for your hotel.

5 But if you have any questions at any

6 point in time, you can email or call me. Thank

7 you.

8 MS. STANZIANI: Any further questions? 

9 No? Okay. Great. Thank you Devonia. Do you

10 want to introduce our Division Director? Why

11 don't we have Judy go first?

12 MR. PARROTT: Yes, sure. Okay. So

13 the next point in time, I mentioned earlier you

14 were going to get to hear from our Division

15 Directors to talk briefly about what their

16 programs do. I kind of went over them very

17 quickly. But you'll get to hear a little bit

18 more detail.

19 So why don't we start with Judy

20 Rudman? Judy is the Director of our Perishable

21 Agricultural Commodities Act division. And as I

22 mentioned, PACA gets a lot of people paid. And
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1 ensures that people live up to the terms of their

2 contracts. 

3 So it's a very important program. 

4 It's been around since 1930. It works really

5 well. But we're always, like everything else,

6 we're always looking to fine tune things and make

7 them better. So Judy, I'll turn it over to you.

8 MS. RUDMAN: Thank you. Thanks Chuck,

9 Pam. Thanks for having me. I am new to USDA. I

10 came here last December. I had a 25 year career

11 at the Commerce Department where I did anti12 dumping and countervailing duty trade cases. So

13 I did fair trade on a global perspective.

14 And when this opportunity came along,

15 I jumped on it. So at Commerce I had several

16 cases on agricultural products and I liked the

17 industry. And in my mind, it was a perfect

18 shift. 

19 I moved from promoting international

20 trade on a broader scale to fair trade in

21 produce. So I'm really happy to be at USDA. I

22 feel like I won the lottery. Ten months in it's
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1 been a really good move for me. 

2 So looking at your backgrounds and

3 profiles, there's probably varying levels of

4 knowledge of what PACA does. So I'll give a

5 quick overview. And PACA is always there to

6 answer questions.

7 The Perishable Agricultural

8 Commodities Act has been around since 1930. And

9 we work in partnership with the fruit and

10 vegetable industry to facilitate fair trade

11 practices through education, mediation,

12 arbitration, licensing, and enforcement.

13 Under the law buyers and sellers of

14 fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables in certain

15 quantities have to be licensed by PACA. There's

16 a licensing fee. We are user fee funded. We're

17 not appropriated. So everything we, all of our

18 revenue comes from our licensees. We're there to

19 serve the industry. So if, this is why it's

20 important for me to make these kinds of contacts.

21 We provide a variety of services, a

22 forum to investigate, mediate, and arbitrate
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1 contract disputes. And what PACA was, the

2 Congress has great insights in 1930. They wanted

3 to protect American farmers.

4 So if a seller does not get paid, they

5 can call USDA. They can file a complaint with

6 us, an initial informal complaint for $100 filing

7 fee. And PACA works to achieve a successful

8 resolution of that claim.

9 So we're there for the industry. So

10 you don't have to go out and pay the legal fees. 

11 If you can get your disputes resolved through

12 PACA, it's a win-win for everybody.

13 We have a mechanism for recovering

14 damages when buyers and sellers of produce fail

15 to meet their contractual obligations. We can

16 issue orders that stipulate how much the buyers

17 has to pay the seller based on our analysis of

18 the claim.

19 If they do not pay up at that point,

20 there are certain sanctions that PACA can impose. 

21 We can suspend licenses. We can impose civil

22 penalties. We are there to ensure fair trade in
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1 produce.

2 We have provisions to sanction produce

3 sellers that fail to pay obligations or

4 misrepresent the products that they're selling. 

5 We have a misbranding office. And we handle

6 hundreds of complaints every year where people

7 are misrepresenting what they're selling to their

8 receivers.

9 PACA also provides a mechanism to

10 monitor the activity of PACA violators. So when

11 entities, individuals or entities are sanctioned

12 we follow up on them. We work to ensure that

13 there is a fair environment to buy and sell fresh

14 and frozen fruits and vegetables.

15 Since I came onboard, I have

16 established some priorities. We are working to

17 achieve these. We want to continue to provide

18 the highest level of customer service. As I

19 said, we are user fee funded so we're accountable

20 to the industry.

21 We have a 1-800 line. I'll show you

22 the number at the end, and some of you may be
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1 familiar with it, where we're staffed 12 hours a

2 day with people to answer your questions. We're

3 there to address the needs and concerns of

4 industry stakeholders. That's why we're here.

5 I'm trying to expand PACA's presence

6 in the industry through outreach efforts. I have

7 been to several large -- I was at PMA last week. 

8 I spoke to Western Growers, spoke to the Fresh

9 Produce Association in Nogales. 

10 We're trying to get out there so that

11 the industry is aware of the services that we

12 have to offer so we can be responsive to industry

13 needs.

14 One of the things, our highest

15 priorities right now is to enhance our PACA

16 licensing system. For those of you that are

17 familiar with PACA, you know that we currently do

18 not have online renewal or online licensing.

19 We're working on making that happen. 

20 We want to get to the point where you can renew

21 your license at pay.gov, pay your 995 on a credit

22 card and your $600 branch fees and make it all
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1 happen easier. That's one of our top priorities.

2 We also are trying to increase the

3 emphasis on PACA licensing to ensure that

4 everybody is in compliance. We have some -- if

5 you're interested in filing a PACA claim, for our

6 enforcement PACA can only take enforcement

7 actions when we receive written notice from

8 outside the department. 

9 There is an informality there. That

10 written notice can come in an email, a letter,

11 anything. When we get notice of a claim and a

12 problem we keep it confidential who sent it in. 

13 And we immediately look into it and follow up.

14 When I was at the Commerce Department

15 in charge of the Mexican tomato suspension

16 agreement, I used this provision quite frequently

17 where I would funnel information to PACA and ask

18 them to look into it where I thought there were

19 PACA violations.

20 Examples of the unfair trade and

21 practices that we look to eliminate are fraud,

22 false and misleading statements, non-payment,
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1 misbranding and mislabeling, and employing people

2 under employment restrictions.

3 Our enforcement highlights for the

4 last three years, and these are just updated, we

5 addressed over 131 enforcement actions to

6 sanction firms and individuals who violated the

7 act. And we captured almost $280,000 in civil

8 penalties that were paid directly to the U.S.

9 Treasury.

10 We're user fee funded. But when we

11 impose civil penalties on violators, that money

12 does not come to PACA. It goes into the U.S.

13 Treasury.

14 Some more general highlights for the

15 last three years, we assisted over 8,000 callers

16 with issues valued at approximately $140 million. 

17 So these are the calls that come in. We have

18 marketing specialists who stand ready to answer

19 questions as the industry members are trying to

20 figure out if they have a claim and what to do. 

21 You can get immediate guidance by calling our 1-

22 800 line.
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1 We resolved approximately 3,500 claims

2 involving more than $58 million. And again, this

3 is all to ensure that sellers of produce get

4 paid. And we settled roughly 90 percent of our

5 informal complaints within four months.

6 We have an informal and a formal

7 complaint process. Our goal is to settle as much

8 as we can so that you get the more immediate

9 relief. We know that in some cases whether or

10 not a seller receives $7,000 on a payment can be

11 the difference between when they open the doors

12 the next day.

13 So our informal mediation process is

14 key. It's where we start. It's where we try and

15 resolve things so that we can ensure that both

16 the buyer and seller reach a happy settlement. 

17 When we can't get resolution that way,

18 we have a formal complaint process where we --

19 it's a much more involved process that can take

20 longer. But hopefully, again, will resolve in a

21 satisfactory method to all the parties involved.

22 So that's our 1-800 number. If you
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1 have any questions, again, PACA is here to serve

2 the industry. And thanks for listening.

3 MR. VAZQUEZ: Hi, this is Jorge

4 Vazquez with Latin Specialties. So we know that

5 PACA licensing applies to probably most of us in

6 this room. But how does it apply to end users

7 such as restaurants or retailers? Does it apply

8 to them at all?

9 MS. RUDMAN: Well it can apply. They

10 can be the respondents in the cases. I mean, if

11 they're the purchasers, they could be on the

12 other end. We know that when buyers and sellers

13 are, when sellers are looking for -- excuse me,

14 when buyers are looking at their sellers, buyers

15 are often to look to see if they're PACA

16 licensed. It's sort of a quality seal of

17 approval shall we say. You know that everybody

18 is operating.

19 Depending on the volumes that the

20 restaurants and all of the entities involved in

21 the process are buying and selling, they may be

22 subject to license. So that's all stipulated in
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1 the law and in the regulations.

2 And if they don't pay, we do have the

3 authority to follow up and to continue with our

4 claims. But it all depends on the volumes that

5 people are buying and selling in.

6 MR. PARROTT: Just to clarify, I think

7 to be subject to PACA you have to buy and/or sell

8 2,000 pounds in any day. So if you're an

9 individual restaurant, you probably don't meet

10 that criteria. Many of the chains, of course,

11 do.

12 So that's what kind of it comes down

13 to as to whether you're subject.

14 MS. RUDMAN: And if you're a broker,

15 you're subject under first transaction. So you

16 know, there are some different nuances there. If

17 it's frozen it's 230,000 pounds in a year if it's

18 frozen product. 

19 But yes, again, it all depends on the

20 particular circumstances. So that's the nature

21 of the questions that we get a lot of times on

22 the 1-800 line. People will say well, you know,
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1 who is subject on this one? Do they need to be

2 licensed?

3 MR. PARROTT: And PACA has a really

4 good website too. I know a lot of times people,

5 if they get a call from a new buyer and they say,

6 you know, we want to buy a load and you don't

7 really know who they are, you can go on the

8 website and check to see, you know, do they have

9 a license? Is it current? Has it been

10 suspended? Are there complaints filed against

11 that company already? You know, you can do

12 things like that ahead of time.

13 MS. RUDMAN: And one of the things we

14 put up for the industry is on our main PACA

15 webpage, we're updating it monthly, our license

16 book. That's a new feature that shows, and it's

17 pdf searchable. 

18 You can put in anything, you can

19 search by state. And you can find out who is

20 licensed right there. Within a month that's real

21 time data.

22 MS. WHITTEMORE: How does it apply to
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1 overseas growers that may not be PACA, members of

2 PACA perhaps?

3 MS. RUDMAN: And we get this question

4 -- I mean, certainly I dealt with this a lot in

5 this Mexican tomato suspension agreement that

6 their buyers and sellers, if they were in the

7 United States, were PACA licensees.

8 A U.S. based entity that is operating

9 in the subject, dealing the subject quantities

10 that make you subject to license can be licensed

11 and should be licensed under PACA.

12 So in other words, if you have a

13 distributor in Nogales, Arizona who is selling

14 Mexican produce, that distributor is a PACA

15 licensee. And that covers the international, the

16 product coming from Mexico.

17 So it's the buyers and sellers of

18 produce in the United States. But to get a PACA

19 license, you have to be subject and you have to

20 be a U.S. based entity.

21 MS. WHITTEMORE: Right. But if you

22 are not, like if you're buying from somebody in
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1 Costa Rica, for example, it's a grower there. 

2 You're bringing the product into the U.S. but

3 they are not under the PACA license, I guess

4 under the PACA rules.

5 MR. PARROTT: Right. So the Costa

6 Rican shipper wouldn't have to have a PACA

7 license. If they sold to a wholesaler in the

8 U.S. let's say, they would still have recourse if

9 they didn't get paid. They could file under

10 PACA.

11 MS. WHITTEMORE: What about the other

12 way around?

13 MR. PARROTT: No.

14 MS. WHITTEMORE: Thank you.

15 MR. PARROTT: Yes.

16 MR. VAZQUEZ: One more question if I

17 may, you keep mentioning the Mexican anti-dumping

18 tomato, how is the situation with that? I mean,

19 has the problem abated a little bit? Or can you

20 give us some examples of some of the actions that

21 you guys have taken against companies?

22 MS. RUDMAN: I worked on it for 20
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1 years. PACA in the 2013 agreement it was written

2 in that a violation of the agreement may be a

3 violation of the Perishable Agricultural

4 Commodities Act. If it meets the willful,

5 flagrant, and repeated criteria, it can be a

6 violation of PACA.

7 There's a case out there now. We had

8 issued a press release where we're looking into

9 one company where a violation of the agreement is

10 also possibly a violation of PACA. And that's

11 proceeding. 

12 But PACA and Commerce are working

13 together on enforcement. It didn't change the

14 way that PACA operates at all. But it did help

15 to give some teeth to the Mexican tomato

16 suspension.

17 MR. PARROTT: Any other questions for

18 Judy on PACA? Okay. Judy thanks very much for

19 being here. Okay. Our next speaker, Mike

20 Durando I'm going to call on you. Mike is the

21 Director of our Marketing Order Administration

22 Division or MOAD as we call it.
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1 We have 29 marketing orders currently. 

2 I got it right. So Mike is going to give us a 10

3 minute presentation on what marketing orders do.

4 MR. DURANDO: You bet. Thank you. 

5 I've got some handouts there for everybody. Good

6 morning everybody. Nice to see you all. Mark,

7 welcome back to Washington. Some folks may not

8 realize Mark used to work for the fruit and

9 vegetable program which was the specialty crops

10 program a ways back. And always good to see him. 

11 Great to be here.

12 Let me just say as one division

13 director, and I'm sure Chuck has already said

14 this, but we thank you for your service and the

15 time you put in on this committee. It's very

16 important to all of us in the program including

17 at the division level. The recommendations that

18 you make, suggestions you develop there, they're

19 all very good for us and help us grow.

20 The Marketing Order and Agreement

21 Division has a very simple mission. It's to help

22 fruit, vegetable, and specialty crop producers
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1 and handlers achieve marketing success through

2 industry driven programs. And that's really the

3 key.

4 There are 46 programs that my division

5 oversees. All of them are programs that, at one

6 time or another, either through the Congress

7 and/or subsequently through the Department of

8 Agriculture the industry asked for. 

9 Uncle Sam didn't come to the industry

10 and say you're going to have to have this

11 program, congratulations. You came to us and

12 said we would like this program pursuant to this

13 federal law and we put them in place.

14 The primary statute that we are

15 responsible for is the Agricultural Marketing

16 Agreement Act of 1937. So we've been around

17 since 1937. 

18 We currently have 29 federal marketing

19 orders under that program one of which is brand

20 new. We'll talk about that in a minute. We'll

21 take a quick look at it. And that's the

22 marketing order for pecans. I guess we could say
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1 we're through birthing it. We're about ready to

2 get it up and walking within the next few weeks.

3 Under that law we also have 14 sets of

4 import regulations for commodities that are

5 regulated under those federal marketing orders

6 where we have the ability to hold imports

7 accountable for the same minimum grades and

8 standards as domestic product. And level the

9 playing field for American producers.

10 There are three other statutes that

11 we're responsible. One is the U.S. Peanut

12 Standards Act that really sets in place the

13 minimum standards for peanuts in this country

14 both domestically produced and those that are

15 imported, not only for minimum grade but also to

16 ensure that the aflatoxin level is within

17 tolerance.

18 We also oversee the Export Apple Act

19 and the Grape and Plum Export Act which, in

20 short, ensures that every fresh apple that is

21 exported from this country meets a minimum U.S.

22 Number 1. And that every table grade that's
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1 exported from this country in most cases meets a

2 U.S. Number 1. There are several exceptions to

3 that. And that requires mandatory inspection for

4 those two commodities for all exports.

5 We're very proud of the fact that

6 every day our people come to work knowing that

7 they serve 90,000 producers of these products in

8 the United States representing about $23 billion

9 a year in value of production.

10 In doing that, one of our primary

11 activities is regulatory action. And I know in

12 the big scheme of things, regulations are

13 perceived as bad. Nobody wants the government on

14 their back and all these types of things.

15 Well the regulations that we do, these

16 are all published in the Federal Register, these

17 are all regulations that are asked for, once

18 again, by our industries primarily through any of

19 those 29 boards or committees or councils as they

20 seek to either change their assessment rates,

21 modify their grade standards, add additional

22 authorities, perhaps for quality regulation in
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1 their programs, or make any other adjustments.

2 The regulatory process is a critical

3 component to ensure transparency not only to

4 everybody in the industry but really everybody in

5 the United States. Everybody can see what's

6 going on. The public has the opportunity to

7 comment through these regulatory actions.

8 We do this every day with 45 staff. 

9 About half of us are located here in our

10 headquarters office at the USDA South Building

11 across the river. The other half are almost

12 equally disbursed among three regional field

13 offices in Fresno, California, Portland, Oregon,

14 and Winter Haven, Florida just south of Orlando.

15 Let's take a little closer look at

16 marketing orders and agreements. These are very

17 complex animals as compared to the peanuts, the

18 table grapes, and the apple programs which are

19 pretty straight forward minimum standard and

20 inspection programs.

21 Marketing orders and agreements, we

22 like to advertise -- think of it as a big tool
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1 box. And within that box you have a variety of

2 tools that are available to those in the industry

3 who choose to put themselves under a federal

4 marketing order.

5 These programs can require and provide

6 for generic, that is industry wide, non7 proprietary promotion activities, marketing

8 activities, paid advertising activities. They

9 can use industry monies that are collected

10 through assessments upon handlers to fund market

11 research targeted at the trade, consumers, and

12 for product development. Production research as

13 well, newer varieties, pest resistant varieties,

14 varieties with better flavor, better shelf life.

15 Volume control is a feature of our

16 marketing orders in some cases. Where really,

17 particularly for those commodities that have a

18 little time on the shelf, so to speak, primarily

19 a nut crop or maybe a dried fruit crop or

20 something like that or cherries or cranberries. 

21 They have the ability to regulate the flow to

22 market to sort of even out the supply. So you
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1 don't have a big surplus followed by a

2 significant deficit.

3 And what that does over the long term,

4 it means not only stable pricing for consumers

5 but also for producers. And a reliable supply

6 for customers of that product.

7 Through marketing orders the industry

8 can also collect and publish market data that's

9 very useful for producers and for handlers. And

10 in some instances ties right into our USDA market

11 news program. You'll be hearing more about that

12 in a minute.

13 We can require minimum or official

14 container and pack requirements relating to size,

15 capacity, weight, dimensions, or pack of the

16 product. This again assures a commodity a place

17 in the marketplace without overcrowding it with

18 too many types of cartons or packages.

19 Minimum standards I've alluded to are

20 relative to size, quality, grade, and maturity. 

21 These drive in term mandatory inspection. 

22 Because anytime you have a minimum standard or a
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1 container or pack requirement, you're going to

2 have to have an inspection program to verify and

3 ensure compliance with those requirements.

4 And then last but not least, on the

5 import and commodity regulation there are

6 currently 14 commodities. And there are others

7 listed in the statute as well. But there are 14

8 active ones where we impose the same regulations

9 on imported product as we do on domestically

10 produced product. Citrus, tomatoes, dates, and

11 the list could go on with a number of others,

12 potatoes and onions.

13 And again, it levels the playing field

14 for American producers. And basically ensures

15 that if a domestic industry is setting the

16 quality bar up here, the import competition can't

17 come in and undercut with a subpar quality.

18 Some current activities, a little look

19 at where we are, the things going on, we have a

20 brand new pecan marketing order. In fact, we

21 just have a selection order signed. Chuck knows

22 that. It just got taken care of yesterday.
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1 So we'll be informing the new members

2 of the American Pecan Council this week. And

3 we're hoping to have our first meeting of that

4 group sometime in November.

5 This is a marketing order that

6 stretches 15 states, coast to coast across the

7 country from California to North Carolina. And

8 basically draw that line and take it everything

9 south. 

10 We think there are about 3,500

11 producers. This is a group that, through their

12 testimony as indicated, they want out of the

13 chute come in with about a $10 million program. 

14 And they want to grow up to be like the almond

15 guys and the walnut guys and the pistachio guys

16 in terms of marketing players from a generic

17 standpoint in the marketplace.

18 On the technology side, my division is

19 a leader for the agency in working with Customs

20 and Border Protection to implement for AMS the

21 International Trade Data System. 

22 And what this actually looks like in
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1 every day usage comes through our compliance and

2 enforcement management system which is a major

3 information technology interface that we have

4 built. We're still in the process of finishing

5 it up.

6 What this technology is going to do

7 for the very first time is going to position AMS

8 with the ability to determine whether or not an

9 imported product regulated by any of our 14

10 regulations is allowed to enter in the United

11 States.

12 Up until this time Customs and Border

13 Protection was in full control in terms of

14 whether an imported lot was either held, held in

15 tact, or released and may proceed into the

16 channels of commerce to the United States.

17 Through ITDS 54 different government

18 agencies are now tied in. So any particular

19 commodity, let's say it's a load of imported

20 citrus, there may be several agencies wanting to

21 take a look at it, AFS, maybe from a sanitary

22 standpoint FDA from Food & Drug, and certainly
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1 AMS from the standpoint of our import

2 regulations.

3 Well in our case there's an electronic

4 signal through this system that now is going to

5 be automatically sent to our special crops

6 inspection division. You'll hear more from them

7 in a moment. These are our inspection forces.

8 And basically setting up that group

9 for inspection of this product. And then we have

10 it on our screens on not quite a real time basis. 

11 But rather than the two week to two month away

12 that we've had, it's going to be at most a day or

13 two days. 

14 We'll have information on every single

15 entry of our regulated products into the United

16 States through all ports. And then we'll have

17 corresponding, or next to that an indication of

18 whether each one of those entries has obtained an

19 inspection and has met the requirements.

20 If that does not occur, the entry

21 remains in what's called a holding taxed status

22 and CBP does not release it. And the legal
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1 liability continues to rest with the importer or

2 the filer until that occurs. 

3 This is very new, very different. And

4 we think it is going to dramatically expand

5 compliance or improve compliance with our import

6 regulations.

7 Food Safety Modernization Act, I think

8 you're going to be hearing about that during your

9 meeting while we're here. Very interestingly,

10 FDA has recognized marketing orders as a very

11 effective tool to put in place various

12 requirements in the areas of handling, GAPs at

13 the producer level, training for the industry, or

14 recall and traceback programs.

15 And, in essence, FDA has said hey, you

16 know, if you're an industry operating under a

17 federal marketing order and you're doing things

18 that are achieving the objectives of FSMA and

19 meeting our criteria, well guess what, as FDA we

20 have very limited enforcement resources, we're

21 going to be focusing elsewhere.

22 Why? Because they have big faith in
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1 these programs. And they know AMS has strong

2 legal compliance enforcement capability and that

3 we'll take care of it. So this is an area we're

4 becoming more active in with our groups.

5 And then we have a lot of strategic

6 relationships. We work with a United States

7 trade representative all the time. Our import

8 regulations all have to be vetted through them. 

9 And then also there are ongoing discussions,

10 always discussions from folks around the world

11 about our marketing orders, our import

12 regulations, and the compliance with our

13 agreements pursuant to the World Trade

14 Organization, WTO.

15 We work with FDA not only on FSMA but

16 with FDA and FTC as well, Federal Trade

17 Commission, on marketing communications. Part of

18 our role is to assure that every message that our

19 boards, committees, or councils put out there

20 advertising or promoting their product is

21 compliant with those two agencies laws and

22 regulations. You can't just go out there and
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1 make any kind of claim you want about a product. 

2 It has to be a legitimate and properly backed up.

3 Foreign Ag Service is a close

4 collaborator of ours. A lot of overlap between

5 our 29 programs and FAS. A lot of them are also

6 FAS program cooperators. And we share compliance

7 information and audit information. And then

8 collaborate as well on international trade

9 issues.

10 Specialty crops inspection, again,

11 you'll be hearing from them. Not all of our 29

12 programs but many of them have mandatory

13 inspection requirements which drives a tremendous

14 amount of activity for SCI.

15 And then finally, science and

16 technology program within AMS that is responsible

17 for a lot of laboratory testing work that we do

18 for salmonella and aflatoxin and other pathogens,

19 in particular in our nut crops.

20 Internally we have a three year

21 strategic plan that we have in place. It runs

22 through 2018. We have five goals that you can
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1 see there that really are designed above all else

2 to not only improve our functionality and our

3 efficiency and our effectiveness, but basically

4 make sure we're doing the very best that we can

5 to help farmers help themselves through our

6 programs.

7 They include performance measures and

8 an annual operating plan that is adjusted as

9 necessary to reflect priorities and resource

10 capabilities.

11 And so, that's us. And that's what we

12 do every day. In the handout that I provided to

13 you you've got the contacts for our three

14 regional field offices. This has just been a

15 real fundamental overview. We were given 10

16 minutes. So I think I've done it which is an

17 amazing thing for me to get it in under 10.

18 And certainly, I can remain available

19 during the break. If any of you have any

20 questions, I'd be happy to visit with you

21 further. Okay. And we do have time now. So we

22 can take questions now as well if you have any?
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1 MR. PARROTT: Thanks Mike. Any

2 questions on marketing orders through that

3 program?

4 MS. KNORR: Good morning Mike. Thanks

5 for being here.

6 MR. DURANDO: Sure.

7 MS. KNORR: I have a question. Our

8 last session we had a group that was focusing on

9 food waste. And so, I'm wondering through the

10 market orders, when there are produce standards

11 and that kind of thing, are there any marketing

12 orders that acknowledge or proactively address

13 waste streams that may be created during that

14 process?

15 MR. DURANDO: Great, terrific

16 question. Everybody heard the question about

17 food waste? Okay. So the answer is yes. In

18 fact, I'm proud to say that all of our marketing

19 orders that have any kind of a minimum standard

20 requirement in them do have the capability to

21 provide an alternative outlet to product that

22 does not meet those standards. So that we
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1 minimize the potential or virtually eliminate the

2 potential for food waste.

3 Actually very interesting, the one

4 marketing order that remained that didn't have

5 that kind of an outlet was within our table grape

6 marketing order for southeastern California. 

7 This is the Coachella Valley for those of you

8 that know the grape business.

9 And it didn't have the ability for

10 product to go to charities or to food banks or to

11 those kinds of outlets if those grapes failed to

12 meet their standards. So we amended the

13 regulation. So we completed that. And that's

14 now been in place for -- I know we're in the

15 first year but it may be more than a year old at

16 this point.

17 Sidebar to that or interesting little

18 factoid, we were pulling some data the other day

19 looking at imported table grapes and the

20 disposition of those and whatnot. And low and

21 behold found that there was a lot, or a load if

22 you will, 11,000 pounds of table grapes that had
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1 been imported through Philadelphia that failed,

2 must have failed to meet because they were

3 diverted to a food bank.

4 So that wouldn't have been able to

5 happen a year or year and a half ago without our

6 change in the regulations. It now could happen. 

7 And all of our orders have that capability of

8 some kind.

9 MS. ELLOR: Hi, Tina Ellor from

10 Phillips Mushroom Farms. Could you say a little

11 bit more about your -- is the relationship you

12 have with the FDA sort of a formal one in regards

13 to FSMA or an informal? 

14 So you said that they will be less

15 likely to target industries that have GAP

16 programs in place. Could you say more about

17 that?

18 MR. DURANDO: Sure. Not that I want

19 to steal the FSMA thunder and I think food safety

20 thunder that's coming up maybe through some of

21 the discussions here.

22 But going back a number of years to
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1 when Michael Taylor was running the program there

2 at FDA and overseeing a lot of the FSMA work and

3 everything else. And it was published even in

4 some of the regulations.

5 What they're basically saying is if

6 there is an industry out there -- and let me just

7 say there's not a formal agreement. There is not

8 an MOU in place on this. This is just sort of

9 FDA's, I guess, logical prioritization of

10 resources.

11 They're acknowledging A, they've got

12 limited enforcement resources. And then B, if

13 you're operating under a program, in this case

14 I'm addressing federal marketing orders, that are

15 achieving these things -- you've got handling

16 requirements in place that, you know, in fact

17 meet or exceed whatever FSMA they may be

18 requiring. 

19 Or you've got handling requirements

20 that, in fact, are affecting the behavior of

21 producers so that what they're doing through GAPs

22 or other activities are somewhat de facto
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1 compliance -- I use that term very carefully

2 here.

3 They're achieving, they're meeting the

4 goals of what FSMA is trying to do. Then FDA is

5 going to look at that, through no agreement or

6 whatever, but they're going to have an

7 understanding that that's happening. They have a

8 high degree of awareness of our programs as it

9 is.

10 And they'll understand that isn't an

11 area of risk for us in the food safety arena. 

12 Because that is an area that has very good

13 controls in place. And a lot of that has to do

14 with the FDA audit, pardon me, the USDA audit and

15 inspection programs that are run by SCI and

16 overseen by them. 

17 It has to do with the compliance and

18 enforcement capability that our program through

19 my division has. And the legal teeth that we

20 have in that which we do. We can take people all

21 the way up through the federal court system.

22 So those are the reasons why. But
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1 there's no formal MOU between us and FDA on that. 

2 Randy did you want to add something to that?

3 MR. MACAN: Yes I do. 

4 MR. DURANDO: This is Randy Macan from

5 the Specialty Crop Inspection division.

6 MS. STANZIANI: Randy you'll need to

7 use one of the microphones.

8 MR. MACAN: While we're on the topic

9 so we can just clarify, AMS has an agreement, an

10 MOU with FDA. The USDA has had, a working

11 agreement with FDA goes back to the 1940's

12 whereas that we have established a relationship

13 working with the regulators.

14 And we have an individual, Ken

15 Petersen, about our working relationship with

16 FDA. And then with FSMA implementation. And he

17 can go into a little bit more detail.

18 But yes, we have an agreement. All of

19 us AMS from poultry to meats and all of our fruit

20 and vegetable inspection services have signed

21 that agreement.

22 MR. DURANDO: Yes. And Randy, just to
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1 add onto that, I appreciate that because -- but

2 that agreement doesn't specifically name, it

3 doesn't say in the agreement if you have a

4 marketing order we're going to do this. Right? 

5 It has much more to do with the other side of the

6 business. Does that help Tina?

7 MS. ELLOR: It does, thank you.

8 MR. DURANDO: I think we have a

9 question here. And then we'll come back down the

10 line.

11 MR. VAZQUEZ: Good morning Michael. 

12 Thank you for your wonderful introduction. Just

13 can you elaborate a little bit more on the status

14 of the ITDS? Is it already fully implemented? 

15 And just expand a little bit more please.

16 MR. DURANDO: Well ITDS, I mean,

17 that's a big category. But the International

18 Trade Data System and very specifically the

19 Automated Commercial Environment, the ACE, that

20 is fully up and running by CBP. That's a CBP

21 owned product.

22 And they are now calling for all
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1 filers to be using the ACE. In fact, they turned

2 off the old legacy system called ACS. And

3 they've pushed everybody into ACE.

4 Now they very recently have announced

5 some deferment of the deadline dates until, I

6 think, into the end of December or early January

7 on certain aspects of filing that really go

8 outside of the USDA activities.

9 For AMS and for the programs that I

10 was addressing, they are the 14 import

11 regulations, we're currently in a pilot status on

12 that. And in that regard, we've now expanded to

13 the point where we have L.A. Long Beach, Miami,

14 and Philadelphia. 

15 Those ports are open for all filers to

16 file in ACE. And to file for their Section 8E

17 compliance. Those are our import regulations

18 through ACE. And we're running that through

19 those three ports as we speak.

20 We'll be piloting those still for a

21 little bit as we're continuing to debug our

22 system. There's a lot of technology going on
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1 between Specialty Crops Inspection Division and

2 their FEARS program that automates the inspection

3 process. It reports into our Compliance and

4 Enforcement Management System or CEMS that I

5 referenced earlier. And that's all working

6 through.

7 But I can tell you that our goal or

8 our target is that by pretty much mid to late

9 November, by then we hope to have our system open

10 to all ports of entry. And so that we have a

11 full month of service under our belt, that would

12 be the month of December, before we hit the

13 December 31 deadline which is called for in the

14 President's Executive Order.

15 So does that clarify it for you?

16 MR. VAZQUEZ: Yes. Thank you.

17 MR. DURANDO: Okay.

18 MR. PARROTT: Okay. Any other

19 questions for Mike? 

20 MR. SUTTON: So just another question

21 regarding FSMA and the marking orders. Is AMS

22 looking to get a written agreement that that will
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1 be the compliance arm for marketing orders?

2 MR. DURANDO: With FDA?

3 MR. SUTTON: With FDA.

4 MR. DURANDO: No we are not.

5 MR. SUTTON: Okay.

6 MR. DURANDO: No we are not.

7 MR. SUTTON: But it is of the

8 assumption that through AMS regarding a marketing

9 order that you guys can verify compliance for

10 that marketing order?

11 MR. DURANDO: It should be assumed

12 because it's our job that we have the ability to

13 verify compliance and enforce compliance with the

14 terms and the requirements of a federal marketing

15 order.

16 If those terms and requirements happen

17 to align or achieve the goals or requirements of

18 FSMA, FDA is going to look at that very favorably

19 in terms of how they choose to allocate their

20 enforcement resources.

21 It isn't by any means an automatic

22 pass. You're not "exempt" from FSMA or anything
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1 like that. It doesn't mean FDA couldn't come

2 looking at you. But in terms of allocating their

3 resources, they're going to be focusing

4 elsewhere.

5 MR. PARROTT: Thanks Mike, appreciate

6 it.

7 MR. DURANDO: Thank you very much.

8 MS. STANZIANI: I'm just going to do

9 a little interpretation. Because as the federal

10 government, we have a tendency to use a lot of

11 acronyms. And we try, you know, we do our best

12 but when we're talking every day to the same

13 people, everybody knows what we're talking about. 

14 It doesn't necessarily mean that the general

15 public does.

16 So when Mike referred to a selection

17 order, the selection order is actually the call

18 for nominations for the board members. And a

19 selection package is the appointment package

20 which related to the new pecan board. They have

21 gone through that whole selection process.

22 And CBP is Department of Homeland
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1 Security Customs and Border Protection. Just to

2 give you a little update there. I'll continue if

3 we need to.

4 MR. PARROTT: Okay. Let's move right

5 along. Terry I'm going to ask, Terry Long is our

6 Director of our Market News Division. And again,

7 Market News reports prices every day all over the

8 country. And helps maintain a transparent

9 marketplace which is really important. So Terry,

10 thanks for being here. And I'll turn it over to

11 you.

12 MR. LONG: Good morning and thank you

13 for this opportunity. You're going to be the

14 operator and I'll be the pointer? Okay. Got it. 

15 Well first off Market News, I will

16 mention that Market News is actually older than

17 the Agricultural Marketing Service. Market News

18 was established in 1915 before there was an AMS. 

19 Market News was later merged into AMS when AMS

20 was created later.

21 Anyway, Market News is the eyes and

22 ears of the American agricultural industry. In
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1 fact, I'd say we were the eyes and ears of

2 agriculture worldwide. A mission very simple,

3 provide timely, accurate, and unbiased

4 information on agricultural markets, very simple.

5 Our motto get it, get this

6 information, get it right, it's got to be

7 accurate, and then get it out. Again, three

8 things here. One, the information, it's out

9 there and you have to collect it. 

10 Secondly, if it's erroneous, we have

11 an obligation to not use that information. Our

12 saying is if you're in doubt about the

13 information, check it out. If you're still in

14 doubt, leave it out. Again, this information

15 becomes prima facie in court cases. So again,

16 these market reporters have to be competent in

17 the information they're collecting and

18 disseminating.

19 Again, market levels covered, shipping

20 point, terminal markets, retail advertised weekly

21 specials. And I'm going to pause there and hand

22 these out if I may. And we'll come back to this.
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1 Retail, again, we're only checking the

2 advertised weekly specials not every day regular

3 prices. And a few farmers markets and the

4 growing trend in direct marketing farmers

5 auctions.

6 Again, some other products you may not

7 be aware that Market News covers, apple juice

8 concentrate, grape cold storage and, again, the

9 volume in cold storage, apples for processing,

10 international markets of interest, Paris, London,

11 all over the world. 

12 And things you might not expect us to

13 cover honey and beekeeping. And it's not up

14 there but cut flowers is a huge industry that we

15 track.

16 On the movement side or volume, again,

17 one of our important sets of data for the

18 industry is movement, shipments, domestic, truck,

19 rail, it doesn't list air but if there's any

20 there, crossings from Mexico every single day. 

21 Trucks, air, and boat, all of those we're

22 tracking. And then imports from all the other
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1 countries, 63 other countries beyond Mexico that

2 we're capturing imports on mostly on a daily

3 basis.

4 Again, part of our role here Mike

5 alluded to in this ITDS, the new system. We'll

6 be getting that data as well. Currently we're

7 using other means to collect this. We're going

8 to be part of that same mechanism. So everyone

9 will be using the same data set, ITDS, for the

10 imports.

11 Key reports, the National Shipping

12 Point Trends is a weekly report. We'll glance at

13 that in a minute. The retail report I just

14 passed out. Those are only the first four pages

15 of the most recent retail report. Once a week

16 it's about 35 pages long in great detail. 

17 The Truck Rate Report is very popular. 

18 Most produce moves by truck except boats coming

19 into the country. How is the supply? What are

20 the rates? You know, where are they moving? 

21 Shortages and surplus are very closely tracked,

22 very widely supported by the industry, Truck Rate
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1 Report.

2 Daily Movement Report, again, we're

3 aggregating all of this volume, shipments,

4 crossings from Mexico, and imports into that

5 daily rate. The universal supply is available to

6 us. Again, a specialized component of that is

7 the Mexican crossing, again, specific.

8 And again, the recent summary we've

9 added for the organic markets that we continue to

10 add, grow, and report. Again, this is done on a

11 daily basis, the National Special Crops Organic

12 Summary. We're rolling all of the organic into

13 one place, the shipments, post sale shipping

14 point, retail all rolled up into one report. 

15 Obviously, the retail is a weekly feature.

16 Now this is what I handed out to you. 

17 I wanted you to look at this again. We are

18 tracking, I think the number is 360 chain stores

19 with over 29,000 outlets. Again, we're pulling

20 these ads off the internet for these individual

21 stores by region.

22 So again, we are capturing almost the
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1 entire nation's weekly advertised specials for

2 fresh produce on a weekly basis. Very big data. 

3 Almost every reporter in America collects part of

4 these stores. 

5 We distribute them out so everyone has

6 a feel for what their, say they're covering

7 mangoes, they get to cover the market at shipping

8 point, in other words the point of import, as

9 well as tracking these retail ads. So you can

10 see how they link together. So it's a been a

11 boon for us both in our reporters and in the

12 products that we make available to the industry.

13 Again, I spoke briefly about the truck

14 report, Truck Rate Report. I just wanted to give

15 you a glance at that. Again, broken down by all

16 of the major shipping districts. And again, all

17 the truck brokers, the individual shippers are

18 very cooperative, I would say, on a national

19 basis over 90 percent cooperation, extremely

20 high.

21 And the trends. Again, we're

22 aggregating up the berry market broken down by
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1 the varieties underneath, the citrus fruit, the

2 varieties underneath, as well as the shipping

3 point districts. We're showing you the movement

4 over three weeks, three weeks ago, two weeks ago,

5 last week, and the current market. Again, a

6 glance at that shipping point market for the

7 United States and for imports into the U.S.

8 Just briefly, we cover 1,453 markets,

9 over 4,000 buyers and sellers interviewed every

10 day, total commodities 411. Again, that includes

11 things like honey and the various varieties of

12 cut flowers, for examples. Or types, excuse me,

13 not varieties.

14 Now how broadly is this information

15 accessed? The most recent count we did, we get

16 54,000,000 e-views. This is people going to our

17 site to pull information off. So these aren't

18 just, you know, visits if you will. Because you

19 know, you can get a lot of those automated. 

20 These are all where they've actually gone in and

21 pulled data out of our site 54,000,000 times a

22 year.
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1 Again, what's next for Market News? 

2 We talked about the ITDS system we'll be

3 integrating into that and collecting that data

4 more efficiently and more comprehensively. So

5 that's a big boon.

6 One of the other things we're doing is

7 an overall replacement of our platform. We're

8 operating in an Oracle environment that was first

9 deployed in the '90s. You can imagine a system

10 that's still operating that was deployed in the

11 '90s.

12 So the market MAR system, Market

13 Analysis and Reporting, modern technology getting

14 rid of the old MNIS, our database if you will. 

15 The communications system that links all of our

16 offices, we have our own communication network. 

17 Again, MAR will replace that.

18 And then lastly, on the sheet I handed

19 out there it talks a lot about our portal and how

20 to access this information our customers are

21 using. This system will replace the Market News

22 portal as well.
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1 One attribute of the MAR system is the

2 API, the Automated Protocol Interface I believe

3 is the term. This will allow our customers for

4 the first time, instead of having to go run

5 reports, you know, for a two year period, for

6 certain markets and then try to roll them up,

7 this new feature in MAR will allow you to pull

8 everything we have. 

9 If you say I want every bit of data

10 you have on mangoes, you can pull this out

11 through this giant pipe of the API. That's just

12 one example of the new functionality you will get

13 with MAR.

14 Modern technology, a big pipe to allow

15 you to pull vast quantities of data. And again,

16 our database goes back to the early '90s. So

17 it's pretty comprehensive data.

18 Organic Data Initiative, this was a

19 farm bill. We have been allocated money for a

20 two year project to grow organic reporting in

21 Market News. Our primary focus -- well we're

22 adding up to 10 new reporters. Again, mostly in
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1 our existing Market News offices. 

2 The focus is on growing our organic

3 reporting primarily at the shipping point. And

4 again, when we capture a market we're looking at

5 volume and prices. So those are our two big

6 focuses here, MAR and the Organic Data

7 Initiative.

8 Within the international realm, Market

9 News AMS serves as the Chairman of the Marketing

10 Information Organization of the Americas. Again,

11 33 member nations that are basically doing what

12 Market News.

13 Some countries this is a quasi-private

14 organization that has been set up. You know, to

15 sort of separate them from the government so that

16 people would have more confidence depending on

17 the countries.

18 So of these 33 members, we met last

19 month, well actually it was this month earlier,

20 in Guatemala. Twenty eight of those members

21 nations were in attendance. 

22 So again, the desire to have good,
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1 reliable, timely agricultural market information

2 is not, you know, unique to our group here today.

3 And again, the focus of this thing is

4 to improve these systems. And also to promote

5 the concept that market transparency like we

6 promote in Market News and you see here through

7 inspections and marketing orders, this

8 transparency is, we consider it a critical public

9 good. 

10 As a planner for the government, you

11 need to know these things. As a private sector

12 trying to enhance your business to support your

13 family, these are all information that should be,

14 we believe is a public good, market transparency.

15 And again, that's all I had for today. 

16 I appreciate your time and would answer your

17 questions if you have them.

18 MR. PARROTT: You know, one thing,

19 just to tag onto what Terry said about it being a

20 public good. I always think back to the mid

21 1990s after the Soviet Union broke up. It amazed

22 me how many of those former Soviet countries came
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1 to the U.S. looking -- because the first thing

2 they wanted was market news.

3 You know, we take it for granted

4 because we have this transparency. They didn't. 

5 And Terry mentioned the Marketing Information

6 Organization of the Americas, you know, with the

7 33 countries. But just having that information

8 available to everyone, not just the people who

9 subscribe to it just is a tremendous public good.

10 MR. LONG: Well thank you Chuck. I

11 wanted to mention that we often refer to

12 ourselves as the first responders. And that's

13 true. 

14 When they said, you know, the wall has

15 fallen, Russia is an independent nation, what did

16 they need? Well the first thing seemed to be

17 these market news reporters. 

18 In the '50s we went and worked in

19 South Korea. To this day they have a very good

20 market information system. In the '70s we worked

21 in other countries. Like you said Chuck, in the

22 '80s we helped Mexico set up their system. 
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1 In fact, we helped Mexico set up a

2 database before we had one in the U.S. But

3 learned from that experience and came back and

4 built a database in the U.S. So it's not a one

5 sided effort, if you will. And Chuck's already

6 mentioned the former Soviet Union nations. 

7 I would say, I would tell you that we

8 currently have four nations that have either

9 written or verbal requests to Market News to come

10 help them improve their marketing information

11 system, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and Columbia.

12 In some cases these have come to us in

13 a formal letter from the Ministry of Agriculture

14 requesting our assistance. So this is a project

15 for the next year and beyond, is to continue to

16 help our key trading partners improve the

17 information. And we both get to rely on that. 

18 So it seems to be a win-win situation.

19 MR. VAZQUEZ: Good morning Terry. 

20 Jorge Vazquez with Latin Specialties. What's the

21 timeframe for the MAR full implementation?

22 MR. LONG: Full rollout is January of
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1 '18. Some parts of it like the early parts of it

2 like feeder cattle and some of those are being

3 done and phased in fully. But for full

4 implementation it's January of 2018.

5 MR. VAZQUEZ: And one more question,

6 if I may. Do you happen to know the name of the

7 Mexican database?

8 MR. LONG: I know the name of the

9 organization, SNIM, the Servicio Nacional de

10 Informacion de Mercados. And they are part of

11 the Secretaria de Economia. Their database I

12 can't call to mind. I'm sorry. There's 33 of

13 them, it's hard to keep them all straight.

14 MR. VAZQUEZ: Thank you.

15 MR. LONG: Yes, sir.

16 MR. PARROTT: Mark, did you have a

17 question?

18 MR. LONG: Yes, sir?

19 MR. SUTTON: How do you verify that

20 the information you collect on pricing points and

21 things like that, what checks and balances do you

22 have in place to make sure that information is
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1 accurate? 

2 And the reason I ask is I have

3 salesmen and I know they report to you all. I

4 wished I was getting the prices they were

5 reporting to you.

6 MR. LONG: You know, we rely on

7 several things. One of them is a culture of

8 training where we realize that highliers and

9 lowliers exist out there. You have to take the

10 highliers, the lowliers, cross check them against

11 their customers, the people that are buying this

12 product.

13 So we're often trying to capture both

14 sides of these transactions. So again, the fact

15 that you tell me the market is 12 and I know it's

16 9 to 10, I'm not going to write 12. I might have

17 cover you and say occasional higher.

18 But just because you tell me that's

19 the market, unless I can confirm it and it

20 matches up with all the other contact points, I'm

21 not going to use it. 

22 So again, when in doubt we leave it
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1 out. If you can't check out and make sure it's

2 correct, we don't use it. And I will mention

3 that sometimes there are special circumstances. 

4 Like I'm doing a season long contract

5 at the 1st of the year. It's going to be under

6 what you think the market is going to be. You

7 know, it's 10 to 12 and I'm taking the season

8 long contract with so and so for $8.

9 Well okay, that's a valid transaction

10 at that point in time. Start of the season, on

11 that day there was an $8 transaction. Now the $8

12 transaction only happened one time. It extends

13 over the season. But as far as a spot market

14 sale or a sale, it only happened once.

15 So in that first part of the season

16 your $8 is a key part of the market. But after

17 that, the market goes to 10 to 12. We're not

18 going to relate back to that and say, by the way,

19 so and so $8 at the start of the season.

20 We may have something in there like

21 previous sales lower. So that people understand

22 when they hear that $8 out there, it's not
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1 current market. So we will try to utilize that

2 information to sort of paint a picture.

3 MR. ALLISON: My name is Mark Allison. 

4 I just wanted to make a comment that I've been

5 using this on and off for probably more years

6 than I want to admit to on and off again. But I

7 just thought you guys over the years have really

8 done a great job of, you know, especially keeping

9 current.

10 I jumped on it just a couple years ago

11 after taking a hiatus for half a dozen years. 

12 And when I came back and visited your website,

13 you know, I was really impressed with the

14 progress and the detail and the reports that are

15 available. So I just wanted to just say I think

16 you're doing a really great job on keeping ahead

17 of it all.

18 MR. LONG: Thank you very much.

19 MR. PARROTT: Okay. So next I'll

20 Lorenzo Tribbett up. Lorenzo is the Director of

21 our Specialty Crops Inspection Division. They do

22 inspections and audits on fruits and vegetables
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1 and some other commodities as well.

2 MR. TRIBBETT: Good morning everyone. 

3 Again, my name is Lorenzo Tribbett. I'm the

4 Director of the Specialty Crops Inspection

5 Division.

6 We were created in October of '12. 

7 This is our four year anniversary. We were

8 merged from the original fresh products branch

9 and the processed products branch to service the

10 fresh and processed industry from farm to fork.

11 We are over 700 strong is what I like

12 to say. We are the largest division within AMS. 

13 Our budget annually is $60 million. Of that, $58

14 million is all user fee. Judy was mentioning

15 that also. I have another saying for that, if we

16 don't churn, we don't earn. When the government

17 is down like Judy for anything, we're still

18 working. We do get $2 million of appropriated

19 money for our standardization branch but that's

20 it. Other than that, it's $50 million.

21 We are quickly approaching our 100th

22 year anniversary which we get in January of this
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1 year, excuse me, January 2017. So like I said,

2 we've been around for a long time.

3 Today with me -- and I'll step back

4 and just give you a little bit of my history

5 background. I've been with AMS Specialty Crops

6 fruit and vegetable program and PACA for the

7 last, over 14 years now. Started out in PACA as

8 a Training Officer and then moving up to Deputy

9 Director. And prior to that, I'm an Air Force

10 retiree. But very great career here so far. And

11 looking, again, to be the future to be even more

12 successful.

13 But today with me I have two of my

14 Associate Directors here. First being Randy

15 Macan. Stand up Randy. He's the Associate

16 Director for Inspection Services. Tell them a

17 little bit about yourself Randy.

18 MR. MACAN: Good morning. Again my

19 name is Randy Macan. As my Director said, I'm

20 Randall Macan, Associate Director of Inspection

21 Services. 

22 Inspection Services covers the
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1 training aspect, the standardization of brands,

2 contract services, and our auditing services that

3 we provide. I also handle budget and I play

4 relations and human resources issues for the

5 division.

6 As he mentioned, I myself have been

7 with the department for 35 years actually this

8 past year. So that's one milestone. And so

9 mostly with the processed fruit and vegetable

10 side. That's from the former processed products

11 division that we've had.

12 And so, basically from our standpoint

13 we handle the, I make sure that the training, all

14 of our inspectors are trained. And basically, so

15 that they are ready to go for when you need that

16 service that we provide.

17 We also have about, for our

18 standardization section, we have food

19 technologists and experienced marketing

20 specialists that cover 400 standards and another

21 300 or 400 CIDS. That's Commodity Item

22 Descriptions which are government buyer
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1 specifications. So we maintain those.

2 We also are in charge of their

3 operational rations which is our relationship

4 contract with DOD where we cover the inspection

5 service of all the MREs for the operational

6 feeding programs for our soldiers around the

7 field. So we have over 13 or 14 suppliers that

8 we have actual personnel in the facility making

9 sure that the DOD contract requirements are met.

10 On top of that we're presently working

11 with USAID. USAID is in the process of trying to

12 expand their humanitarian rations program where

13 we are setting up a type of service similar to

14 DOD where we can help them develop their

15 humanitarian rations that are presently used for

16 several instances either for disaster relief here

17 in this country or for refugee situations around

18 the world. 

19 We're working with the UN on that

20 also. It's going to be a meeting later on where

21 we're going to expand the humanitarian rations

22 program so that they can have enough supply to
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1 meet the demand. 

2 And so that's generally what it is. 

3 I'll have Ken Petersen, my auditing branch will

4 be up later to talk about more detail on the

5 audit side.

6 MR. TRIBBETT: Okay. And also Chip

7 Taylor who is our Associate Director of

8 Operations.

9 MR. TAYLOR: Good morning everyone. 

10 As Lorenzo and Randy said, my name is Chip

11 Taylor. I'm Associate Director for Inspection

12 Operations.

13 So basically I oversee all the

14 inspection grading and certification activities

15 for both the fresh and processed inspections that

16 we do. 

17 Randy mentioned the MREs. We inspect

18 everything from A to Z or soup to nuts, whichever

19 you prefer, and all things in between. We do the

20 MREs. 

21 Our largest programs are peanut

22 inspection, raisin inspection in Fresno,
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1 California followed by orange juice. We have

2 more than 700 full and part time graders at more

3 than 60 locations in inspection offices

4 nationwide.

5 Additionally we have cooperative

6 agreements with 41 states and the Commonwealth of

7 Puerto Rico to license state and commonwealth

8 employees to do inspections on our behalf. We

9 train them, oversee them, and license them to

10 issue our certificates.

11 So that's the real condensed version

12 of what I do. And it sounds pretty

13 straightforward but it doesn't seem to end up

14 that way. Lorenzo?

15 MR. TRIBBETT: We had a little

16 technical difficulty so I don't have anything to

17 pass out. I was going to give you a little short

18 film that we had that really entails exactly what

19 we do within a minute and 20 seconds actually. 

20 So I'm going to ask Pam, as you're

21 going through the meeting here, maybe tomorrow

22 she can show it to you to show you exactly what
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1 we do all the way. Like I said, you'll pick up

2 on it right away.

3 But a couple of the things that we do

4 that people don't even realize is we're in olive

5 oil also. We're into Subway and all the big

6 companies. We have our hands, we're either

7 grading, inspecting, or doing customized services

8 for them. So we have a lot.

9 And our big thing right now is the

10 group gap as Randy mentioned about that. Ken

11 Petersen will be talking to everyone about that

12 later on today or this afternoon. I'm quite sure

13 that's high on your list of things outstanding. 

14 He's been carrying the torch for that

15 for us for, I know for me for the last four

16 years. And prior to that when I knew him when he

17 was just a one man shop. So that'll be a good

18 when you do hear that presentation from him.

19 But for right now, we'll open up to

20 any questions that you may have about specialty

21 crops inspections.

22 MR. PARROTT: If I could just tack on
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1 a couple of things before we get to questions. A

2 few things I wanted to highlight. One is Chip

3 and Randy talked about training.

4 You know, we have a lot of inspectors

5 out there all over the country. We work, we have

6 a training center that's a couple hours or one

7 hour south of here in Fredericksburg, Virginia. 

8 It's a great facility.

9 We work really hard to ensure that we

10 have consistency in our inspections. So you

11 know, if you call for an inspection on a load of

12 tomatoes in Los Angeles, it's going to be done

13 exactly the same way as if you called for it in

14 Boston or Milwaukee.

15 And you know, that takes a lot of

16 training and effort to make sure that people are

17 looking at things the same way. But that's

18 really important to what we do.

19 There was something else I was going

20 to mention and now I don't remember what it was. 

21 Blackboard, yes. So we just recently -- you

22 know, obviously it costs money to bring in
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1 inspectors and state inspectors from all over the

2 country to Fredericksburg to get them trained and

3 certified and brought up to speed.

4 But we just recently got the

5 Blackboard system. Those of you that, you know,

6 kids at university or, you know, younger are

7 probably very familiar with it. But Blackboard

8 enables you to do distance training really well. 

9 It also enables us to track, you know, who is

10 doing what, how they're performing, all of those

11 kinds of things.

12 So it's a great system. So we're just

13 now getting that available. So that's going to

14 help us reduce some of our training costs.

15 MR. TRIBBETT: Especially travel

16 costs. And again, as Chuck was saying, it

17 standardizes our training system and formalizes

18 our training system. So we know at any given

19 point in time how many people we have in

20 training, who may be not doing so well, and how

21 we can go about correcting that.

22 So like I said, it's a great tool. It
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1 goes down to any type -- it can go down to your

2 phone if you're having a class or whatever it may

3 be. And you can do it. When we've got some down

4 time perhaps in some of our offices, then our

5 guys can go and train on specialized courses. 

6 So we're very proud of that system. 

7 We're going to really -- I think next month we

8 really release it. We're doing a lot of

9 individual work right now. But it's going to be

10 a great system for us that we'll be able training

11 to, even out to the industry.

12 That's another big thing. Instead of

13 having to come in to our training development

14 center -- I don't know if anybody has ever sent

15 anybody in here to do anything. But we'll be

16 able to come out to your location via this

17 Blackboard system and provide that training to

18 you.

19 MR. PARROTT: One other thing if I

20 just could tack on. You know, obviously there

21 are federal grade standards. So you know, if you

22 get a load of apples in, you know, does this load
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1 grade US.. Number 1? That's what we do.

2 But we also do customized inspections. 

3 So if, you know, if Walmart had their own grade

4 for, you know, what their buyers were looking

5 for, we can do inspections to any level of

6 certification that you want. So that's a

7 customizable feature that we offer.

8 MR. TRIBBETT: Yes, ma'am?

9 MS. WHITTEMORE: What type of training

10 is offered to the inspectors in terms of tropical

11 products or exotic products?

12 MR. TAYLOR: Well we've got some

13 standards. The mango standard was just issued

14 five or six years ago I believe. We do a fairly

15 comprehensive on the job training program. We

16 can inspect any commodity whether it has an

17 official grade standard or not.

18 And the tropics are an emerging

19 sector. When I started back in the early '80s,

20 tropical fruits consisted of bananas and

21 pineapples and that was about it. That, of

22 course, has expanded greatly.
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1 A lot of that is through the OJT. But

2 we have handbooks or guidance manuals that give

3 general direction on those types of commodities.

4 MR. PARROTT: But if someone wanted to

5 get, let's say a load of starfruit inspected. 

6 There's no grade standard for starfruit. But you

7 guys would do the inspection and basically

8 describe what you're seeing.

9 MR. TAYLOR: Oh absolutely. We can

10 quantify what the defects are. We know what soft

11 is or what flabby is or what shriveled is. So we

12 have the ability to inspect any commodity.

13 MS. WHITTEMORE: I would like to

14 volunteer, if it's possible, with some of that

15 training.

16 MR. TAYLOR: Absolutely.

17 MS. WHITTEMORE: Because we import a

18 lot of tropicals. And sometimes you bring

19 products and you ask for an inspection. And to

20 be honest, the inspectors don't know what those

21 products are. And I mean, I understand. These

22 are things that they've never seen. But it
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1 should be some type of training.

2 Like I had a shipment of canepes. And

3 they look at me like, what is this? What it

4 should look like when it's good or when it's bad? 

5 So this person is making a determination of

6 whether I'm going to lose my head on this product

7 or not with something that they have never seen

8 perhaps.

9 MR. TAYLOR: That is entirely

10 possible. What we try to do in most instances is

11 if it's close to another similar commodity, we

12 tend to use those instructions. A dragonfruit,

13 I'd never seen a dragonfruit before three or four

14 years ago. But I can look at it, see the

15 textures, it's soft skinned, hard shelled, what's

16 the internal quality like. And base it on a

17 commodity that I already know and have a standard

18 on.

19 But certainly, we can develop any kind

20 of specialized training that industry may need or

21 our inspectors may need.

22 MS. WHITTEMORE: My offer still
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1 stands.

2 MR. PARROTT: Any other questions on

3 inspection? Okay. Thank you.

4 MS. WHITTEMORE: One more. I'm sorry. 

5 I've got one more.

6 MR. PARROTT: One more.

7 MS. WHITTEMORE: So if the standards

8 for -- I have an example. So a shipper, a grower

9 sends three containers of avocados from the

10 Dominican Republic. Two goes through a port in

11 New York, one goes through Miami. 

12 The one through Miami goes through no

13 problems, fine. The one through New York they

14 stop because the fruit should be all the same

15 size which is almost impossible. They demanded

16 that they all should be the same size.

17 So that importer is stuck with two

18 containers of avocados versus the one from Miami

19 went right through. How is that possible if it's

20 the same standards?

21 MR. TAYLOR: There are maturity

22 requirements for green skinned avocados coming
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1 into the country. So based on what type of year

2 and where that cutoff date is --

3 MS. WHITTEMORE: Same time.

4 MR. TAYLOR: If that's a specific

5 situation, I can find out for you.

6 MS. WHITTEMORE: Okay. Same time of

7 the year, same time. It was a little odd.

8 MR. TAYLOR: Okay. Was that stopped

9 by us or by --

10 MS. WHITTEMORE: You guys.

11 MR. TAYLOR: Okay. Because we don't

12 really have the authority to stop anything.

13 MS. WHITTEMORE: That's what I was

14 told.

15 MR. TAYLOR: We verify quality and

16 requirements. But we don't have any police

17 authority. So we can't hold a load. All we can

18 do is fill out the certificate and say whether or

19 not it met.

20 MS. WHITTEMORE: Mine was the one that

21 went through so I'm okay.

22 MR. TRIBBETT: Well if you do have
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1 those questions, you can give us all the data

2 that you have and the information. We can

3 definitely check it out. But like he said, when

4 you said that I was saying we have authority to

5 do that? We can find out though. That's not a

6 problem.

7 MR. PARROTT: So just adding onto

8 that, it wouldn't be SCI that would stop you. It

9 would be Customs and Border Protection or CBP. 

10 And we're now at a point, we talked about ITDS

11 earlier, where because all the filing is coming

12 through ACE, even if that port isn't part of our

13 pilot program yet, CBP now has a much -- the

14 system will not let product in today if, what we

15 call the old stamp and fax system, if the

16 importer doesn't present that stamped copy of a

17 fax from SCI indicating that they've got the

18 inspection scheduled.

19 And then that puts it on CBP's screen. 

20 And now electronically, probably what's happening

21 is the load failed, you know, it didn't meet. 

22 And my guess is ACE locked it down and wouldn't
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1 release it. So it wasn't these guys or it wasn't

2 SCI who was holding the load. It would have been

3 CBP.

4 But just to add on, I mean, they'd

5 have to look at the particular incidents. But it

6 could have been that you had different varieties

7 in those other containers. All the varieties are

8 regulated on different maturity times under our

9 regulations. 

10 So there could be a number of factors

11 at play there why one entered Miami okay and the

12 other two did not. It could have been different

13 product or something.

14 MR. PARROTT: Like I said, any

15 questions we'll find out. Give us the data.

16 MS. STANZIANI: And I just want to say

17 that it was my miscommunication, I apologize. 

18 But I will make sure that you do get a copy or

19 see a copy of that video. It's a great animated

20 video. They're kind of the pioneers for us, our

21 program in this. And it actually, you'll be able

22 to go online and grab it too. But I would like
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1 you to see it here.

2 MR. TRIBBETT: And it's in English and

3 Spanish also. So you know, we try to cover just

4 about everything else. And next, I guess, we're

5 going to try to do Korean as we continue to

6 develop.

7 MR. PARROTT: Okay. Thanks Lorenzo

8 and Chip and Randy. I know everybody is probably

9 ready for a break. But we've got one more

10 speaker. And then it's break time. So Patty

11 Petrella is here. Patty is the Associate

12 Director of our Promotion and Economics Division. 

13 And then we'll hear from her. And then we'll

14 take a break. And then we'll come back with the

15 full committee meeting.

16 MS. PETRELLA: And I'll be quick.

17 MR. PARROTT: While Pam is pulling

18 that up, just a couple of housekeeping things. I

19 think everybody knows this but we have coffee and

20 water and tea that's up here. Water is in the

21 back. Please help yourself. 

22 And then the restrooms are, the
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1 women's room is straight across the hall. And

2 the men's room is to the right just a little bit

3 and then it's on the left.

4 MS. PETRELLA: Good morning everybody. 

5 My name is Petty Petrella and I am the Deputy

6 Director of the Promotion and Economics division. 

7 My supervisor Heather Pichelman is actually out

8 at an industry board meeting for the paper and

9 paper based packaging program today.

10 I know all of you have heard of beef,

11 it's what's for dinner and got milk. These are

12 tag lines from federally enacted research and

13 promotion programs otherwise known as commodity

14 checkoff programs.

15 In the Specialty Crops Program, our

16 division oversees 13 of the 22 research and

17 promotion programs for various fruit, vegetable,

18 nuts, and forestry programs. They include

19 avocados, blueberries, mangoes, Christmas trees,

20 honey, mushrooms, peanuts, popcorn, potatoes,

21 paper and paper based packaging, raspberries,

22 watermelon, and softwood lumber.
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1 Our two newest programs are the fresh

2 cut Christmas tree program and the paper and

3 paper based packaging program. 

4 But first, let me tell you about the

5 interesting organization of our division. We are

6 made up of a team of marketing specialists that

7 oversee the 13 research and promotion programs. 

8 And a team of economists that compile,

9 process, research, analyze, and report economic

10 and statistical information on fruits,

11 vegetables, and tree nuts and related

12 commodities, other specialty crops including

13 forestry products, and organic products.

14 PED economists also support activities

15 related to various AMS SCP functions and other

16 USDA agencies with emphasis on commodity

17 purchases for feeding programs, particularly

18 school lunch, marketing order and agreement

19 programs, research and promotion programs, and

20 other programs as needed.

21 Our marketing specialists work on the

22 research and promotion programs. All national
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1 research and promotion programs are designed to

2 maintain and expand domestic and foreign markets

3 for agriculture commodities.

4 These programs are created and funded

5 entirely by industry stakeholders. The

6 assessment payers can be producers, handlers,

7 processors, manufacturers, and importers of the

8 commodity.

9 Under a program a commodity board is

10 established. And board members are nominated by

11 the industry and appointed by the Secretary of

12 Agriculture. No tax payer monies are used. 

13 These are user fee programs. They can be

14 national in scope.

15 There are mandatory assessments on the

16 programs that choose to be part of a RNP program. 

17 All the programs combine for approximately $1

18 billion annually.

19 AMS has been given oversight authority

20 by Congress. AMS oversees how they money is

21 spent in accordance with their laws. Some of the

22 activities we oversee include budgets, contracts,
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1 review promotional ads, research projects and

2 promotional campaigns, to name a few.

3 We are the fiduciaries for the

4 producers, importers, processors, handlers,

5 manufacturers, and others that pay into the

6 programs.

7 And that's all I have. If anyone has

8 any questions about our research and promotion

9 programs or what we do, what our economists do,

10 I'll be happy to take them. And Chuck is on the

11 economist staff.

12 MR. PARROTT: You may want to just

13 give them a little bit of a feel for how much of

14 a review -- like when one of the boards submits

15 an ad to, you know, they have to get it approved

16 first. What are we looking at and what do we

17 ensure that it has to do?

18 MS. PETRELLA: Right. Any of the

19 material that the board generates, promotional

20 material, our specialists have to review that

21 material. It's all considered government speech.

22 So we're looking at it to make sure
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1 that it is in compliance with, we have

2 guidelines. And also we review them under FDA

3 guidelines and also FTC guidelines to make sure

4 that they are compliant.

5 MS. WHITTEMORE: How do you decide, I

6 mean, the committee decide what campaigns to

7 target or what products to promote?

8 MS. PETRELLA: Well the board kind of

9 makes that recommendation. They decide, they

10 kind of steer I guess the whole strategy on what

11 they're going to promote. And then most of the

12 boards, they may have in house people that do

13 that. Or they'll hire a contractor, PR firm or

14 whatever to work on that strategy.

15 MS. WHITTEMORE: But is it based on a

16 specific product that needs -- like for example,

17 when it was the milk. Was it because milk was

18 low and they want to promote more of the

19 consumers using more milk because that will help

20 the producers? What is the rationale?

21 MS. PETRELLA: Yes, I guess. I mean,

22 these are all industry driven. So they come to
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1 USDA. And if they decide they have, I guess, a

2 problem or they want to promote their product,

3 they come to USDA to develop a program.

4 MR. PARROTT: Yes. That's an

5 important distinction. We don't say people need

6 to drink more milk so let's get a milk -- no. 

7 The dairy industry comes to us and says hey, you

8 know, we want to promote our product generically. 

9 So we oversee that program. But it's completely

10 up to them whether they want to have one or not.

11 MS. WHITTEMORE: So any industry could

12 come up to you guys?

13 MR. PARROTT: Could, yes.

14 MS. WHITTEMORE: And what is the

15 mechanism to do so, to present an idea for a

16 promotion?

17 MS. PETRELLA: We actually have some

18 procedures on our website. I'd be happy to

19 direct you to the website. Usually a proponent

20 group comes to us and we help them kind of

21 develop the program. And that's usually how it's

22 done.
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1 MS. WHITTEMORE: Thank you.

2 MS. STANZIANI: I'll make sure that

3 you get any information that you need from any of

4 these presentations.

5 MR. MACAN: Thank you very much for

6 the presentation. I guess just a couple of

7 questions with respect to marketing orders and

8 marketing agreements. There was the lawsuit on

9 the raisin marketing order which, you know,

10 pretty significantly called into that question

11 that order.

12 I'm just wondering, you know, is that

13 having any repercussions in terms of the

14 execution of other marketing orders? Or are

15 there changes in policy that you all are having

16 to pursue in order to come into compliance?

17 MS. PETRELLA: Well I'll let Mike

18 answer that. He's actually the Division Director

19 for marketing orders.

20 MR. DURANDO: Thank you. Nice to see

21 you. Sure. I think I can say right now the

22 litigation that was going on in marketing orders
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1 I don't think has really spilled over to research

2 and promotion programs at least politically or

3 programatically or anything like that. They're

4 really two separate animals although we have a

5 lot of overlap in the things that we can do.

6 With regard to the raisin litigation,

7 again, that was a very narrow decision by the

8 U.S. Supreme Court relating to the grower held

9 reserve for raisins as part of their volume

10 control program.

11 As a result, the repercussion or the

12 result of that decision has been that the

13 Department of Agriculture has made it clear to

14 the Raisin Administrative Committee that oversees

15 that program that it will not, we the department

16 will not implement any form of that reserve

17 program as it is currently constituted in the

18 regulations.

19 It has not spilled over to other

20 marketing orders. And there are currently no

21 agreements on the books. The reason being the

22 reserve provisions in any of the other orders
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1 that have reserves are materially different than

2 what was in the raisins.

3 And so, when you get in there and

4 start splitting all the legal hairs, if you will,

5 the applicability doesn't flow over to those if

6 that makes sense.

7 The final repercussion, and I can just

8 report it from a process standpoint, we are

9 actually have been working with the raisin

10 committee to go through formal rulemaking. This

11 is with public hearings and public comment and

12 final notices.

13 The order is in the process of

14 potentially being amended. A recommended

15 decision has not been published yet. But the

16 Department of Agriculture did propose in that

17 hearing to completely strike all of the volume

18 control provisions in the raisin order.

19 So if this process proceeds, that

20 could likely occur. But other than that, no

21 other hit on the other programs. We're in good

22 shape.
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1 MR. MACAN: Thank you Mike.

2 MS. MANIER JOHNSON: I was just

3 wondering, so the campaigns such as Got Milk, are

4 they then funded by the industry themselves?

5 MS. PETRELLA: Yes.

6 MS. MANIER JOHNSON: Okay.

7 MS. PETRELLA: And so are the ones in

8 our program too. Yes, they're all industry

9 driven. That is industry funded.

10 MR. PARROTT: And I would add, that

11 would be the same for the marketing orders as

12 well. If you see California almonds promoted or

13 Florida tomatoes or Texas citrus or cranberries

14 or any of those things, that's all industry

15 funded. Any other questions?

16 Thanks Patty. So at this point we'll

17 take a break. Let's take 15 minutes. That takes

18 us to about 10:35. And then please be back and

19 we'll have the full committee and we'll get

20 underway.

21 (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter

22 went off the record at 10:19 a.m. and resumed at
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1 10:40 a.m.)

2 CHAIR KNORR: Good morning, everybody. 

3 Okay, welcome. It's great to see so many

4 returning faces, and I think I can speak for the

5 returning members, we're excited to welcome all

6 the newcomers to the Committee at this time.

7 We're going to go ahead and call the

8 meeting to order here, and first thing, I think

9 we're going to go around and do a round of

10 introductions. So, if you could state your name,

11 the organization you're with, that will help us

12 get to know one another a little bit better. 

13 So, I'll start, since I have the

14 microphone. My name is Beth Knorr. I'm with

15 Countryside Conservancy, located in Peninsula,

16 Ohio. I'm involved with managing farmers'

17 markets and also, Summit Food Policy Coalition,

18 where organizations come together to deal with

19 policy issues related to sustainable agriculture,

20 as well as healthful food access. 

21 MS. BURNS: Good morning. I'm Cathy

22 Burns, President of the Produce Marketing
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1 Association, taking over as CEO of the Produce

2 Marketing Association in January, January 31st,

3 to be exact. Bryan Silbermann is retiring, after

4 a 33 year career.

5 I've been with PMA for three years

6 now. Prior to that, I spent my first 30 years in

7 grocery retail, 20 years at Hannaford up in the

8 Northeast and 10 years at Food Lion, where I was

9 blessed to run the company the last three and a

10 half years I was there. Welcome to all our new

11 members. 

12 MR. ALLISON: Hi. My name is Mark

13 Allison. I'm with the Cheesecake Factory

14 restaurants.

15 MS. DIETRICH: Good morning. I'm

16 Helen Dietrich. I'm an apple grower from

17 Michigan, and we also pack fresh asparagus.

18 MR. CASTANEDA: Good morning. My name

19 is Carlos Castaneda. I'm in California. I'm in

20 the labor business, 25 years this year, and happy

21 to be here, and welcome to all the new members. 

22 MS. BALCH: Hi. I'm Christie Balch. 
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1 I'm with the Crossroads Community Food Network in

2 Maryland, and we run the Crossroads Farmers

3 Market, which was the first market in the country

4 to do a double-dollars for federal nutrition

5 benefits program. So, healthy food incentives.

6 MS. ELLOR: Tina Ellor, Phillips

7 Mushroom Farms.

8 MR. YANDA: I'm Dave Yanda with

9 Lakeside Foods. We're based out of Manitowoc,

10 Wisconsin. We have a number of plants across the

11 Midwest, where we freeze and can a variety of

12 vegetable products, and then we do some other

13 food products, as well.

14 MR. WILLIAMS: Good morning. My name

15 is Tom Williams. I'm the director of produce and

16 floral for Coborn's. We're a family-owned and

17 employee-ran group of 50 stores, operating in

18 Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota and Iowa, and

19 happy to be here again.

20 MR. NOLAN: I'm Bob Nolan, a fourth21 generation vegetable farmer from New York, 30

22 acre farmer, lettuce, spinach, cabbage, some
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1 herbs, basil, arugula, stuff like that. I have a

2 roadside stand. Also sell to other roadside

3 stands and sell to supermarkets, fresh-direct to

4 New York City and also to Hunt's Point. I'm glad

5 to be back. This is my third go-around. So.

6 MS. BARNES: My name is Virginia

7 Barnes. I work for my family's fifth-generation

8 farm in Hastings, Florida, and we grow a variety

9 of fresh produce, and this is my second go10 around.

11 MR. NICHOLSON: Thank you. Mark

12 Nicholson, Red Jacket Orchards in Geneva, New

13 York. We're a third-generation orchard and juice

14 company. So, we both grow summer fruits and

15 apples, as well as process apples into cider, and

16 then a line of 100 percent fruit juices.

17 I recently served as the chairman for

18 the U.S. Apple Association, and my history way

19 back, at one point, I was a USDA employee. We're

20 talking 1998 and 1999, and then even another

21 stint after that for a bit. So, it's nice to be

22 able to come back and see the operation here. 
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1 MR. HANAS: Good morning. Rick Hanas

2 with the Duda Company. 

3 I'm COO, Senior VP for the company. 

4 We're a family-owned farming concern, with two

5 major -- with farms in Florida and California,

6 and subsidiary growing activity in 11 other

7 states in the United States, and it's a pleasure

8 to have the new folks that are here, to be with

9 us.

10 MR. SUTTON: Good morning. My name is

11 Dan Sutton. I'm the general manager for Pismo

12 Oceano Vegetable Exchange, a grower shipper out

13 of the central coast of California. We have a

14 co-operative that markets products for its

15 members throughout the United States, producing

16 leafy greens and oriental vegetables. 

17 MR. McREYNOLDS: My name is Roland

18 McReynolds. I'm executive director with the

19 Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, a member

20 organization, serving farmers and value-added

21 food producers in North and South Carolina, that

22 are principally focused on the markets for local
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1 and organic foods, and welcome to all the new

2 members.

3 MR. TALBOTT: I'm Bruce Talbott from

4 Palisade, Colorado. We're a family organization. 

5 We're a grower, shipper, packer, processor of

6 mostly peaches, wine grapes, sweet cider and

7 recently hard cider. 

8 MS. MANIER: My name is Holly Mainer. 

9 I work Bay Baby Produce and we are a grower,

10 shipper and packer of pumpkins and organic

11 squash.

12 MR. VAZQUEZ: Good morning, everyone. 

13 My name is Jorge Vazquez. I'm the president of

14 Latin Specialties in Houston, Texas. We are an

15 import outfit, import from South America, Mexico

16 and other countries, and distribute into retail

17 and food service. We recently added a fresh-cut

18 division, as well as a re-pack department. 

19 MS. WHITTEMORE: Good morning, all. 

20 Lucy Whittemore. I am with W.P. Distributor. I

21 am a co-owner of the company. My brother and I

22 own it, and I'm super, super excited to be here
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1 and make a contribution to the industry, after 10

2 years of being around, I can't be any more

3 excited. So, just keep on growing.

4 We sell tropical produce, with is a

5 growing market for the Latino community in the

6 U.S. So, happy to be here. 

7 MR. JANIS: Good morning. I'm Michael

8 Janis. I'm with the San Francisco Wholesale

9 Produce Market, and in addition to providing food

10 infrastructure for our 30 businesses, as well as

11 services, we're very engaged in food policy and

12 food access work in San Francisco Bay Area.

13 MR. PARROTT: So, thank you, everyone,

14 and as you can see, we have a really impressive

15 group of people, and again, we've worked very

16 hard to make sure that the whole industry is

17 represented, and I think you heard that, as we

18 went around.

19 So, at this point, it's my please to

20 introduce Elanor Starmer to you. Elanor is the

21 administrator of the agricultural marketing

22 service. She's been with USDA since 2011. She
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1 came in originally to work with the Deputy

2 Secretary Kathleen Merrigan at the time, and then

3 she became a senior advisor to Secretary Tom

4 Vilsack.

5 Prior to joining USDA, Elanor worked

6 in non-profits and as a consultant on rural

7 development, agriculture and water policy issues,

8 both in the United States and Latin America.

9 She holds two Masters degrees, and

10 she's originally from a farming -- small farming

11 community in New Hampshire, kind of near the

12 White Mountains, up there.

13 So, with that -- and I will say just 

14 on a personal note, for me, it's been wonderful

15 because Elanor has such a strong interest in

16 fruits and vegetables. That's integral to what

17 she does and how she thinks. So, she's been a

18 real strong advocate for all of us. So, Elanor,

19 I'll let you speak.

20 MS. STARMER: All right, thank you so

21 much. It's great to be here and Chuck, I

22 appreciate your words, but it is absolutely true
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1 that the produce work is very close to my heart.

2 As Chuck mentioned, I grew up in a

3 small farming community in New Hampshire, just

4 south of the White Mountain National Forest, and 

5 my next-door neighbors are vegetables growers,

6 and I grew up working on their farm, and

7 throughout a lot of folks in the community who

8 are dealing fruits and vegetables, and it's been

9 really neat to be here, during this

10 administration, where I feel like all the way the

11 from top at the White House, there has been such

12 an emphasis on the opportunities presented by --

13 through the fruit and vegetable industry,

14 opportunities not just for our farmers and our

15 businesses, but also for consumers, in terms of

16 healthy eating, and that's been a great emphasis,

17 something that I've been really thrilled to be

18 part of, and something that I know will continue

19 to be front and center, because I don't see this

20 work going anywhere, and I imagine all of you

21 will help make sure that that's the case. So,

22 it's great to be here.
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1 On behalf of Secretary Tom Vilsack and

2 the rest of the department, and all of AMS, I'd

3 like to welcome all of you here. I thank the

4 returning members for coming back and continuing

5 to put your work and your minds, into this

6 effort, and to welcome those of you who are

7 joining the committee for the first time.

8 I think that you will find that this

9 is a very important forum for bringing issues

10 relevant to the industry, in terms of your needs

11 and priorities to forefront, and really plugging

12 those into the Department at various levels.

13 As I was thinking about this work,

14 last night, as I was reading through the agenda,

15 it struck me that the work that you're doing is

16 integral to the way that our programs and

17 policies function, and it is also really critical

18 to the functioning of our democracy, which I

19 realize sounds a little bit overblown perhaps,

20 but when we think about it, committees like this

21 are one of the ways in which we ensure that our

22 programs and our services are reflective of the
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1 needs of a very diverse industry, and that

2 they're meeting the priorities and that if

3 they're not working, it gives us feedback that

4 allows us to make them work better.

5 So, as we think about sort of the idea

6 of having a system in which our policies and

7 programs truly reflect your needs, the work of

8 this committee and other FACA committees is

9 incredibly important to that, and we have other

10 mechanisms as well, like our notice and comment

11 rulemaking processes and other things, but the

12 work that you all are doing is really critical to

13 helping make sure that we're constantly able to

14 be responsive and aware of the needs and the

15 priorities of your industry.

16 So, I thank you for being here, and 

17 I appreciate all the work that Chuck and his team

18 have done to bring together a committee that

19 truly represents the diversity of this industry.

20 I think it's very exciting, as I hear

21 you all go around, to get a sense of where

22 everyone is coming from and just the breadth of
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1 work that you're doing. So, thanks for being

2 here.

3 I think you've got a very exciting

4 agenda before you over the course of the next day

5 and a half, and many of these issues are issues

6 that have been raised by the committee last term 

7 and that I know you will continue to keep front

8 and center.

9 We'll have folks in later this

10 afternoon talking about the Food Safety

11 Modernization Act. This is an issue that I

12 worked on for the Secretary, when I was in his

13 office, and that I've continued to keep a very

14 keen focus on, as I've been in my role at AMS. 

15 It's not our rule, right. It's FDA's,

16 but USDA plays an incredibly critical role, in

17 terms ensuring that the -- that the interests of

18 the ag sector and sort of the reality of what it

19 is to be a fruit or vegetable farmer and how

20 these rules will impact those producers is at the

21 table with FDA, and that's something that we have

22 tried to do throughout the process.
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1 So, very, very early on as they were

2 conceiving of these rules, we took a very -- a

3 very strong role in bringing the interests of the

4 industry to the table in those discussions.

5 At this point now, we're looking ahead

6 at implementation, and I know you'll get a lot

7 more detailed information this afternoon, about

8 the landscape of training opportunities and

9 education and technical assistance that will be

10 available.

11 It is a broad landscape. I think

12 there is still a lot of work that needs to be

13 done, to bring together all of those different

14 options that are going to be available to the

15 industry as these rules roll out, and help folks

16 understand what's there for them.

17 So, that's a challenge that we have

18 before us, and one that I know you're very

19 engaged in, as well.

20 We have done a lot of work to date, to

21 begin a process with FDA, to look at our good

22 agricultural practices, or GAP program, alongside
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1 the FSMA requirements, and you see how they can

2 better be aligned, because we know that there are

3 a lot of folks already using GAP and we would

4 like for that program to serve as -- as a tool

5 that growers can use to be able to know that

6 they're sort of looking through the list of

7 what's going to be required under FSMA and

8 getting closer to meeting those requirements.

9 So, we've had FSMA/GAP alignment

10 process underway with FDA for a number of months. 

11 I think we're in a very good place on that, and

12 you'll hear more about the time line for that

13 process this afternoon.

14 As we have been engaged on that, and

15 even prior to starting that process with FDA, we

16 did recognize that the GAP program is a really

17 important tool for growers to help them

18 understand food safety best practices and be

19 certified to be meeting those best practices.

20 We also recognize that for a number of

21 the smaller growers or folks who are looking at

22 scaling up, who really need that certification to
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1 access markets, that the cost of that

2 certification program is a barrier, and so, I'm

3 very proud that AMS saw that, sort of looked

4 ahead at what the need was going to be, and over

5 three years ago now, piloted a group GAP program,

6 where we allowed groups of growers, doesn't

7 matter what size, but I think it's particularly

8 useful for some of the smaller growers and others

9 who were -- who were coming together, to

10 participate as a group, to get audited and

11 certified as a group, and that allows them to

12 share the cost of that process across the group,

13 but also, to show growers -- to show buyers that

14 they are all in compliance with the GAP best

15 practices.

16 We rolled that out as an official

17 permanent program earlier this year, and I was

18 just talking with Ken Petersen, who you'll hear

19 from later, who has really been heading up this

20 work.

21 We've already got 10 grower groups

22 that we anticipate to be certified by the end of
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1 this year. Around 300 growers are part of that. 

2 So, that's 300 new growers who are now going to

3 be able to access grocery stores, institutional

4 markets and other higher-volume buyers that they

5 may have never had the option to sell to before.

6 So, that's very exciting, and it's

7 just one example of the way that we want to be

8 listening to you, hear what some of the needs

9 are, and trying to adapt our programs and our

10 services to meet those needs. So, that's

11 something that you'll be hearing more about.

12 I believe you also have a presentation

13 today on GMO labeling. I know this is an issue

14 that some of you are really interested in. It's

15 one that is going to be quite a process for the

16 ag marketing service, my agency. We are the ones

17 charged with implementing the law that was passed

18 by Congress this summer, and we have worked very

19 hard to put together a process that is going to

20 allow for a lot of opportunity for public input. 

21 It's going to be very transparent and -- but

22 we'll try as best we can to engage folks on all
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1 sides of the issue.

2 So, I'm very pleased with where we

3 are, in terms of that planning. We are still

4 waiting on funding. Unfortunately, Congress has

5 not yet provided that, although they do have a

6 very aggressive time line that they're asking us

7 to meet with no resources.

8 So, I am hopeful that that will change

9 in the coming months, because it's something that

10 there is a lot of interest in, and I think it's

11 in everyone's best interest to ensure that we can

12 run a process that does have a lot of opportunity

13 for public input. So, we are working on that.

14 I know that one of the issues that

15 many of you are interested in as well, is the

16 various USDA grant programs that are out there to

17 support the fruit and vegetable industry, and

18 there are a number of them. Just, I guess it was

19 last Monday, I was up in New Hampshire for an

20 event with the Ag Commissioner there and he

21 announced the roll out of $62.5 million in

22 specialty crop block grant funds, which as I'm
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1 sure you know, go to the states, but then

2 redistribute those funds to grantees.

3 There is so much interesting work

4 happening through that program, and because -- I

5 believe because it's a block grant program, it is

6 able to be responsive to different needs and

7 different regions of the country, in a way that's

8 pretty unique.

9 Everything from research and to crop

10 pests and diseases, to feasibility studies to

11 look at new market opportunities for produce, and

12 it's very, very exciting. So, we were thrilled

13 to roll that out.

14 But there are a lot of other tools in

15 the toolbox, as well, that I know you'll be

16 discussing today, and again, I hope that this

17 forum can really be a place to talk about what's

18 working well, where do you see holes, in terms

19 what's being supported through some of these

20 programs, and to the extent we are able to adapt

21 them, you know, not always the case depending on

22 how the law was written, but when we look at some
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1 of our research agencies, they do have a lot of

2 discretion over how they're targeting that

3 funding.

4 So, having this sort of interactive

5 opportunity with all of you to talk about what's

6 working and where the gaps are, I think can help

7 ultimately direct those funds in a way that will

8 benefit the industry, which brings me to the Farm

9 Bill, because many of these programs are offered

10 through the Farm Bill, and as I'm sure you know, 

11 we've got another one coming down the pike. 

12 Those conversations are already

13 starting fast and furious, and the agency plays

14 an interesting role in that process. 

15 Obviously, Congress is the one that

16 writes the law, but we are often asked for

17 technical assistance, as they look at that. You

18 know, what do you think of this idea? How would

19 this actually work? Would you be able to

20 implement this as written? 

21 That's another place I believe, where

22 the input that you all are providing is going to
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1 help inform our agency, as we're having those

2 conversations with Congress about the upcoming

3 Farm Bill.

4 So, again, your work is very important

5 in helping direct Congress's work, even though we

6 don't have, you know, the jurisdiction to

7 actually write the Bill ourselves. I know

8 sometimes we wish we did, but. 

9 I think the other thing that's on a

10 lot of folks' minds, certainly on my mind, is the

11 upcoming transition in administrations. 

12 AMS is a very lucky agency, relative

13 to some of our sister agencies within USDA, in

14 that we only have one political appointee and

15 it's me. 

16 So, the good news is that our very

17 strong career leadership, including Chuck and

18 other Deputy Administrators for our programs are

19 not going anywhere, and my two associate

20 administrators are not going anywhere.

21 So, you will be able to instead, in

22 the sense that you have a very stable leadership
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1 structure, career leadership structure within my

2 agency, but that doesn't mean that there aren't

3 going to be challenges associated with the

4 transition.

5 I was having coffee this morning with

6 someone who told me, anyone who thinks that they

7 know how this is going to go is lying, and I

8 think that's that case, I've heard lots of

9 different stories about what the transition will

10 be like.

11 But I do know that we will have a new

12 team of folks coming in, a transition team first

13 and then new political appointees coming in after

14 January 20th, and again, there is a real

15 opportunity to be putting things on their radar

16 screen that are priorities for the industry and

17 really make sure that the things that you all

18 have been working on and talking about don't lose

19 steam, but we keep them front and center, that

20 folks know that it's important, and that we're

21 really getting them briefed up on the discussions

22 that we're having here today.
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1 So, I have asked, and will continue to

2 ask our AMS team to keep these on the list and to

3 -- as soon as folks start coming in, to begin

4 having those conversations and getting them up to

5 speed on the work of this committee and the

6 recommendations that are coming out of your --

7 your conversations. So, that's another great

8 opportunity.

9 I know in looking through the

10 recommendations that have come out of the

11 committee meetings, that not all of them are

12 things that my agency can necessarily do, and

13 that's okay. 

14 There was a big focus in the last

15 meeting on challenges facing beginning farmers

16 and ranchers, and I know this is an area that I

17 very important to the Secretary and to the

18 Administration, and also looking at land access

19 for fruit and vegetable growers, which is an

20 issue that, I think across the spectrum of

21 commodities, folks are facing, but it's

22 particularly a challenge with some of our fruit
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1 and vegetable growers who are, you know, located

2 closer into areas that are being really pressured

3 by development. That's certainly the case where

4 I come from.

5 You know, those aren't necessarily

6 issues that AMS has the ability to fix, but we

7 are in a very good position to be able to act as 

8 your ambassadors, if you will, to other parts of

9 the department. Whether that is taking your

10 recommendations and talking to some of my

11 colleagues, fellow administrators in our research

12 agencies or FSA, or other folks who can help on

13 the land access side, or making introductions for

14 you, as you look at how you want to move you work

15 forward and just have the capacity for this

16 committee to engage with the department.

17 So, that is also something that I'm

18 very committed to doing, and I think one of the

19 things I love about working at AMS is that we do

20 have these really strong ties with the industry,

21 and we can in many ways, act as ambassadors in

22 other parts of the department and sort of help
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1 you understand the structure, how decisions are

2 made and how to plug in.

3 So, that will certainly be something

4 that we'll be thinking about, moving forward,

5 through the transition and beyond.

6 So, with that, I wish you a really

7 productive and enjoyable day and a half. I think

8 it's a great group of people. I can't wait to see

9 what comes out of your conversations. I wish I

10 could stay to be part of them, but my schedule

11 won't allow that, but I certainly want to welcome

12 all of you, thank those of you who are returning

13 and wish you the best over the next day and a

14 half, and I will read very closely, the write up

15 of the meeting, and look forward to doing

16 everything that I can do, to support you in the

17 months ahead. Thank you.

18 MR. PARROTT: Okay, so, the next thing

19 on the agenda -- thank you Elanor. We have

20 certificates from the Secretary, appointing each

21 of you to this committee, and I'm going to let

22 Elanor pass those out, and we'll get photos too,
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1 okay.

2 MS. STARMER: Okay, so, how do you

3 want me to do this? 

4 MR. PARROTT: Why don't we do it up

5 here?

6 MS. STARMER: Okay. All right, so,

7 Mark Allison, come up. All right, Christie

8 Balch. Virginia Barnes. All right, Michael

9 Janis. All right, Holly Johnson. Beth Knorr,

10 and Beth, thank you for your leadership.

11 Mark Nicholson. Robert Nolan. Dan

12 Sutton. Bruce Talbott and Lucy Whittemore.

13 Thank you so much. Thank you,

14 everyone.

15 PARTICIPANT: In case you're

16 wondering, these letter are given out to those

17 whose terms are beginning this time. So, if you

18 have a three year term, and this is your final

19 year, you won't have received on this time

20 around.

21 A couple of announcements. First of

22 all, if you haven't signed in already, this goes
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1 for both the observers, as well as the Committee

2 members, we need to keep a good record of who is

3 attending the meeting.

4 So, if you haven't done so already,

5 please make sure that you sign in. That goes for

6 today and tomorrow, as well, please. 

7 We're going to -- speaking of

8 observers, have the observers around the room

9 introduce themselves, because these are public

10 meetings. We often do have observers and

11 commenters who are attending to see what the

12 Committee is discussing and ask questions, where

13 they have an interest.

14 So, we're going to invite them now to

15 stand up and introduce themselves to the

16 Committee. 

17 MR. PURVIS: I'm Carl Purvis. I'm

18 with AMS Public Affairs. I'm here to take photos.

19 MR. ASTILL: I'm Greg Astill. I'm

20 with the Economic Research Service at USDA. 

21 MR. MINOR: Travis Minor. I'm also

22 with ERS. 
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1 MS. HOSTETTER: I'm Sarah Hostetter. 

2 I'm the Regulatory and Technical Affairs

3 Specialist. 

4 MS. CURLEY: Diane Curley.

5 MR. PETERSEN: Ken Petersen. I'm the

6 Chief of the Audit Services Branch.

7 CHAIR KNORR: Okay, next we are going

8 to be taking a group photo out in the open area

9 outside. So, if we can all go ahead and head out

10 that way.

11 (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter

12 went off the record at 11:13 a.m. and resumed at

13 11:19 a.m.)

14 MR. PARROTT: Okay, so, now that

15 everybody is back, thank you for that. 

16 We're running a few minutes ahead of

17 schedule. So, what we thought we'd do is, since

18 many of you have businesses to attend to, you're

19 probably looking -- this is a great time to make

20 some phones.

21 At 11:45 a.m. we're going to meet

22 upstairs in the lobby level for lunch. There's a
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1 restaurant up there called Cinnebar. Is that

2 correct?

3 PARTICIPANT: I think it's the second. 

4 Take the elevator up one.

5 MR. PARROTT: Okay, so, one level up

6 from here. The lobby, yes. 

7 So, we're going to do that. So, make

8 sure you're there by 11:45 for lunch, and between

9 now and 11:45, again, you've got some time, you

10 can chat amongst yourselves. You can catch up on

11 the email or phone calls, whatever works for you.

12 So, we'll see everybody then upstairs

13 at Cinnebar at 11:45. Thank you. 

14 (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter

15 went off the record at 11:20 a.m. and resumed at

16 1:07 p.m.)

17 MS. STANZIANI: Good afternoon,

18 everybody. I think we're going to get started. 

19 So, we can stay on schedule here, and I'm going

20 to hand the meeting over to Beth. 

21 CHAIR KNORR: Welcome back, everybody. 

22 A couple of items.
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1 As we go throughout the meeting, make

2 sure that you are using your microphones and

3 speaking clearly, and also, state your name for

4 the minutes, so that they can get a good record

5 of the comments and who is making them.

6 I think we covered the sign in sheets

7 and --

8 PARTICIPANT: Yes, I think that's it.

9 CHAIR KNORR: Yes. So, just make sure

10 you're speaking into your microphones and stating

11 your name, before you ask a question or make a

12 comment. Yes, go ahead.

13 MS. STANZIANI: Yes, at this point,

14 now that you've all gotten to know each other, we

15 will be electing a chair and a vice chair. We

16 need to do this every time we have a new group

17 come in.

18 So, at this point, I think the duties

19 of the chair and vice chair are pretty self20 evident here. 

21 You're leading the meeting. I work

22 with you as the Designated Federal Officer, in
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1 putting the agenda together, or if we have any

2 issues that we have to discuss, with regard to

3 problems. It's up to the chair and the vice

4 chair, and Chuck and I, to smooth them out.

5 It's actually pretty, you know, easy,

6 except you have to not mind being the center of

7 attention, I guess, and be a little bossy and run

8 the meeting. 

9 But so, I am going to -- at this

10 point, I guess we could just take nominations for

11 chair. Is anybody -- Cathy?

12 MS. BURNS: Cathy Burns. I would like

13 to nominate Beth Knorr for chair of this

14 committee. Do I have to say why, because I could

15 go on for a long period of time, but obviously,

16 Beth has served -- I think this is your fifth

17 year now or -- and on this Committee she has --

18 she was ran -- she has run the last two meetings,

19 and just a great advocate for this work and would

20 love to see her as chair.

21 MR. VAZQUEZ: Jorge Vasquez. Latin

22 Specialties. I'd like to second that.
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1 MS. STANZIANI: Okay, then do we have

2 any other nominations for chair? It doesn't look

3 like it.

4 So, all in favor say aye.

5 {Chorus of ayes.}

6 MS. STANZIANI: Any against? 

7 {No audible response.}

8 MS. STANZIANI: You are the chair,

9 officially. Beth Knorr. Congratulations. 

10 Now, as vice chair, what we typically

11 like to do is somebody who is a new member, to

12 assume that role, mainly because you will be

13 continuing that role after this last group of

14 members -- unless they get re-appointed, of

15 course, leaves the committee. 

16 So, is there anyone who is interested

17 in the vice chair or would like to nominate

18 someone as vice chair? Tina? 

19 MS. ELLOR: How about you, Bob? Would

20 you be willing to do that?

21 MR. NELSON: Yes, I don't mind serving

22 as vice chair, but I'm not new to it.
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1 MS. ELLOR: But you are new. You were

2 just re-appointed.

3 PARTICIPANT: That's true. You're on

4 another two year term.

5 MR. NELSON: That's right. 

6 MS. STANZIANI: Okay, so is that a

7 yes, Bob?

8 MR. NELSON: Yes.

9 MS. STANZIANI: Okay, do we have a

10 second?

11 MR. YANDA: Okay, that's Dave Yanda,

12 seconding the motion. Any others? Any other

13 nominations for vice chair? No? 

14 All in favor, say aye. 

15 {Chorus of ayes.}

16 MS. STANZIANI: Any against?

17 {No audible response.}

18 MS. STANZIANI: Congratulations, Bob

19 Nolan. You are now the vice chair. Now, you're

20 really going to get it. 

21 Okay, I think we can resume now. I'm

22 going to turn it back over to our new chair. 
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1 CHAIR KNORR: Thank you all very much

2 for your vote of confidence.

3 So, next up we have Andrea Huberty,

4 the senior policy analyst, who is going to share

5 with us, information on the USDA GMO regulations.

6 DR. HUBERTY: Hello, everybody. Can

7 you hear me okay? I'll just move this a little

8 bit.

9 So, thank you for having me. This is

10 -- we're doing our like, dog and pony show, going

11 around to all sorts of organizations to talk

12 about the GMO disclosure law.

13 So, as you may be aware, so the

14 President signed into law, the National Bio15 Engineer Food Disclosure Standard on July 29th,

16 2016. That happened on July 29th. I started work

17 at AMS on August 7th. 

18 So, this has been going at a pretty

19 lightning speed, and what I'm going to run

20 through is, I'm going to take you through some of

21 these pieces here, these nine points in the law.

22 So, when Congress went through in
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1 developing this, this standard, this has been in

2 the works for a couple of years on the Hill, and

3 what they ended up doing is essentially providing

4 the USDA with lots of discretion about how to

5 implement the law.

6 So, these nine points here are some of

7 the points that we are dealing with as an agency,

8 to develop the implementation and the regulations

9 for the National Bio-Engineered Food Disclosure

10 or the GMO labeling law.

11 So, you are, I'm sure, very familiar

12 with this structure. So, just to remind you, AMS

13 is in the marketing and regulatory programs

14 within USDA. 

15 So, the GMO disclosure law is both a

16 regulatory law or regulation, because it is a

17 mandatory disclosure requirement, for those that

18 are subject to this standard, and as well, it's

19 also a marketing issue.

20 So, we view the GMO disclosure piece

21 as informing consumers, giving them more

22 information about their food. This is not a food
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1 safety issue. It is much more of a marketing

2 issue. It's informing consumer approach, the GMO

3 disclosure.

4 So, this is the first part of it. The

5 law goes -- I'm going to take you through these

6 nine pieces.

7 So, one of which is the definition of

8 bio-engineered food, and so, here it's food for

9 human consumption. That's what the disclosure

10 stands -- requires -- is subject to. So, food

11 for human consumption, and it contains materials

12 that were generated through genetic engineering

13 or bio-engineering, as it's described in the law.

14 The key point here is, for which the

15 modification in the -- in this case, in the

16 plant, could not otherwise be obtained through

17 conventional breeding or found in nature. Okay,

18 so, those are -- we'll talk about that.

19 But this -- those are two points of

20 discretion that the agency has, in terms of

21 deciding how -- how broadly or how narrowly the

22 definition is going to be, and additionally, the
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1 other piece of this definition is essentially

2 what we're calling the threshold.

3 So, the Secretary also gets to

4 determine how much of an ingredient that is bio5 engineered creates a bio-engineered food product

6 and thus, requires disclosure? All right, so,

7 there's two points there.

8 Additionally, so, for those animals

9 where we get products, so, meat, poultry and egg

10 products, that if those animals consume GMO feed, 

11 those products that come from those animals are

12 not considered bio-engineered. Doesn't mean that

13 they're non-GMO. But they're not considered bio14 engineered, just because of the -- solely because

15 of the food that they eat, and feel free to pop

16 up with questions, if you have any, as I'm going

17 through.

18 So, one of the biggest points of this

19 law from the Hill's perspective was that this

20 preempts any other state or disclosure laws, both

21 in terms of food or seed, and this -- the

22 development of this law was -- was one of the
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1 factors that -- for this law, to come to

2 fruition, was the Vermont labeling law.

3 So, the Hill was concerned that there

4 would be many different states, with many

5 different types of disclosure requirements. Some

6 of them may or may not conflict. 

7 So, the overarching -- one of the

8 overarching purposes of this law was to provide a

9 consistent standard across the United States for

10 GMO disclosure.

11 So, no other state -- other laws that

12 were on the books were discontinued, and they are

13 not allowed to have any new laws, except that

14 they can't actually put this law as a -- as

15 identical as it is, into their own state law. 

16 So, they can put in their own law, as long as

17 it's identical to the national standard.

18 So, this is some examples of what the

19 Vermont labeling law did. 

20 So, over there, there is -- is

21 partially produced with genetic engineering. 

22 That was the text that was required under the
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1 Vermont law, and also under this -- the

2 difference -- one of the differences between the

3 national standard and the Vermont law is that it

4 actually -- the national standard covers 25,000

5 additional food products.

6 So, one of the inconsistencies just

7 within the Vermont law, was that any meat product

8 was exempt from disclosure.

9 So, for example, if a cheese pizza was

10 created with some of those ingredients that were

11 bio-engineered, that would require disclosure. 

12 But a pepperoni pizza would not, even if they had

13 the same ones.

14 So, the national standard does rectify

15 some of the inconsistency that was in the Vermont

16 law, as well.

17 So, to create this disclosure standard

18 we have -- we are required by law, to enact this

19 -- or it's enacted now, but to develop the

20 implementation regulations, as well as the

21 program itself, within two years from enactment.

22 So, this law the implement -- into it
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1 -- implementing rules will be published in July

2 of 2018. 

3 So, within the national standard,

4 companies have -- food manufacturers have three

5 choices for disclosure for those products that

6 require disclosure.

7 They can have on-package text. They

8 can have a USDA-developed symbol, that we're

9 developing, or they can use an electronic or

10 digital link disclosure, and the food

11 manufacturers gets to choose which one of those

12 options that they have, and the electronic link

13 is -- have an example here, it's the QR code.

14 So, the QR code will -- if you access

15 it with your smart phone, it will bring up a

16 webpage that will have the information about the

17 bio-engineered disclosure on it. 

18 These are the other examples. We had

19 the Frito-Lay. These are actually already

20 labeled, disclosed just by the company's choice,

21 through the on-package text, and this example

22 here is Brazil, has their own symbol. It's a
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1 yellow triangle with a 'T'.

2 One of the pieces of the legislation

3 requires USDA to develop a symbol that is not

4 disparaging to the technology.

5 So, Brazil's symbol 'T', that kind of

6 looks like a warning symbol, is not allowed. So,

7 it won't look anything like that.

8 So, back to this -- the QR code. So,

9 when -- so, we have a -- what we've been hearing

10 most from the public is they're -- they're

11 unhappy with the ability for food manufacturers

12 to use electronic or digital disclosures, and the

13 law requires USDA to conduct a study, to evaluate

14 the technological challenges of consumers

15 accessing bio-engineered disclosure information

16 via their electronic or digital or QR code, and

17 this -- again, we have one year to conduct this

18 study, and we are putting this to the

19 professionals. So, we are contracting this out.

20 We put our -- what's called a request

21 for information, in early September, and we put

22 it -- what's essentially a draft scope of work,
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1 to get feedback from both the public, as well as

2 other vendors, to see if -- what the felt about

3 the study and the study design itself, and we

4 received information from that, and we actually

5 just published our request for proposals, to get

6 a contractor. That went out on October 19th, and

7 we are receiving proposals until November 22nd,

8 and we anticipate awarding a contract for this

9 study in mid December, and that's contingent on

10 funding and the Appropriations Bill.

11 There are quite a few exclusions

12 within the standard itself. Any food that's

13 served in a restaurant or similar retail food

14 establishment, which we will decide what that is

15 within rulemaking, they are not required to

16 disclose.

17 Very small food manufacturers, also

18 defined through rulemaking, are not required to

19 disclose. 

20 As explained earlier, meat, poultry

21 and egg products from animals that can food --

22 consume GMO feed are not -- do not require
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1 disclosure solely because they consume the feed,

2 and finally for your mental twister for after

3 lunch, and I'm just going to read this one.

4 So, this is food that contains meat,

5 poultry or egg products, if the predominant

6 ingredient would not be independently subject to

7 the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act, food

8 labeling requirements is excluded, or if the

9 predominant ingredient is broth, stock, water or 

10 a similar solution, and the second most

11 predominant ingredient is not independently

12 subject to FFDCA food labeling requirements.

13 So, this -- here, I have examples. 

14 So, first one is Spam. First ingredient is pork. 

15 If that's the predominant ingredient, then that -

16 - doesn't matter if the sugar is from genetically

17 engineered sugar beads or they're potatoes from a

18 potato, Spam would not require disclosure.

19 Bottom example here is soup. So, the

20 first example -- the first ingredient is stock. 

21 Second is chicken fat. It's a poultry product. 

22 Doesn't matter if the soy -- soybean oil or the
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1 canola is from genetically engineered plants. 

2 That soup would not require disclosure either.

3 So, small food manufacturers get some

4 additional, both time to implement their

5 regulations, as well as some additional options

6 for disclosure. They get an extra grace period

7 of at least a year from whatever the effect date

8 is, to be determined, once we put in the final

9 rule, and they get an additional option of a

10 telephone number or an internet website for their

11 disclosure. So, they have five options for their

12 disclosures, and again, small food manufacturers

13 will be defined in our rulemaking.

14 I mentioned this earlier. There is a

15 piece within the legislation that talks about the

16 food safety implications of disclosure. It

17 reiterates that any labels or anything that we

18 develop, in terms of on-package disclosure text,

19 must be done in such a way that it cannot create

20 an environment where the bio-engineered foods are

21 treated differently than their non-bio-engineered

22 counterparts.
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1 The law does specifically to organic

2 foods within -- and it talks about that food

3 certified as organic under the NOP may not be

4 labeled as non-bio-engineered, non-GMO, and

5 similar language. So, third-party verification

6 there.

7 Finally, enforcement. Failing to

8 disclose is a prohibitive act. USDA has the

9 ability to require records and conduct audits,

10 and if we do find that there is an instance of

11 disclosure that was not provided to the public,

12 we do not have recall authority over that

13 product.

14 So, where we are now in our two year

15 quest to get these final rules in place.

16 USDA has developed or has put in

17 place, an inter-agency working group and it

18 involves members of the different USDA

19 departments including -- as well as FDA and USGR,

20 and what this is, is essentially an informal

21 policy group, and they're helping us vet these

22 documents, so they go faster through the formal
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1 clearance process.

2 We've done a lot for public

3 engagement. Besides these talks that we've been

4 giving, we also have GMO labeling email site,

5 which actually, I think might be over 1,000

6 comments, because we just had a big push from one

7 of the advocacy groups today. So, we had a lot

8 of emails today, as well as at our website, we

9 have the ability for you to sign up for email

10 updates. We have almost 1,000 subscribers to

11 that -- that service, as well.

12 There you will find, when we have --

13 when we reach milestones in terms of rulemaking

14 or anything changes on that website, in terms of

15 documents that are posted, and as I mentioned

16 before, the study itself is actually going

17 through the contracting process.

18 So, what's next? So, the first part

19 of rulemaking is our advance notice of proposed

20 rulemaking. I'm going to speak about that in a

21 second, but that's where all of those -- those

22 nine pieces of the legislation that I went
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1 through, as well as many others, will be asking 

2 for public comment.

3 That is scheduled to be published by

4 the end of the calendar year. So, end of

5 December 2016.

6 The electronic disclosure study is to

7 be completed by July 2017. We're anticipating

8 our proposed rule will go out Winter --

9 Fall/Winter of 2017, and then our final rule, no

10 later than July 2018.

11 So, a little bit back to the ANPR. 

12 The Advanced Notice on Proposed Rulemaking. 

13 So, again, I spoke a little bit about

14 the numerous policy discretion areas that are in

15 the legislation. We've identified those and laid

16 them out and -- in this document, in the ANPR. 

17 There is over 30 of them, and we posed the

18 questions essentially, to the public, give a

19 brief idea about what the agency's current

20 thinking is, along well, how we might be posing

21 this in the proposed rule, and we asked for

22 comments.
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1 So, again, it's scheduled for

2 publication at the end of the year, and we're

3 also going to be conducting public listening

4 sessions, concurrent with the ANPR and this

5 provides a face-to-face opportunity for anybody

6 who would want to join. We will have at least

7 two and up to eight public listening sessions,

8 depending on funding, and again, these issues

9 include things that -- some of the ideas that we

10 talked about here in this talk.

11 The definition of bio-engineered food,

12 what is conventional breeding, what does it mean 

13 to be found in nature? Are highly refined food

14 products like oils and sugars, are they

15 considered bio-engineered? 

16 What is the amount of bio-engineered

17 substance that a food product needs to have, in

18 order for it to be considered bio-engineered?

19 What do the text -- what are the -- what are the

20 -- what's the language that needs to be on the

21 product? What kinds of symbols are we going to

22 have on the products, as well as some questions
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1 around our non-compliance investigations and

2 enforcement processes.

3 So, that's kind of where we are for

4 the disclosure law, and I will be more than happy

5 to take any questions that you have. 

6 MR. McREYNOLDS: Roland McReynolds. 

7 There is already the independent third-party non8 GMO verified program and label. It's got a

9 symbol. It's got standards very -- you know,

10 addressing these same questions.

11 What is the impact of this law on

12 private third-party, you know, independent

13 schemes for this sort of labeling?

14 DR. HUBERTY: So, this label goes for

15 positive disclosure and not any negative claims. 

16 So, we view them as very different.

17 So, non-GMO, either through non-GMO

18 project or our process verified program for non19 GMO claims, that's a separate issue. This is

20 focusing solely on what is bio-engineered. So, a

21 positive claim.

22 We anticipate that the use of some of
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1 the third-party verifications for it not being

2 non-GMO, to play a small role in determining

3 whether or not it should be disclosed. So, if

4 they have a third-party verification, then

5 they're safe, or if they disclose, they're in

6 compliance with the law.

7 So, but there is a dividing line

8 between those two. 

9 MR. McREYNOLDS: Thank you. 

10 MR. ALLISON: How does -- how do we

11 line up with, for example, the European

12 community, as far as the definition and what

13 we're doing?

14 DR. HUBERTY: The definition itself,

15 if you go to just about any country, and even

16 within the sister agencies within the government,

17 they all have different definitions of bio18 engineer, genetically engineered, genetically

19 modified. 

20 So, that's one of the issues that we

21 need to consider, as we're developing this law,

22 so, and then in terms of thresholds, there is 64
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1 different countries that have these types of laws

2 in place, and they just about have different

3 standards, in terms of thresholds.

4 European Union is .9 percent by

5 ingredient. The Vermont labeling law was .9

6 percent by weight. South Korea is three percent. 

7 So, it kind of goes across the definitions,

8 thresholds, the whole bit. 

9 The law does require us to be

10 consistent with our international obligations, as

11 we move forward in developing this Bill. So, we

12 have members on our interagency group from USTR,

13 Foreign Egg Service, to help us kind of walk

14 through and develop and -- and make a rule that

15 is consistent to the best -- to the extent that

16 we can, with all of those different purposes.

17 MR. AERTS: Michael Aerts. Food and

18 Vegetable Association. 

19 How is the department is going to be

20 looking at the transfer and editing approach?

21 DR. HUBERTY: Yes. So, our general

22 counsel actually responded to a question from
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1 Senator Stabenow, regarding that particular

2 issue, and so, in that letter, he talks about

3 that this law gives us the authority to evaluate

4 essentially the new breeding techniques, but that

5 is one piece of a very complex definition.

6 So, it's -- whether or not it's

7 commenting on technologies and is it -- can you

8 get the same things through conventional

9 breeding? Can it be found in nature?

10 So, there is -- it's a big more

11 complex. But this law does allow us to consider

12 those techniques as eligible, as one part of the

13 puzzle. 

14 PARTICIPANT: Any other questions? 

15 MS. WHITTEMORE: So, if I go -- moving

16 forward, right, with this law and the GMO, I

17 could go to a restaurant and order salmon, right,

18 and they don't have to disclose that it's a

19 genetically modified piece of salmon, basically?

20 DR. HUBERTY: So, salmon is actually

21 under the labeling authority of the FDA. So,

22 that is -- that is a -- that is a different
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1 issue, and we are actually talking with FDA about

2 how to handle that, and there is nothing set in

3 stone about one way or the other about how that's

4 going to be labeled, because we are at least two

5 years out from actually implementing any of these

6 regulations.

7 But genetically engineered salmon is

8 required by FDA to be labeled, as it's been put

9 in an Appropriations Bill in the past, separate

10 from this standard, and so, we're working with

11 them, as to how to -- how they want to implement

12 it and how it can interact with this law.

13 So, that GE salmon is a special issue. 

14 However, if you were to go in and have a potato -

15 -

16 MS. WHITTEMORE: Yes, okay.

17 DR. HUBERTY: Okay, how about a

18 potato?

19 MS. WHITTEMORE: Yes.

20 DR. HUBERTY: Okay, potato. According

21 to this law food -- restaurants and similar

22 establishments do not required disclosure.
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1 MS. WHITTEMORE: Are you guys also

2 considering other options? I think I've been

3 reading about Thailand. I think it's another

4 option for -- instead of grow -- for produce,

5 instead of the GMOs, it's more expensive, but

6 it's less complicated.

7 DR. HUBERTY: That --

8 MS. WHITTEMORE: I think it's Thailand

9 that it's called. There was a big article on the

10 blue book magazine about it.

11 DR. HUBERTY: Oh.

12 MS. WHITTEMORE: No? You don't know?

13 DR. HUBERTY: I'm afraid I'm not

14 familiar.

15 MS. WHITTEMORE: Okay, thanks.

16 DR. HUBERTY: Thank you.

17 CHAIR KNORR: Any other questions?

18 MR. VAZQUEZ: Just one more question,

19 just to keep you busy. Jorge Vasquez, Latin

20 Specialties.

21 So, if the USDA does not have the

22 power of enforcement for recall, then what's
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1 going to be the mechanism for enforcing this law?

2 DR. HUBERTY: Well, just because we

3 don't have recall authority, again, it's not a

4 safety -- it's not a food safety issue, so,

5 therefore, we don't have recall authority.

6 But we do have the ability to audit

7 their records, conduct hearings and then what

8 we're calling publicly shaming them. 

9 So, that is kind of laid out in the

10 law, that we have the ability to provide public

11 notice that these folks are the bad actors, in

12 terms of bio-engineer disclosure. 

13 PARTICIPANT: Okay, thank you, Andie.

14 DR. HUBERTY: Thank you. 

15 PARTICIPANT: It sounds like there's

16 going to be a lot of opportunity for public

17 comment on these.

18 PARTICIPANT: It looks like we are a

19 little early. 

20 PARTICIPANT: Okay, so, the folks for

21 the food safety presentation -- we're a little

22 bit ahead of schedule, so we -- our food safety
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1 presentation is not going to happen just yet.

2 Instead, we're going to invite Ken

3 Petersen, Branch Chief of the audit programs

4 branch, to speak with us. 

5 MR. PETERSEN: All right. Well, good

6 afternoon., everybody. I feel like being here

7 all morning, you know, I got quite the buildup

8 between some of my other colleagues and the

9 administrator, talking about my presentation. 

10 So, I'm a little jittery here.

11 My presentation was going to build off

12 of what FDA was presenting. I was supposed to be

13 at the end of it, so I apologize if some of this

14 refers to some of the things that they're talking

15 about, but I'll try to reference that, and when

16 FDA does get here, you can follow up with

17 questions that you may have, specific to FSMA.

18 So, just as a quick primer, the audit

19 services branch is part of the Specialty Crops

20 Inspection Division. We provide voluntary

21 inspection and audit services to the food and

22 vegetable industry. Lorenzo talked this morning
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1 about that, so I won't get into a lot of detail

2 here.

3 But you know, we offer a number of

4 voluntary services on a user fee funded basis.

5 Within the audit services branch,

6 there are a number of different audit programs

7 that we work with. The largest by fourth -- by

8 far, being the good agricultural practices

9 program and its various iterations between USDA

10 gaps, harmonized gaps, tomato gaps, mushroom

11 gaps, etcetera.

12 Good GAP, which I'll talk about a

13 little bit later, are qualified through

14 verification program. Domestic origin,

15 verification, which is primarily used within the

16 School Lunch Program purchases, to verify product

17 is of domestic origin.

18 Our plate systems audit, which is a

19 GMP-type audit, that is used primarily in

20 processing facilities and places like that, and

21 our identity preservation program which is used

22 primarily to identify unique characteristics in a
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1 product that they want to bring out and ensure

2 that that product integrity and identity is

3 maintained throughout the growing, marketing and

4 supply chain.

5 So, I'm going to talk a little bit

6 about AMS/FDA activities and how we're working

7 together on a lot of these issues. Some of this

8 is a little bit redundant from this morning. So,

9 I'll try to go through this quickly, but just

10 wanted to highlight them.

11 As was mentioned this morning, we've

12 had a long-term relationship with -- at this

13 point, with AMS, or sorry, with FDA, in regards

14 to FSMA and with Leanne Skelton being over at

15 FDA.

16 The Produce Safety Alliance, again,

17 I'll talk about that in a little bit, as we go

18 through. Preventive Controls Alliance, and are

19 involved with that. Sprout Safety Alliance. The

20 AMS/FDA GAPS review project and the on-front

21 review project.

22 So, I believe many of you know Leanne. 
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1 Some of you have asked if she was going to be

2 here today. She is on the road, I think, this

3 week, if I'm not mistaken. 

4 PARTICIPANT: She is.

5 MR. PETERSEN: Yes, on travel doing --

6 doing some outreach with FDA, but she remains our

7 liaison with FDA. She's in contact with the FDA

8 folks, you know, at times, maybe on an hourly

9 basis, it seems like. But remains that conduit

10 for our two agencies to pass information back and

11 forth and coordinate activities and different

12 things like that. So, that relationship

13 continues, and it is really wonderful tool for us

14 to be able to have that direct access to the FDA

15 folks.

16 So, the Produce Safety Alliance, over

17 the last six years, FDA and AMS have provided $5

18 million in funding to Cornell University, to

19 manage the Produce Safety Alliance, and the

20 Produce Safety Alliance has a number of different

21 goals, primarily to serve as a resource for on22 farm food safety issuance -- issues for producers
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1 all across the country, whether they're covered

2 by the rule or not.

3 I mean, the goal of the Product Safety

4 Alliance is to provide that knowledge, provide

5 that information that is needed to address food

6 safety issues through their network.

7 The other piece is, as we've mentioned

8 in previous meetings, is to develop that formal

9 FDA recognized training curriculum for the

10 produce safety rule. 

11 The PSA curriculum was finalized and

12 approved by FDA on July 1st. So, relatively

13 recently, and the Produce Safety Alliance, since

14 then, has been working furiously to start getting

15 both train the trainer sessions, as well as

16 grower training sessions scheduled throughout the

17 country, so that they can start getting this

18 curriculum out there.

19 From September through Christmas,

20 their first priority has been trying to get out

21 and do as many train the trainer sessions as they

22 can, because obviously with 186,000 produce farms
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1 across the United States, we need to build up a

2 cadre of trained trainers that can go out and

3 offer the curriculum.

4 So, they've been working a lot on

5 that, but also there has been industry groups

6 that have said, "Hey, we want grower training

7 sessions, as well."

8 So, I don't have their schedule up

9 here, but I just saw their schedule the other

10 day, and those four or six people from the

11 Alliance, their travel schedule, you know,

12 they're going to earn gold status on United by

13 December, pretty quickly here. So, they're

14 traveling all over the place.

15 If you want to see what is scheduled,

16 both for the train the trainer sessions, as well

17 as grower training sessions, if you go to the

18 Produce Safety Alliance website, I apologize, I

19 didn't put it up on my presentation, but if you

20 Google Produce Safety Alliance, it will bring you

21 to their website and you can look at their

22 training schedule, and they're adding grower
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1 training sessions to that website almost on a

2 daily basis, as the trainers get trained, and you

3 know, those extension agents or trade association

4 groups in particular are starting to offer that

5 curriculum. I know PMA has been very active in

6 doing some of the Preventive Controls training

7 already, and is looking at the grower training,

8 as well.

9 The Preventive Controls Alliance. AMS

10 is really working to ensure that our programs and

11 services align with the requirements of the 

12 Preventive Controls for Human Food rule.

13 So, when our inspectors are out in

14 those processing plants and in those frozen food

15 plants, or were on terminal markets, providing

16 inspection services, you know, we want make sure

17 that our policies and procedures are aligning

18 with what the requirements of FSMA are.

19 So, if we're in a processing facility,

20 whether it's, you know, for the MREs that we've

21 talked about earlier in the day, or we're in

22 warehouses or in manufacturers that are producing
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1 frozen foods or juices for the school lunch

2 program, we want to ensure that our policies and

3 procedures align. 

4 So, again, that those producers and

5 those manufacturers have some assurances that

6 yes, they're meeting the requirements of the

7 rule.

8 One thing that we do, in all of our

9 programs, whether it's on the inspection side or

10 the audit side, if we see any immediate food

11 safety risk, you know, we see a leaky sewer pipe

12 leaking on product or something like that, our

13 MOU with FDA obligates us to report that to

14 public health. So, both the local public health

15 as well as FDA.

16 So, a lot of what we're going to be

17 doing here over the next six months is providing

18 training to our inspectors and our auditors, so

19 that they understand A) what their roles are, and

20 B) what those eminent food safety risks are, and

21 talk about what our policy is for how to report

22 those and the process for doing that. 
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1 So, again, there is that confidence in

2 -- that the public has, that facilities that are

3 under USDA inspector or USDA audit-type programs 

4 are looking out for public good and public

5 health.

6 So, the big project that I've been

7 working on with our FDA colleagues, that are

8 walking in the door, hello, FDA colleagues, is

9 the AMS/FDA GAP's review project, and really,

10 this is an effort to ensure that our GAPs program

11 is aligning with the produce safety rule.

12 Again, we heard from the industry loud

13 and clear during the listening sessions that FDA

14 held with FSMA, as well as just our regular

15 interaction with our customers, that they wanted

16 our program to align, so, again, it gave those

17 growers some assurances that if they were meeting

18 our GAP's program requirement, they were meeting

19 the requirements that were in the produce safety

20 rule.

21 So, we went through a fairly

22 exhaustive review process, a number of conference
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1 calls with -- between our FDA colleagues and my

2 staff, as well as some of our state partners. As

3 well, we met at the FDA building for basically, a

4 three day, you know, eight hour a day, going

5 through line by line, out GAPs audit and looking,

6 comparing those requirements to what's in the

7 rule, and identifying where there were

8 differences, and the good news is, is that many

9 of them, there weren't differences.

10 Some of them were a little bit of

11 interpretation issues that we need to square out,

12 but we found that by and large, a lot of it did

13 align, and in some cases, where the rule is

14 absent and industry has set a best practice that

15 may be higher than either what's in the rule or

16 they wanted something to look at, our GAPs

17 program is, in some cases, is even higher than

18 what's in the rule in certain instances.

19 So, we took the results of that GAPs

20 review project, went back to the produce GAPs

21 harmonization technical working group, presented

22 those findings to the technical working group,
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1 and we're in the process of getting the produce

2 GAP's harmonized standard updated to include

3 those as we move forward.

4 Clearly, the next stage in the GAP's

5 review project is to identify some audits that we

6 can get our FDA colleagues out on farms, so that

7 we can kind of go through this now, hopefully

8 revised checklist and ensure that yes, what we're

9 looking at is what FDA is looking for when they

10 have language in the rule, make sure that we're

11 on same par, as far as terminology, if we're

12 saying things one way and they're saying it a

13 different way, that we kind of come together and

14 understand what's meant, you know, and quite

15 honestly, there are some things that FDA is still

16 looking to draft guidance on. 

17 So, we're hopeful that part of getting

18 out on some of these audits is, they can get some

19 practical hands-on experience of what farmers are

20 going through, so that it helps them as they may

21 be drafting guidance for some of the particular

22 components of the rule.
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1 Another project that we're -- we've

2 been involved with, FDA and NASDA, National

3 Association of State Departments of Agriculture,

4 have a project to develop a process for states --

5 helping producers and their states perform

6 informal assessments of their operations in

7 accordance with FSMA.

8 This is really kind of like a self9 assessment tool, kind of, you know, it's a non10 regulatory, it's supposed to be kind of a low-key

11 assessment for these operations, and they've been

12 working on that project now for about a year, I

13 think that's been going on, give or take, and

14 this past August, they participate -- they held

15 their first field trial of that assessment tool

16 in Michigan, and they asked AMS to participate in

17 that, and I had one of my senior auditors out on

18 that assessment, providing feedback on the

19 assessment tool and the process, and I believe

20 there's a couple of other field trials scheduled

21 here in the next three to six months. I'm not

22 100 percent sure of the schedule on that, at this
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1 point.

2 So, you can see there has been a lot

3 of collaboration between both agencies on these.

4 So, I'm going to take a few moments to

5 provide you an update on the USDA GAP's program,

6 as I reported out in previous Advisory Committee

7 meetings, on a number of issues that I thought

8 you might want to get some information on.

9 Global food safety initiative and

10 where we're at with that. General buyer

11 acceptance of the USDA GAP's program and improve

12 GAP.

13 So, I'll start with GFSI. This has

14 been basically one of those crosses to bear of

15 mine, for the past six-plus years now, trying to

16 work with GFSI. You know, approached by industry

17 back in 2010, to try to gain some sort of

18 recognition with GFSI, and through fits and

19 starts and changes in GFSI board leadership and

20 everything I think I'm starting to see light at

21 the end of that tunnel, which is, you know,

22 certainly is a good thing for our program and
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1 American agriculture in general.

2 So, I serve on one of the GFSI

3 technical working groups for primary production. 

4 So, I've been involved with that for about the

5 last 18 months, and as a result, when I go to

6 those technical working group meetings, the Board

7 members are -- from GFSI are typically there.

8 So, I've had the opportunity to talk

9 with a number of the Board members. I've had the

10 opportunity to talk with the technical working

11 group that's looking at their benchmarking

12 process, as well as the Government standard

13 equivalence that they're trying to develop.

14 So, this past October 4th, GFSI

15 released Version 7 of its benchmarking document

16 for stakeholder feedback, and you know, that's

17 kind of like when we put out something for open

18 comment period. GFSI does something similar. 

19 So, they are right now, asking for feedback from

20 stakeholders on the newest version of its

21 benchmarking document. 

22 I was hopeful that Version 7 would
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1 have the piece that is the technical equivalence

2 for government-based standards. It wasn't in

3 there. 

4 I quickly followed up with GFSI and

5 said, "Where is it?" They said, "We need a few

6 more weeks. We're still trying to wrinkle out

7 some issues with that," but I've been assured,

8 you know, any day now, they're going to be coming

9 out with that government-based or technical

10 equivalence for government-based standards

11 requirements. 

12 So, once we get that, we'll be able to

13 get a much better handle on what they're going to

14 require, what we're going to need to do to meet

15 those technical equivalence requirements.

16 Additionally, the GFSI Board of

17 Directors is going to be in Washington, D.C. for

18 a stakeholder meeting in the morning, with a lot

19 of industry reps, and in the afternoon, with a

20 lot of the different government agencies, as well 

21 as Embassy reps here in D.C. Chuck and I are

22 going to be going to that meeting in the
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1 afternoon, but the day before, on November 14th,

2 we've got the GFSI chair and vice chair of the

3 Board coming in to meet with Elanor,

4 Administrator Starmer and Chuck and a number of

5 people from the agency, to very specifically talk

6 about what AMS would like to accomplish and what

7 GFSI sees our role in the -- kind of the GFSI

8 umbrella.

9 So, you know, I think we've made a lot

10 of good progress in the last six months, and

11 again, hopefully, we'll get over that last

12 hurdle. But I think a lot of the outreach that

13 we've done and our involvement with the technical

14 working groups, there's a lot of support from the

15 GFSI Board, especially from the North American

16 Board members, to make something happen, so that

17 the USDA programs can get some sort of technical

18 recognition.

19 Moving onto buyer acceptance. You

20 know, we continue to provide outreach. If there

21 are buyers out there that don't current accept

22 our audit programs, to try to talk with them,
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1 find out what their needs are, what their

2 concerns are. Are lot of it is GFSI related. 

3 They are only accepting GFSI level type audits. 

4 But for those that don't have that requirement,

5 we'll meet with them. We'll have conference

6 calls, phone calls. In some cases, if we see

7 that we're getting close to them basically

8 accepting our audits, we'll go out and meet with

9 them face to face.

10 This past Spring, I traveled up to

11 Minneapolis and met with representatives from

12 Target and now, Target is accepting USDA

13 harmonized GAP audits for its local suppliers and

14 its low-risk suppliers. They are for their, what

15 they consider high-risk commodities, still

16 requiring a GFSI, but this is good news for a lot

17 of our small local producers that are supplying

18 into the Target stores and stuff like that, where

19 they're now able to use our audit.

20 We continue with industry to gain

21 increased buyer acceptance of our program, and

22 again, I think once -- if and when we get the
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1 GFSI piece, that's going to kind of open the

2 flood gates and we'll see a lot of other buyers

3 coming onboard, as well.

4 All right, last thing I want to

5 discuss with you is Group GAP. You know, this

6 has kind of been the feather in our cap, I think

7 the last year, with the audit programs, and this

8 was really something that -- that the industry

9 came to us. I mean, the small farmer community

10 in particular came to us, back in 2010/2011, and

11 said, "Hey, we love the USDA GAP's program. You

12 know, we like what it does. We have some issues

13 with the challenges with costs." 

14 In some cases, it's just cost

15 prohibitive or we don't have the resources to

16 develop food safety plans and the things that are

17 necessary to implement a GAP's program at the

18 grower level. 

19 So, we conducted a feasibility study

20 in 2010/2011. Group GAP kind of came out as the

21 best option in that feasibility study, and we ran

22 a three year pilot, looking at how we could do
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1 group certification.

2 As Administrator Starmer mentioned,

3 this past April, we officially launched Group GAP

4 and we have -- and my numbers are even off here

5 from what Elanor had this morning, but we've got

6 12 groups initially said that they were

7 interested. It's actually 10 that are out going

8 through certification, representing 306 growers. 

9 I've got 250 here, but it's actually as of this

10 morning, I checked with my staff, it's 306. So,

11 you know, that's a good number of growers that

12 the majority of those growers hadn't gone through

13 individual GAP certification. So, this was the

14 first time that they were going through any type

15 of GAP certification.

16 Two weeks ago, I was actually out in

17 Idaho, doing a Group GAP audit of a potato

18 cooperative out there, and when the industry --

19 potato industry in Idaho heard that I was coming,

20 ringing my phone off the hook, "Hey, if you're

21 out here, can we meet with you? Can we meet with

22 you?"
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1 I didn't have a lot of time to meet

2 with a bunch of them, but I did meet with a

3 couple of groups, of potato groups out there,

4 that are interesting in going into group

5 certification next year.

6 So, you know, as I travel around the

7 country and field phone calls, this is certainly

8 becoming an option that a lot of grower groups

9 are looking to go through, and not just the small

10 growers, but you know, even some of the larger

11 associations and things like that.

12 Moving forward, we already know that

13 we have just about a dozen groups that said that

14 they're interested in Group GAP, didn't have the

15 capacity to get in the program this year, but are

16 working towards it, and are fully preparing to go

17 through group certification in 2017 growing

18 season, which you know, brings us up over 20, 24

19 that we're aware of for next year already and

20 puts us, you know, well over 500 growers. 

21 So, again, a very good program that

22 really starts, the grass roots, with growers
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1 coming to us and saying, "Hey, is there something

2 that can be done to help us better achieve

3 certification and look to eliminate a lot of the

4 costs that are involved?"

5 Over the last several weeks, we've

6 actually fielded, I think it's three inquiries

7 from Capitol Hill, Congressmen, Senators calling

8 in where their growers have been calling them

9 saying, "Hey, we're suffering audit fatigue. 

10 We're getting all these audits that we're

11 required to go through," and you know, so, people

12 on Capitol Hill are looking to us, to provide

13 feedback and information on what we can to do

14 help eliminate some of that audit fatigue and

15 things like that. 

16 So, you know, again, this program is

17 growing by leaps and bounds. We're well over

18 4,000 audits for this past fiscal year. You

19 know, I tend to count audits by growing season,

20 because it makes things a lot easier, but you

21 know, we're -- we've grown number of audits, last

22 fiscal year to this -- well, 2015 to 2016 fiscal
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1 year, by over 10 percent, and we've been growing

2 at 10 to 15 percent a year over the last five or

3 six years. So, see a lot of good movement in

4 that program.

5 So, that's what I've got. I can

6 certainly take your questions now, and I'm sure

7 once my FDA colleagues get done, you may have

8 some other questions, that we can circle back

9 with after theirs, but would be more than happy

10 to answer any questions you have now. 

11 CHAIR KNORR: Just a reminder, if you

12 do have questions, please name sure you state

13 your name before you ask.

14 MR. NELSON: Hey, Ken. Bob Nolan here

15 from New York. I have an apple grower from New

16 York, was asking me about the harmonization of

17 GAPs. Will there ever be just one food safety

18 audit for them, because they just get done with

19 one. One company requires one, you know, food

20 safety audit, and then the other company requires

21 another one, and it's like -- it seems like it's

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1 Is there any move by the Government to

2 make just one, or is it up to the industry and --

3 and you know, people have their favorites and

4 that's the way it's going to stay? 

5 MR. PETERSEN: So, certainly, we've

6 been involved with the GAPs harmonization

7 initiative, which is -- is really an industry-led

8 initiative to harmonize the number of the

9 different GAP audits that are out there.

10 That was United Fresh, led the charge

11 back in 2010, and that -- that particular audit

12 is becoming increasingly large percentage of the

13 audits that we're doing. It's about neighborhood

14 of 33 percent, but the total number of audits

15 that we do now is the harmonized audit.

16 So, that has relieved some of that

17 pressure because, you know, we've tried to

18 harmonize a number of the different audit

19 standards out there. 

20 But ultimately, you know, it's a buyer 

21 driven system, and you know, buyers are going to

22 dictate what type of audit they're going to take
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1 and accept and there's not really a whole lot

2 that we can do for that.

3 I mean, certainly, we can -- we can

4 work with buyers to try to get them to understand

5 our programs and services and see if they'll

6 accept, but you know, at the end of the day,

7 buyers going to do what they feel is in their

8 best interest. 

9 MR. NELSON: So, then I would like to

10 ask the buyers in the room. 

11 Tom, this is Bob again. What's your

12 take on it? Do you think it's good to have one

13 harmonized food safety program, or do you think

14 that that's never going to happen? 

15 MR. WILLIAMS: This is Tom Williams

16 from Coborn up in Minnesota.

17 I think it's actually -- I could speak

18 as having been a wholesaler, and currently as a

19 retailer, that a lot of times, it's what's being

20 sold to you is what you need to do, to sell it to

21 somebody else, and I know on the wholesale side,

22 especially when I was in the fruit service side,
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1 one company would take SILIKERS {phonetic} audit. 

2 Another company would -- I mean, it was -- it was

3 like whatever the customers had been sold was the

4 best, most up to date audit. That's what

5 generated and kind of drove what audit they would

6 then accept, because we had one of our

7 warehouses, that we literally had probably seven

8 audits in a row, within like a two week period,

9 which was good because we had all of our

10 documents all together and everything. 

11 It was time consuming, and it was very

12 expensive. So, I think it's -- it's ultimately,

13 Ken, the industry, which ultimately would be the

14 consumer industry, whether it's in the restaurant

15 business or in the grocery stores or wherever, if

16 we can all say yes, this is what we're going to

17 accept, and I don't know if we'll ever get to

18 that point.

19 But I think the more that we're

20 educating them on how effective the audits that

21 you're doing are, the easier it will be to

22 eventually get to that point. 
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1 MR. NICHOLSON: Mark Nicholson. Is

2 there -- you know, with regard to harmonized --

3 the harmonized process and where you're at on it,

4 what's the anticipation of the impact of FSMA

5 with -- you know, you've gotten to harmonized,

6 and now, you've -- you've got a whole new regime,

7 to some degree.

8 MR. PETERSEN: So, as I mentioned

9 earlier, once we sat down with FDA and went

10 through and identified those -- those differences

11 between our program, and we used the harmonized

12 standard kind of as the benchmark of what we were

13 looking at.

14 We identified what needs to be

15 updated. I presented that back to the

16 harmonization technical working group, which I

17 serve on, and we're in the process of making

18 those changes to the harmonized standard. Those

19 are actually open for public comment through

20 November 20th.

21 If you go to United Fresh's website,

22 who is the secretariat of the harmonized
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1 standard, those changes are -- are posted up

2 there. You can take a look at them, provide

3 feedback. 

4 But barring any significant push-back

5 from the industry on that, after November 20th,

6 we're looking probably sometime in January, for

7 those to go into effect. 

8 So, we have done a lot to get the

9 harmonized standard aligned with FSMA. We've

10 still got a little work to go on and some

11 interpretation and guidance and stuff like that,

12 that we'll be working on from USDA's perspective.

13 But ultimately, the good news is,

14 we've got until January of 2018, before the first

15 growers have to comply with the rules. So, we've

16 got -- you know, we've got a little window to

17 work with here yet.

18 MR. NICHOLSON: And just a quick

19 follow up. Again, Mark Nicholson.

20 Is there anticipation then that

21 because of, you know, what you've done with

22 harmonizing the harmonize with FSMA, that you'll
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1 see a greater use of that by the buying

2 community?

3 MR. PETERSEN: I would hope so, and

4 again, as we meet with buyers, that's one of the

5 things that I've talked to them about is, hey,

6 we're aligning our program with FDA. You know,

7 we've got through that -- that process. 

8 So, you know, that is, I think a

9 selling point, but you know, any private scheme

10 that's worth their salt, is going to basically do

11 their own analysis and make that same claim. But

12 you know, we certainly have the inside track,

13 because we're the only ones that have actually

14 sat down with FDA. So, I think that's certainly

15 a good thing.

16 MR. McREYNOLDS: Roland McReynolds. 

17 I'm just going to say, my understanding, the FDA

18 has a pilot project going with third-party

19 certifiers, as well, to develop project, right,

20 simultaneously with this, and that there will be

21 standards out, you know, a harmonized to FSMA

22 standard for private certifiers.
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1 MR. PETERSEN: I'll defer that to my

2 FDA colleagues, after their presentation. I'm

3 not 100 percent sure of that. 

4 MS. BURNS: So, Cathy Burns from PMA,

5 and maybe as a follow up to that. First of all,

6 thank you for all your leadership and getting a

7 harmonized standard. I know that's -- sounds

8 like it's a been a six-plus year journey, and the

9 industry certainly appreciates that a lot.

10 So, the question is, will the FDA

11 recognize USDA's audit scheme, because that will

12 help, both on the buyer side, especially if you

13 can get the GFSI issue resolved, and then you can

14 go out and say, you know, if FDA, and the states,

15 quite frankly, recognize the USDA audit scheme,

16 that will help some of the fatigue that Bob

17 highlighted. 

18 So, I think we really need to push for

19 that to happen, and that might be something that

20 this committee can look at, going forward.

21 Two other quick points. We need USDA

22 to continue to fund the Produce Safety Alliance,
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1 and we need continued funding for Leanne

2 Skelton's role. 

3 MR. PETERSEN: Well, thank you. I

4 appreciate it, and at this point, I think we'll

5 turn it over to FDA folks.

6 CHAIR KNORR: I actually have one more

7 question.

8 MR. PETERSEN: Okay.

9 CHAIR KNORR: This is Beth Knorr. I

10 have a question about the Group GAPs, and you

11 mentioned that there was a cooperative of potato

12 growers that were participating in that.

13 Is that typically seeing with the

14 group GAPs, that they're all similar, items like

15 tree fruit or what have you, or are you seeing

16 groups of growers with somewhat desperate

17 products, coming together, banning together to

18 participate in the audits?

19 MR. PETERSEN: We've actually seen

20 both in the groups that are in this year. The

21 majority of them are actually multi-commodity

22 groups. They're true small farmers that, you
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1 know, have, you know, an acre of this or acre of

2 that, you know, half-acre of this, whatever.

3 We've only got two, maybe three groups

4 that are commodity-specific type groups.

5 CHAIR KNORR: Okay.

6 MR. PETERSEN: But you know, the

7 groups as we've seen them now, I mean, we've got

8 a -- we've got a group of organic growers. We've

9 got a couple of groups that are plain farmers,

10 Amish Mennonite farmers. We've got the potato

11 group. 

12 We've got, you know, a number of

13 different groups that vary their formal groups,

14 or in one case, it's a group of growers in a

15 particular county that came together and said,

16 "Hey, we want to develop our own group,"

17 specifically for the purpose of group

18 certification.

19 So, we tried to build the Group GAP

20 requirements flexible enough, so that we didn't

21 pigeonhole groups into having to meet Title I

22 model, you know. We built it fairly broad, so
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1 that different types of groups could come

2 together and go through group certification. 

3 MR. PARROTT: Ken, one thing, if I

4 could just throw something out, just in case --

5 sometimes, people get confused.

6 They think -- they hear Group GAP, and

7 it's an easier way for small growers to get GAP

8 certified. In their minds they think GAP like,

9 or something, and I just wanted to emphasize that

10 that's not what I means. 

11 It has the same degree of rigor as any

12 other GAP audit. It's just the way that it's

13 structured, so that it's -- it's -- allows small

14 growers to kind of pass the costs, and make it

15 easier for them to get GAP certified and get

16 those larger buyers. 

17 CHAIR KNORR: Next up we're going to

18 welcome the FDA presenters. Jennifer Thomas,

19 Michael Mahovic and Stephen Hughes will be

20 speaking about the Produce Safety Rule. 

21 MS. THOMAS: Good afternoon. Thank

22 you all very much for the opportunity to come and
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1 speak with you. I was here about a year and a

2 half ago, I think, and so, I'm very happy to be

3 back to talk about the progress we've made.

4 Before I start, I'd like to introduce

5 my colleagues, both from Center for Food Safety

6 and Applied Nutrition, from the Office of Food

7 Safety, Division of Produce Safety.

8 First we have Mike Mahovic who is the

9 branch chief for the fresh produce branch, and

10 Stephen Hughes who is the team lead for the new

11 product safety network, which I'll talk about in

12 a few minutes.

13 So, just as a reminder, FDA's approach

14 to FSMA implementation. We're looking at it in

15 three phases. So, the Phase I being the standard

16 setting phase. Phase II being the implementation

17 of those standards, and then Phase III being the

18 monitoring stage.

19 So, Phase I is the stage where we're

20 doing all rulemaking, guidance development, that

21 kind of thing, setting policy all around the FSMA

22 rules, and Phase II, that's the part of the
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1 program where we are thinking about, how are we

2 going to implement these rules? 

3 So, now that we have them, we need to

4 do the work to bring them into our program. So,

5 that means setting up inspection programs or what

6 kind of other requirements we're going to have to

7 really bring those programs into the work that we

8 do every day.

9 Then Phase III is the monitor stage,

10 where once we are in the compliance periods,

11 that's the point at which we're looking to see

12 how all of those implementation programs we

13 designed are actually working, once the rules are

14 in effect.

15 Then throughout the whole process, we

16 feel that stakeholder engagement is really key. 

17 So, we -- you've probably noticed that we've done

18 a lot of public meetings. We've had a lot of

19 invitations for folks to provide feedback,

20 because we really think it is critical to the

21 success of our FSMA implementation.

22 So, Phase I, the standard setting,
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1 very happy to report that we have published all 

2 of our seven foundational rules, the two

3 preventive controls rule, the produce safety

4 rule, our import rules, sanitary transport and

5 then attentional -- intentional adulteration,

6 which was our last one that published in May.

7 So, they're all out and we are

8 actively working on guidance documents related to

9 all of them.

10 We are now in the compliance period

11 for the Preventive Controls Rules. For

12 Preventive Control Human, the large facilities

13 are now subject to being in compliance with all

14 aspects of the Preventive Controls Rule. 

15 For Preventive Control Animal Food,

16 the large facilities are subject to the

17 modernized GMPs, and then next up will be sprouts

18 in January 2017, and the rest to follow.

19 So, where are we with produce

20 guidance? We have published one guidance

21 document to help explain kind of the -- where the

22 split is between who has to comply with
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1 preventive control aspects and who has to comply

2 with the produce rule, that is out in draft. 

3 Opportunity to comment on that.

4 The agency is working on a number of

5 additional guidance documents related to produce,

6 such as an overall compliance guide. They come

7 out in multiple pieces, but it's going to be --

8 provide more information about basically, how to

9 comply with the produce rule.

10 We're working on a sprout guidance,

11 very similar, sort of how to comply with the

12 sprout rule. A small entity compliance guide, we

13 are required to do those for all of the rules,

14 and it's more like a -- sort of a -- a little bit

15 simplified version of the rule itself, and then

16 we are also working on updated GAPs guide, that's

17 a little bit behind the other documents.

18 So, just in terms of compliance dates,

19 I mentioned that we are in the compliance period

20 for some of the preventive control rules, the

21 large firms. We have produce safety, the first

22 compliance dates, other than sprouts, would be
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1 2018, as Ken mentioned, and then the FSVP rule

2 follows, basically six months after the

3 compliance dates for the other rules for firms

4 that are subject to those rules, or 18 months

5 after publication. FSVP is incredibly

6 complicated.

7 So, there's a great chart on the

8 website of all the compliance dates, if you have

9 any questions about that.

10 All right. So, Phase II. Phase II

11 governance structure. We do have four work

12 groups that are working on the implementation

13 program, because they are very far-reaching. So,

14 we have an intentional adulteration group, import

15 controls, a preventive controls group, which is

16 dealing with both human and animal food, and we

17 have a produce safety group. All of those groups

18 are overseen by a steering committee, and then

19 the steering committee reports up to our high

20 level FDA senior leadership.

21 All of the groups have representation

22 from both the -- the responsible center. So,
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1 usually CFSAN for animal foods and CVM, and then 

2 also, our Office of Regulatory Affairs, which is

3 our inspection staff, and they also all have

4 state representation, because like I said, we

5 feel like having some of that representation from

6 our partners, because we're going to have to be

7 working with them to implement these rules, we

8 need to get their input as we're moving along. 

9 So, we do have state regulators on all of our

10 implementation groups.

11 Obviously, the groups are at different

12 places, because the intentional adulteration rule

13 just recently published, so their implementation

14 program is a little bit behind. Preventive

15 controls' is -- being the first one out of the

16 gate, their implementation program is much

17 further ahead, but so they're all in various

18 stages of figuring out what their implementation

19 programs will look like.

20 So, we do have an operational strategy

21 for FSMA overall, and it was published in May of

22 2014, and basically, the overall goal related to
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1 produce would be to have broad collaborative

2 effort to foster awareness and compliance,

3 through guidance, education and technical

4 assistance. 

5 So, this broad statement is really

6 kind of the guiding principle and one of the big

7 guiding principles for us, as we design our

8 programs.

9 We do have some key principles that we

10 -- that each of the work groups has been charged

11 with dealing with, in designing their

12 implementation programs.

13 So, the first one I think that's

14 probably at the top of everybody's list when they

15 think about FDA and regulation is inspections. 

16 So, what will the inspections look like? How

17 will compliance work? We talk a lot about

18 specialization. That's a project that ORA is

19 going through to specialize their investigators. 

20 So, that's a key aspect.

21 The second piece is training,

22 regulator training. We know that having
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1 consistency is so critical to make these programs

2 work, and so, we are engaging in a great deal of

3 thinking about what training will look like, both

4 for our staff and for the state staff, to make

5 sure that those programs are consistently

6 implemented.

7 We have committed to having subject

8 matter experts available to the investigators, as

9 they're on inspections. So, if questions come up

10 in the inspections, they have resources available

11 to them.

12 We are looking at data analytics. We

13 have done a ton of work to think about what

14 metrics we want to have, and then design our data

15 systems around those. How do we collect the

16 data? Another opportunity for working with our

17 partners, because we know that we're not going to

18 be the ones who are going to be necessarily

19 generating all of the data that we might want to

20 look at, to see how these roles are working, or

21 how the role is working.

22 Then finally, to work closely with our
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1 government counterparts and our other

2 stakeholders, in putting these programs together. 

3 Ken -- one of Ken's staff members is working --

4 has -- is embedded with us on the produce side,

5 to make sure that we're thinking about the USDA

6 perspective, and we -- we also have the states,

7 and we also have a number of other stakeholders

8 we're working with in various capacities.

9 All right, so, I'm going to focus on

10 a couple of these key principles through the rest

11 of this talk. 

12 So, the first one I want to focus on

13 is the skilled workforce.

14 So, as I mentioned, specialization,

15 particularly in produce, we think is really

16 important. You know, a lot of our investigators

17 have experience in manufactured foods. But we

18 don't have a lot of people who have that much

19 experience in produce. 

20 So, we feel like because it's such a

21 specialized area, that we need to make sure that

22 we have folks who are specially trained in
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1 produce and understand it, understand ag science,

2 understand the different growing conditions. So,

3 that's going to really be key to our

4 implementation of the produce rule, and we are

5 developing what we call the Produce Safety

6 Network, and this is a map of the Produce Safety

7 Network, sort of identified where -- current

8 thinking, as to where they might reside.

9 So, you'll notice that there are

10 circles and there are diamonds. So, the Produce

11 Safety Network will have two pieces to it. It

12 will have CFSAN staff and it will also have ORA

13 staff, and the CFSAN staff, we are planning to

14 hire eight technical experts, and then two

15 compliance staff, to follow a little bit later.

16 We are in the process of hiring them. 

17 We do have Stephen onboard now, and we are in the

18 process of hiring the additional staff to fill

19 out the CFSAN members of the Produce Safety

20 Network, and then these circles are where the ORA

21 staff will eventually reside.

22 We are planning to hire approximately
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1 40 to 50 staff ultimately. Probably, half of

2 that initially. But you'll notice that they're

3 spread throughout the country.

4 So, the intent is that the folks who

5 are embedded in those parts of the country will

6 have real direct relationships with the state

7 regulators, the academics and the other

8 stakeholders that are in those areas. So, they'll

9 really get to know the regional practices and be

10 able to bring that expertise to us, as we

11 continue to develop our programs.

12 Some of the responsibilities of the

13 produce safety network will include technical

14 assistance, outreach and training, work planning,

15 outbreak investigations, inspections on the

16 foreign side, and then enforcement. 

17 So, the inspection piece is, they are

18 going to be responsible for the foreign

19 inspections, because we do plan to do foreign

20 inspections for produce, and they will do foreign

21 -- they will do inspections in states that choose

22 not to have an inspection program. But for the
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1 states that choose to have an inspection program,

2 the states would be the lead there, and they will

3 be -- so, they will be directly available to the

4 states, in their regions, understanding the

5 regional considerations. They'll be there to

6 provide the technical assistance, the training if

7 needed, help design the work plan and a lot of

8 other aspects that go into the produce regulatory

9 scheme.

10 All right. So, moving on a little bit

11 to training. So, we are working with two

12 organizations on training. So, one is the

13 Produce Safety Alliance and the other is the

14 Sprout Safety Alliance, similar sort of

15 portfolios, just -- obviously, produce looking at

16 produce overall, sprout is looking specifically

17 at sprout. So, they are focusing on developing

18 training programs for the industry.

19 Then on a regulator training side, we

20 are going to have all of our regulators who are

21 working on produce go through the alliance

22 training. If they're working on sprouts, they'll
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1 go through the sprout alliance. If they're

2 working on produce generally, they'll go through

3 the Produce Safety Alliance training, and then

4 they're going to be going through some regulator

5 training.

6 This is somewhat in development. I

7 can't say somewhat. This is currently in

8 development, and so, some of the aspects that we

9 know it will include, first of all, will be how

10 to approach an inspection, what do you look at

11 during an inspection, kind of general inspection

12 information.

13 If we have new reporting tools, the

14 training will cover that, and then some of the

15 bio-security aspects that are specific to farms,

16 and then just how to interact with farms, because

17 farms are a brand new entity for us, in most

18 cases. We don't have the short -- a regular

19 regulatory program on farms. So, this is going

20 to be new, and so, we want to make sure that our

21 investigators are really comfortable how to

22 approach an industry that we have not had a lot
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1 of interaction with.

2 That sort of leads to relationship

3 building. So, part of what we know we have to do

4 to make this program successful is to make sure

5 we develop those relationships. 

6 So, through our Produce Safety

7 Network, they are going to be the ones who are

8 going to have some of those direct interactions

9 with both the farms and the state. We're going

10 to be looking to our state partners to help us

11 bridge some of those gaps that the interaction

12 that we might not have had. Generally, our

13 interactions with farms are during outbreaks,

14 which is a very high stress, high tension kind of

15 situation. We want to get -- have it -- a

16 somewhat different relationship with the farms,

17 where they understand that if we're coming out to

18 do an inspection or accompany a state on an

19 inspection, we're not there to look for where you

20 had a problem that caused an outbreak. We're

21 just there to see how you're complying with the

22 rule. 
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1 So, that's going to be a really

2 important part of what we want to do with our

3 Produce Safety Network, and part of that

4 interaction is going to be attending the training

5 with the industry.

6 So, we've said that we want our folks

7 who are going through the PSA training to do it

8 with the industry at the same time.

9 So, that -- I also want to mention our

10 recently announced cooperative agreement program

11 with the states. This was a major effort for us,

12 one of the largest cooperative agreements that

13 FDA has ever done.

14 We recently announced that we are

15 providing money to 42 states that had applied for

16 -- to be part of this cooperative agreement

17 program, basically, to create an integrated food

18 safety system and to really plan through on a

19 state level, how they want to implement the

20 program.

21 So, they had the opportunity to apply

22 for one of two competitions. They could apply
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1 either just for education, outreach and training

2 money, or education, outreach, training and

3 inspection money.

4 Some states chose at this juncture,

5 just to apply for the education, outreach,

6 training money. Others included the inspection

7 piece. The states that did not apply during the

8 first round will have an opportunity to apply

9 again. So, just the fact that they didn't apply

10 in this round, doesn't mean that they're

11 foreclosed permanently.

12 So, they -- the state cooperative

13 program, the states will be expected to provide

14 information to FDA about a number of things,

15 including how they plan to do their outreach and

16 education, how they plan to develop an inventory

17 and what their staffing might look like, how they

18 plan to execute any information requirements that

19 they're going to have. 

20 So, it's going to be a very

21 comprehensive program. It's a big endeavor for

22 us, but we're really excited to be able to
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1 provide this money to the states, to help them

2 kick off their programs.

3 Sort of a companion piece to this

4 state cooperative program is a grant or a

5 cooperative agreement that we also have with --

6 to establish the National Consortium, which is

7 money that was given to NASDA and they are going

8 to be working with a number of other

9 organizations, to bring together a lot of

10 stakeholders such as AFDO and AFSO and USDA and

11 FDA and others, to really sort of try and create

12 some uniformity throughout the states. 

13 We can't require that states implement

14 any particular program under their cooperative

15 agreement. But NASDA is going to be able to --

16 the National Consortium will be available to try

17 and share best practices and provide information

18 to the states about maybe if somebody is doing

19 this brand new, and somebody else has a program

20 already established, kind of be that sort of

21 clearinghouse, if you will, for information

22 sharing.
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1 All right. So, moving to inspections. 

2 So, obviously, you know, an inspection is trying

3 to shape compliance, assessing the state of

4 compliance of the industry.

5 We want these inspections to be

6 standardized. We've said a lot, that we're going

7 to be educating while -- before and while we

8 regulate. 

9 So, we are looking at how do we

10 incorporate that education piece into our

11 inspection program. We want to do some trend

12 analysis, again, the relationship building, and

13 so, we do have a group right now with NASDA,

14 under our NASDA cooperative agreement, which are

15 looking -- is looking at what does their

16 inspection program look like? How do we

17 prioritize inspections? How do we actually

18 conduct the inspections? What kind of tools do

19 the investigators use to collect data or report

20 out on their findings, and then how do we do the

21 compliance enforcement piece at the end, where --

22 where needed?
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1 Then so, a point here. The states have

2 been -- if they apply for competition B, they

3 will receive funding to do inspections. The

4 Produce Safety Network will be available to them

5 as a resource, and may accompany them. It will be

6 sort of state dependent. But the PSN will be

7 expected to lead the inspections in states that

8 chose not to do inspections.

9 So, right now, we have, I want to say

10 10, somewhere around 10 to 13 states that have

11 chosen not to apply for inspection funding. So,

12 in those states, the Produce Safety Network team

13 will be the ones who will be doing the

14 inspections, as well as perform the inspections.

15 All right. So, a bit on education,

16 outreach, technical assistance. I mentioned the

17 alliances.

18 So, we are working with the alliances

19 to set up some technical assistance. We have a

20 number of organizations that we think will play a

21 role in this. We have a number of grants under

22 the NIFA program, and we have the coordinating
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1 centers that have also been funded.

2 One piece that Ken did mention is on3 farm readiness review, and so, we are treating

4 this as sort of an education outreach activity,

5 more than inspection. It might look like an

6 inspection or an audit program, but we're really

7 thinking about it as an opportunity for outreach

8 and education for the farms.

9 So, just to expand a little bit on

10 what Ken was saying. We have been working with

11 NASDA and USDA on developing this program. We

12 have currently, a tool that we are getting ready

13 to pilot. We are planning some pilots for

14 beginning of January through sort of mid next

15 year, and this will be a totally volunteer

16 program. So, we're still working on how we would

17 get those volunteers, how we would keep track of

18 them, and who is going to do them is really going

19 to be state-dependent.

20 So, part of the funding that the

21 states get is going to be towards this on-farm

22 readiness review program. So, again, for states
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1 that choose not to do this, the FDA will be the

2 one that will be doing the on-farm readiness

3 reviews.

4 What do we really want to do with this

5 data? We don't plan to leave any reports with

6 the farm. We are going to really provide them

7 the tools. We're going to hope that they do a

8 self-assessment, and then we're going to sort of

9 walk through them and maybe point out some areas

10 where we might look at things differently. But

11 we don't plan to issue any kind of reports to the

12 farms or anything. It's really going to be up to

13 them, to take notes as we go.

14 But we do hope to do some trending of

15 the findings. So, you know, we're thinking about

16 sort of an aggregate of, you know, this

17 particular state went to 15 strawberry farms. 

18 These are the sorts of things that they found,

19 and then that will help us when we design both

20 our inspection programs and also prioritization,

21 because if we see a particular industry that,

22 well, this industry did really, really well
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1 during the on-farm readiness review, that might

2 be an industry where we don't maybe focus as much

3 of our inspection attention during the first

4 round of inspections. So, still thinking through

5 how that might work.

6 So, technical assistance. We do have

7 -- we have established a Technical Assistance

8 Network, called the TAN, and it -- we have -- we

9 are planning two parts to our technical

10 assistance network.

11 So, the first one is in place. It's

12 web-based and there is also a phone option. So,

13 those are the -- that's a place where people are

14 sending questions, basically rule interpretation

15 questions. 

16 We get questions anywhere from what

17 are the compliance stage for this rule, to very

18 specific questions like, I have this particular

19 facility and we do this, and I need help

20 understanding what this piece of the rule is

21 asking.

22 We have all of our questions that are
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1 captured in a knowledge management system, and we

2 are working through right now, getting some of

3 those questions and answers up on the website. I 

4 know we've committed to doing that, and we are

5 working on that right now.

6 We're making sure that we're sort of

7 sanitizing the questions, if you will, because we

8 don't want people to not submit questions to us,

9 with the level of detail that helps us answer the

10 question, if they fear that we'll then go ahead

11 and post their question up on the web.

12 So, everything that's posted is going

13 to be sort of non-specific to a particular farm.

14 So, the TAN -- like I said, the TAN is

15 up and running. We've had more than 2,000

16 questions in the first year, and we know that

17 we've been a little bit slow on some of the

18 responses. We are developing some standardized

19 responses for questions that we get a lot, and we

20 are working on some other mechanisms to increase

21 our speed.

22 The second piece of the TAN is going
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1 to be the regulator TAN, and we are currently

2 working on developing the regulator TAN, and so,

3 this will be the group of people that are going

4 to be available to the investigators, while

5 they're on the farm or while they're in a

6 facility, to answer those types of technical

7 questions that might come up during the

8 inspections, to make sure that they have that

9 technical assistance that they need to really do

10 the best inspection job that they can.

11 So, this is a little graphic. We had

12 the -- the TAN does include CVM, CFSAN, ORA and

13 our Office of International Programs, and the

14 website to submit a question, and that's all. 

15 Thank you very much. Happy to answer questions

16 and have my other resources here, as well. 

17 So, I light all the way in the back

18 and then I'll -- all the way at the end. 

19 MS. BARNES: My name is Virginia

20 Barnes, and I actually took the train the trainer

21 course with Dr. Ben, from the Produce Safety

22 Alliance. It's awesome. The TAN is awesome and
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1 they also have the phone a friend.

2 But I was wondering if you could tell

3 me about the state partners. Is there any kind

4 of a site that I can go to for the question I

5 have about the water, you know, the testing and

6 things like that? Is there a state partner

7 already set up for Florida, or is there a website

8 I can go to, to find out? Do you know?

9 MS. THOMAS: At this point, we have

10 not identified the specific people within the

11 states that are going to be responsible for the

12 different pieces of the program.

13 We have had some conversations with

14 the states and with NASDA about how to make sure

15 that the folks that needs those kinds of

16 questions answered, have access to that.

17 So, I would keep an eye out, both

18 probably on FDA's website, and then also on the

19 NASDA site for that kind of contact information.

20 MS. BARNES: Thank you. 

21 MS. THOMAS: You're welcome. I think

22 I saw Ken. Okay, all right, let me go over here. 
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1 MR. VAZQUEZ: Hi. Jorge Vazquez,

2 Latino Specialties.

3 So, to me, the notion of how you guys 

4 are going to prioritize the inspection seems kind

5 of nebulous, you know. 

6 Is there talks about maybe creating a

7 national database, kind of like the FDA facility

8 registration site where maybe all of us can

9 upload our certifications, and then help your job

10 a little bit easier in choosing where they're

11 inspecting or not? 

12 MS. THOMAS: I wish I could tell you

13 yes, that sounds fantastic.

14 We do not have authorization to have

15 anything like food facility registration for

16 farms. I mean, farms are specifically excluded

17 from registration, and so, right now we have no

18 way to be able to do that.

19 We are looking to the states to

20 develop their programs to consider how to collect

21 inventory information and that's going to be one

22 of the responsibilities of the folks who did get
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1 funding, and so, how the states choose to do that

2 will really be up to them.

3 We hope that we're going to pull all

4 that information into a centralized database that

5 FDA can use to do some of the prioritization and

6 that it has the information that we need to do

7 that.

8 I can tell you that I understand, it

9 is sort of still nebulous. I like that word.

10 We are looking at prioritization on a

11 couple of fronts. One is size. So, you know,

12 impact would be if it's particular entity -- or

13 not an entity, necessarily. 

14 Well, you know, on the farm -- sort of

15 at the farm level, what their compliance history

16 would be. At the industry level, what their

17 compliance history is. You know, if it's an

18 industry that's been associated with outbreaks a

19 lot, as opposed to a commodity that maybe hasn't,

20 we might prioritize them differently. 

21 I heard the question about how will

22 FDA use the USDA information. I think that's a -
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1 - that's sort of kind of where we're going, and

2 that's a question that we've had a lot.

3 We talked about the -- using that

4 information in the way that we prioritize. So,

5 you know, if we know that because we've been

6 working very closely with USDA, with AMS on the

7 standard, we -- if we kind of know that a company

8 has had a good USDA audit, then maybe we can

9 think about, they would be further down on the

10 priority list. A lot of details to be worked out,

11 but certainly something that we'll share kind of

12 as we -- as we make some progress on that. Yes,

13 sir.

14 MR. YANDA: Hi. Dave Yanda with

15 Lakeside Foods. We just had a team of people

16 over at a large food show in Europe, SIAL,

17 perhaps you're familiar with it. Our company

18 does some considerable amount of export business,

19 and our team came back with some concerns, after

20 having meetings with buyers, over at that show,

21 as it relates to the new regulations, and how

22 they will pertain to us being able to compete in
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1 the international market.

2 So, my question is, there are some

3 international standards, Codax, which I'm sure

4 you're probably familiar with, on some of these

5 things that globally, I'm told many countries are

6 required to adhere to, and there are tolerance

7 levels for some of the things in Codax, and the

8 concern is that our standards will be held higher

9 than Codax, and that it will eliminate us from

10 being able to compete in the international

11 market, simply from a cost standpoint, and so,

12 I'm wondering if you have any thought, or you

13 could share any insight on that.

14 Is there any consideration continuing

15 to perhaps, conform our standards with

16 international accepted tolerances, rather than

17 creating our own?

18 MS. THOMAS: So, we are active in many

19 of the Codax activities. We don't have the

20 authority to, at this point, just accept any of

21 the Codax information. We've always just sort of

22 have to take it, consider it against our
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1 regulatory scheme.

2 But, you know, we do -- like I said,

3 we do participate. We take the Codex information

4 into account, as we're thinking through our

5 standards. I don't know, Mike if you had

6 anything further to add on that. 

7 (Off-microphone comments)

8 MR. YANDA: Is there consideration

9 being given to what it might mean to restricting

10 companies' ability to continue to support

11 business?

12 MS. THOMAS: Certainly. We have -- we

13 are always concerned about, sort of the impact of

14 what we're doing on both the international

15 community, and also, the impact -- or the

16 international requirements on our industry.

17 We do have two groups. One within

18 food specifically, and then our international

19 programs people, who are very active in working

20 through a lot of those relationships.

21 (Off-microphone comments)

22 MS. THOMAS: Right, yes.
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1 MS. BURNS: Cathy Burns with PMA. I'd

2 like to build on that a little bit, both products

3 going out and in.

4 I think there's an opportunity, and

5 Ken, this is maybe more for you, for USDA,

6 somehow to get involved in the coordination of

7 the training between trade associations, USDA,

8 maybe it's FAS, somebody needs to get involved,

9 to coordinate those activities, so that FSMA

10 training is clear for imports, and I certainly

11 can tag onto the export conversation, as well.

12 I don't know who owns that between the

13 FDA and USDA, but there seems to be -- there's a

14 gap there on education and training, certainly

15 for products coming in to the U.S.

16 MS. THOMAS: Our international affairs

17 staff is taking the lead on a lot of the outreach

18 and education for our -- for the international

19 partners. So, I can certainly --

20 MS. BURNS: We might be able to help

21 to --

22 MS. THOMAS: Okay, that would be
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1 wonderful. Thank you. 

2 MR. NELSON: Bob Nolan, Deer Run

3 Farms. As a small vegetable grower, I think it's

4 great that the produce safety alliance are going

5 to be having these training sessions for us, to

6 help bring us into compliance.

7 But I'm just curious, you know, is

8 there a document that shows exactly what we're

9 going to have to do, as far as record keeping? 

10 Are we going to have a food safety plan, and how

11 much record keeping are we going to have to do? 

12 The second point to my question is, I

13 see you mentioned enforcement several times. 

14 Could you elaborate on enforcement? Is it going

15 to be fines? Jail time? What are we talking

16 about? Thank you.

17 MS. THOMAS: So, let me start with the

18 first piece. We are -- we -- we'll have two

19 guidance documents that I think will help to some

20 degree.

21 So, one is the small entity compliance

22 guide. So, that will be, you know, sort of the
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1 guidance that is directed more towards the

2 smaller growers, and then the general compliance

3 guide, which may be one piece or multiple pieces,

4 which will be pretty explanatory about when you

5 have to keep records.

6 So, there is no requirement for a food

7 safety plan for a farm. We did not require that. 

8 So, that is not something we require, although

9 probably not a bad idea.

10 Enforcement. So, great question. I'm

11 in the Office of Compliance. So, enforcement is

12 sort of near and dear to my heart. So, I hope I

13 didn't alarm anybody by mentioning enforcement at

14 any point. 

15 We sort of see this as an opportunity

16 to do a lot of collaboration. We think the

17 states are really going to be the front lines of

18 any type of enforcement that's needed, but we

19 think it's going to be sort of a very soft sort

20 of roll out. 

21 You know, I mean, we're not expecting

22 to come out on day one and do an inspection and
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1 come and shut a farm down. I mean, that's just

2 now how we work, number one, and certainly not

3 our expectations. 

4 But you know, so, yes, but you know, 

5 I mean, there may be situations where there is a

6 farm that has major compliance challenges and if

7 we see a public health concern, we are prepared

8 to work with our state partners and consider

9 which tools we have that would make the best

10 sense, in terms of getting that farm into the

11 state of compliance that they need to be.

12 So, we really -- we have a variety. We

13 don't have civil penalty authority. So, the only

14 fine that we would have would be related to

15 criminal prosecution, which is, you know, for

16 very -- for the most egregious situations. 

17 But we have a lot of, sort of things

18 in between, and we would be very judicious in

19 using our tools. But we really do want -- you

20 know, I mean our -- quite honestly, from my

21 perspective, I want to be out of a job, in the

22 Office of Compliance. I would love for everybody
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1 to be in compliance and we wouldn't have to do

2 anything. But you know, unfortunately, that's

3 not the reality. So. 

4 MR. JANIS: Hi. Michael Janis. I'm

5 with the San Francisco Wholesale Produce Market. 

6 For those of us who either operate or

7 own multi-tenant or multi-use facilities, we're a

8 little unclear as far as compliance in our role,

9 as the landlord or the operator or the manager. 

10 Perhaps, where would that sit?

11 MS. THOMAS: Depends. That's,

12 unfortunately, not an easy question, and it

13 depends on how your particular entity or facility

14 or organization is set up, and it depends kind of

15 where you've drawn a line, in terms of, you know,

16 what you're responsible for or what your tenants

17 are responsible for. So, it's really going to be

18 very situation specific.

19 If you have sort of a -- you know, in

20 your particular situation, we -- if you wanted to

21 submit a question to the TAN, we would be happy

22 to sort of think through that and provide some
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1 response for you.

2 MR. JANIS: And perhaps for our

3 segment of the industry, there could be a point

4 person who could potentially work for many of us,

5 from food hubs to terminal markets, to you know,

6 operations that are multi-user, because there is

7 a lack of clarity when we speak to different

8 inspectors in different regions. 

9 MS. THOMAS: Yes, I mean, if it's an

10 issue that you feel like we need to make sure

11 that we address, particularly for investigators,

12 you know, please let us know and we'll make sure

13 to sort of think through that as we're designing

14 our inspection programs. Thank you. 

15 CHAIR KNORR: This is Beth Knorr. 

16 Mike, I really appreciate that question and also,

17 think it probably carries over to farmers market

18 managers too. Like, what is their rule? What is

19 their responsibility level for any of the

20 compliance issues that farmers might face?

21 MS. THOMAS: So, would you make a note

22 of that for your guidance document? Excellent.
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1 MR. VAZQUEZ: Just building up on

2 those three questions from Mike, as well as Beth.

3 Is there any talks right now of if

4 you're compliant with the rule of the law, and

5 you happen to have some type of incident, to put

6 in place, some type of tort reform or boundaries

7 for, you know, in case you get sued, because some

8 are afraid that the enforcement is going to come

9 more from the legal sector rather than from you

10 guys.

11 So, can we initiate a conversation

12 about maybe putting some type of limits on the

13 type of, you know, damages that somebody can be

14 awarded, if you are complying with the rule of

15 the law?

16 MS. THOMAS: That would not be

17 something that would be within our bailiwick, but

18 I would think that maybe the Advisory Committee

19 or other entities, you know, that might be an

20 opportunity. I totally understand the concern. 

21 MR. NICHOLSON: Mark Nicholson. Two

22 questions and maybe answered later. It was
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1 regarding compliance guidance or the guidance

2 documents, and I guess, you know, I don't know

3 the exact timing on some of those deadlines. I

4 know that there is a lot moving forward with

5 compliance, but there's also then a lot of

6 questions on the actual guidance. 

7 So, I don't know how you're able to

8 move forward with certain areas, without the

9 guidance being done or not. 

10 The other question is probably again,

11 maybe more related to the guidance, but with

12 regard to water and the water standards and

13 methodology for testing the water. 

14 MS. THOMAS: I can tell you, and Mike

15 can correct me if I get this wrong, that we are

16 doing a guidance that is specific to the water

17 standards, and will provide perhaps, more

18 information that would be helpful to you.

19 I think if you have some specific

20 issues that you would like us to consider as

21 we're developing the guidance, you know, please

22 submit them to the TAN or through -- I think Mike
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1 would be willing to hear from you about, if you

2 had some specific scenarios.

3 In terms of sort of how can we do our

4 inspection and compliance planning, when the

5 guidance is still open. 

6 There is a lot that we can do based

7 just on the rule requirements. So, the guidance

8 is going to build on the rule, but the rule

9 really sets the foundation for our inspection and

10 compliance programs.

11 So, while the guidance documents may

12 further explain some things or provide a little

13 bit more clarity, we think that we can start

14 designing our inspection program based on the

15 regulation itself, because you know, that will

16 tell you where you have to keep records or what

17 some of the requirements are. So, that's why

18 we're able to sort of move forward now. 

19 MS. BURNS: This is Cathy again. I'm

20 curious whether people are volunteering for on21 farm reviews.

22 MS. THOMAS: We have not put out the
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1 call yet.

2 MS. BURNS: Not yet?

3 MS. THOMAS: Not yet.

4 MS. BURNS: Well, I think if what you

5 say comes true, that if people volunteer and they

6 get -- you know, a commodity has a clean bill,

7 maybe they get audited less, so that the bottom

8 of the priority list, that's pretty good

9 incentive, if they're doing things well. So, I

10 didn't realize it hadn't started yet.

11 MS. THOMAS: Yes. 

12 MS. BURNS: When will that start?

13 MS. THOMAS: Great question. The roll

14 out is anticipated for the Fall. So, this year. 

15 Next year, 2017, yes. Yes. We do have a couple

16 of pilots going on for the first half of the

17 year, and those have all been volunteers. So. 

18 MR. McREYNOLDS: Roland McReynolds. 

19 I guess going back to the guidance issue, a

20 couple of questions or points.

21 In talking to state regulators, that

22 are going to be responsible, they're very, very
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1 hesitant to be doing inspections without guidance

2 being out, and feel like it's really, you know, 

3 not appropriate.

4 So, I guess you know, I would second

5 my state government partners in that sentiment.

6 It's really -- you know, there is a lot of

7 interpretational questions and application

8 questions that are not -- very much not clear

9 from the rule.

10 So, I guess I'd like to understand

11 more about how you would see that it is possible

12 to provide effective inspections on these rules,

13 absent that guidance.

14 The other question is, are you writing

15 the guidance in-house or are you contracting with

16 outside parties, and if so, who are those outside

17 parties?

18 MS. THOMAS: So, let me first clarify,

19 if I mis-spoke or was not clear.

20 I was not suggesting that we would be

21 doing the inspections in the absence of guidance,

22 but we're designing the inspection program, sort
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1 of concurrently with the guidance being

2 developed. 

3 So, we do fully expect that the

4 guidance documents will be out in plenty of time

5 for both the industry and the regulators, to have

6 some time to absorb them and to figure out what

7 tweaks we need to make to our programs, before

8 the compliance states. So, I apologize if I gave

9 the wrong impression.

10 The guidance documents are being

11 developed in-house, and I'm going to ask Mike if

12 he has any -- the -- are we getting any outside

13 assistance at all? 

14 (Off-microphone comment)

15 CHAIR KNORR: Okay, any other

16 questions for Jennifer? 

17 Thank you so much for sharing the

18 information.

19 Because this was kind of an

20 information heavy piece, I think we're going to

21 go ahead and take our break. So, it is about 10

22 til three right now. Let's take a 15 minute
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1 break. Maybe come back at five after three. 

2 (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter

3 went off the record at 2:49 p.m. and resumed at

4 3:15 p.m.)

5 MS. STANZIANI: Okay, everybody, if

6 you wouldn't mind taking your seats. We are

7 going to get moving again. We've got a couple of

8 different presentations to get through.

9 CHAIR KNORR: Okay. So, let's get

10 right back into it. We're going to open up the

11 session for any comments observers might have

12 right now. Anyone? 

13 Okay, so, assuming that there are no

14 comments, we're going to move along and Greg

15 Astill, from the Economic Research Service is

16 going to present some information to us here.

17 MR. ASTILL: Hi. I'm Greg Astill with

18 Economic Research Service in USDA. 

19 Economic Research Service does all

20 sorts of economic research that has to do with

21 agriculture, and this is some work that I'm doing

22 with my colleagues Linda Calvin, Suzanne
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1 Thornsbury, who is here, and Travis Minor, just

2 recently joined our team.

3 Also, we have from NASS, the National

4 Agricultural Statistics Service, Nathaniel

5 Warenski and Shareefah Williams, and this has

6 been a concerted effort between ERS and NASS, in

7 producing these food safety surveys dealing with 

8 the produce sector.

9 First, why are these food safety

10 surveys important? 

11 Primarily, better data makes better

12 policy. We need information to inform that. 

13 We're looking to document the level of food

14 safety practices already in place, and things

15 that have developed since the last food safety

16 survey that was done at the national level in

17 1999.

18 We want to provide a benchmark of

19 practices prior to implementation of FSMA, to

20 estimate the impact that the law is going to have

21 on produce growers, and we're hoping and we

22 expect that the results -- the published results
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1 of these surveys that we'll be producing, will

2 guide research and the economic impacts of this

3 law, and also address training efforts and show

4 where the important parts of guidance documents

5 and training are.

6 So, we're looking at the economic

7 impacts of the Food Safety Modernization Act on

8 U.S. produce industry, and so, we partnered with

9 NASS to do two surveys, a grower survey and then

10 a post-harvest processing survey, and we're

11 focusing on food safety practices in asking about

12 questions about those practices, as they line up

13 with the rules in the FSMA law.

14 We have a small number of questions

15 about costs and these surveys are going through

16 most of the U.S. We're trying to capture as much

17 of the produce industry as possible. 

18 So, we've covering a lot of

19 commodities and a lot of farm sizes. 

20 Now, NASS takes -- the National

21 Agricultural Statistic Service of the USDA, they

22 take data integrity and data security very
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1 seriously. So, all of these surveys are

2 personally enumerated by NASS staff. NASS

3 ensures that no individual response or operation

4 can be identified by the data that's held in the

5 database, and each person dealing with the data

6 must sign a confidentiality agreement. So, the

7 integrity and privacy of the data is -- is

8 primary. 

9 So, this survey has gone out in two

10 parts. The first part of the survey was combined

11 with the NASS chemical use survey, and in 2015,

12 that went out to fruit growers, and we have that

13 raw data now. I'm going to show you some

14 preliminary example graphs from that. 

15 So, thank you to everyone who

16 participated in this survey. Thank you to anyone

17 who encouraged participation. We appreciate it

18 very much. There were over 6,000 growers who

19 filled out the chemical use survey, and of those,

20 40 percent filled out the Food Safety Addendum.

21 Now, the second part of the survey is

22 going out right now, and through January 13th. 
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1 It's -- this is an addendum to the vegetable

2 chemical use survey, and it's going out to the

3 big vegetable producing states and for a lot of

4 target commodities, most of them are vegetables.

5 But there is some overlap. So, some of

6 these vegetable growers will also be growing

7 different fruit commodities, and we see that in

8 our first survey, some of that.

9 So, these are example graphs of the

10 type of information you will see in our published

11 report, and I am showing you a very thin slice. 

12 We've gotten a lot of great information in that

13 first survey, and we're going to have a lot to

14 share.

15 So, all the graphs are going to have

16 a similar structure. So, let me just explain the

17 structure, and then each graph will be fairly

18 easy to understand.

19 So, on the 'x' axis, we have broken

20 out produce growers by the amount of produce

21 sales they've had on average in the last three

22 years. So, yearly average sales.
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1 Now, the far left of the graph, we

2 have less than 25,000, then on the far right, we

3 have more than 10 million. In the middle, that

4 middle bar is 500 to 100 -- 500 to one-million,

5 500,000 to one-million.

6 So, they are the categories of sales,

7 and then the width of those bars is the

8 proportion of the sample that fits into that

9 category.

10 So, you can see, we have two percent

11 of our sample are selling more than 10-million a

12 year. Sixteen percent of the sample is selling

13 less than 25,000.

14 So, you can see we have quite a few

15 mid-size growers, small-ish growers, and then a

16 few, we do have some large growers in there, as

17 well.

18 Now, on the Y-axis here, we have the

19 percentage of firms in that category that have

20 answered 'yes' to the question. So, here the

21 question is, have you heard of the produce rule

22 in FSMA?
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1 Now, you can see of the large growers,

2 more than 75 percent say, "I have heard of the

3 produce rule." The smallest growers, about one4 third say that they have heard of the produce

5 rule, and you can see that trend increase.

6 Looking at audits. So, we asked, "Do

7 you have an audit?" You can see the large

8 growers, more than 50 percent say they have

9 audits. The small growers, about 10 percent say

10 they have an audit, and you can see that

11 increasing trend, as well.

12 When we asked, "How many audit

13 standards do you use," the large growers on

14 average have three audit standards that they're

15 complying with and the smaller growers are -- on

16 average, have one, and that trend also increases

17 with size.

18 Now, we look at marketing channel. 

19 So, you have -- we asked four marketing channels,

20 "Are you selling fresh? Are you selling

21 processing? Are you selling to fresh cut? Are

22 you selling direct to consumers?" 
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1 Now, very few people are selling 100

2 percent to one of those channels. So, I've

3 broken that out into are you selling at more than

4 90 percent to one channel, and then if you're

5 selling less than 90 percent to one channel,

6 you're in this mixed category.

7 You can see those who are in the mixed

8 category, that's 31 percent of firms in the same,

9 and about two-thirds of those firms have audits. 

10 When you look at in comparison, direct to

11 consumer is on the far right. Eleven percent of

12 the sample are selling direct to -- more than 90

13 percent direct to consumers, and about 10 percent

14 of them have audits.

15 Now, this is water, and this is one

16 piece of a lot of information we have about

17 water. So, this is specifically ground water

18 that you are using in irrigation or application,

19 that touches the crop. So, overhead irrigation

20 or application of chemical or either.

21 So, the categories we've broken these

22 up into are the number of water tests. Zero is
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1 the red bar and if you're having four or more

2 water tests a year, that's the green bar.

3 So, you can see the -- the largest

4 growers, those with over $10 million in sales,

5 about two-thirds of those growers are doing four

6 or more water tests a year, and about 15 -- 10 or

7 15 percent don't have a water test. Compare that

8 with the smallest growers, over 50 percent of the

9 smallest growers aren't doing a water test on

10 their ground water, and a very small percentage

11 are doing four or more, and you can see that

12 trend, similar to those other trends we saw in --

13 it's pretty linear, as we go up in size.

14 So, we would just like to encourage

15 everyone to fill out the survey if you get it,

16 and also encourage participation in the survey,

17 because this information, we fully expect to help

18 the guidance document writing and the training

19 that's coming out.

20 We'd also like to get any information

21 that you have of suggestions for reaching out to

22 growers and communicating that the survey is
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1 coming out, and the benefits of it. So, I'm open

2 to questions. 

3 CHAIR KNORR: Okay, jump on in with

4 questions, folks. 

5 MS. DIETRICH: So, what kind of return

6 did you get on surveys sent out? 

7 MR. ASTILL: So --

8 MS. DIETRICH: So far.

9 MR. ASTILL: Yes. So, there were

10 about 2,700 that we got, that were partially

11 filled out, and about 2,000 that were very clean,

12 and there were 6,000 growers on the chem use

13 survey, and more than -- if I'm not mistaken,

14 more than 90 percent of those people filled it

15 out, and it's an -- as I understand, it's a

16 mandatory survey. So, unless -- oh, it's not.

17 Okay, but yes, it's -- it has a very

18 high response rate. Yes. 

19 MR. SUTTON: Dan Sutton. Just a

20 couple of recommendations.

21 I think one, if you utilize some of

22 the trade organizations to possibly reach a
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1 greater breadth of growers, and also, I think if 

2 growers really knew that this was an attempt to

3 help the guidance document, if that point could

4 be very clear when it's sent out, that the intent

5 is to help develop the guidance, I think your

6 response level is going to go up, pretty big.

7 MR. ASTILL: Thanks. 

8 MR. SUTTON: There is a great contact

9 in the front of the table right here, that could

10 probably get you started. 

11 MS. STANZIANI: Can we put that on the

12 record, please? 

13 MS. BARNES: I was just saying also,

14 to go through Farm Bureau and Fruit and Vegetable

15 Associations, because those are people that

16 farmers really trust, and also know the seasons.

17 If you call us when we're not busy,

18 we're more likely to help. I just did it last

19 week. I just got the call last week and I did it

20 because I wasn't super busy. But I have gotten

21 the call when we were in the middle of our

22 season, at our busiest time, and we just don't
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1 have time to do it then. 

2 MR. McREYNOLDS: And Roland

3 McReynolds. I think other point that which I

4 think we -- might have been made in prior

5 presentations on this. 

6 But in terms of, you know, outreach to

7 organic farmers, the chemical use survey may not

8 be the best vehicle for reaching those growers,

9 in terms of, you know, just their response rate

10 to that survey.

11 So, other times that you're surveying

12 organic growers, piling it onto that would be -- 

13 PARTICIPANT: The chemical use survey,

14 it doesn't discriminate organic growers. 

15 MR. McREYNOLDS: Sure, right, and

16 there are -- there are organic chemicals. My

17 point is, I'm just not sure the response. Maybe

18 you've got some response rate data that you can

19 correlate but I would just guess, lot of the

20 organic farmers that I work with, which see just

21 this survey and go in the round file. 

22 MR. VAZQUEZ: Jorge Vasquez. Are you
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1 guys gathering any data on fresh operations or

2 any type of -- other type of facilities, other

3 than growers or just strictly growing operations?

4 MR. ASTILL: We have information on

5 whether that growing is running a packing

6 facility. But then we have another port -- we

7 have another survey that goes out specifically to

8 packers, and we do have that information. I

9 didn't present it here. But the survey is very

10 similar, but with a few differences.

11 MR. VAZQUEZ: So, are the findings

12 kind of like the same, the less you sell, the

13 less familiar you are with the -- 

14 MR. ASTILL: I haven't dug into that

15 data, as deeply as I have this. 

16 MS. BURNS: Cathy Burns with PMA. 

17 Back to Dan's point. Do you have examples of

18 feedback that you've received and you've made a

19 change as a result of it in the guidance, because

20 I think we need to be able to tell the story.

21 I mean, it's one thing to say, yes,

22 we'll take your feedback and we'll listen.
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1 MR. ASTILL: Yes.

2 MS. BURNS: But if we have a solid

3 example or two, that would help us, in terms of

4 really galvanizing the industry to actually

5 complete the survey.

6 CHAIR KNORR: A couple other comments. 

7 This is Beth Knorr.

8 I'm sure you already are working with

9 extension agencies, but those are certainly well

10 received by growers, and I just want to echo what

11 Roland had to say. 

12 I think the name of the survey is

13 probably pretty off-putting to organic growers. 

14 So, if you want get a little bit more input from

15 them, just tweaking the name a little bit might

16 go a long way, to getting them to fill those out.

17 MR. ASTILL: Thank you.

18 CHAIR KNORR: Any other questions? If

19 not, thank you so much, Greg, for the

20 information.

21 MR. ASTILL: Thank you.

22 CHAIR KNORR: Okay, next up we'll be
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1 hearing from the National Agricultural Statistics

2 Service and Jody McDaniel will be sharing some

3 information with us. 

4 MR. McDANIEL: Good afternoon, folks. 

5 As was mentioned, my name is Jody McDaniel. I'm

6 actually the chief of the environmental economics

7 and demographics branch within the statistics

8 division for the National Agricultural Statistics

9 Service.

10 So, we had a couple of our staff from

11 census and survey division that joined today,

12 that support the focus, which would be Nate, and

13 as well as Shareefah.

14 The surveys that actually are

15 conducted go through the process and actually

16 they end up with my staff, who then do the

17 publications. 

18 So, to help with the answer of the

19 chemical use, the nomenclature, that nomenclature

20 of the chemical use program has been around long

21 before the organic program really grew, but that

22 is something that I'll take back and actually
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1 have a conversation about. We'll have to see how

2 to better utilize that.

3 We actually focus organic to our

4 production survey, which any of you interested in

5 organics, hopefully had an opportunity to see

6 that data that we released last month.

7 But another shameless plug, we also

8 have the local sales or a local agriculture

9 survey for marketing channels that will be

10 released in December. So, if anyone would like to

11 take a look at that.

12 But for the topic of the day, which is

13 the ag labor survey, it's -- with anything we do

14 with NASS, I always like to take the opportunity

15 just to remind folks that our mission statement

16 is to be timely, accurate and useful in providing

17 --

18 PARTICIPANT: Sorry, it's hard to hear

19 you back here. Can you use a microphone?

20 MR. McDANIEL: I think we might have

21 had a height difference. I always forget that

22 I'm not everybody else's height, and I don't have 
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1 a little voice either.

2 So, timely, accurate and useful

3 statistics and service to the United States

4 agriculture. That's the mission of NASS, and

5 actually, Greg highlighted very well, that we

6 take the confidentiality around our data very

7 seriously. That's with all of our survey

8 programs.

9 But specifically the NASS ag labor

10 survey is the one source of data on agricultural

11 workers and wage rates. The publication goes out

12 twice per year. It's informed from a multi13 framed sample. That sample is a probability

14 based survey. It's off of a stratified list

15 sample, which is actually geared off of the

16 number of employee or the number of staff

17 employed, as well as the economic size of the

18 operation, to make sure that everyone gets

19 representation, and it's supplemented by the area

20 sample, which is actually each June, if you're

21 not familiar, and some of you may be, we do a

22 June area survey which is what we like to call
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1 the ground truth.

2 We go out and do segments in every

3 part of the United States, to capture

4 information, and labor is actually a portion of

5 what we do capture.

6 Together, that actually combines to

7 make up approximately 13,000 respondents. The

8 survey is now done in April and October. For

9 those of you who have been around agriculture and

10 had an opportunity, you might recall this used to

11 be done four times a year.

12 So, we actually do have reference

13 weeks in January, April, July and October. Those

14 weeks always include the 12th of the month, and

15 then we actually currently release the data twice

16 a year, in April and October, and we collect the

17 data for 10 working days around the reference

18 date.

19 It's a multi-mode survey. So, rather

20 than personal enumeration, which is what you

21 heard on the chem use survey, this is actually

22 done through a combination of mail, telephone,
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1 web and very limited personal interviews to keep

2 the cost of the survey product down.

3 The estimates that we were able to

4 provide out of that are all hired workers. Those

5 are those individuals working 150 days or more

6 days, as well as less than 150 days, the hours

7 per week those individuals work, as well as the

8 wage rates, and that's either -- it's for all

9 hired workers and then also field and livestock.

10 Also, some annual average numbers that

11 are produced are the number of workers, those

12 being all hired, hours worked, which are for all

13 the hired workers, and again, the field and

14 livestock hired workers for wage rates.

15 So, if we're looking at this, to give

16 you an idea, these are the regions that are

17 actually supported by farm labor. Those of you

18 familiar with NASS data might understand that

19 this does not follow our -- these are not our

20 agency regions. These are actually DOL regions,

21 Department of Labor regions, which is what

22 actually is the purpose behind the survey.
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1 So, again, it actually comes out twice

2 a year, 3:00 p.m. eastern standard time, on the

3 release date. As to not make the presentation

4 very stake, I didn't put release dates in it, but

5 it's also available on Quick Stats II.

6 For those of you -- does anybody use

7 Quick Stats data product, outside of ERS? 

8 I will be the first to tell you that

9 it has a wealth of information and it's a lot

10 better than what we used to call our IPEDB and I 

11 only know that, because I used it in graduate

12 school. That's how I found NASS. But it's still

13 confusing, as I'll get out, to find the data.

14 So, I gave you a cheat-sheet. If you

15 save the -- the materials out of the

16 presentation, if you ever look for farm labor

17 data, you go under our economic sector, under the

18 expenses and then under the labor section. That

19 will actually get you to the historic data

20 series.

21 Now, to highlight some of what I would

22 call some of our data uses, or uses, first and
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1 foremost, we provide this data to the Department

2 of Labor. The primary reason why we currently do

3 the survey, it's funded through a cooperative

4 arrangement with them.

5 We provide the wage rates as a

6 component of the parity index, which is required

7 by law. That is actually used to establish the

8 minimum wage rate for domestic and foreign ag

9 workers. It complements administration of the

10 farm labor recruitment and placement services

11 program, as well as it helps to inform policy.

12 Just as a point of clarification, much

13 as was discussed with ERS, NASS is non-policy

14 driving organization. We inform policy through

15 our data. 

16 So, you may think when you get one of

17 our surveys it's going to be holistically used to

18 change your world. We are a primary data source

19 for the Department of Agriculture. Our job is to

20 collect and inform all -- everyone at the same

21 time, on the same day.

22 So, with that, I think I may have
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1 bought you a small amount of time, and I will be

2 ready to take your first H2A question.

3 PARTICIPANT: Fantastic. 

4 MR. CASTANEDA: Carlos Castaneda. 

5 Jody, my question on your timing, April and

6 October, don't you feel that weighs the --

7 weighted a little unfairly?

8 For example, in California we're

9 peaking at harvest between those months, April to

10 October. Yet, from November to March, you know,

11 we're thinning and weeding fields at hourly

12 wages.

13 So, if you're only grabbing April and

14 October, you get where I'm going. Your average

15 is going to be a heck of a lot higher than what

16 the annual average would actually show.

17 So, you know, leading into H2A, it

18 unfairly pushes wages up quite a bit higher. 

19 MR. McDANIEL: All right, and just to

20 clarify -- actually, let's see if we can get this

21 a little higher, so I have don't have to lean.

22 Just to clarify, actually, we collect
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1 the data in April and October, but we actually

2 collect it for four months. So, we're collecting

3 January, April, July and October. We only

4 collect the data twice a year now, but we're

5 collecting it for two reference weeks at a time.

6 So, we are capturing that span of

7 time, so it should count that cyclical nature of

8 agriculture across the United States. 

9 MR. NICHOLSON: Mark Nicholson. Yes,

10 looking for some clarification on you know,

11 making adjustments to the survey.

12 So, I think there's recommendations on

13 changes of wording or clarifying, you know, H2A

14 employers should not fill it out, and I think the

15 direction has been in both kind of directions, in

16 the sense that DOL may have that control, or NASS

17 has that control.

18 So, it -- do you have any

19 clarification on if these questions or the

20 survey, you know, has to be adjusted? Who owns

21 that? 

22 MR. McDANIEL: So, one, I can tell you
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1 every time I hear H2A, I sort of feel like the

2 scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz, where he points

3 in both directions, because the answer you all

4 normally get.

5 DOL helps to drive the content at this

6 point. At one point in time, NASS owned the

7 survey product. We funded it through our

8 appropriation, at a point in time. We no longer

9 had the appropriation to support it. Department

10 of Labor, because of their need for the data, now

11 supports the program through funding.

12 They have a very strong voice in what

13 we do and what we collect. We try to maintain

14 the integrity of our data series. So, there is

15 some consistency through that.

16 We also -- actually, it was the most

17 recent survey period. The State of Washington

18 happened to mail out a survey to H2A employers,

19 at the same time that we were mailing our labor

20 survey.

21 So, we did a phone call with them, as

22 well as Department of Labor, to try to figure out
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1 if we could actually marry the two, to decrease

2 the respondent burden, because as I heard someone

3 mention earlier, it's really great to fill out a

4 survey, except for when you're in the middle of

5 harvest, or planting or -- well, pretty much

6 anything. It's the same way we all feel when we

7 get a phone call.

8 So, in that discussion, we going to

9 continue down that path, to see if we can

10 actually try to merge the data items and make

11 that a little clearer.

12 There is a process where we put out an

13 OMB docket on a regular basis for the

14 agricultural labor survey. If you happen to find

15 that at the time that it's out, you can always

16 generate any of those comments and they'll be

17 considered, or my contact information is here. 

18 If you have specific feedback, I'd be happy to

19 receive it and then get it to my partners over in

20 our census and survey group.

21 MR. NICHOLSON: And just to follow up. 

22 To avoid that pointing back and forth, is there -
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1 - is there a working group or some mechanism

2 where you guys sit down at the table and work

3 that out or is it -- is it less formal? 

4 MR. McDANIEL: No, it's -- there's

5 money involved. So, it -- imagine this. 

6 Government gets really formal when you have

7 dollars. 

8 There is a working group. I can't

9 speak to the working group, only for the shear

10 fact that I work out of our statistics side of

11 the house. So, my job is more to analyze and

12 disseminate the data, less so than the census and

13 survey group, which does the data collection

14 side.

15 So, what I can do is, if you'll reach

16 out to the information from here in this slide, I

17 will partner you with my peer in that group. 

18 Yes, sir.

19 MR. SUTTON: Just seeking your

20 opinion. So, the DOL has ownership of the

21 survey. Do you think that serves its purpose well

22 or would it be better suited under NASS? 
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1 MR. McDANIEL: As I smile and say

2 this. As any federal agency will say, we will

3 always gladly take additional appropriation. 

4 I do think for the purpose of where we

5 are right now, and maintaining our current

6 program, given our allocation and appropriation,

7 that DOL is taking good care of us.

8 MR. CASTANEDA: Carlos Castaneda once

9 again. Another question on the survey.

10 For example, in California it's, for

11 the average wage rate, which is, as you know, for

12 H2A. So, how is the calculation based, because I

13 get asked this quite a bit at farms.

14 You know, how is the calculation made,

15 because you know, one -- when it gets released by

16 DOL in January, like, how do they come up with

17 that, because I mean, everyone is scratching

18 their heads saying like, nobody around is paying

19 those wages.

20 So, is there a percentage that's added

21 to this to make it a super minimum? Is there a

22 certain equation that you could share with us, to
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1 make -- that would help us understand this a bit?

2 MR. McDANIEL: I wish I could share

3 the equation with you. If I knew it, I would be

4 happy to discuss it. The honest answer is that

5 we provide them a certain amount of data and then

6 they do their calculations.

7 Again, we inform the statistics that

8 then they use to set policy.

9 MR. CASTANEDA: One more question. 

10 So, when you are gathering data how -- your

11 filter, I'm curious. I mean, are you going from

12 an irrigator to a harvest to a pesticide

13 applicator? Are you going like to like, or I

14 mean, or is it fully encompassing? 

15 MR. McDANIEL: The survey would be

16 fully encompassing. The way we would draw the

17 sample is, it would be very representative of

18 agriculture as a whole. 

19 So, and this is not a NASS statistic

20 when I use this, so please do not quote off of

21 it, but when you assume that H2A accounts for

22 probably 50 percent of agricultural workers, that
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1 it's usually very labor-intensive work, and so,

2 we also capture things that include farm labor,

3 that include something as simple as a hired hand

4 versus something as labor-intensive as picking

5 fruits and berries.

6 So, everything is captured in that

7 process and we actually -- the labor survey is

8 actually -- it's a fairly aged product at this

9 point, so it's fairly stable. 

10 CHAIR KNORR: Any other questions? 

11 No? Okay, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

12 MR. McDANIEL: Thank you.

13 CHAIR KNORR: Okay, next Chuck is

14 going to provide some updates on our

15 recommendations and their status.

16 MR. PARROTT: Okay, thank you. Those

17 of you who are returning members, I want -- Pam

18 and I wanted to give you some updates on kind of

19 some of the recommendations that were made at the

20 last meeting especially, and then kind of

21 highlight some of the things that USDA has done,

22 since those recommendations were made, just you
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1 can -- everyone can kind of be up on to speed,

2 and I'm just going to give you kind of a quick

3 overview.

4 So, start with, there was a

5 recommendation regarding funding for plant

6 breeding and sustainability research and on May

7 16th, this year, USDA announced that $130 million

8 in funding is available for research, education

9 and extension projects to support sustainable

10 productive and economically viable plant and

11 animal production systems, including certified

12 organic production.

13 So, that's something that certainly

14 speaks to that recommendation. Also, on

15 September 29th, USDA released details of up to

16 $48.1 million in available funding to support

17 systems based research and extension activities,

18 that Secretary Vilsack.

19 Then finally, still on the same

20 recommendation, on August 2nd, USDA announced 19

21 grants totaling $36.5 million to research and

22 education to support American farmers growing
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1 fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits,

2 horticulture and nursery crops, including

3 floriculture.

4 The next recommendation, we had one

5 about targeting funding for improved pest and

6 disease detection. A few things pertaining to

7 that.

8 On April 18th, the National Institute

9 of Food and Ag of USDA announced the availability

10 of $4 million to support research and extension

11 efforts to mitigating test issues and increase

12 crop production practices.

13 Then also, on June 2nd, USDA awarded

14 $14.5 million in grants to support research into

15 plant health, production and plant resilience.

16 So, that was done through NIFA, as well.

17 So, we had a recommendation regarding

18 funding for citrus green. On April 21st,

19 Secretary Vilsack announced the availability of

20 $23 million in USDA funding to support research

21 and extension products, specifically for

22 producers fighting citrus green disease.
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1 We had a recommendation regarding new

2 farmer networking advocacy and education. This

3 was the group that I think, Bob, you were in

4 charge of -- of this one, too. 

5 You know, we were -- there was concern

6 that the average farm population was -- I think

7 the average of a farmer was 58 point-something

8 years old. So, what was USDA doing to address

9 that?

10 On August 17th, we announced a new

11 investment of $17.8 million, and this is going to

12 fund 37 projects to help educate, mentor and

13 enhance the sustainability of the next generation

14 of farmers.

15 So, that's good, and then the other

16 thing, on October 3rd, so earlier this month, the

17 USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture 

18 announced $17.7 million in grant funding to help

19 train and educate the next generation of

20 agricultural producers through the beginning

21 farmer/ranger development program.

22 So, I'll pass that along, and then the
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1 last one that we had regarding food safety and

2 FSMA, just a few days ago on October 19th, USDA

3 announced more than $4.7 million in grants for

4 food safety education, training and technical

5 assistance projects for producers who were

6 impacted by the new FMSA regulations. So, that

7 specifically tied to that.

8 So, those are some of the things that

9 we put together, and I know Pam, did you have

10 anything else or -- but I wanted to pass that

11 along to everybody, so you'd be kind of up to

12 speed. 

13 MS. STANZIANI: Well, I guess as some

14 of you probably received, as soon as I get those

15 kind of notifications, I like to forward them

16 onto you.

17 I have printed a few of the press

18 releases out for -- copies for everybody, but

19 probably about six or seven of the press releases

20 that are related to exactly what Chuck was

21 talking about.

22 But I will go back and try to make
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1 sure that I have all of them available. But

2 again, I think I have tried to forward them --

3 all of that information out to you guys, and I

4 will continue to do so, of course.

5 I think standard procedure for anybody

6 who wants any of the information that was posted

7 -- any of these presentations, they will --

8 rather than me sending -- trying to send you

9 PowerPoints across email, they will be posted on

10 the website. Everything is public information. 

11 So, it does go on the website.

12 So, any kind of contact information,

13 I will have it put up there in the next two

14 weeks, for anybody that wants that information. 

15 Of course, with the exception of the data from

16 ERS, because that's not public information right

17 now. 

18 Let me see. I am just going to give

19 you a couple -- well, I guess that's it for now.

20 I think that's it. I'll let you move forward. 

21 CHAIR KNORR: Okay. Any questions for

22 Pam or Chuck on those updates? 
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1 MR. McREYNOLDS: Yes, thank you very

2 much. Roland McReynolds. Thanks very much for

3 the updates. Couple things.

4 I do get the emails, when you forward

5 those out, Pam, and it's very helpful. I guess

6 just from the position of the research and grants

7 committee, even having the press release is nice,

8 but just like a list and a link to all those ones

9 that you rattle off would also be really helpful

10 to streamline our review. 

11 MS. STANZIANI: Absolutely. 

12 MR. McREYNOLDS: And continued

13 discussion of the subject.

14 Second of all, with respect to the ERS

15 slides, so, those aren't public, but is that --

16 can that information be distributed to committee

17 members?

18 MS. STANZIANI: It can't, because what

19 they do, very similar, is the same as NASS. They

20 distribute it, it goes out, once the report is

21 done, it goes out simultaneously to everybody. 

22 So, they're still collecting data. 
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1 They're still doing all of that research and

2 analysis and I think to keep the integrity of the 

3 information, they have to do it that way. 

4 MR. McREYNOLDS: Well, that would be

5 really helpful in the future, when we're getting

6 presentations like that, to advise us beforehand,

7 that you better write all this stuff down,

8 because it's not going to be public, if you're

9 interested. So.

10 MS. STANZIANI: Well, it will

11 eventually.

12 MR. McREYNOLDS: Right, right, but --

13 MS. STANZIANI: But I just can't give

14 it to you right now.

15 MR. McREYNOLDS: Yes. Understood. 

16 Thank you. 

17 CHAIR KNORR: One quick question that

18 I have for you, Chuck. This is Beth Knorr.

19 Is there the -- the amounts of funding

20 that you mentioned, do those constitute an

21 increase from what has been available previously?

22 MR. PARROTT: Yes. In some cases,
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1 yes. Some of these funding sources were new. 

2 You know, that didn't exist before. So, in that

3 case, yes.

4 There is -- there were some funds that

5 were increased.

6 CHAIR KNORR: Okay.

7 MR. PARROTT: Yes.

8 MR. NELSON: And Chuck, I have a

9 question. With those grants for the beginning

10 farmers and stuff, will that be distributed

11 through the state, or how will that be

12 distributed?

13 MR. PARROTT: Let me see if I have

14 that level of detail here.

15 Okay, so, the one with the $17.8

16 million to help educate, mentor the next

17 generation of farmers, that says the investment

18 is made through USDA's beginning farmer/ranger

19 development program. 

20 So, in that case, no, not through the

21 states. It's directly through USDA, and then the

22 $17.7 million from National Institute of Food and
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1 Ag, 

2 PARTICIPANT: We don't have it.

3 MR. PARROTT: I don't have the

4 information on that. I'm sorry. We could look

5 into it. Yes.

6 MS. STANZIANI: Bob, I'll make sure

7 that I look into that and send it out to

8 everybody.

9 CHAIR KNORR: Any other questions

10 about updates? Okay, next up we are going to

11 begin talking about our working group areas, and

12 earlier, Pam had mentioned the groups that had

13 some interest in carrying forward. This when on

14 all -- in a second here, I'll have her reiterate

15 those.

16 But this is the opportunity for us to

17 share those interests areas that we have some

18 desire to make a recommendation on, that there is

19 a pressing issue that your particular segment of

20 the industry is facing, and you want to discuss

21 it and make a recommendation. 

22 So, now is the opportunity to share
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1 those ideas and start forming working groups

2 around them, and in the past, people have opted

3 to sign up for multiple working groups. If

4 that's something that you're interested in doing,

5 I think that we have made the recommendation that

6 you don't spread yourself too thin. 

7 So, perhaps limiting it to two, three

8 probably at the most working groups is probably

9 advisable. Keep in mind that not on will we be

10 meeting here, but we will also be meeting between

11 our face-to-face gatherings by conference calls

12 and that kind of thing, to discuss the issues.

13 So, you don't want to bog yourself

14 down with many, many meetings, in between now and

15 our Spring meeting. So, keep that in mind.

16 So, I'm going to have Pam share those

17 once again, and then I think we can go around and

18 ask for, you know, open it up to people making

19 suggestions on a potential topic area for

20 discussion.

21 MS. STANZIANI: Okay. Well, the

22 groups that we -- at the last meeting, the groups
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1 that we decided to, at least at that point, stay

2 active, was the food safety and FSMA working

3 group, the research and grant funding working

4 group, the agricultural labor working group, I

5 believe we -- from the minutes we re-activated

6 that.

7 The rural broadband and internet

8 connectivity working group, the food deserts and

9 food waste, new farmer advocacy, education and

10 mentoring, and another one that we had

11 established at the end of the last meeting was

12 the market news working group, and I believe Tom,

13 I don't know if you remember, but you agreed to

14 chair that. 

15 MR. WILLIAMS: I don't know what

16 you're talking about.

17 MS. BURNS: Do we still have chairs of

18 all those groups?

19 MS. STANZIANI: We currently have

20 chairs. Cathy Burns is -- and Lorri Koster, who

21 is not here, but she's still a member of the

22 committee, chair and co-chair the -- vice chair,
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1 excuse me, the food safety and FSMA working

2 group.

3 Roland, I believe, was handed off the

4 reins to the grant -- research and grant funding

5 working group. Carlos Castaneda is the

6 agricultural labor chair, and Bob Nolan is the

7 new farmer advocacy, education and mentoring

8 chair. 

9 We may or may not have a chair for the

10 food desert and food waste. If you want to even

11 continue that it's -- again, this is up to this

12 committee, and then again, of course, the market

13 news -- actually -- yes, market news, Tom, and

14 the rural broadband and internet connectivity, I

15 believe Helen Dietrich was the chair last year,

16 and several of these groups did not make

17 recommendations, solely because they were pretty

18 much brand new, and there still needed to be a

19 lot more research done. 

20 CHAIR KNORR: Okay. So, I'm

21 interested in hearing from the group. If there

22 are other suggested working groups, I don't know
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1 if there is a limit to the number of working

2 groups we can establish, Pam. I mean --

3 MS. STANZIANI: I think it's just a

4 matter of how much you can put -- you can

5 dedicate to it.

6 CHAIR KNORR: So, I'm going to go

7 ahead and open it up. 

8 MR. JANIS: I'm just curious, the ones

9 that have been ongoing, is there any way of just

10 understanding, just of just in a snapshot, where

11 the particular is or work to be done, so we can

12 sort of understand?

13 MS. STANZIANI: Well, in your packets,

14 that was really the purpose of me making sure

15 that you had drafts of all -- the final draft --

16 final draft of each of the recommendations that

17 were done the last two years by the last

18 committee.

19 At this point, we can just have those

20 existing working groups meet, and everybody kind

21 of think about A) if there's anything new that

22 needs to be addressed, or if that working group
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1 feels that maybe, you know, we don't necessarily

2 need to be active anymore. 

3 I mean, that's kind of the main

4 question right now, and we also have a lot of new

5 people. So, you kind of have to think about what

6 you guys are interested in, or want to look into

7 more, of the existing working groups.

8 So, do you want to -- I'm trying to

9 think of the best way to do this, because there

10 are quite a few of these.

11 Well, I guess the working groups that

12 we have chair -- existing chairs for right now,

13 probably should be the groups that meet first. 

14 If you are interested in two or more of the

15 groups that are meeting simultaneously, we can

16 make sure that -- I had to do it last time.

17 I think we had two groups meet -- we

18 had more last time, but two groups meet first,

19 for a half-hour, and then two groups meet again,

20 for a half-hour. Why don't we do that? That

21 way, everybody has an idea.

22 So, if the working groups that I think
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1 probably would be the best to meet first are the

2 -- well, it's up to you, actually. Why don't you

3 guys decide? 

4 MS. BARNES: I just have a question. 

5 If we weren't in a working group before, can we

6 join that group now?

7 CHAIR KNORR: Yes.

8 MS. BARNES: Okay.

9 CHAIR KNORR: I don't think anybody is

10 going to say no to extra pair of hands to jump in

11 on the work there.

12 MS. BARNES: Okay.

13 CHAIR KNORR: So, yes. So, folks, let

14 me hear from you a little bit. What do we want

15 to do here?

16 MR. VAZQUEZ: I just have a general

17 question. This is Jorge Vasquez. 

18 On certain topics like the labor

19 topic, for example, aren't we kind of like dead

20 in the water, until we know who is going to come

21 into the next Administration, or like the ports

22 of entry, for example. You know?
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1 CHAIR KNORR: Well, kind of taking a

2 cue from Pam here, I think probably the best

3 course of action is to either meet with, or at

4 least -- at the very least hear from the chairs

5 of the committees that were carried forward, to

6 see if there is any interest in carrying those

7 on. 

8 I think there's probably a couple, you 

9 know. I think food safety is probably a strong

10 candidate to be carried forward, and research and

11 grant funding.

12 So, let's -- why don't we take a quick

13 round-robin and just do a quick check-in status

14 with those groups, to see if you have a desire to

15 carry forward, and then we can just go from

16 there. 

17 If that's the case, then we can go

18 ahead and break into those groups and then maybe

19 reconvene after a half-hour or so, and see if

20 there are any other topics that are emerging that

21 we might want to coalesce around. 

22 MR. McREYNOLDS: So, only those two is
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1 what we're starting off with?

2 CHAIR KNORR: No, no, no. I'd like to

3 hear from all of the chairs who are present. I

4 think the only one that we don't have a chair

5 present for is the food deserts, food waste

6 group. Yes, and we can just set that one aside

7 for the time being, unless there is somebody who

8 really wants to take that up.

9 But let's go ahead and just do a

10 round-robin with some of those groups. So, yes. 

11 MS. BURNS: So, the Food Safety

12 Modernization Act group has meet for the last

13 couple years. We put seven recommendations ahead

14 of the Secretary, or to the Secretary. Heard

15 back on probably most of them, but given the

16 importance of FSMA and where it's heading, I

17 guess the question would be what more can this

18 group do, as it relates to implementation, as it

19 relates to the USDA.

20 I don't have the answer to that, but

21 if folks have a strong opinion about our ability

22 to influence what's currently happening around
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1 implementation, I think the group should continue

2 to exist, if not, we put the seven

3 recommendations forward and be happy to sunset

4 the group, as well. 

5 MR. McREYNOLDS: So, as somebody to

6 serve on the food safety committee, and somebody

7 who watched FDA's presentation and saw the very

8 few places where there is actually an input point

9 for industry into these regulations, I would

10 encourage that is it important for us, as a

11 group, through USDA, to influence AMS, which is

12 the agency that's best tied in with FDA's effort. 

13 I would encourage us that this is a major

14 priority that we -- that we -- that this is an

15 opportunity for us to brain-storm some better

16 solutions to try to get into the mix of FDA and

17 USDA's policy discussion. So. 

18 MS. STANZIANI: Dan, do you want to

19 mention something?

20 MR. SUTTON: I'm just going to re21 affirm everything I just stated. I think -- I

22 think there is still a lot of unknowns. I think
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1 there is plenty for this group to work on, even

2 if everything were defined. I think there is

3 plenty of things that are going to come forward,

4 that I think having a good group of people

5 dedicated to it moving forward is going to be

6 good. 

7 MS. STANZIANI: And I do recall -- I

8 think it was Mike Mahovic, who mentioned that the

9 guidance -- they will always accept any kind of

10 recommendations and comments on the guidance

11 documents. 

12 So, that's an ongoing process too. 

13 So, you're not limited to, you know, time frames.

14 MR. WILLIAMS: I was just going to add

15 onto that, that if you look at -- it said -- it

16 had all the different breakouts and it said, have

17 you heard of the Food Safety Modernization Act,

18 or the rule of -- the produce rule?

19 It did not ask do you understand the

20 produce rule, and so, I think until we get clear

21 -- I mean, nobody -- everybody I talk to has a

22 different understanding of it. So.
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1 MS. BURNS: What was a little scary is

2 that the companies at $10 million and above,

3 still, there wasn't 100 percent that people knew.

4 MR. WILLIAMS: Yes?

5 MS. BURNS: So, we got a long way to

6 go.

7 MR. WILLIAMS: So, if we can help

8 influence the guidance of the questions to ask

9 and get the education out there, I think that

10 would be worthy in itself. 

11 CHAIR KNORR: Okay, great. So, it

12 sounds like that group is going to carry it

13 forward, and I just want to state, just in

14 general, even if a group decides that they want

15 to disband for the time being, there's still an

16 opportunity to reform at a next meeting or what

17 have you. 

18 It doesn't mean that you can never

19 convene around that topic again. So, just keep

20 that in mind. If there is not something specific

21 that you feel like you can plug in around or make

22 a recommendation on, it's perfectly okay to table
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1 that for the time being and come back to it

2 later. 

3 So, okay, so, next we want to hear

4 from the Research and Grant Funding Groups. 

5 Roland, I believe that was you. 

6 MR. McREYNOLDS: Sure. Yes. So, I

7 think at our last meeting, our -- the committee

8 recommended the continuation of the committee,

9 based on a recognition, first of all, of the

10 vital nature of agriculture research to ensuring

11 the productivity and success of farmers and of

12 the health of our nation, and that there is a --

13 continues to be a particular important need to

14 make sure that specialty crops and fruit and

15 vegetables get their share of research dollars on

16 the health side and on the production side, and

17 that this is important to serving the -- our

18 stakeholders to this committee, as well as the

19 public, and third, that they're -- you know,

20 things like citrus greening, where you know, the

21 response was -- to the problem was behind the --

22 was way behind the scope of the problem.
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1 You know, this committee, I think can

2 point to success in guiding more research dollars

3 to that subject or being part of that solution,

4 as highlighted in the press releases here.

5 But it's even more important for us to 

6 -- for our industry to be ahead of the next

7 gigantic pest problem, ahead of the need for

8 breeding of new varieties of crops to withstand

9 new pests, new climate variations.

10 So, you know, we -- I speaking as

11 interim chair, would certainly encourage that,

12 that is still a highly important and relevant

13 area for continued follow up on the successes

14 we've had and for further advocacy on -- for us -

15 - to encourage addressing the new needs that are

16 emerging, and so, I'd leave it to other committee

17 members to offer their insights on this, as well.

18 MS. BURNS: So, Roland, this is a

19 really naive question from me. 

20 The Farm Bill is coming, right, in the

21 next iteration. I don't know what the USDA --

22 what the USDA's connection is to the Farm Bill
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1 and what your group's connection is to the Farm

2 Bill. 

3 But is there a way to expand your

4 work, to make it more broadly, to encompass the

5 Farm Bill, because I think we have the

6 opportunity to influence it, or is that a

7 separate group? 

8 MR. McREYNOLDS: Well, I'll certainly

9 welcome Chuck and Pam to chime in.

10 But my understanding -- you know from

11 -- it is certainly the case that the vast, vast,

12 vast majority of funding for research is

13 allocated through the Farm Bill. 

14 You know, the programs are chartered

15 in the Farm Bill, whether they're mandatory

16 funding or discretionary funding is set in the

17 Farm Bill, and then Congress acts.

18 The policy determinations about what

19 will be studied or not, what will be prioritized

20 is definitely part of the Farm Bill mix.

21 So, yes, this bit -- that's another

22 really great argument for this -- this
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1 committee's work, is to focus on things that we

2 can advance in the broader industry's efforts to

3 improve the Farm Bill's treatment of -- and

4 research on the specialty crop industry. Thank

5 you. 

6 CHAIR KNORR: And that would also be

7 relevant for food safety, as well, and perhaps

8 for many of these.

9 PARTICIPANT: All of them.

10 CHAIR KNORR: Yes, all of them. 

11 Okay, so, I hear that kind of as a -- a yes. 

12 Okay. 

13 PARTICIPANT: Why don't we have Bob

14 talk about the new farmer act?

15 CHAIR KNORR: Yes, okay. Bob, do you

16 want to talk a little bit about your interest in

17 carrying forward the new farmer piece or your

18 status on how you're feeling about that? 

19 MR. NELSON: Well, I'm feeling pretty

20 good, because we got two grants out of it. You

21 know, I shouldn't say just because of our

22 committee, but maybe we did have some influence
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1 on that, you know?

2 The issue of mentoring and access to

3 land, I think continues to be a problem, and as

4 agriculture changes and new people get into it,

5 there's probably going to still be issues coming

6 up. 

7 So, I don't know if there's any

8 feeling of the committee, any members here, if

9 you'd like to continue. You know, if there's

10 things we haven't done yet or new issues that are

11 popping up, that we need to continue. I'd be

12 more than happy to continue to chair it. So. 

13 MS. MANIER JOHNSON: As a new member,

14 I was just going to ask, in that group, did you

15 look at all of the barriers to entry for women

16 and minority groups in farming or is that

17 something --

18 MR. NELSON: I don't think so.

19 MS. MANIER JOHNSON: -- that's in new

20 farmers, that was not looked at?

21 MR. NELSON: I don't think we looked

22 into that.
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1 MS. STANZIANI: I believe, as specific

2 to that, no, it was more of a general -- new

3 farmers in general, just getting the interest,

4 you know, having people be interested in farming,

5 and the barriers that occur because of land

6 access. That was a big one, actually.

7 Bob, I think that that was one of the

8 things that you wanted to continue to work on --

9 MR. NELSON: Right.

10 MS. STANZIANI: -- was the land

11 access. I think there was also big concern about

12 the crops -- crop -- funding for crops, crop

13 insurance, that type of thing.

14 USDA has historically given, you know,

15 money to the rural crops and the specialty crops

16 has not received -- at least that's what some of

17 the comments were at the last working group

18 meeting, is that, you know, specialty crops are

19 being -- you know, fruits and vegetables are

20 being pushed by every aspect of, you know, the

21 government and the health field, yet specialty

22 crops doesn't get that kind of attention through
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1 the -- monetarily.

2 MR. NELSON: Yes.

3 MS. STANZIANI: So, I think that was

4 -- those were the two issues, I believe you

5 wanted to still address.

6 MR. NELSON: Yes, it's still and issue

7 of access to land. I don't know if Kristine has a

8 comment. She as on our committee.

9 MS. ELLOR: Yes, definitely, I'd like

10 to see this committee to continue, and even just

11 talking with people today, like Holly had this

12 terrific idea about bringing college students

13 onto the farm in some ways, to encourage that,

14 which would also help bring in new farmers. 

15 I mean, if you've never been on a

16 farm, but there's incentive to be on a farm,

17 working a summer job, that brings young people

18 in.

19 But also, this year in our area, we've

20 been wrestling with planning issues, and what I

21 realized is on the local and county levels,

22 sometimes there are no farmers at the table, and
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1 I don't know -- you know, that has to do with

2 availability of land and land access, because you

3 could preserve farm land, but in our case, you

4 know, the roads are getting so crowded, you can't

5 get equipment up and down the road.

6 So, there's all these issues. So, how

7 do we -- how do we get agriculture in -- at the

8 table at -- in the planning process? So, that's

9 another issue I'd like to take a look at. 

10 MR. NELSON: So, I guess we'll

11 continue the committee, and those who are

12 interested, I guess when we break up, just come

13 down here and we'll come up with some ideas. 

14 CHAIR KNORR: Okay, great. Carlos, do

15 you want to address the interest in carrying the

16 labor group forward?

17 MR. CASTANEDA: Sure. This is Carlos

18 Castaneda. I think the committee did a pretty

19 darn good job coming up with some points.

20 Unfortunately, because of the

21 politics, you know, we didn't feel that we had

22 the most optimistic responses as some of the
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1 other committees did, and kudos to those.

2 But I don't think we need to give up

3 on the fight. I think that there's still delays

4 in processing. I think a lot of us have

5 experienced that this very year, 2016. I think

6 there is still a lot of issues with the H2A

7 program.

8 So, I think there is a lot of

9 different directions that we can take the

10 committee. Maybe specifically, folks on H2A or

11 maybe go broader, but I think the subcommittee

12 should continue.

13 On a separate point, I would add,

14 chairperson, that you consider the chaos it

15 creates when we have two or three committees

16 meeting at the same time, because we do have

17 members in multiple committees. So, we may have

18 to take a straw-pole up on the Board, and see

19 which committees should meet at that time,

20 because it makes it a challenge.

21 CHAIR KNORR: That's a great

22 suggestion. Thanks, Carlos. I appreciate it.
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1 Okay, Tom, do you want to talk about

2 the market news?

3 MR. WILLIAMS: This was brought up at

4 the end of one of our last -- I think it was

5 actually our last session, and I think it was a

6 result of Ken talking, wasn't it? 

7 The marketing news, is it funded

8 through the Farm Bill, or is it funded -- how is

9 that --

10 CHAIR KNORR: It's appropriated and I

11 think --

12 MR. WILLIAMS: Appropriated?

13 CHAIR KNORR: -- there was some risks

14 there. 

15 PARTICIPANT: It was appropriated.

16 CHAIR KNORR: Yes.

17 MR. WILLIAMS: So, the question was --

18 and so, from a conversation standpoint, it would

19 be, you know, from the wholesale and retail

20 community, we utilize the marketing news and the

21 data, and all of the great information they get

22 to help us -- help influence buying decisions.
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1 So, the question was, is it something

2 that should be continued, and so, I agree to

3 chair this. I don't know that it would require a

4 lot of meetings. It would just pretty much be

5 coming -- a group together, and determining that

6 if it is something that is viable, that should be

7 continued, and then making a recommendation to

8 see that it's funded, is that correct?

9 CHAIR KNORR: Yes, it seems to me that

10 even just crafting a statement, that that's

11 something that the committee could do, is

12 crafting a statement in support of the market

13 news, because of its value to the industry. 

14 I think that that's something that is

15 really appropriate. 

16 MR. PARROTT: And just to highlight,

17 that's where I was going to go too, that a

18 statement might be all you need to do. 

19 You know, the issue that we were

20 having, you know, the Office of Management and

21 Budget, you know, looks at a lot of programs, and

22 if they don't -- you know, they're always looking
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1 to save money, of course, and you know, they

2 looked at market news and thought, well, ghee,

3 you know, I mean, how many farmers are there, you

4 know? Who needs -- you know, why can't we just

5 have farmers enter their own information?

6 So, we spent a lot of time with them,

7 getting them to understand who all uses this

8 information. It's not just farmers. It's

9 throughout the -- and what's sort of a public

10 good, I think was Terrie Long's term this

11 morning, that it provides and why, for really,

12 not a lot of money, you know, it provides a lot

13 of public good.

14 So, that was sort of the -- where we

15 were going with that, and again, I think a

16 statement to that effect might be really helpful. 

17 So. 

18 MS. STANZIANI: I can give a little

19 background on some of the discussion from the

20 last meeting about this.

21 Again, I reiterate, market news is

22 wholly appropriated. It's the only division or
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1 program -- service within at least specialty

2 crops, that is wholly appropriated.

3 So, they do depend on those dollars,

4 and the reason this was brought up at the last

5 committee meeting, because as Chuck alluded to,

6 there is talk about illuminating or reducing

7 market news appropriations, not just at OMB, but

8 you know, and other levels, because people aren't

9 aware of it. People don't understand that market

10 news gets their information from the

11 relationships they've built on the markets all

12 over, and at the shipping points, and these are

13 relationships that have been built up over the

14 years.

15 If you look at any of the data that

16 you received, maybe from -- I know that there is

17 different groups, like western growers, and a lot

18 of them pull up data. All of their data comes

19 from market news. Nobody -- if market news went

20 away, all of that data is going to have to be

21 generated from somewhere, and that means

22 relationship building with all of the vendors,
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1 etcetera.

2 So, that would be a big -- that would

3 cause a lot of havoc. I think one of the key

4 things was when the government shut down a couple

5 -- two years ago, market news, because it's

6 appropriate, had to cease operating, and that

7 caused a lot of problems, a lot of problems, and

8 that's when people started to realize how

9 important market news was to them.

10 Now, livestock market news, I believe

11 is -- is an Act, Chuck? Livestock -- market news

12 for livestock is -- 

13 MR. PARROTT: It's mandatory.

14 MS. STANZIANI: It's mandatory,

15 whereas, specialty crops is not.

16 So, I guess that's part of the impetus 

17 to really having this committee address, you

18 know, the importance and really, the awareness

19 and education of how important market news is to

20 the industry, if it is. 

21 I mean, but I think there's a lot of

22 different sectors that use it, that people don't
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1 realize, and they do still think, oh, it's just -

2 - you know, it's for the growers. But it's not

3 just for the growers. 

4 MS. BURNS: I guess my question would

5 be, is that the only program that's at risk? 

6 MS. STANZIANI: I believe so. I think

7 so.

8 MS. BURNS: So, you feel everything

9 else in USDA is being funded appropriately?

10 MS. STANZIANI: Well, what we can deal

11 with.

12 MS. BURNS: Okay, because I just -- I

13 mean, we happen to be talking about market news,

14 but if there's other things that are at risk, we

15 should know that.

16 MR. PARROTT: Yes, and market news is

17 really the only one that -- as Pam said, that's

18 funded by Congress.

19 MS. BURNS: Okay, so that is --

20 MR. PARROTT: Most of other -- 

21 MS. BURNS: Okay, great.

22 CHAIR KNORR: Okay, so, it sounds like
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1 that one should continue, and my sense is that it

2 will probably be pretty quickly developed, a

3 statement for putting in front of the Secretary

4 there.

5 Okay, the next one would be the

6 broadband group. Helen, do you want to speak to

7 that a little bit, how you're feeling about

8 carrying that forward or not? 

9 MS. DIETRICH: Well, I wasn't at the

10 meeting in April. So, and basically it's just

11 lower -- I'm sorry, Beth -- Beth and myself on

12 that committee. Did you want to do anything else

13 with it or -- 

14 CHAIR KNORR: Well, I think some of

15 the issues that were encompassed in that were

16 related to technology available, and the

17 challenges with that, with relation to farmers

18 markets and smaller outlets, such as food hubs

19 and so on and so forth.

20 So, given that we have some new folks

21 on the committee and somebody new also who is

22 representing the farmers market sector, as well,
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1 there may be opportunities to make

2 recommendations around those things.

3 I'm not sure how you're feeling around

4 -- about the rural broadband access itself, the

5 larger issue as opposed to just, you know, the

6 technological advances there. 

7 MS. DIETRICH: I think like

8 Nationwide, as far as the rural connectivity, I

9 think that's really important. I know there has

10 been a lot of funding for it, especially in my

11 state of Michigan, we've had a big push towards

12 funding it, but I don't know how that has worked

13 nationwide.

14 So, maybe that is something that we

15 should look into a little bit.

16 CHAIR KNORR: Okay, so, it sounds like

17 that one is going to carry forward, as well. 

18 So, it seems like that only one right

19 now that may be tabled for the time being is the

20 food desert, food waste group, unless there is

21 somebody sitting around the table right now, that

22 really wants to take that on, and wants to serve
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1 as chair, to carry that forward. Anyone? 

2 Okay, so, what I'm sensing then is

3 that -- we'll just continue to table that.

4 So, we have one, two, three, four,

5 five, six, six groups that are interested in

6 being active.

7 MS. DIETRICH: Laurie -- or Beth?

8 CHAIR KNORR: Yes. 

9 MS. DIETRICH: Did you want to ask if

10 there is anyone at the table who has some new

11 ideas?

12 CHAIR KNORR: Yes, one of the things

13 that I thought we might do is go ahead and meet

14 with those existing groups briefly, and see where

15 we are, and then come back and see if there are

16 other people who feel like they have something --

17 something that was discussed within those groups

18 or outside those groups, that warrants an

19 additional working group. Does that make sense?

20 Okay, so, there was a suggestion that

21 - I feel like the food safety group was a rather

22 large group. So, I feel like that group probably
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1 needs to meet on its own. I'm going to toss this

2 idea out there, and feel free to shoot it down.

3 I'm not offended by those kinds of things.

4 But what if that group met after

5 everybody else, so that folks can meet, and those

6 other groups -- I feel like there was a lot of

7 cross-over with people participating in those

8 other groups, and then we can come back and meet,

9 and then the food safety group could meet after

10 that. 

11 Any other suggestions or ideas on how

12 to handle that?

13 MS. ELLOR: I just wondered if we had

14 any old committee lists lying around? 

15 CHAIR KNORR: I think it's going to be

16 based on our memory, such as it is, as to what

17 groups we were participating in. Pam may have

18 something. 

19 But I don't think we have anything in

20 our packets, as to who was participating in what

21 groups. 

22 Yes, yes, I think that that's fair. I
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1 think, you know, the law of two feet, if you

2 weren't satisfied with the work that you were

3 getting done in one group, you're free to move

4 about to a different -- a different group.

5 So, okay. I guess I'm going to

6 suggest then -- what time is it? It's 4:30. 

7 You know, perhaps we don't have enough

8 time to meet and then come back and come up with

9 additional group ideas. 

10 So, let's go ahead and toss out some

11 potential ideas for additional groups, before we

12 separate out.

13 Does anybody have any issues that

14 they're hoping to address?

15 MR. CASTANEDA: Chairman Beth, I'd

16 like to bring to the group's attention, a

17 technology.

18 As a concern in labor, the specialty

19 commodities are not getting enough R&D, and so,

20 we're seeing the stuff that's really hot. Let's

21 take strawberries, for example. There's a lot of

22 money in that industry. So, there's a lot R&D
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1 going into technology, specifically for

2 harvesting, and I see the cost to our growers,

3 specifically in California, between overtime,

4 minimum wage, non-productive time, rest and

5 recovery, ACA, as a slew of things that had just

6 affected the past three to five years, a lot, a

7 lot to stomach.

8 So, those big industries, such as

9 strawberry, I'm not trying to beat up on

10 strawberry, I'm just using them as an example,

11 since I've seen their equipment.

12 It's fascinating. They have the

13 capital to invest and to come up with equipment. 

14 But what happens to the special commodities, you

15 know, that nappa, for example, bok choy, Shanghai

16 bok choy, collard greens, kale, that aren't as

17 common nationally.

18 You're not going to see somebody from

19 Silicon Valley putting in $100 million worth of

20 research, but they're not going to see one21 billion bucks worth of machines out there.

22 So, I'm not sure if USDA -- if this is
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1 the route for this, and Chuck, maybe you can

2 comment on this, but I think it's something that

3 we should consider, speaking of technology,

4 because all you have to do is pick up any paper,

5 any day of the week, and you'll see warehouses

6 that are now 100 percent automated with forklifts

7 that are automated, with delivery, etcetera.

8 So, this is the wave of the future,

9 and agriculture can't be left in the dust. Thank

10 you.

11 CHAIR KNORR: I have a couple of

12 thoughts on that. I wonder if that might be a

13 great fit for the research and grant funding

14 piece or perhaps, the broadband/technology group,

15 to address those, as well.

16 I mean, I know broadband is a little

17 bit different of an -- different kind of

18 technology, but I -- I do feel, especially with

19 the technology that's related around farmers

20 markets accepted SNAP and WIC benefits, it might

21 have a good fit for that kind of thing, like

22 where is that -- how can we recommend funding go
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1 into technological advances, particularly for

2 agriculture? 

3 Any thoughts on that from others in

4 those groups? 

5 MR. NICHOLSON: Beth, Mark here. I'm

6 familiar with the specialty crop research

7 initiative, which is part of the Farm Bill, and I

8 do believe the -- there is a fair amount of

9 language in there directing funding to automation

10 research.

11 I know for the apple industry, it's a

12 major area of interest. So, it seems to make

13 sense to keep that with what is now titled, what,

14 research grants and Farm Bill? Is that what we

15 renamed you?

16 CHAIR KNORR: Okay, fantastic. I

17 think that's fair. Okay. 

18 Okay, other interest areas? 

19 MS. WHITTEMORE: So, this morning,

20 when the -- what's his name? Tribbett was

21 presenting with his team, I kind of volunteered

22 to do some expansions in terms of the training
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1 for the exotic foods and tropical products.

2 I think that's important to my

3 industry, for sure, okay, the wholesalers, the

4 importers, distributors, that the inspectors know

5 exactly what products are we talking about.

6 Since I volunteer for him, I talked to

7 him, after the fact, and I'm planning to follow

8 through it. I wonder if -- to follow up with it.

9 I wonder if I could, you know, take

10 that on and maybe somebody else here could also

11 help me and bring that up, and we could, you

12 know, develop a real program where we could --

13 doesn't need any funding. 

14 So, might be able to move forward,

15 just to be able to -- for them to really know,

16 you know, what are we talking about when they do

17 the inspections. So, if it's something that we

18 could put on the agenda. 

19 CHAIR KNORR: So, Chuck, I'm

20 wondering, is developing the standard something

21 that -- or the reg -- something that this group

22 has the ability to do, or is it just making a
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1 recommendation that those standards be developed? 

2 Is what we can do -- I'm not really sure what we

3 have the authority to do.

4 MR. PARROTT: Right. Typically, when

5 standards get developed, it's kind of at the

6 request of industry, and same thing when they get

7 changed.

8 You know, we have some standards that

9 are -- have still be in place since 1940-

10 something because the commodity really hasn't

11 changed and the way people buy it hasn't.

12 So, any time anybody can make a

13 recommendation that, hey, we need a great

14 standard for star fruit or for you know,

15 whatever, that can be done. 

16 So, certainly the committee can make

17 recommendations to that effect, or if there are

18 great standards that do exist, but they need to

19 be updated, that could also be a recommendation.

20 CHAIR KNORR: Okay. So, I think that

21 coming up with a recommendation around, you know,

22 the need for the grading standards and that kind
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1 of thing would be an appropriate thing to tackle

2 for this group, and that certainly doesn't seem

3 to fit in with any of the other groups. So, no

4 additional tag-ons with that one.

5 Anyone else have any ideas or

6 suggestions? 

7 MR. NICHOLSON: I guess I actually

8 have a question, and I don't know if there is

9 anything, Chuck, that the agency is looking for

10 guidance, as they're looking down the road, that

11 we may not have on our radar.

12 I think it -- you know, a good example

13 was the discussion on funding for market news.

14 You know, are there other issues like

15 that, particularly with the Farm Bill process, I

16 assume getting underway here very shortly, given

17 it's not -- from a legislative calendar, it's not

18 too far away. 

19 Are there certain things that aren't

20 on the radar or the discussion yet, that you're

21 looking for some guidance on? 

22 MR. PARROTT: Two things come to mind,
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1 and one of these, I think goes back to Roland's

2 comment from -- I think it was the last meeting.

3 But there was discussion about, you

4 know, with FSMA coming out, you know, growers

5 have to, you know, unless you're exempt, you're

6 going to have to comply with FSMA.

7 So, you know, Roland, I think you

8 threw out the idea, would it -- wouldn't it make

9 sense for Congress to appropriate some money to

10 assist growers in, you know, getting sort of --

11 GAP certified or whatever, so that they could,

12 you know, comply with FSMA.

13 So, that was one thing, and you know,

14 it's -- I'm not advocating for that. It's

15 totally up to you. But that's one thing that

16 came to mind.

17 The other is our auditing program, and

18 I think we talked about this a little bit too. 

19 You know, we have the inspection program, but the

20 auditing program really right now, is losing

21 money, and partly it's because just -- you know,

22 the -- it was started 10 years ago.
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1 The number of audits now, of course,

2 just is skyrocketing, and it -- it's more

3 expensive to train someone to be an auditor than

4 it is to be an inspector. There's a lot more

5 involved.

6 So, the cost structure isn't really

7 the same. So, for us to recover our costs, you

8 know, we need to look into that more carefully.

9 We don't want it to -- we don't want

10 to price ourselves so that we're out of -- you

11 know, we want to make sure small growers can

12 still get GAP certified and all of that. But we

13 also have an obligation to recover our costs. 

14 So, that's another area.

15 MS. BURNS: Didn't we address that

16 already?

17 MR. PARROTT: Okay. 

18 MS. BURNS: For those of you who are

19 on the FSMA group, didn't we make a

20 recommendation that we were going to go -- be at

21 least neutral, and I think that was one of the

22 seven recommendations.
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1 MR. PARROTT: Okay, I'm sorry, yes. 

2 MR. WILLIAMS: I believe that Ken had

3 made that presentation with what the costs needed

4 to go up to, and I thought we had made a

5 presentation on that.

6 MR. NICHOLSON: And I think that was

7 tied into the cost sharing idea. Farmers can

8 pay more if they're getting some support for

9 having to undergo, you know.

10 So, I understand you guys can't ask

11 for money to fund the program, as an

12 appropriation, but appropriating an assistance

13 program for farmers to help them hire you, you

14 know, would seem to fit that FSMA group.

15 MS. BURNS: Chuck, how about

16 consumption efforts? Where does that fall in

17 terms of USDA specifically, and then who owns

18 SNAP-ed? Is what under USDA or is that a whole

19 other --

20 MR. PARROTT: It is under USDA. It's

21 under the Food Nutrition Service. They oversee

22 the SNAP program. They oversee school lunch. 
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1 They oversee WIC. 

2 So, yes, in terms of promotion, that's

3 a thought. I mean, we have a committee that was

4 looking at kind of educational things before, but

5 yes, there's not -- I don't see a whole lot of

6 effort being -- you know, we have the half a

7 plate, but is there a lot of effort being put out

8 to advertise that? Not that I see.

9 MS. BURNS: So, there is not another

10 Advisory Committee that advises that part of

11 USDA? 

12 MR. PARROTT: Yes.

13 MS. BURNS: The reason I bring that up

14 is, I remember reading in 2015, $83 million of

15 SNAP-ed money wasn't used, which just makes me

16 sick, to think about that, and how much we could

17 use that --

18 MR. PARROTT: Yes.

19 MS. BURNS: -- to market fruits and

20 vegetables. 

21 So, I know we talk a lot about

22 removing barriers --
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1 MR. PARROTT: Right.

2 MS. BURNS: -- but there's a huge

3 upside on driving demand too.

4 MR. PARROTT: Sure. Yes. 

5 MS. BURNS: I'm not sure there's

6 anything we can do about it. 

7 MR. PARROTT: Yes.

8 MR. VAZQUEZ: Chuck, I got a quick

9 question about money and how it's used.

10 Is there like a concise website where

11 we can go into see how much money is allocated

12 for every program, or on grants, and how much of

13 it went unused? 

14 I mean, is there like just one place

15 that you can go and see how transparent the

16 system is?

17 MR. PARROTT: Is there one place? No. 

18 That would be -- yes, that would be nice. Yes, I

19 -- that's not an easy question to answer. 

20 You pretty much have to look, for any

21 specific program, like if you want to see okay,

22 how many dollars were allocated last year for the
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1 specialty crop block grant program, and you know,

2 where did that money go to, and what projects

3 were used to -- or did it fund?

4 You know, you could look that up for

5 any specific program. But to sort of get

6 everything at once, I don't know where you would

7 find that.

8 MS. BALCH: I wanted to build on the

9 consumption -- Christie Balch, the consumption

10 comment, because I do a lot of work with

11 nutrition incentives, but that also is often with

12 F&S or NIFA.

13 So, just wasn't sure how much of our

14 work has to be focused on AMS.

15 MR. PARROTT: Yes, and again, going

16 back to the charter, your job -- you know, as a

17 committee, is to advise the Secretary.

18 So, it doesn't have to be -- I mean,

19 AMS oversees this committee, but your

20 recommendations don't have to be AMS specific.

21 MS. BURNS: Would you be willing to

22 lead a group on consumption? 
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1 MS. BALCH: I'd be willing to co-lead

2 a group.

3 MS. BURNS: I'm already a group. So,

4 we'll have to get someone else.

5 PARTICIPANT: I think it's a huge

6 opportunity. 

7 CHAIR KNORR: Yes, and I think also

8 related to SNAP-ed and just SNAP and FMS, the way

9 that FMS and AMS work together or perhaps, don't

10 work together as much as they could, I think that

11 there are a lot of opportunities for some

12 recommendations in there.

13 MR. PARROTT: I'll throw out one good

14 example. Several years ago, I was working on

15 USDA's farm to school program, and one of the

16 things, as we went around the country and visited

17 schools that were using -- had some sort of a

18 farm to school program, one of the things that

19 was really holding a lot of them up, from kind of

20 going to that next level, was just, you know, the

21 lack of piece of equipment, or you know, could be

22 a table to cut fresh produce on, or you know, it
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1 could be some training, whatever.

2 But not big dollar things, and so, as

3 a result of that, one of the -- there's now a

4 farm-school grant program, and that's helped

5 funnel money to school districts, to get some of

6 that, which I think has really helped with

7 consumption in education, too.

8 So, that's maybe something that, you

9 know, could be done.

10 PARTICIPANT: I also think there's a

11 lot of regional, local programs that are ready to

12 scale up, that we could evaluate and say, you

13 know, let's scan the -- the universe and look at

14 what's working, especially if they have data and

15 research to support it, and then look at ways to

16 fund that. I think it would be great.

17 MR. WILLIAMS: Last year I was a part

18 of a program, a pilot in Michigan, when I was

19 with Spartan Ash, and it was -- had to do with

20 double-up food bugs, and so, I believe that, you

21 know, how do we encourage children to eat more

22 fruits and vegetables, right.
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1 So, children nutrition, that whole

2 thing, I think can go into the consumption,

3 having it closer to Canada, and you know, from

4 five a day to what? 

5 CHAIR KNORR: So, it sounds like that

6 this particular group is gaining some momentum,

7 so, that's fantastic.

8 I'm going to reiterate the groups that

9 we have right now, and we can go from there, and

10 certainly, if there are other ideas that people

11 want to throw out there, those are certainly

12 welcome.

13 So, we have the food safety research

14 and granting funding, the new farmer mentoring,

15 labor, broadband/technology, market news,

16 specialty crop research initiative, which I think

17 that we have lumped together with the research

18 and grant funding.

19 The grading standards recommendations, 

20 and then the marketing and consumption group. 

21 Does that sound right?

22 Okay, so, right now, it is quarter til
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1 five, and we are slated to adjourn at 5:30. So,

2 we've got about 45 minutes, keeping in mind that

3 we do have to leave a few minutes for observer

4 comments in that.

5 I'm not sure the best way to go ahead

6 and have us divide ourselves up into those

7 groups, knowing especially that a couple of them

8 are going to draw interest from -- from

9 overlapping participants.

10 So, I'm going to toss it out there for

11 some suggestions.

12 MR. VAZQUEZ: Beth, would it be better

13 to maybe just ask for who would be interested in

14 joining which group, and then maybe creating a

15 list, and then you know, that way we have a -- 

16 CHAIR KNORR: Okay, if you can bear

17 with my slow writing.

18 Okay, so the food safety group. 

19 Actually, I'm going to ask the chair of each

20 group to jot those down, instead of asking me to

21 write all of them down.

22 So, the food safety group, who is --
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1 Roland, is that you chairing now or who is --

2 okay.

3 MS. BURNS: And Lorri.

4 CHAIR KNORR: Great. 

5 MS. BURNS: Lorri is the vice chair.

6 CHAIR KNORR: So, through a show of

7 hands, who is interested in participating in the

8 food safety group? 

9 PARTICIPANT: Who isn't?

10 CHAIR KNORR: Even better. Even

11 better.

12 PARTICIPANT: Thank you.

13 CHAIR KNORR: You guys are -- okay, so

14 -- 

15 MR. CASTANEDA: Now, at what point do

16 we have too many people? I mean, is that

17 something we need to determine?

18 CHAIR KNORR: Well, I mean, I feel

19 like if you're interested in participating in the

20 group, and you feel like you have something to

21 participate in, I mean, to contribute to the

22 group, I don't think that we want to tell anybody
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1 that they can't participate in it.

2 Okay, so, let's go ahead and send

3 around the rest of these. Chairpeople, if you

4 can send around a piece of paper with your group

5 name on it.

6 It seems that a few groups are still

7 waiting for their lists to be completed. I think 

8 there are a couple that are still going around. 

9 Okay, have those sheets made it back

10 to their committee chairs yet?

11 PARTICIPANT: Not yet.

12 MR. VAZQUEZ: Is this going to

13 supersede any list that we had prior? Are these

14 lists going to --

15 MS. STANZIANI: Yes, it probably

16 would. It would.

17 CHAIR KNORR: Okay, fantastic. 

18 Knowing that we don't have a ton of time

19 remaining in the day, I think I'm going to make

20 the recommendation that groups other than FSMA,

21 meet for 10 or 15 minutes, and really start to

22 brainstorm your next steps.
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1 We don't have any time allocated

2 tomorrow, to convene as groups, although there

3 will be time --

4 MS. STANZIANI: We can.

5 CHAIR KNORR: Can we?

6 MS. STANZIANI: We have a little time,

7 yes.

8 CHAIR KNORR: Okay.

9 MS. STANZIANI: I allocated an hour in

10 the morning.

11 PARTICIPANT: It's a little different

12 than the agenda.

13 CHAIR KNORR: Okay, we'll scratch that

14 then. But I think it's good to at least touch

15 based with one another and come up with two to

16 three points that you want to start addressing.

17 We're not going to really have time to

18 dive into those, but start thinking about the

19 information that we're going to need to request,

20 any kind of speakers that we'll request to bring

21 in for our conference calls or at our next

22 meeting and that kind of thing, any kind of
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1 connections that we need, Pam or Chuck to make

2 for us, for gathering information for those

3 groups.

4 We'll meet with those groups for about

5 10 or 15 minutes. Let's say 15 minutes, and then

6 -- then the FSMA group can convene, and I think

7 for those other groups, if you want to continue

8 talking while the FSMA group is convening, I

9 think that that's fair.

10 But why don't we go ahead and break

11 out into those groups that -- yes. 

12 MR. NELSON: Hey, Beth.

13 CHAIR KNORR: Yes, sir.

14 MR. NELSON: The new farmer group will

15 meet down here, and Carlos, a lot of us are in

16 your group. Can we meet first for 10 minutes and

17 then go to your group for 10 minutes? Can we

18 make a deal? A lot of the guys on my group are

19 also in your group.

20 CHAIR KNORR: You know what? Let's do

21 FSMA in the morning. The FSMA chair has

22 requested postponing that meeting until the
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1 morning. So, let's do that. 

2 MS. BURNS: Just so you have enough

3 time. 

4 CHAIR KNORR: Are there -- how many

5 people are serving on multiple groups? Aside

6 from FMSA, two groups, other than FSMA?

7 PARTICIPANT: Is everybody on FSMA?

8 CHAIR KNORR: Almost.

9 PARTICIPANT: It's not a working

10 group.

11 CHAIR KNORR: Okay. 

12 (Off-microphone comments)

13 PARTICIPANT: All right, well, let's

14 not waste time.

15 CHAIR KNORR: Yes.

16 PARTICIPANT: We've had -- 

17 CHAIR KNORR: Well. 

18 MR. WILLIAMS: Chuck, can I ask a

19 quick question? On the marketing news, is it at

20 risk now, before the election?

21 MR. PARROTT: No.

22 MR. WILLIAMS: Okay.
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1 MR. PARROTT: No, and they are --

2 well, of course, we still want to have a budget

3 yet. We're in a continuing resolution, which

4 seems to be every year now.

5 But you know, I don't see it being in

6 real danger of losing funding for this next year.

7 MR. WILLIAMS: For next year?

8 MR. PARROTT: Correct.

9 MR. WILLIAMS: Because we don't meet

10 again until April --

11 MR. PARROTT: Right.

12 MR. WILLIAMS: -- I believe.

13 MR. PARROTT: Correct. That's

14 correct.

15 MR. WILLIAMS: Okay.

16 CHAIR KNORR: For those of you who are

17 meeting in two -- are participating in two

18 groups, which groups are you participating in? 

19 Virginia?

20 MS. BARNES: Labor and research.

21 CHAIR KNORR: Bob, I think you said

22 that you're --
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1 MR. NELSON: Farm and labor.

2 CHAIR KNORR: Okay.

3 MR. WILLIAMS: Consumption and

4 marketing news.

5 MR. YANDA: FSMA only.

6 CHAIR KNORR: FSMA only, okay.

7 MS. ELLOR: New farmer and labor.

8 CHAIR KNORR: Okay, is there --

9 PARTICIPANT: Consumption and new

10 farmer.

11 CHAIR KNORR: Consumption and new

12 farmer. 

13 MR. CASTANEDA: Research and labor.

14 MR. ALLISON: Marketing and research.

15 MS. DIETRICH: I have labor.

16 CHAIR KNORR: Yes, we can do a sidebar

17 conversation, okay.

18 Okay, so, I think it sounds like the

19 new farmer group and the labor group have a lot

20 of overlap there. It seems like there are a

21 couple of -- multiple people who are serving on

22 both of those. 
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1 So, I think if we just pick one, why

2 don't we say research -- or the labor group works 

3 -- meets first, and then the new farmer group can

4 meet. That will help alleviate a lot of that.

5 Yes, I think it's smart to have the

6 chairpeople of those committees stay where they

7 are, and have the rest of the group go to them.

8 So, let's meet for, I'm going to say

9 15 minutes, and then -- actually, I'm going to

10 say 10 minutes, and then 10 minutes for the

11 second groups too.

12 MR. SUTTON: FSMA in the morning?

13 CHAIR KNORR: FSMA in the morning. 

14 All right? Yes, Christie is acting as chair. 

15 All right, great. 

16 (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter

17 went off the record at 4:57 p.m. and resumed at

18 5:15 p.m.)

19 CHAIR KNORR: All right, folks, we are

20 coming up on 5:15 now. 

21 The primary things that Pam needs from

22 you at this point, are the chair and vice chair
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1 names. So, if you have not selected a vice

2 chair, please do so, and then we need to wrap

3 this conversation and switch to our subsequent

4 groups. 

5 (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter

6 went off the record at 5:17 p.m. and resumed at

7 5:33 p.m.)

8 CHAIR KNORR: Okay, all right, folks

9 it is 5:30. Let's go ahead and wrap up our

10 groups. Make sure that you have the chair and

11 vice chair named, and if you could turn in your

12 group roster to Pam.

13 So, Pam does need the list of

14 everybody in the working groups. So, if you can

15 turn those sheets into Pam, so she can at least

16 transcribe that, that would be helpful. She can

17 return those to you, if you need them.

18 I believe that Pam does have a couple

19 of announcements before wrap up for the day, and

20 she wants to share some information about

21 tomorrow morning, as well.

22 Just looking at our agenda, we are
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1 scheduled to convene tomorrow morning at 8:00

2 a.m. So, we'll meet back here at 8:00 a.m., and

3 we'll have about an hour or so to do some work,

4 before we board a bus to go on a field trip, and

5 I think Pam is going to share some details about

6 that trip for us.

7 Also for dinner this evening, I know

8 that she just put a stack of papers in the back

9 of the room, that have restaurant listings within

10 walking distance of the hotel. So, make sure

11 that you grab that. In the past, informally, we

12 have gathered in groups to go out to dinner, so,

13 we encourage you to do that, so that you get to

14 know one another a little bit better.

15 But there is certainly no obligation. 

16 If you want to -- you know, go to your room and

17 be a hermit for the rest of the day, that's

18 perfectly okay too. 

19 MR. WILLIAMS: So, there isn't a group

20 reservation?

21 MS. STANZIANI: I did not make that

22 because you've spent a long time together today. 
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1 I'm not sure you -- and the other thing is, as I

2 -- you know, try to do each time, we do have a

3 meet and greet cocktail set up, upstairs. It's

4 in the lobby bar. You'll see, when you see the

5 bar, there's a little area off to the right. 

6 That's where they usually have us gather. It's

7 exclusively for us. I believe it's a cash bar. 

8 I'm not sure if there will be a sign there. But

9 that's -- I'm going to run up there as soon as we

10 adjourn. 

11 But that's what we're going to be

12 doing from 5:30, or you'll be doing from 5:30 to

13 7:00, or as long as you'd like.

14 So, that -- I just wanted to make sure

15 you knew that was established for you.

16 As far as tomorrow, I apologize that

17 I had to be out of the room for a while. I was

18 just making sure we had someone taking us to

19 this, to drive us to there.

20 When you get a message that says

21 urgent, you leave.

22 We do need to meet here from 8:00 to
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1 9:00. Little different than what the agenda

2 says, because we do have some unfinished business

3 that we need to make sure we take care of.

4 We will also talk about the upcoming

5 meeting and the last few things that we need --

6 you know, tidbits that we need to discuss.

7 We will meet in the lobby at 9:00. 

8 The shuttle will be there to take us to the Urban

9 Garden. It will then bring us back here. They

10 will not have -- because of how many people we

11 have, we will not have any -- you can't bring

12 your luggage or anything, but this room will be

13 locked. So, if you want to check out and put

14 your luggage in here or at the front desk, of

15 course, they will accommodate anything that you

16 need, as far as storage, so, because we will

17 probably get back here around 11:30, maybe 12:00. 

18 So, I don't know if you want to have an extended

19 check out, I'll leave that up to you. But this

20 room will be locked and available to store your

21 luggage. 

22 Most importantly, be here at 8:00. I
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1 had -- question? Somebody? No? 

2 MR. JANIS: Attire for tomorrow is

3 casual?

4 MS. STANZIANI: Casual. I would dress

5 pretty warmly. This is the cold week, for some

6 reason. We had 80s last week. Now, this week

7 we've got 57 as the high tomorrow, and we'll be

8 on a roof, and it will not be the high tomorrow,

9 at 9:00. It will probably be around 50. So,

10 you're probably going to want to dress pretty

11 warmly. I don't mean to scare you, but if anyone

12 is scared of heights, don't worry. Don't worry. 

13 We'll see. It's Spring. Yes, that's true.

14 I think we do have some questions from

15 our observer. 

16 MR. AERTS: Good afternoon, everyone. 

17 My name is Michael Aerts. I'm with Florida Fruit

18 and Vegetable Association, and just listening to

19 the conversation today, I had four questions come

20 to mind, that I was wondering if the committee

21 might be able to address.

22 First question, I was wondering what
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1 the committee might be able to do with respect to

2 additional backing or support of Secretary

3 Vilsack and his ongoing conflict with the U.S.

4 Environmental Protection Agency? 

5 Now, don't get me wrong, we want EPA

6 to be the most efficient regulatory body in the

7 world. We need EPA to be the most efficient

8 regulatory body in the world.

9 But quite frankly, over the last 18

10 months, EPA has just run amok with what they are

11 doing. Members of Congress have recognized this

12 and they've written letters to EPA. Mr. Vilsack

13 recognized this and he had a face-to-face with

14 the EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, that

15 apparently was quite the shouting match, and I

16 don't know the official outcome of that meeting,

17 but everyone has heard rumors along those lines.

18 But I was thinking there would be

19 quite a shot in the arm, from a support

20 standpoint, if the Secretary's office were to

21 receive some sort of correspondence or whatever

22 from a group such as this, lending their support
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1 to the Secretary saying that yes, we understand

2 what you're doing. We fully support what you're

3 doing.

4 So, I just didn't know if that might

5 -- is that something that the committee considers

6 along those lines or what?

7 MS. STANZIANI: Do they have to do

8 with fruit and vegetables?

9 MR. AERTS: Yes, very much so, because

10 the decision -- the decisions EPA is making are

11 very much having impact on specialty crop

12 agriculture. 

13 MS. STANZIANI: Okay.

14 MS. DIETRICH: Are you specifically

15 referring to the U.S.? 

16 MR. AERTS: That's one of them. That's

17 one of 20 different things that are ongoing at

18 this point. It's worker protection and they've

19 just run amok with a variety of topics here over

20 the last 18 months, for whatever reason, and it

21 seems to be some sort of an administrative type

22 directive, I guess you could say.
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1 So, but Mr. Vilsack called them on it,

2 and it seems like it would be appropriate for

3 this group to lend its support to what Mr.

4 Vilsack is doing along those lines, or to the

5 Secretary's office, in general.

6 Second question, and Chuck, this had

7 to do with the update you provided, with respect

8 to a lot of the successes that have been

9 realized, that the committee has been involved

10 with since the last meeting.

11 But I couldn't help but wonder, and I

12 wonder if some of the other new member might also

13 wonder what sort of ongoing action items still

14 remain from the previous group, from the previous

15 Advisory Committee that still might be out there,

16 just so there is not a lot of reinventing the

17 wheel sort of thing.

18 So, just maybe an overview of ongoing

19 or previously not completed action items, things

20 of that nature.

21 Third question, and I know a lot has

22 been discussed along these lines, but I still
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1 can't help but post the emphasis on the fact that

2 we still need more concern, with respect to

3 what's going on with pest and diseases.

4 Things have gotten exponentially

5 better over the last couple years, with respect

6 to USDA's involvement with specialty crop

7 agriculture, along the pest and disease

8 situations.

9 But to this point, a lot of it has

10 been purely reactive. I mean, it took, literally

11 took eight years for the citrus industry to get

12 any kind of meaningful research funding support

13 for citrus greening. What's going to be the next

14 thing out there?

15 Is there going to be some sort of a

16 bio-type of white fly? Is it going to be some

17 new virus? Whatever. What can this committee

18 maybe do to help assist USDA in getting more

19 proactive on the whole pest and disease front?

20 I still think that's something that

21 really needs a lot more emphasis, as well.

22 Lastly the fourth thing, and I'll just
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1 kind of reiterate some of the support that's been

2 going around there to this point this afternoon,

3 having to do with the additional consumer

4 education. I mean, you ask anybody where their

5 food comes from, the answer is always going to be

6 the grocery store.

7 Consumers still have no idea what is

8 really going on out there. So, I just wanted to

9 know what sort of educational things this

10 committee might be able to suggest or recommend,

11 specifically, you know, towards the lines of

12 education for kids, education for just consumers

13 in general, whatever. But I know some of that

14 discussion has been taking place today, and we

15 just wanted to, you know, add our emphasis for

16 that support, as well.

17 So, thanks for consideration of those

18 four points. 

19 PARTICIPANT: Thank you. What was

20 your name again, sir?

21 MR. AERTS: Michael Aerts. Florida

22 Fruit and Vegetable Association.
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1 CHAIR KNORR: All right. Any final

2 comments for the good of the cause, before we

3 adjourn for the evening? No? Okay. 

4 MS. STANZIANI: Do we have a motion?

5 MR. WILLIAMS: Motion to adjourn.

6 CHAIR KNORR: Did I hear a second

7 there?

8 MR. CASTANEDA: Second.

9 CHAIR KNORR: All right, okay, see you

10 in the morning. 

11 (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter

12 went off the record at 5:43 p.m.)

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22
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audible 162:7 163:17

audit 2:8 74:7 80:14,14

108:5 158:6 185:6

186:3,18,21 187:5,6

187:18,19 193:10

195:5 201:22 202:19

203:7 204:17 206:9

206:14 207:18,20

208:11,15,18,22

210:1,4,5 214:11,15

217:12 237:6 245:8

266:7,10,12,14

audit-type 194:3

audited 146:10 257:7

auditing 10:3,4 106:2

108:3 335:17,20

auditor 336:3

auditors 193:18 197:17

audits 10:4 103:22

175:9 196:5,18 202:3

202:8,13 206:10,18

206:19,21 208:9,13

208:14 210:8,20

215:18 266:6,9 267:9

267:14 336:1

August 164:17 197:14

289:20 291:10

authorities 64:22

authority 56:3 118:12

118:17 119:4 124:19

175:12 182:3,21

185:3,5 246:20

251:13 333:3

authorization 243:14

automated 82:19 93:19

95:2 330:6,7

automates 84:2

automatic 85:21

automatically 71:5

automation 331:9

availability 290:9,19

316:2

available 10:8 42:11

66:2 75:18 91:5 92:12

98:8 103:15 112:13

144:10,14 225:8,10

229:3 234:16 236:4

241:4 279:5 289:8,16

293:1 295:21 324:16

356:20

average 264:21,22

266:14,16 278:10

281:14,16 286:11

291:6,7

avocado 11:20

avocados 11:19 117:9

117:18,22 122:19

avoid 284:22

awarded 254:14 290:13

awarding 172:8

aware 25:8 29:12 51:11

89:7 142:14 164:13

205:19 321:9

awareness 80:8 224:2

322:18

awesome 241:22,22

axis 264:19

aye 162:4 163:14

ayes 162:5 163:15

B

B 79:12 193:20 236:2

Baby 1:17 137:9

back 12:15 32:11 61:7

61:10 64:14 78:22

81:11 82:9 88:22

95:16 97:20 99:3

102:18 103:12 105:3

114:19 121:14,21

131:18 135:5,19,22

141:4 158:15 159:21

163:22 171:8 177:11

189:10 195:20 198:17

203:10 207:8 208:11

211:15 218:3 241:17

245:19 257:19 260:1

260:10 272:17 274:22

275:19 284:22 292:22

305:15 309:1 326:15

327:8 328:8 335:1

340:16 346:9 354:2,8

356:9,17

backed 74:2

background 21:21

105:5 320:19

backgrounds 48:2

backing 358:2

backtrack 37:20

backwards 20:18

bad 64:13 116:4 185:11

250:9

bailiwick 254:17

balance 12:15

balances 100:21

Balch 1:12 133:22,22

156:8 340:8,9 341:1

bananas 114:20

bank 78:3

banks 12:6,17 77:10

banning 215:17

bans 25:6

bar 68:16 265:4 268:1,2

355:4,5,7

Barnes 1:13,13 135:6,7

156:8 241:19,20

242:20 270:13 303:4

303:8,12 350:20

barrier 146:2

barriers 313:15 314:5

338:22

barring 212:4

bars 265:7

base 116:16

based 19:1 26:7 28:3

28:12,21 32:18 41:19

49:17 58:8,20 118:1

122:9,21 123:3

126:15 134:9 256:6

256:14 276:14 286:12

289:17 309:9 327:16

347:15

basically 6:20 7:4 17:7

20:6,19 21:14 31:12

33:14,17 35:16 39:18

45:20 68:14 69:8 71:8

75:3 79:5 96:11

106:12,14 108:13

115:7 182:19 195:3

198:14 202:7 213:10

221:8 222:2 223:22

232:17 239:14 324:10

basil 135:1

basis 22:7 71:10 90:3

91:11 92:2,19 187:4

189:9 192:2 284:13

Bay 1:17 137:9 138:12

Beach 83:13

beads 173:17

bear 198:14 344:16
(202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com

Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc.

367

beat 329:9

becoming 73:4 205:8

208:12

beef 11:15 122:10

beekeeping 89:13

beginning 153:15

156:17 237:14 291:20

296:9,18

behalf 23:19,19 26:8

109:8 141:1

behavior 79:20

behold 77:21

believe 20:15 95:2

97:14 114:14 147:12

149:5 150:21 188:22

197:19 299:5,12

300:3,15 309:5 314:1

315:4 322:10 323:6

331:8 337:2 342:20

350:12 353:18 355:7

belt 84:11

Ben 241:21

benchmark 211:12

261:18

benchmarking 199:11

199:15,21

benefit 27:16 29:3 34:1

34:1 150:8

benefits 134:5 269:1

330:20

berries 288:5

berry 92:22

best 21:3 24:22 34:7

41:20 75:4 86:11

145:18,19 146:14

147:22 148:11 155:13

181:15 195:14 203:21

209:8 210:4 234:17

241:10 251:9 271:8

302:9 303:1 304:2

306:12 344:5

bet 61:4

Beth 1:8,10 4:8,14 6:17

7:3 37:3 132:14 156:9

156:10 159:20 161:13

161:16 162:9 215:9

253:15 254:2 273:7

295:18 324:11,11

326:7 328:15 331:5

344:12 348:12

better 7:15 14:12 16:12

20:14 21:8 23:21 26:3

29:2 47:7 66:14,14

132:12 142:4 145:2

200:13 206:2 261:11

261:11 275:2 279:10

285:22 295:7 306:15

344:12 345:10,11

354:14 361:5

Betts 2:2 4:5 16:21

44:12 45:19

beyond 90:1 99:15

155:5

biased 24:17

big 7:22 8:5 11:14

64:12 65:22 67:1

72:22 82:17 92:2 94:5

95:14 96:5 110:5,9

113:12 153:14 176:6

182:10 184:9 194:6

224:6 233:21 264:3

270:6 314:6,11 322:2

325:11 329:8 342:2

biggest 11:19 167:18

bill 46:4 95:19 150:9,10

151:3,7 172:10

181:11 183:9 257:6

310:20,22 311:2,5,13

311:15,17,20 318:8

331:7,14 334:15

Bill's 312:3

billion 12:4 64:8 124:18

329:21

bio- 164:14 167:4,13

180:17

bio-engineer 185:12

bio-engineered 165:9

166:8 167:5,12

169:11 170:17 171:15

174:20 178:11,15,16

178:18 179:20

bio-engineering 166:13

bio-security 230:15

bio-type 361:16

birthing 63:1

bit 11:5 16:6 17:8 21:20

29:10 31:6 35:3 36:20

43:5 46:17 59:19

78:11 81:17 82:13,15

83:21 95:9 105:4,17

122:2 125:13 132:12

135:21 141:19 164:8

177:11,13 181:8

185:22 187:13 188:5

188:8,17 195:10

221:14,17 223:14

227:15 229:10 236:15

237:9 240:17 243:10

248:2 256:13 273:14

273:15 281:18 286:13

287:1 303:14 311:21

312:16 324:7 325:15

330:17 335:18 354:14

Blackboard 111:21

112:5,7 113:17

blessed 133:9

block 148:22 149:5

340:1

blue 184:10

blueberries 122:19

blueberry 11:17,18

board 27:16 28:19

86:18,20 122:8 124:9

124:10 125:19 126:8

198:19 199:6,9

200:16 201:3,15,16

317:18 354:4

boards 64:19 73:19

125:14 126:12

boat 89:21

boats 90:18

Bob 134:20 162:19

163:7,18 207:14

209:11 214:16 249:2

291:3 297:6 300:6

312:13,15 314:7

350:21

body 358:6,8

bog 298:13

bok 329:15,16

bonus 12:8

book 57:16 184:10

books 129:21 168:12

boon 92:11 94:5

Border 69:20 70:12

87:1 119:9

bossy 161:7

Boston 111:14

bottom 173:19 257:7

bought 281:1

boundaries 254:6

bounds 26:1 33:8

206:17

Bowl 11:21

box 66:1,1

brain-storm 306:15

brainstorm 346:22

branch 2:6,8,9,17,18

19:15 20:4,7 51:22

104:8,9,19 108:3

158:6 186:3,4,19

187:5 218:9,9 274:7

brand 62:19 68:20

230:17 234:19 300:18

branding 38:2

brands 106:1

Brazil 99:11 170:22

Brazil's 171:5

breadth 142:22 270:1

break 75:19 121:9,10

121:14 131:17 259:21

260:1 304:18 316:12

348:10

breakouts 307:16

breeding 166:17 178:12

182:4,9 289:6 310:8

bridge 231:11

brief 8:10 16:22 177:19

briefed 152:21

briefly 9:12 17:4 34:9

46:15 92:13 93:8

326:14

bring 8:6 15:5 16:3

20:22 21:1 28:7 42:9

111:22 115:18 142:18

144:13 170:15 188:1

191:20 219:4,7

228:10 234:9 249:6

315:14 328:16 332:11

338:13 347:20 356:9

356:11

bringing 39:20 59:2

141:9 144:3 315:12

brings 150:8 205:18

315:17

broad 18:21,22 21:6,10

26:7 39:2 144:11

216:22 224:1,5

broadband 37:2,5

299:7 300:14 324:6

325:4 330:16

broadband/technology

330:14 343:15

broader 47:20 312:2

317:11

broadly 93:14 166:21

311:4

broke 97:21

broken 92:15,22 264:19

267:3,21

broker 56:14

brokers 8:3 92:17

broth 173:9

brother 137:21

brought 112:3 318:3

321:4

Bruce 1:19 137:3

156:12

Bryan 133:3

bucks 329:21

budget 104:13 106:3

319:21 350:2

budgets 124:22

bugs 342:20

build 186:11 191:1

216:19 248:2 256:8

340:8

building 65:10 195:3

231:3 235:12 254:1

321:22

buildup 186:7

built 70:4 99:4 216:22
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Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc.

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321:11,13

bulk 9:19

bunch 205:2

burden 284:2

Bureau 40:3 270:14

Burns 1:13 36:12

132:21,22 161:12,12

214:4,4 248:1,1,20

256:19 257:2,4,12

272:16,16 273:2

299:17,20 305:11

308:1,5 310:18 323:4

323:8,12,19,21

336:15,18 337:15

338:9,13,19 339:2,5

340:21 341:3 345:3,5

349:2

bus 354:4

busiest 270:22

business 13:15 35:7

45:9,10 77:8 82:6

97:12 133:20 210:15

245:18 247:11 356:2

businesses 16:9

138:10 140:15 158:18

busy 23:2 24:15 184:19

270:17,20

button 9:3,6

buy 50:13 56:7 57:6

333:11

buyer 54:16 57:5

106:22 198:10 201:19

202:21 208:20 214:12

buyers 48:13 49:14,16

55:12,14,14 58:6,17

93:9 114:4 146:13

147:4 201:21 203:2

208:21 209:4,7,10

213:4 217:16 245:20

buying 55:21 56:5

58:22 101:11 213:1

318:22

buys 12:8

C

C-O-N-T-E-N-T-S 4:1

cabbage 134:22

cadre 191:2

calculation 286:12,14

calculations 287:6

calendar 177:4 334:17

California 65:13 69:7

77:6 109:1 131:12

133:19 136:5,13

281:8 286:10 329:3

call 33:20 46:6 49:5

57:5 60:20,22 86:17

100:12 111:11 119:15

132:7 227:5 257:1

270:17,19,21 276:22

279:10,22 283:21

284:7

called 9:13 12:8,12,13

71:21 83:2 84:13

111:13 128:10 159:1

171:20 184:9 239:8

360:1

callers 53:15

calling 53:21 82:22

167:2 185:8 206:7,8

calls 16:19 53:17

159:11 195:1 202:6,6

205:7 298:11 347:21

Calvin 2:3 260:22

campaigns 125:2 126:6

131:3

Canada 343:3

candidate 304:10

canepes 116:2

canola 174:1

cap 203:6

capabilities 75:10

capability 73:2 76:20

78:7 80:18

capacities 226:8

capacity 27:6 34:16

67:15 154:15 205:15

capital 329:13

Capitol 35:5 206:7,12

capture 96:4 101:13

262:16 277:3,5 288:2

captured 53:7 240:1

288:6

capturing 90:2 91:22

282:6

card 46:4 51:22

care 68:22 73:3 286:7

356:3

career 47:10 105:10

133:4 151:17 152:1

careful 18:6 25:17 30:4

32:20

carefully 80:1 336:8

Carl 2:10 157:17

Carlos 1:14 36:18

133:19 281:4 286:8

300:5 316:14,17

317:22 348:15

Carolina 1:17 69:7

136:19,21

carried 304:5,10

carries 253:17

carry 304:15 308:12

325:17 326:1

carrying 110:14 297:13

304:6 312:17 316:15

324:8

cartons 67:18

case 15:6 28:10 60:7

71:3 79:13 140:21

149:21 152:8 154:3

156:15 166:15 216:14

217:4 254:7 296:3,20

304:17 311:11 316:3

cases 26:19 47:12,16

54:9 55:10 64:1 66:16

88:15 99:12 195:13

195:17 202:6 203:14

230:18 295:22

cash 355:7

Castaneda 1:14,14

36:18 133:18,19

281:4,4 286:8,8 287:9

300:5 316:17,18

328:15 345:15 351:13

363:8

casual 357:3,4

catch 159:10

categories 27:19 265:6

267:21

category 21:20 82:17

265:9,19 267:6,8

CATHERINE 1:13

Cathy 36:11 132:21

161:11,12 214:4

248:1 256:19 272:16

299:20

cattle 100:2

cause 322:3 363:2

caused 231:20 322:7

caution 32:16

CBP 71:22 82:20,20

86:22 119:9,13 120:3

CBP's 119:19

cease 322:6

CEMS 84:4

census 274:11 284:20

285:12

center 2:20 111:6

113:14 140:19 143:8

152:19 161:6 218:5

222:22

centers 237:1

central 136:13

centralized 244:4

CEO 133:1

certain 26:19 48:14

49:20 83:7 95:6

195:18 255:8 286:22

287:5 303:18 334:19

certainly 58:4 70:22

75:18 116:19 151:10

154:3 155:3,11

198:22 205:7 207:6

208:5 209:3 213:12

213:14 214:9 245:11

247:12 248:10,14,19

251:2 273:9 289:13

310:11 311:8,11

333:16 334:2 343:10

343:11 354:15

certificate 118:18

certificates 109:10

155:20

certification 108:14

114:6 145:22 146:2

204:1,8,13,15 205:5

205:17 206:3 216:18

217:2

certifications 243:9

certified 112:3 145:19

146:11,22 175:3

217:8,15 289:11

335:11 336:12

certifiers 213:19,22

cetera 32:9

CFSAN 2:18,19 223:1

227:12,13,19 241:12

chain 3:12 91:18 188:4

chains 56:10

chaired 36:11,12,15,17

38:6

chairing 345:1

chairman 96:9 135:17

328:15

chairpeople 346:3

352:6

chairperson 317:14

chairs 299:17,20

302:12 304:4 305:3

346:10

challenge 144:17

153:22 317:20

challenges 152:3

153:15 171:14 203:13

251:6 324:17

chamber 24:3

chance 17:14

change 60:13 64:20

78:6 148:8 272:19

280:18

changed 9:14 333:7,11

changes 19:1 128:15

176:14 198:19 211:18

212:1 282:13 313:4

channel 266:18 267:4,5

channels 24:11 70:16

266:19 267:2 275:9

chaos 317:14

characteristics 187:22

charge 18:20 26:14

31:19 52:15 107:2
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Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc.

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208:10 291:4

charged 147:17 224:10

charities 77:10

Charles 2:7 4:10 5:15

chart 222:7

charter 7:13 13:21 14:1

14:15 23:7 340:16

chartered 311:14

chat 159:10

cheat-sheet 279:14

check 45:9 57:8 88:13

101:10 102:1 119:3

356:13,19

check-in 304:13

checked 204:10

checking 89:1

checklist 196:8

checkoff 122:14

checks 100:21

cheese 169:9

Cheesecake 1:12

133:13

chem 269:12 277:21

chemical 263:11,19

264:2 267:20 271:7

271:13 274:19,20

chemicals 271:16

cherries 66:20

chicken 173:21

chief 2:6,8 158:6 186:3

218:9 274:6

child 30:12

children 342:21 343:1

chime 311:9

Chip 2:12 108:6,10

111:2 121:8

choice 170:20

choices 170:5

choose 13:2 66:3 85:19

124:16 170:11 228:21

229:1 238:1 244:1

chooses 38:13

choosing 243:10

Chorus 162:5 163:15

chose 233:4 236:8

chosen 236:11

choy 329:15,16

Christie 1:12 133:22

156:7 340:9 352:14

Christmas 122:19

123:2 190:19

Chrystal 1:8

Chuck 6:11 7:5,5 8:14

21:4,17 40:18 47:8

61:13 68:21 98:10,21

112:16 125:10 139:21

140:2 142:17 151:17

161:4 200:21 201:4

288:13 292:20 293:22

295:18 296:8 311:9

321:5 322:11 330:1

332:19 334:9 337:15

339:8 348:1 349:18

360:6

Chuck's 41:8 99:5

churn 104:16

chute 69:13

cider 135:15 137:6,7

CIDS 106:21

Cinnebar 159:1,13

circle 207:8

circles 227:10,20

circumstances 56:20

102:3

citrus 68:10 70:20 93:1

131:13 290:18,22

309:20 361:11,13

City 1:8 31:22 32:3

135:4

civil 49:21 53:7,11

251:13

claim 49:8,18 52:5,11

53:20 74:1 179:21

213:11

claims 11:3 54:1 56:4

179:15,19

clarification 280:12

282:10,19

clarify 56:6 81:9 84:15

258:18 281:20,22

clarifying 282:13

clarity 253:7 256:13

class 27:21 113:2

clean 257:6 269:11

clear 129:13 194:13

248:10 258:8,19

270:4 307:20

clearance 176:1

clearer 284:11

clearinghouse 234:21

clearly 160:3 196:4

climate 310:9

close 27:17 30:6,10

74:3 116:11 140:1

202:7

closely 38:9 90:21

155:14 225:22 245:6

closer 65:15 145:8

154:2 343:3

co-chair 2:21 299:22

co-lead 341:1

co-operative 136:14

co-owner 137:21

Coachella 77:7

coalesce 304:21

Coalition 132:17

coast 69:6,6 136:13

Coborn 209:16

Coborn's 1:21 134:16

cocktail 355:3

Codax 246:3,7,9,19,21

code 27:22 170:13,14

171:8,16

Codex 247:3

coffee 121:19 152:5

cold 89:8,9 357:5

collaborate 74:8

collaboration 198:3

250:16

collaborative 224:1

collaborator 74:4

collard 329:16

colleagues 154:11

186:8 194:7,8 195:1

196:6 207:7 214:2

218:5 260:22

collect 67:8 88:9 90:7

100:20 225:15 235:19

243:20 277:16 280:20

281:22 282:2,4

283:13

collected 66:9

collecting 88:17 94:3

282:2,5 294:22

collection 285:13

collects 92:3

college 315:12

Colorado 137:4

Columbia 99:11

combination 277:22

combine 124:17

combined 263:10

combines 277:6

come 6:7 17:18 21:2

24:9 28:17 29:1 37:16

40:7 43:13 52:10

53:12,17 62:9 64:6

68:17 69:13 82:9 86:1

88:22 99:9,12 113:13

113:16 121:14 126:22

127:3,12 128:16

132:18 135:22 153:10

154:4 156:7 160:17

167:11 168:1 196:13

217:1,22 221:6 225:9

241:7 250:22 251:1

254:8 260:1 286:16

303:20 307:3 309:1

316:12,13 326:15

327:8 328:8,8 329:13

334:22 347:15 357:19

comes 6:15 25:10 28:4

33:2 39:16 43:13

48:18 56:12 70:1

127:7,20 155:9 257:5

279:1 321:18 362:5

comfortable 230:21

coming 6:4 13:12 29:3

35:20 36:21 40:5

42:19 58:16 78:20

90:18 117:22 119:11

141:4 142:22 146:9

148:9 150:11 152:12

152:13 153:3,6 200:8

201:3 203:3 204:19

206:1 215:17 231:17

248:15 268:19 269:1

310:20 313:5 316:19

319:5 333:21 335:4

352:20

comment 65:7 103:4

130:11 142:10 160:12

177:2 185:17 199:18

211:19 221:3 259:14

315:8 330:2 335:2

340:10

commenters 157:11

commenting 182:7

comments 4:12,19 5:19

160:5 176:6 177:22

247:7,21 260:11,14

273:6 284:16 307:10

314:17 344:4 349:12

363:2

commerce 47:11,15

52:14 60:12 70:16

Commercial 82:19

Commission 73:17

Commissioner 148:20

committed 154:18

225:7 240:4

committee's 36:10

312:1

committees 13:2 19:4

19:20 20:9 25:11

28:21 29:13 33:3

64:19 73:19 141:20

142:8 304:5 317:1,15

317:17,19 352:6

commodities 9:15

10:18 46:21 48:8 60:4

63:4 64:4 66:17 68:6

93:10 104:1 115:3

123:12 124:3 153:21

202:15 262:19 264:4

264:7 328:19 329:14

commodity 67:16 68:5

70:19 106:21 114:16

115:12 116:11,17

122:13 123:16 124:8

124:9 244:19 257:6

333:10
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commodity-specific

216:4

common 329:17

commonwealth 109:6,7

communicating 268:22

communication 24:11

94:16

communications 40:13

73:17 94:15

communities 37:5

community 1:12 37:6

134:1 138:5 139:11

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236:2

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130:17

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73:2,12 74:6 80:1,17

83:17 84:3 85:1,9,13

85:13 126:1 128:16

146:14 180:6 219:10

220:10,13 221:6,12

221:18,19,22 222:3,8

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235:3,4,21 239:17

244:15,17 249:6,21

250:2,11 251:6,11,22

252:1,8 253:20 255:1

255:5 256:4,10 259:8

compliant 73:21 126:4

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complicated 184:6

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comply 212:15 220:22

221:1,9,11 335:6,12

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254:14 266:15

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280:6

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114:15 233:21

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168:3 247:13

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202:2 245:19

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235:18

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274:15

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276:6

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168:6 358:3

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162:9 163:18

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34:15 49:2 62:6

124:20 147:18 148:4

150:15 151:2 164:22

311:17 323:18 335:9

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connectivity 37:3 299:8

300:14 325:8

Conservancy 1:11

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182:11 202:15 243:20

246:22 251:8 255:20

317:14 330:3

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125:21 167:12,13

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225:1 283:15

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consistently 225:5

consists 7:11

Consortium 234:6,16

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172:22 173:1

consumer 166:2 210:14

267:11 362:3

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126:19 140:15 165:21

171:14 266:22 267:13

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340:9,9,22 342:7

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contact 33:19 40:10

101:20 189:7 242:19

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120:7

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CONTENTS 5:9

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140:18 143:7 153:1

201:20 202:20 214:22

228:11 247:10 284:9

293:4 300:11 306:1

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315:10 316:11 317:12

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294:12 310:13 319:2

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continues 72:1 189:13

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continuing 83:21 141:4

162:13 246:14 350:3

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102:4,8 106:2 107:4,9

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contracting 171:19

176:17 258:15

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172:6

contracts 10:21 19:6

31:10 47:2 124:22

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129:10 130:18 220:12

220:15 221:1,20

282:16,17

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192:6,9,12 220:3,11

220:14 222:15,15

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348:6 354:1

Convenes 4:7

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178:12 182:8

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254:11 275:1 318:18

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cooperative 92:18

109:5 204:18 215:11

232:10,12,16 233:12

234:4,5,14 235:14

280:3

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coordinate 189:11

248:9

coordinating 236:22

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copies 17:16 292:18

copy 45:17,18 119:16

120:18,19

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Corporation 28:19

correct 15:12,16 40:11

102:2 159:2 255:15

319:8 350:8,13,14

correcting 112:21

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correlate 271:19

correspondence

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corresponding 71:17

Cosmetics 173:7

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246:11 278:2 329:2

336:6 337:7

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203:13 206:4 217:14

262:15 336:7,13

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Council 69:2

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counsel 181:22

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282:7

counterparts 174:22

226:1

countervailing 47:12

countries 90:1,1 96:13

96:17 97:22 98:7,21

137:16 181:1 246:5

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63:21 64:1 69:7 87:8

90:19 107:17 111:5

112:2 118:1 134:3

149:7 180:15 190:1

190:17 205:7 228:3,5

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35:12 39:3,5 44:18

103:10 110:3 111:1,6

121:18 128:6 156:21

159:22 165:2 197:20

205:3 216:9 226:10

244:11 257:15,20

260:7 269:20 273:6

274:10 293:19 294:3

304:8 305:13 322:4

330:11 344:7 346:8

351:21 353:18 361:5

course 6:7 15:2 40:9

41:19 56:10 114:22

143:4 162:15 241:21

293:4,15 300:12

304:3 320:1 336:1

350:2 356:15

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court 80:21 88:15 129:8

cover 13:16 35:2 41:11

89:13 92:7 93:8

101:17 106:20 107:4

121:3 230:14

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covering 92:6 262:18

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105:22 169:4

crafting 319:10,12

cranberries 66:20

131:13

create 169:17 174:19

232:17 234:11

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87:20 104:6 124:4

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creates 10:16 167:5

317:15

creating 243:6 246:17

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credit 46:4 51:21

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141:17 142:12 143:16

219:20 225:1

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66:19,19 81:5 148:22

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312:4 314:12,12

331:6 340:1 343:16

359:11 361:6

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38:11 61:9 71:5 74:10

74:19 84:1 91:11

103:21 104:4 105:5

110:21 122:15 123:12

186:19 290:2 309:14

310:8 314:12,12,15

314:15,18,22 321:2

322:15

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Crossroads 1:12 134:1

134:2

crowded 316:4

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curious 249:7 256:20

287:11 301:8

Curley 3:14 158:4,4

current 37:4 38:19 57:9

68:18 93:5 103:1,9

177:19 201:21 227:7

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61:1 62:18 68:6 83:11

90:6 99:8 129:17,20

209:18 230:7 237:12

241:1 277:15 280:2

299:19 305:22

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191:3 192:5

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210:3

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114:2

Customs 69:19 70:12

87:1 119:9

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123:2 266:21 341:22

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225:12,14,16,19

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262:22,22 263:4,5,7

263:13 271:18 272:1

272:15 275:6 276:6

276:10 277:15,17

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279:19,22 280:1,15

280:18 282:1,4

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321:15,18,18,20

342:14

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99:2,4 100:7,11 243:7

244:4 263:5

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174:7 210:4 277:18

279:3

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221:18,22 222:3,8

279:4

Dave 134:8 163:11

245:14

David 1:8,22

day 10:7 34:20 51:2

54:12 56:8 64:6 65:8

70:1 71:12 75:12

77:18 86:12 87:7 89:2

89:20 93:10 98:19

102:11 143:4 155:7

155:13 191:10 192:21

195:4,4 200:8 201:1

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343:4 346:19 353:19

354:17

days 15:2 34:18 45:9,10

46:1 71:13 277:17

278:5,6,6 292:2

DC 15:20

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225:2 323:10 348:18

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165:7 222:16 224:11

261:7 263:5

dealt 58:4
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Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc.

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41:20 126:5,6,9 127:1

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Deer 1:11 249:2

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307:2

definitely 119:3 311:20

315:9

definition 166:7,22

167:1 178:11 180:12

180:14 182:5

definitions 180:17

181:7

degree 80:8 211:7

217:11 249:20

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deliver 23:21 25:15

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delivering 24:22

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108:1 339:3

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62:7 86:22 106:7

129:13,15 130:16

137:18 141:2,12

154:9,16,22 181:19

278:21 280:1,19

283:9,22

departments 175:19

197:3

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149:21 178:8

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Deputy 2:7 6:12 18:5

105:8 122:5 139:1

151:18

describe 115:8

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Descriptions 106:22

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325:20

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305:5

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225:14 229:7 238:19

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160:22

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219:13

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253:13 256:14 258:22

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304:14

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311:18

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39:15 70:8 167:4

345:17

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107:14 116:19 121:6

127:3,21 165:8

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113:13 139:7 154:3

167:22 218:20 230:6

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Devonia 2:2 4:5 16:21

17:1 44:3,11 46:9

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275:21

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20:21 22:16 39:7

56:16 70:17 72:3

120:6,8,12 130:1

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187:6 189:11,20

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208:18 216:13 217:1

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242:12 253:7,8 260:8

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317:9 321:17 322:22

328:4,4 330:17,17

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238:10 244:20

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317:9

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136:18

Directors 46:15 105:14

200:17

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106:5,11 121:12

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128:18 137:18 186:20

218:7 274:8,11

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199:15,21 220:21

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33:6,15 34:11 38:19

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358:11 359:2,3 360:4

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181:21 182:20 183:17

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184:16 185:2,14

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draft 171:22 196:16

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effectiveness 75:3

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194:10 224:2 232:11

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eligible 182:12

eliminate 52:21 77:1

206:3,14 246:9

Ellor 1:15 78:9,9 82:7

134:6,6 162:19 163:1

315:9 327:13 351:7

else's 275:22

email 17:12 33:21 40:10

40:12 41:4 44:10 45:4

46:6 52:10 159:11

176:4,9 293:9

emails 44:14 176:8

294:4

Embassy 200:21

embedded 226:4 228:5

emerging 114:18

304:20 310:16

eminent 193:20

emphasis 52:3 123:16

140:12,16 361:1,21

362:15

emphasize 40:11 217:9
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employee 27:20,21

32:14 135:19 276:16

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employees 20:21 21:16

22:1,5,20 29:6,8,20

29:22 30:18 33:4

109:8

employer 30:12,13,21

employers 282:14

283:18

employing 53:1

employment 22:16 25:6

30:13 53:2

enables 112:8,9

enact 169:18

enacted 122:12 169:19

enactment 169:21

encompass 311:4

encompassed 324:15

encompassing 287:14

287:16

encourage 25:22

268:14,16 306:10,13

310:11,15 315:13

342:21 354:13

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endeavor 233:21

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52:6,6 53:3,5 60:13

70:2 72:20 73:2 79:12

80:18 84:4 85:20

175:7 179:2 184:22

228:16 235:21 249:13

249:14 250:10,11,13

250:18 254:8

enforcing 185:1

engage 26:9 147:22

154:16

engaged 138:11 144:19

145:14

engagement 176:3

219:16

engaging 225:2

engineer 164:15 180:18

engineered 167:5,14

173:17 174:1 180:18

183:7

engineering 166:12

168:21

English 121:2

enhance 51:15 97:12

291:13

enjoyable 155:7

ensure 13:6 49:22

50:12 52:3 54:3,15

63:16 65:3 68:3 111:9

125:17 141:21 148:11

188:1 192:10 193:2

194:10 196:8

ensures 10:20 47:1

63:20 68:14 263:3

ensuring 143:17 309:10

entails 109:18

enter 70:10 320:5

entered 120:11

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55:20 254:19

entity 58:8,20 221:12

230:17 244:12,13

249:21 252:13

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84:10 303:22 313:15

enumerated 263:2

enumeration 277:20

environment 10:16

50:13 82:19 94:8

174:20

environmental 274:6

358:4

EPA 358:5,7,10,12,14

359:10

equally 65:12

equation 286:22 287:3

equipment 37:8 316:5

329:11,13 341:21

equivalence 199:13

200:1,10,15

erroneous 88:10

ERS 2:2,7,12,14,15

157:22 261:6 279:7

280:13 293:16 294:14

especially 20:15 103:8

112:15 201:15 209:22

214:12 288:20 325:10

330:18 342:14 344:7

essence 72:15

essentially 18:18 21:11

25:8 29:7 31:20 32:8

165:3 167:1 171:22

175:20 177:18 182:4

establish 19:17 234:6

280:7 301:2

established 19:18 20:9

50:16 81:12 87:18

124:10 234:20 239:7

299:11 355:15

establishment 172:14

establishments 183:22

estimate 261:20

estimates 278:3

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etcetera 187:11 322:1

330:7

ethical 22:14

ethics 2:13 4:3 18:5,8

18:17 19:10 20:10,16

24:16 29:18 30:2

31:15 40:21

Europe 245:16

European 180:11 181:4

evaluate 32:3 171:13

182:3 342:12

evening 354:7 363:3

event 148:20

eventually 210:22

227:21 295:11

everybody 6:3 8:22

16:3,3,5 17:14 18:11

18:15 40:10 42:5

43:10,13,16,18 49:12

52:4 55:17 61:5,6

65:4,4,5 76:16 83:3

86:13 121:8,19 122:4

132:2 158:15 159:12

159:18,21 164:6

186:6 251:22 260:5

275:22 292:11,18

294:21 297:8 301:20

302:21 307:21 327:5

349:7 353:14

everybody's 15:14

224:14

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exact 133:3 255:3

exactly 31:13 109:18,22

111:13 249:8 292:20

332:5

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example 27:1 31:17

39:1,9 59:1 95:12

117:8 126:16 147:7

169:9 170:13,21

173:19,20 180:11

263:14 264:9 273:3

281:8 286:10 303:19

303:22 328:21 329:10

329:15 334:12 341:14

examples 52:20 59:20

93:12 168:18 170:18

173:13 272:17

exceed 79:17

Excellent 253:22

exception 293:15

exceptions 64:2

excess 12:9

Exchange 1:19 136:12

excited 132:5 137:22

138:3 233:22

exciting 142:20 143:3

147:6 149:12

excluded 173:8 243:16

exclusions 172:11

exclusively 355:7

excuse 45:15 55:13

93:12 105:1 300:1

execute 233:18

execution 128:14

executive 19:15 20:4,7

84:14 136:18

exempt 85:22 169:8

335:5

exhaustive 194:22

exist 101:9 296:2 306:2

333:18

existing 6:6 17:11

43:14 96:1 301:20

302:7,12 326:14

exists 27:10

exotic 114:11 332:1

expand 32:12 51:5 72:4

82:15 107:12,21

124:2 237:9 311:3

expanded 83:12 114:22

expanding 10:12

expansions 331:22

expect 24:18,19 89:12

259:3 261:22 268:17

expectations 251:3

expected 41:13,18,22

233:13 236:7

expecting 250:21

expense 45:15

expenses 2:3 16:19

17:3 22:22 279:18

expensive 184:5

210:12 336:3

experience 28:13 99:3

196:19 226:17,19

experienced 106:19

317:5

expert 23:17 28:8

expertise 23:13 28:4,7

228:10

experts 21:1 22:1 23:11

23:15 28:5,17 40:1

42:18 225:8 227:14

explain 220:21 256:12

264:16

explained 172:20

explanatory 250:4

exponentially 361:4

export 63:18,19 245:18

248:11

exported 63:21 64:1

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289:9,17 290:10,21

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181:15

extra 14:21 174:6

303:10

extracurricular 25:19

extremely 92:19

eye 242:17

eyes 87:21 88:1

F

F&S 340:12

FACA 13:8 18:7 40:21

41:4 142:8

face 44:13 202:9,9

253:20

face-to-face 178:5

298:11 358:13

faces 132:4

facie 88:15

facilitate 39:19 48:10

facilities 187:20 194:2

220:12,16 252:7

272:2

facility 107:8 111:8

192:19 239:19 241:6

243:7,15 252:13

272:6

facing 153:15,21

297:20

fact 11:20 64:5 68:20

76:18 79:16,20 83:1

88:1 99:1 101:14

233:9 285:10 332:7

361:1

facto 79:22

factoid 77:18

factors 120:10 168:1

Factory 1:12 133:13

fail 49:14 50:3

failed 77:11 78:1,2

119:21

Failing 175:7

fair 10:16,18 47:13,20

48:10 49:22 50:13

327:22 331:8,17

348:9

fairly 114:14 194:21

216:22 264:17 288:8

288:9

faith 72:22

fall 25:18 30:2 257:14

337:16

Fall/Winter 177:9

fallen 98:15

false 52:22

familiar 11:13 51:1,17

112:7 165:11 184:14

245:17 246:4 272:13

276:21 278:18 331:6

family 30:20 97:13

137:4

family's 135:7

family-owned 134:16

136:4

fantastic 243:13 281:3

331:16 343:7 346:17

far 26:17 41:20 102:13

105:10 180:12 187:8

196:11 249:9 252:8

265:1,2 267:11 269:8

325:8 334:18 355:16

356:16

far-reaching 222:13

farm 1:13,17 40:2,3

95:19 104:10 135:8

136:19 140:6 150:8

150:10 151:3 189:22

237:3 238:6 240:13

241:5 244:14,15

250:7 251:1,6,10

256:21 262:19 270:14

278:17 279:16 280:10

288:2 291:6 310:20

310:22 311:1,5,13,15

311:17,20 312:3

315:13,16,16 316:3

318:8 331:7,14

334:15 341:15,18

351:1

farm-school 342:4

farmer 37:13 134:21,22

143:19 203:9 291:2,7

299:9 300:7 312:14

312:17 343:14 348:14

351:7,10,12,19 352:3

farmer/ranger 291:21

296:18

farmers 27:4,8 37:7

49:3 75:5 89:3,4

134:2 136:20 140:14

153:15 196:19 215:22

216:9,10 253:17,20

270:16 271:7,20

289:22 291:14 296:10

296:17 309:11 313:20

314:3 315:14,22

320:3,5,8 324:17,22

330:19 337:7,13

farmers' 132:16

farming 37:6 136:4

139:10,10 140:3

313:16 314:4

farms 1:11,15 78:10

134:7 136:5 190:22

196:6 230:15,16,17

230:19 231:9,13,16

237:8 238:12,17

243:16,16 249:3

286:13

FAS 74:5,6 248:8

fascinating 329:12

fast 150:13

faster 40:14 175:22

fat 173:21

fatigue 206:9,14 214:16

favor 162:4 163:14

favorably 85:18

favorites 208:3

fax 45:4 119:15,17

FDA 2:18,19 40:5 70:22

72:10,15,19 73:15,16

78:12 79:2 80:4,14

81:1,10,11,16 85:2,3

85:18 86:1 126:2

143:21 144:21 145:10

145:15 175:19 182:21

183:1,8 186:12,16

188:13,15 189:6,7,7

189:14,17 190:9,12

193:13,15 194:7,8,13

195:1,3 196:6,9,15

197:2 207:7 211:9

213:6,14,17 214:2,10

214:14 215:5 217:18

222:20 224:15 232:13

233:14 234:11 238:1

243:7 244:5,22

248:13 306:16

FDA's 79:9 143:15

218:13 242:18 306:7

306:12

fear 240:10

FEARS 84:2

feasibility 149:10

203:19,21

feather 203:6

feature 57:16 66:15

91:15 95:7 114:7

federal 2:11 13:8 19:8

19:21 20:20 21:14,16

22:5,8,20,21 24:2

26:14 28:19 32:11

62:13,18 63:5 64:16

66:3 72:17 73:16

79:14 80:21 85:14

86:9 113:21 134:4

160:22 173:7 286:2

federally 122:12

fee 48:16,16 49:7 50:19

53:10 104:14 124:13

187:4

feed 167:10 172:22

173:1

feedback 142:3 172:1

197:18 199:16,19

206:13 212:3 219:19

272:18,22 284:18

feeder 100:2

feeding 12:6 107:6

123:17

feel 33:20 35:4 47:22

92:6 125:13 140:10

167:15 186:6 209:7

219:16 223:5 226:20

253:10 258:2 281:6

283:1 284:6 308:21

316:21 323:8 326:16

326:21,22 327:2,6

330:18 345:18,20

feeling 16:12 312:18,19

313:8 324:7 325:3

feels 302:1

fees 49:10 51:22

feet 328:1

fellow 154:11

felt 20:20 172:2

FFDCA 173:12

fiduciaries 125:3

field 15:4 22:2 23:16

28:17 63:9 65:12

68:13 75:14 107:7

197:15,20 205:7

278:9,13 314:21

354:4

fielded 206:6

fields 281:11

fifth 161:16

fifth-generation 135:7

fight 317:3

fighting 290:22

figure 53:20 259:6

283:22

figuring 223:18

file 11:1 49:5 59:9 83:16

83:16 271:21

filed 31:2 57:10

filer 72:2

filers 83:1,15

filing 49:6 52:5 83:7

119:11

fill 29:15 118:18 227:18

268:15 273:16 282:14

284:3

filled 263:19,20 269:11

269:14

film 109:18

filter 287:11
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final 130:7,12 156:18

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175:7 225:22 289:19

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30:20

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120:15 141:8 175:10

176:12 202:1 242:8

279:13 284:14 340:7

findings 195:22 235:20

238:15 272:11

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fines 249:15

finishing 70:4

firm 126:13

firms 53:6 221:21 222:3

265:19 267:8,9

first 14:22 17:15 21:16

24:20 27:18 35:15

43:14 46:11 56:15

69:3 70:7 77:15 87:15

90:14 94:8 95:4 98:1

98:12,16 102:15

105:14 123:4 125:16

132:8 133:6 134:3

141:7 152:12 156:21

166:4 173:14,14,20

173:20 176:18 190:20

197:15 204:14 212:14

214:5 218:8 221:21

223:15 224:13 226:12

230:9 233:8 239:3,11

240:16 249:18 257:16

258:18 261:9 263:10

264:8,13 279:8,22

281:2 302:13,18

303:1 309:9 348:16

352:3 357:22

fiscal 206:18,22,22

fit 330:13,21 334:3

337:14

fits 198:18 265:8

five 16:18 36:3 39:11

41:16 74:22 114:14

174:11 207:2 260:1

326:5 329:6 343:4

344:1

fix 154:6

flabby 115:11

flagrant 60:5

flavor 66:14

flexibility 13:5

flexible 216:20

flood 203:2

floral 134:16

floriculture 290:3

Florida 3:12 65:14

131:13 135:8 136:5

242:7 357:17 362:21

flow 66:21 130:5

flowers 89:14 93:12

fly 361:16

FMS 341:8,9

FMSA 292:6 349:6

focal 42:9

focus 5:17 26:1 36:7

38:22 39:2 95:21 96:2

97:3 143:14 153:14

226:9,12 239:2

274:12 275:3 312:1

focused 16:10 24:4,8

28:22 136:22 340:14

focuses 96:6

focusing 72:21 76:8

86:3 179:20 229:17

262:11

folks 12:7 18:20 20:12

21:8,18,22 22:5,18,19

23:10,11 24:8,17

25:12,17 28:7,22 29:3

29:12,17 31:2 32:15

33:22 35:20 38:19

40:4 61:7 73:10 136:8

140:7 143:9 144:15

145:3,21 147:22

152:12,20 153:3,21

154:12 185:11,20

189:8,15 215:5

219:19 226:22 228:4

232:6 242:15 243:22

269:4 274:4 275:15

303:13 305:21 317:10

324:20 327:5 352:19

353:8

folks' 151:10

follow 18:6 32:13 50:12

52:13 56:3 186:16

212:19 214:5 220:18

227:15 278:19 284:21

310:13 332:7,8

followed 67:1 109:1

200:4

follows 222:2

foods 1:22 134:9 137:1

174:20 175:2 193:1

223:1 226:17 245:15

332:1

Force 105:9

forces 71:7

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forefront 141:11

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124:2 181:13 228:16

228:18,19,20 280:8

foremost 35:15 280:1

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forestry 31:21 122:18

123:13

forget 275:21

fork 104:10

forklifts 330:6

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formal 54:6,18 78:12

79:7 81:1 99:13

130:10 175:22 190:8

216:13 285:3,6

formalizes 112:17

former 97:22 99:6

106:10

forming 13:15 298:1

forms 31:1 45:2

forth 189:11 284:22

324:19

forum 48:22 141:9

149:17

forward 14:18 18:10

19:5 40:22 65:19

154:15 155:4,15

181:11 182:16 196:3

205:12 214:20 255:4

255:8 256:18 292:15

293:2,20 294:4

297:13 304:5,10,15

306:3 307:3,5 308:13

312:17 316:16 324:8

325:17 326:1 332:14

forwarded 17:21

foster 224:2

found 44:16 77:21

166:17 178:13 182:9

195:12 238:18 279:12

foundation 256:9

foundational 220:2

four 54:5 90:14 99:8

104:7 110:15 116:13

191:10 222:11 266:19

268:1,5,11 277:11

282:2 326:4 357:19

362:18

fourth 187:7 361:22

fourth- 134:20

framed 276:13

frames 307:13

Francisco 1:16 138:8

138:12 252:5

frankly 214:15 358:9

fraud 52:21

Fredericksburg 111:7

112:2

free 10:8 33:20 167:15

327:2 328:3

freeze 134:11

frequently 52:16

fresh 2:17,18 48:14

50:13 51:8 63:20 92:2

104:8,10 108:15

123:1 133:17 135:9

208:10 218:9 266:20

266:21 272:1 341:22

Fresh's 211:21

fresh-cut 137:17

fresh-direct 135:3

Fresno 65:13 108:22

friend 242:1

Frito-Lay 170:19

front 9:3 140:19 143:7

152:19 250:17 270:9

324:3 356:14 361:19

fronts 244:11

frozen 3:16 48:14 50:14

56:17,18 192:14

193:1

fruit 1:3 3:12 6:8 7:16

9:13 10:19 13:1 14:9

16:4 48:9 61:8,22

66:19 81:19 93:1

105:6 106:9 117:14

122:17 135:16 140:13

143:19 148:17 153:19

153:22 209:22 215:15

263:12 264:7 270:14

309:14 333:14 357:17

359:8 362:22

fruition 168:2

fruits 9:16,20 11:16

48:14 50:14 103:22

114:20 123:10 135:14

139:16 140:8 288:5

290:1,1 314:19

338:19 342:22

FSA 154:12

FSMA 2:21 36:11 39:9

72:18 73:15 78:13,19

79:2,17 80:4 81:16

84:21 85:18,22 145:1

145:7 186:17 188:14

192:18 194:14 197:7

211:4 212:9,22

213:21 218:14,21

219:21 223:21 248:9

261:19 262:13 265:22

292:2 299:2 300:1

305:16 335:4,6,12

336:19 337:14 346:20

348:6,8,21,21 349:6,7

351:5,6 352:12,13

FSMA/Food 4:16

FSMA/GAP 145:9

FSVP 222:1,5
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Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc.

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FTC 73:16 126:3

fulfill 16:1

full 4:7 14:9 22:6 23:2

29:22 43:9,17 70:13

84:11 99:21,22 100:3

109:2 121:15 131:19

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205:16 259:3 268:17

287:14,16 359:2

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functionality 75:2 95:12

functioning 141:18

functions 123:15

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291:12 337:11 340:3

342:16

fundamental 75:15

funded 48:16 50:19

53:10 124:4 131:4,9

131:15 187:4 237:1

280:3 283:7 318:7,8

319:8 323:9,18

funding 36:15 148:4

150:3 172:10 178:8

189:18 215:1 236:3

236:11 237:20 244:1

283:11 289:5,8,16

290:5,18,20 291:18

295:19 296:1 299:3

300:4 304:11 309:4

311:12,16,16 314:12

325:10,12 330:13,22

331:9 332:13 334:13

343:14,18 350:6

361:12

funds 12:13 148:22

149:2 150:7 296:4

funnel 52:17 342:5

furious 150:13

furiously 190:14

further 46:8 75:21

223:17 245:9 247:6

256:12 310:14

future 29:14 105:11

295:5 330:8

FVIAC 2:2

G

gain 198:17 202:20

gaining 343:6

galvanizing 273:4

gap 10:4 78:15 110:10

144:22 145:3,16

146:5,14 187:12

198:12 202:13 203:5

203:20 204:3,13,15

204:17 205:14 208:9

216:19 217:6,7,8,12

217:15 248:14 335:11

336:12

GAP's 194:9,18 196:2,4

198:5,11 203:11,17

gaps 72:12 79:21 150:6

187:10,10,10,11

188:20 194:10 195:5

195:16,19,20 207:17

208:6 215:10,14

221:16 231:11

garden 15:19 356:9

gate 223:16

gates 203:2

gather 355:6

gathered 354:12

gathering 272:1 287:10

348:2

gatherings 298:11

GE 183:13

geared 276:15

general 19:8 30:14,14

30:16 36:1 37:6 53:14

86:14 115:3 136:11

181:21 198:10 199:1

230:11 250:2 303:16

308:14 314:2,3 360:5

362:13

generally 29:12 33:4

108:2 230:2 231:12

generate 284:16

generated 166:12 210:5

321:21

generates 125:19

generating 225:19

generation 134:21

291:13,19 296:17

generic 11:12 66:6

69:16

generically 12:1 127:8

genetic 166:12 168:21

genetically 173:16

174:1 180:18,18

182:19 183:7

Geneva 135:12

geographical 24:5

George 38:6

getting 90:6 94:13

101:4 112:13 145:8

152:21 153:4 190:14

190:17 196:1,17

202:7 206:10 214:6

237:12 240:2 251:10

259:12 273:16 295:5

314:3 316:4 320:7

328:3,19 334:16

335:10 337:8 361:18

GFSI 198:13,16,18,19

199:2,7,14,18 200:4

200:16 201:2,7,7,15

202:2,3,16 203:1

214:13

ghee 320:2

giant 95:11

gift 22:15

gifts 32:16,17,18,20

gigantic 310:7

Gina 358:14

give 14:21 16:2,21 17:7

18:1 19:8,20 33:18,20

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48:4 59:20 60:15 61:2

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Judy 2:10 46:11,19,20

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177:7,10 190:12

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jump 269:3 303:10

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242:17 250:5 256:16

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90:11 99:16 102:16

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224:20 226:10 227:3

322:3

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101:22 238:5 310:16

344:3 355:21 356:19

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356:20

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206:3 212:2 214:20

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238:10 266:18 267:10

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66:10,22 67:8,10

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160:2,10

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188:8,11 200:18

204:5,10 320:11

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193:13

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260:14 293:20 328:3

332:14

moved 47:19

movement 89:16,18

91:2 93:3 207:3

moves 90:18

moving 90:20 105:8

155:4 182:15 201:19

205:12 223:8 229:10

235:1 255:4 260:7

307:5

MREs 107:5 108:17,20

192:20

multi- 276:12

multi-commodity

215:21

multi-mode 277:19

multi-tenant 252:7

multi-use 252:7

multi-user 253:6

multiple 221:7 250:3

298:3 317:17 349:5

351:21

mushroom 1:15 78:10

134:7 187:10

mushrooms 122:20

mustache 11:14

N

Nacional 100:9

naive 310:19

name 18:16 27:11 82:2

100:6,8 103:3 104:3

105:19 108:10 122:5

125:2 132:10,14

133:12,18 134:14

135:6 136:10,17

137:8,13 160:3,11

207:12,13 241:19

273:12,15 274:5

331:20 346:5 357:17

362:20

named 353:11

names 44:13 353:1

nappa 329:15

narrow 129:7

narrowly 166:21

NASDA 197:2 234:7,15

235:13,14 237:11

242:14,19

NASS 2:3,6 261:3,6

262:9,20 263:2,2,11

275:14 276:4,9
(202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com

Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc.

385

278:18 279:12 280:13

282:16 283:6 285:22

287:19 294:19

Nate 274:12

Nathaniel 2:14 261:4

nation 98:15 309:12

nation's 92:1

national 5:11 90:11

91:11 92:18 123:22

124:14 140:4 164:14

165:9 168:17 169:3,4

169:14 170:3 197:2

234:6,16 243:7 261:3

261:16 262:20 274:1

274:8 290:8 291:17

296:22

nationally 329:17

nations 96:11,21 99:6,8

nationwide 109:4 325:8

325:13

nature 56:20 166:17

178:13 182:9 282:7

309:10 360:20

near 139:11 250:12

neat 140:9

nebulous 243:5 244:9

necessarily 9:16 31:1

86:14 153:12 154:5

225:18 244:13 302:1

necessary 75:9 203:17

need 8:17,20 16:11

22:13,14 28:14 39:2

39:16,19 41:11,17

44:20,22 57:1 81:6

87:3 97:11 98:16

106:15 116:20,21

127:5 128:3 145:22

146:4 157:2 160:16

180:21 191:1 195:11

200:5,14 209:20

214:18,21 215:1

219:3 223:8 226:21

239:19 241:9 244:6

251:11 253:10 259:7

261:12 272:20 283:10

302:2 309:13 310:7

313:11 317:2 319:18

332:13 333:13,18,22

336:8 345:17 347:19

348:1 353:2,13,17

355:22 356:3,5,6,16

358:7 361:2

needed 123:20 190:5

229:7 235:22 250:18

300:18 337:3

needs 8:22 13:4 14:13

39:15 51:3,13 126:16

141:10 142:1,7,14

144:12 147:8,10

149:6 178:17,20

202:1 211:14 242:15

248:8 301:22 310:15

320:4 327:1 352:21

361:21

negative 179:15

negotiating 30:13

neighborhood 208:13

neighbors 140:5

NELSON 162:21 163:5

163:8 207:14 209:9

249:2 296:8 312:19

313:18,21 314:9

315:2,6 316:10

348:12,14 351:1

net 29:21

network 1:12 94:16

134:1 190:6 218:11

227:6,7,11,20 228:13

231:7 232:3 236:4,12

239:8,10

networking 291:2

neutral 336:21

never 42:12 115:22

116:7,13 147:5

209:14 308:18 315:15

Nevermind 44:1

new 4:2 6:4 11:7 17:7

32:2 35:20 36:21

37:13,14 43:13,19

47:9 57:5,16 62:20

68:20 69:1 72:3 86:20

90:5 95:7,12,22

117:11,13 133:10,21

134:21 135:4,12

136:8 137:1 139:11

140:3 147:2 148:19

149:11 152:11,13

160:16 162:11,22

163:1,22 168:13

182:4 207:15,15

211:6 218:10 230:13

230:17,20 234:19

245:21 291:1,10

292:6 296:1 299:9

300:7,18 301:21

302:4 310:8,9,9,15

312:14,17 313:4,10

313:13,19 314:2

315:14 324:20,21

326:10 343:14 348:14

351:7,9,11,19 352:3

360:12 361:17

newcomers 132:6

newer 66:13

newest 123:1 199:20

news 2:5 10:6 25:6

67:11 87:6,7,15,16,17

87:19,21 89:7 94:1,21

95:21 96:1,9,12 97:6

98:2,17 99:9 151:16

195:8 202:16 212:13

299:12 300:13,13

318:2,7,20 319:13

320:2,21 321:7,10,19

321:19 322:5,9,10,11

322:19 323:13,16

334:13 343:15 349:19

351:4

next-door 140:5

nice 61:6 128:20 135:21

294:7 339:18

Nicholson 1:18 135:11

135:12 156:11 211:1

211:1 212:18,19

254:21,21 282:9,9

284:21 331:5 334:7

337:6

NIFA 236:22 290:16

340:12

night 141:14

nine 164:21 165:6

166:6 176:22

Nogales 51:9 58:13

Nolan 1:11 134:20,20

156:11 163:19 207:14

249:2 300:6

nomenclature 274:19

274:19

nominate 161:13

162:17

nominated 124:10

nominations 86:18

161:10 162:2 163:13

non- 66:6 179:7,18

197:9

non-bio-engineered

174:21 175:4

non-compliance 179:1

non-GMO 167:13 175:4

179:17,17 180:2

non-payment 52:22

non-policy 280:13

non-productive 329:4

non-profits 139:6

non-specific 240:13

NOP 175:3

normally 283:4

North 69:7 134:18

136:21 201:15

Northeast 133:8

note 15:11 139:14

253:21

notes 238:13

notice 52:7,10,11

142:10 176:19 177:12

185:11 227:9 228:2

noticed 219:17

notices 130:12

notifications 292:15

notion 243:3

November 45:3 69:4

84:9 172:7 201:1

211:20 212:5 281:10

nuances 56:16

NUCFAC 31:18

number 9:15 12:5 50:22

54:22 63:22 64:2

68:11 78:22 91:18

114:1 120:10 134:10

145:10,20 148:18

174:10 187:3,6

189:20 194:22 198:7

199:9 201:4 204:11

206:21 208:8,14,18

216:12 221:4 226:7

233:14 234:8 236:20

236:21 251:2 262:14

267:22 276:16,16

278:11 301:1 336:1

numbers 204:4 278:10

numerous 177:14

nursery 290:2

nut 66:19 74:19

nutrition 2:21 39:21

134:4 218:6 337:21

340:11 343:1

nuts 108:18 122:18

123:11 290:1

nutshell 12:18

O

Obama 29:6

objectives 72:18

obligates 193:13

obligation 88:11 336:13

354:15

obligations 49:15 50:3

181:10

obscure 11:6

observer 4:12,19 5:19

344:3 357:15

observers 157:1,8,8,10

260:11

obtained 71:18 166:16

obviously 22:20 27:14

27:17 32:4,20 91:15

111:22 113:20 150:15

161:15 190:22 223:11

229:15 235:2

occasional 101:17

occasionally 25:11

33:2
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Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc.

386

occur 38:14 71:20

130:20 314:5

occurs 72:2

Oceano 1:19 136:12

October 1:6 104:6

172:6 199:14 277:8

277:13,16 281:6,10

281:14 282:1,3

291:16 292:2

odd 118:7

Off-microphone 247:7

247:21 259:14 349:12

off-putting 273:13

offended 327:3

offer 51:12 114:7

116:22 187:3 191:3

192:4 310:17

offered 32:18 114:10

150:9

office 2:13,17,19,20 4:3

18:5,17 20:2,16 27:5

33:19 35:10 50:5

65:10 143:13 218:6

223:2 241:13 250:11

251:22 319:20 358:20

360:5

officer 30:15 105:8

160:22

offices 65:13 75:14

94:16 96:1 109:3

113:4

official 2:11 26:14 30:7

33:13 67:13 114:17

146:16 358:16

officially 162:9 204:3

officials 19:16 31:15

Ohio 132:16

oil 9:17 110:5 173:22

oils 178:14

OJT 115:1

old 77:15 83:2 94:14

119:15 291:8 327:14

older 87:16

olive 110:4

OMB 284:13 321:7

on- 189:21 237:2

256:20

on-farm 237:21 238:2

239:1

on-front 188:20

on-package 170:7,21

174:18

onboard 50:15 203:3

227:17

once 15:13 43:10,12

45:6,22 64:17 90:15

102:14 174:8 200:12

202:22 207:7 211:9

219:10,13 286:8

294:20 298:17 340:6

one- 266:3 329:20

one-million 265:4,5

ones 11:14 31:2 68:8

131:7 147:16 169:13

213:13 225:18 231:7

236:13 294:8 301:8

ongoing 73:9 301:9

307:12 358:3 359:17

360:13,18

onions 68:12

online 10:8 51:18,18

120:22

open 54:11 83:15 84:9

110:19 158:8 199:17

203:1 211:19 256:5

260:10 269:1 298:18

301:7

opens 24:10

operate 13:6 35:14

252:6

operates 60:14

operating 55:18 58:8

72:16 75:8 79:13 94:8

94:10 134:17 322:6

operation 135:22 263:3

276:18

operational 107:3,5

223:20

operations 108:8,12

197:6,11 253:6 272:1

272:3

operator 87:14 252:9

opinion 28:8 285:20

305:21

opportunities 140:12

140:14 144:8 149:11

325:1 341:11

opportunity 13:13

47:14 65:6 87:13

147:20 148:12 150:5

152:15 153:8 178:5

185:16 199:8,10

217:22 221:3 225:16

232:21 233:8 237:7

248:4 250:15 254:20

275:5,14 277:10

297:16,22 306:15

308:16 311:6 341:6

opposed 244:19 325:5

opted 298:2

optimistic 316:22

option 147:5 174:9

184:4 203:21 205:8

239:12

options 144:14 170:12

174:5,11 184:2

ORA 224:18 227:12,20

241:12

Oracle 94:8

orange 109:1

orchard 135:13

Orchards 1:14,18

135:12

order 1:7 11:5 60:21

61:20 62:22 66:4

68:20,21 69:5 72:17

77:4,6 82:4 84:14

85:9,10,15 86:17,17

123:18 128:9,11,16

130:13,18 132:8

178:18 182:17

orders 49:16 61:1,3

62:19 63:5 65:16,21

66:16 67:7 72:10

73:11 76:2,10,12,19

78:7 79:14 84:21 85:1

97:7 128:7,14,19,22

129:20,22 131:11

Oregon 65:13

organic 91:9,11,12

95:18,20 96:2,6

123:13 137:1,10

175:1,3 216:8 271:7

271:12,14,16,20

273:13 274:21 275:3

289:12

organics 275:5

organization 28:12

30:15 33:10 35:7

73:14 96:10,14 98:6

100:9 123:5 132:11

136:20 137:4 252:14

280:14

organization's 32:10

organizations 132:18

164:11 229:12 234:9

236:20 269:22

oriental 136:16

orientation 6:8 43:14

origin 187:14,17

original 104:8

originally 139:1,10

Orlando 65:14

outbreak 28:6 228:15

231:20

outbreaks 231:13

244:18

outcome 358:16

outfit 137:15

outlet 76:21 77:5

outlets 77:11 91:19

324:18

outlines 14:3

outreach 27:5,7 51:6

189:6 201:12,20

228:14 233:1,2,5,15

236:16 237:4,7

248:17 271:6

outside 22:16 23:6,9,9

28:11 32:10 52:8 83:8

158:9 258:16,16

259:12 279:7 326:18

outstanding 110:13

overall 16:12 94:7

221:6 223:21,22

229:16

overarching 168:7,8

overblown 141:19

overcome 11:8

overcrowding 67:17

overhead 267:19

overlap 30:7 74:4 129:5

264:5 351:20

overlapping 344:9

overseas 58:1

oversee 9:12,21 10:6

10:17 11:11 63:18

108:13 109:9 123:7

124:22 127:9 337:21

337:22 338:1

overseeing 79:2

overseen 80:16 222:18

oversees 62:5 122:16

124:20 129:14 340:19

oversight 124:19

overtime 329:3

overview 4:4 16:22

19:8 44:4 48:5 75:15

289:3 360:18

owe 22:9

owned 82:21 283:6

ownership 285:20

owns 248:12 282:20

337:17

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P

P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S

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p.m 159:16 260:3,4

279:2 352:17,18

353:6,7 363:12

PACA 2:10 10:17 11:2

46:22 48:4,5,15 49:1

49:7,12,20 50:9,10

51:15,17 52:3,5,6,17

52:19 53:12 55:1,5,15

56:7 57:3,14 58:1,2,7

58:11,14,18 59:3,4,6

59:10 60:1,6,10,12,14

60:18 105:6,7

PACA's 51:5
(202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com

Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc.

387

pack 67:14,15 68:1

133:17

package 86:19,19

packages 67:18

packaging 122:9,21

123:3

packed 34:18

packer 137:5,10

packers 272:8

packet 13:22 15:1,6

17:5

packets 301:13 327:20

packing 272:5

page 45:15,16

pages 41:2 90:14,16

paid 10:22 46:22 49:4

53:8 54:4 59:9 66:8

paint 103:2

pair 303:10

Palisade 137:4

Pam 2:11 6:10 13:10,19

18:16 19:22 21:17

26:13 34:9 47:9

109:20 121:17 288:17

292:9 293:22 294:5

297:12 298:16 301:2

304:2 311:9 323:17

327:17 348:1 352:21

353:12,13,15,18

354:5

paper 122:8,9,21,21

123:2,3 330:4 346:4

papers 354:8

par 196:11

parameters 13:7

pardon 80:14

Paris 89:10

parity 280:6

parking 44:21 45:21

Parrott 2:7 4:10 5:15

6:11 7:6,7 8:16,20 9:8

9:10 13:22 14:7 34:22

43:8,21 46:12 56:6

57:3 59:5,13,15 60:17

76:1 84:18 86:5 87:4

97:18 100:16 103:19

110:22 113:19 115:4

117:2,6 119:7 120:14

121:7,17 125:12

127:4,13 131:10

138:13 155:18 156:4

158:14 159:5 217:3

288:16 295:22 296:7

296:13 297:3 319:16

322:13 323:16,20

333:4 334:22 336:17

337:1,20 338:12,18

339:1,4,7,17 340:15

341:13 349:21 350:1

350:8,11,13

part 42:14 73:17 90:4,8

92:3 100:10 102:15

102:16 109:2 119:12

124:16 129:9 140:18

147:1 155:10 166:4

176:18 182:12 186:19

196:17 218:22 231:3

232:2,3,16 237:20

263:10,21 277:3

310:3 311:20 322:16

331:7 338:10 342:17

partially 168:21 269:10

PARTICIPANT 156:15

159:3 160:8 163:3

182:14 185:13,15,18

185:20 189:4 271:13

275:18 281:3 297:2

312:9,13 318:15

341:5 342:10 345:9

345:12 346:11 347:11

349:7,9,13,16 351:9

362:19

participants 344:9

participate 146:10

197:14,16 215:18

247:3 345:21 346:1

participated 263:16

participating 215:12

327:7,17,20 345:7,19

350:17,18

participation 263:17

268:16

particular 22:1,2 24:5

28:6,8,13,17 32:12

56:20 70:18 74:19

120:5 182:1 192:4

196:21 203:10 208:11

216:15 234:14 238:17

238:21 239:18 240:13

244:12 252:13,20

297:19 301:11 309:13

343:6

particularly 66:17

123:17 146:7 153:22

226:15 253:11 331:1

334:15

parties 54:21 258:16,17

partly 335:21

partner 30:14,16 242:6

285:17

partnered 262:8

partners 99:16 195:2

223:6 225:17 231:10

242:3 248:19 251:8

258:5 284:19

partnership 30:14 48:9

parts 8:4 100:1,1 154:8

154:22 228:5 239:9

262:4 263:10

pass 85:22 109:17

155:22 189:10 217:14

291:22 292:10

passed 90:14 147:17

path 284:9

pathogens 74:18

Patty 2:9 121:10,11

131:16

pause 88:21

pay 46:3 49:10,17,19

50:3 51:21 56:2 125:5

337:8

pay.gov 51:21

payer 124:12

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payment 54:10

pdf 57:17

peaches 137:6

peaking 281:9

peanut 63:11 108:21

peanuts 63:13 65:17

122:20

pecan 68:20 69:2 86:20

pecans 11:7 62:22

PED 2:9 123:14

peer 285:17

penalties 49:22 53:8,11

penalty 251:13

Peninsula 132:15

people 7:11,18 8:9

10:20 34:2 36:6 46:22

47:1 50:6 51:2 53:1

56:5,22 57:4 64:6

80:20 86:13 93:16

96:16 98:8 101:11

102:21 110:4 111:16

112:19 126:12 127:5

138:15 155:8 191:10

201:5 206:11 208:3

217:5 226:18 239:13

240:8 241:3 242:10

245:15 247:19 256:20

257:5 267:1 269:14

270:15 298:2,18

302:5 307:4 308:3

313:4 314:4 315:11

315:17 321:8,9 322:8

322:22 326:16 327:7

333:11 343:10 345:16

349:5 351:21 356:10

people's 16:6 36:22

pepperoni 169:12

perceived 64:13

percent 9:20 54:4 92:19

135:16 181:4,6,6

197:22 207:1,2

208:14 214:3 263:20

265:10,12 266:2,8,9

267:2,4,5,8,11,13,13

268:7,8 269:14

287:22 308:3 330:6

percentage 208:12

265:19 268:10 286:20

perfect 47:17

perfectly 308:22 354:18

perform 197:5 236:14

performance 75:7

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period 95:5 161:15

174:6 199:18 210:8

220:10 221:19 283:17

periods 219:10

Perishable 10:17 46:20

48:7 60:3

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permanently 233:11

person 41:15 116:5

253:4 263:5

personal 28:4 139:14

277:20 278:1

personally 263:2

personnel 107:8

perspective 19:20 23:3

23:10 24:1,9,18 25:13

26:22 42:10 47:13

167:19 212:12 226:6

251:21

perspectives 20:22

pertain 245:22

pertaining 290:6

pest 66:13 290:5 310:7

361:3,7,19

pesticide 287:12

pests 149:10 310:9

Petersen 2:8 4:17 81:15

108:3 110:11 146:18

158:5,5 186:3,5 189:5

208:5 211:8 213:3

214:1 215:3,8,19

216:6

Petrella 2:9 121:11,16

122:4,5 125:18 126:8

126:21 127:17 128:17

131:5,7

Petty 122:5

Ph.D 2:4,18

phase 218:15,16,16,17

218:19,22 219:9,22

222:10,10

phased 100:3

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Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc.

388

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phone 16:18 17:2 113:2

159:11 170:15 202:6

204:20 205:7 239:12

242:1 283:21 284:7

phones 158:20

phonetic 210:1

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photos 155:22 157:18

physical 42:2 45:17

physically 43:2

Pichelman 122:7

pick 14:15 36:3 110:1

330:4 352:1

picking 288:4

picture 103:2

piece 165:20 167:1

174:15 182:5,19

190:7 200:1 203:1

224:21 228:17 233:7

234:3 235:10,21

237:2 239:20 240:22

249:18 250:3 259:20

267:16 312:17 330:14

341:21 346:4

pieces 164:21 166:6

171:2 176:22 221:7

227:11 242:12 250:3

pigeonhole 216:21

pike 150:11

piling 271:12

pilot 83:11 119:13

203:22 213:18 237:13

342:18

piloted 146:5

piloting 83:20

pilots 237:13 257:16

pineapples 114:21

pioneers 120:20

pipe 95:11,14 193:11

Pismo 1:19 136:11

pistachio 69:15

pizza 169:9,12

place 62:13 63:12 67:16

72:11 74:21 77:14

78:16 79:8,16 80:13

91:13 100:22 145:11

149:17 150:21 175:15

175:17 181:2 191:14

239:11,13 254:6

261:14 333:9 339:14

339:17 362:14

placement 280:10

places 10:2 187:20

223:12 306:8

plain 216:9

plan 74:21 75:8 228:19

229:7 232:18 233:15

233:16,18 238:5,11

249:10 250:7

plane 41:3

planner 97:10

planning 148:3 227:13

227:22 228:14 237:13

239:9 256:4 315:20

316:8 332:7

plans 203:16

plant 166:16 289:5,10

290:15,15

planting 284:5

plants 134:10 174:1

192:14,15

plate 187:18 338:7

platform 94:7

play 106:3 120:11 180:2

236:20

players 69:16

playing 63:9 68:13

plays 143:16 150:13

please 15:11,15 19:11

26:13 44:8,19 82:15

121:21 131:18 138:19

157:5,6 207:12

253:12 255:21 270:12

287:20 353:2

pleased 148:2

pleasure 136:7

plenty 259:4 307:1,3

plug 155:2 275:7

308:21

plugging 141:11

Plum 63:19

plus 9:11

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Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc.

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68:3 71:19 72:12

74:13 79:16,19 85:14

85:16,17 107:9

117:22 118:16 145:1

145:8 168:5 173:8,12

192:11,18 193:6

194:19 195:6 200:11

200:15 216:20 219:6

233:18 247:16 256:7

256:17

requires 64:3 166:10

167:6 171:3,13

207:19,20

requiring 79:18 202:16

research 4:21 11:11

36:14 39:15 42:17

66:11,12 122:12,16

123:7,9,19,22 124:1

125:1,8 129:1 149:9

150:1 154:11 157:20

260:15,18,19,20

262:2 289:6,8,17,21

290:10,14,20 294:6

295:1 299:3 300:4,19

304:10 309:4,10,15

310:2 311:12 312:4

329:20 330:13 331:6

331:10,14 342:15

343:13,16,17 350:20

351:13,14 352:2

361:12

reservation 354:20

reservations 44:18

reserve 129:9,16,22

reserves 130:1

reside 227:8,21

resilience 290:15

resistant 66:13

resolution 49:8 54:17

350:3

resolve 11:2 54:15,20

resolved 49:11 54:1

214:13

resource 75:9 189:21

236:5

resources 72:20 79:10

79:12 85:20 86:3

106:4 148:7 203:15

225:10 241:16

respect 128:7 294:14

358:1 360:7 361:2,5

responded 181:22

respondent 284:2

respondents 55:10

277:7

responders 98:12

response 162:7 163:17

253:1 263:3 269:18

270:6 271:9,17,18

309:21

responses 240:18,19

316:22

responsibilities 228:12

243:22

responsibility 253:19

responsible 62:15

63:11 74:16 222:22

228:18 242:11 252:16

252:17 257:22

responsive 51:12

142:14 149:6

rest 6:6 34:7 72:1 141:2

220:18 226:10 329:4

346:3 352:7 354:17

restaurant 56:9 159:1

172:13 182:17 210:14

354:9

restaurants 8:2 55:7,20

133:14 183:21

restricting 247:9

restrictions 53:2

restrooms 121:22

result 129:11,12 199:5

272:19 318:6 342:3

results 195:19 261:22

261:22

resume 163:21

resumed 131:22 158:12

159:15 260:3 352:17

353:6

retail 10:11 88:20 89:1

90:13,15 91:14,15

92:9 133:7 137:16

172:13 318:19

retailer 209:19

retailers 8:1 55:7

retiree 105:10

retiring 133:3

return 269:5 353:17

returned 45:6

returning 132:4,5 141:4

155:12 288:17

revenue 48:18

review 17:14 27:7 125:1

125:14,20 126:2

188:20,21 194:9,22

195:20 196:5 237:3

237:22 239:1 294:10

reviews 238:3 256:21

revised 196:8

Rica 59:1

Rican 59:6

RICHARD 1:15

Rick 136:1

Rico 109:7

rid 94:14

Ridgeview 1:14

rigor 217:11

ringing 204:20

risk 19:2 80:11 193:11

323:5,14 349:20

risks 193:20 318:13

river 65:11

RNP 124:16

road 189:2 316:5

334:10

roads 316:4

roadside 135:2,2

Robert 1:11 156:11

robust 33:9

Roland 1:17 36:16

136:17 179:6 213:16

257:18 271:2 273:11

294:2 300:3 309:5

310:18 335:7 345:1

Roland's 335:1

role 41:8 73:18 90:4

143:14,16 144:3

150:14 162:12,13

180:2 201:7 215:2

225:21 236:21 252:8

roles 193:19 225:20

roll 95:6 144:15 148:21

149:13 250:20 257:13

rolled 91:14 146:16

rolling 91:12

rollout 99:22

roof 357:8

room 1:7 15:7 22:19

55:6 122:1,2 157:8

209:10 354:9,16

355:17 356:12,20

roots 205:22

roster 353:12

roughly 54:4

round 43:17 132:9

233:8,10 239:4

271:21

round-robin 304:13

305:10

route 330:1

row 210:8

Rudman 2:10 46:20

47:8 55:9 56:14 57:13

58:3 59:22

rule 32:7 143:15 174:9

177:8,9,21 181:14

190:2,10 192:12

193:7 194:11,20

195:7,13,15,18

196:10,22 217:20

220:3,4,14 221:2,9,12

221:15 222:1 223:12

227:4 231:22 239:14

239:17,20 253:18

254:4,14 256:7,8,8

258:9 265:21 266:3,5

307:18,18,20

rulemaking 130:10

142:11 172:15,18

174:13 176:13,19,20

177:12 218:20

rules 18:7 19:10 20:10

22:13,15,15 24:16

30:2 32:13 40:7 41:6

59:4 143:20 144:2,15

170:1 175:15 212:15

218:22 219:2,13

220:2,4,11 221:13,20

222:3,4 223:7 258:12

262:13

rulings 31:11

rumors 358:17

run 1:11 80:15 95:4

133:9 134:2 148:12

161:7,18 164:19

249:2 355:9 358:10

359:19

running 79:1 82:20

83:18 158:16 240:15

272:5

runs 26:16 74:21

rural 37:2,5 139:6 299:7

300:14 314:15 325:4

325:8

Russia 98:15

S

safe 180:5

safety 2:17,17,19,19,21

2:22 4:16 36:10 39:1

72:7 78:19 80:11

143:10 145:18 166:1

174:16 185:4,4,21,22

188:16,19 189:16,19

189:20,22 190:3,6,10

190:13 191:18,20
(202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com

Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc.

393

193:11,20 194:11,19

198:9 203:16 207:17

207:20 209:13 214:22

217:20 218:5,7,7,11

220:3 221:21 222:17

227:5,6,11,19 228:13

229:13,14 230:3

231:6 232:3,18 236:4

236:12 241:21 249:4

249:10 250:7 261:7,9

261:14,15 262:7,11

263:20 292:1,4 299:2

300:1 304:9 305:11

306:6 307:17 312:7

326:21 327:9 343:13

344:18,22 345:8

sale 91:13 102:14,14

sales 102:21 264:21,22

265:6 268:4 275:8

salesmen 101:3

salmon 182:17,19,20

183:7,13

salmonella 74:18

salt 213:10

Sam 62:9

sample 265:8,11,12

267:12 276:13,13,15

276:20 287:17

San 1:16 138:8,12

252:5

sanction 50:2 53:6

sanctioned 50:11

sanctions 49:20

sanitary 70:21 220:4

sanitizing 240:7

Sarah 3:15 158:1

sat 211:9 213:14

satisfactory 54:21

satisfied 328:2

save 279:15 320:1

saw 146:3 191:9 242:22

268:12 306:7

saying 16:19 79:5

88:12 104:15 112:16

119:4 196:12,12

206:1,9 237:10

270:13 286:18 359:1

says 127:7 296:17

355:20 356:2

scale 47:20 342:12

scaling 145:22

scan 342:13

scare 357:11

scarecrow 283:2

scared 357:12

scary 308:1

scenarios 256:2

schedule 34:18 155:10

158:17 159:19 185:22

191:8,9,11,22 197:22

scheduled 119:18

177:3 178:1 190:16

191:15 197:20 354:1

scheme 64:12 213:9

214:11,15 229:9

247:1

schemes 179:13

school 12:5 123:18

187:16 193:1 279:12

337:22 341:15,18

342:5

schools 341:17

SCI 2:6,12,14 74:14

80:15 119:8,17 120:2

science 74:15 227:1

scope 32:12 36:5

124:14 171:22 309:22

score 32:3

SCP 2:8 123:15

scratch 347:13

scratching 286:17

screen 119:19 152:16

screens 71:10

seal 55:16

search 57:19

searchable 57:17

season 102:4,7,10,13

102:15,19 205:18

206:19 270:22

seasons 270:16

seats 260:6

second 21:17 32:7

36:14 135:9 159:3

161:22 163:10 173:10

173:21 176:21 224:21

240:22 249:12 258:4

263:21 294:14 297:14

352:11 360:6 363:6,8

seconding 163:12

Secondly 88:10

seconds 109:19

Secretaria 100:11

secretariat 211:22

Secretary 7:14,19

12:12 14:11,17 17:22

18:18 25:15 26:2 29:2

37:18 39:6 124:11

139:2,3 141:1 143:12

153:17 155:20 167:3

289:18 290:19 305:14

305:14 324:3 340:17

358:2 359:1

Secretary's 358:20

360:5

section 12:13 83:16

106:18 279:18

sector 21:2 42:6 97:11

114:19 143:18 254:9

261:8 279:17 324:22

sectors 39:7 322:22

security 87:1 262:22

seed 2:5 167:21

seeing 115:8 215:13,15

328:20

seek 64:20

seeking 285:19

seen 25:17 115:22

116:7,13 215:19

216:7 329:11

sees 201:7

segment 253:3 297:19

segments 277:2

select 7:20

selected 7:10 14:17

353:1

selection 68:21 86:16

86:17,19,21

self- 160:19 197:8

self-assessment 238:8

self-dealing 26:10

sell 10:22 50:13 56:7

135:2,3 138:4 147:5

209:20 272:12

seller 49:4,17 54:10,16

sellers 48:13 49:14

50:3 54:3 55:12,13,14

58:6,17 93:9

selling 50:4,7 55:21

56:5 58:13 213:9

265:11,12 266:20,20

266:21,22 267:1,3,5

267:12

Senator 182:1

Senators 206:7

send 33:21 39:13 293:8

297:7 346:2,4

sending 239:14 293:8

sends 117:9

senior 2:4 136:3 139:3

164:4 197:17 222:20

sense 26:3 130:6

142:21 151:22 251:10

282:16 324:1 326:19

331:13 335:9

sensing 326:2

sent 7:8 15:11 52:12

71:5 113:14 269:6

270:4

sentence 14:15

sentiment 258:5

separate 96:15 129:4

179:19 183:9 311:7

317:13 328:12

September 171:21

190:19 289:15

series 279:20 283:14

seriously 263:1 276:7

serve 7:16 8:8 21:8

24:19 29:9 32:10

48:19 55:1 64:7 145:4

189:21 199:2 211:17

306:6 325:22

served 135:17 161:16

172:13

serves 18:18 27:3 96:9

285:21

service 4:21 8:2 9:22

25:10,14 31:19 32:21

39:21,21 50:18 61:14

74:3 84:11 87:17

104:9 106:16 107:5

107:13 137:17 138:22

147:16 157:20 176:11

181:13 209:22 260:15

260:18,19 261:4

262:21 274:2,9 276:3

321:1 337:21

services 23:21 24:22

25:15 35:22 48:21

51:11 81:20 105:16

105:21,22 106:2,2

110:7 138:11 141:22

147:10 158:6 186:19

186:21 187:4,5

192:11,16 209:5

280:10

Servicio 100:9

serving 6:18 22:11

29:13,18 136:20

162:21 309:17 349:5

351:21

session 6:18 76:8

260:11 318:5

sessions 178:4,7

190:15,16,21 191:7

191:16,17 192:1

194:13 249:5

set 24:8 90:9 96:14

98:22 99:1 183:2

195:14 236:19 242:7

252:14 287:8 305:6

311:16 355:3

sets 63:3,12 89:17

256:9

setting 68:15 71:8

107:13 218:16,21

219:5,22

settle 54:7

settled 54:4

settlement 54:16

seven 41:16 210:7

220:2 292:19 305:13
(202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com

Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc.

394

306:2 336:22

sewer 193:11

SGE 28:2

SGEs 29:15 30:4 32:7

shameless 275:7

shaming 185:8

Shanghai 329:15

shape 33:16 130:22

235:3

share 9:4 74:6 146:12

164:4 234:17 245:11

246:13 264:14 286:22

287:2 297:17,22

298:16 309:15 353:20

354:5

Shareefah 2:15 261:5

274:13

sharing 234:22 259:17

274:2 337:7

she'll 17:3

shear 285:9

sheet 94:18

sheets 160:6 346:9

353:15

shelf 66:14,18

shelled 116:15

shift 47:18

shipment 116:2

shipments 89:18 91:3

91:13

shipper 59:6 117:8

136:12 137:5,10

shippers 92:17

shipping 10:2,9 88:19

90:11 91:13 92:7,16

93:2,6 96:3 321:12

shoot 327:2

shop 110:17

short 63:20 109:17

230:18

Shortages 90:21

shortly 334:16

shot 358:19

shouting 358:15

show 50:21 109:22,22

146:13,13 164:10

245:16,20 262:3

263:13 281:16 345:6

showing 93:3 264:11

shows 57:16 249:8

shriveled 115:11

shut 251:1 322:4

shuttle 356:8

SIAL 245:16

sick 338:16

side 14:6,6 15:10 17:5

17:20 69:18 82:5

89:16 106:10 108:5

154:13 193:9,10

209:21,22 214:12

226:4 228:16 229:19

285:10,14 309:16,16

sidebar 77:17 351:16

sided 99:5

sides 101:14 148:1

sign 157:5 160:6 176:9

263:6 298:3 355:8

signal 71:4

signature 45:5

signed 68:21 81:20

156:22 164:14

significant 67:2 212:4

significantly 128:10

Silbermann 133:3

Silicon 329:19

SILIKERS 210:1

similar 107:13 116:11

172:13 173:10 175:5

183:21 199:18 215:14

221:11 229:14 264:16

268:12 272:10 294:19

simple 45:19 61:21

88:2,4 288:3

simplified 221:15

simply 246:11

simultaneously 213:20

294:21 302:15

single 71:14 89:20

sir 100:15,18 245:13

285:18 348:13 362:20

sister 38:10 151:13

180:16

sit 9:11 252:10 285:2

site 93:17,21 176:4

242:4,19 243:8

sitting 325:21

situation 12:11 59:18

99:18 118:5 231:15

252:18,20

situations 107:17 251:5

251:16 361:8

six 36:4 39:11 41:16

114:14 189:17 191:10

193:17 197:21 201:10

207:3 222:2 292:19

326:5,5

six-plus 198:15 214:8

Sixteen 265:12

size 67:14,20 117:15,16

146:7 244:11 266:17

268:13 276:17

sizes 262:19

Skelton 188:14

Skelton's 215:2

skilled 226:13

skinned 116:15 117:22

skyrocketing 336:2

slated 344:1

slew 329:5

slice 264:11

slide 19:22 21:13 22:4

28:1 32:5 285:16

slides 294:15

slow 240:17 344:17

small 7:22 8:5 139:10

140:3 172:17 174:3

174:12 180:2 202:17

203:9 205:9 215:22

217:7,13 221:12

249:3,21 262:14

266:9 268:10 281:1

336:11

small-ish 265:15

smaller 145:21 146:8

250:2 266:15 324:18

smallest 266:3 268:8,9

smart 170:15 352:5

smile 286:1

smooth 161:4

SNAP 37:8 330:20

337:22 341:8

SNAP-ed 337:18

338:15 341:8

snapshot 301:10

SNIM 100:9

socially 27:8

soft 115:10 116:15

250:19

softwood 9:17 122:22

sold 59:7 209:20 210:3

soldiers 107:6

solely 167:14 173:1

179:20 300:17

solid 273:2

solution 173:10 310:3

solutions 306:16

solve 22:2

solved 16:11

somebody 58:22

162:11 209:21 234:18

234:19 248:8 254:13

305:7 306:5,6 324:21

325:21 329:18 332:10

357:1

somewhat 79:22

215:16 230:6,7

231:16

Sons 1:14,15

soon 153:3 292:14

355:9

sorry 9:9 100:12 117:4

188:13 275:18 297:4

324:11 337:1

sort 19:2,7,15,16 20:2,3

20:11 21:6,7,12,15,19

23:17,20 24:10,17,19

25:9,18,22 27:18,19

27:22 28:11 29:21

33:7,9 34:11 55:16

66:22 78:12 79:8

96:15 103:2 142:5

143:18 145:6 146:3

150:4 154:22 179:13

198:17 201:17 221:11

221:14 227:7 229:14

231:2 234:3,11,20

236:6 237:4,14 238:8

238:16 240:6,13

244:9,14 245:1

246:21 247:13 249:22

250:12,15,19,19

251:17 252:19,22

253:13 256:3,18

258:22 283:1 301:12

320:9,14 335:10

340:5 341:17 358:21

359:21 360:13,17

361:15 362:9

sorts 164:11 238:18

260:20

sound 343:21

sounds 109:12 141:19

185:15 214:7 243:13

308:12 323:22 325:16

343:5 351:18

soup 108:18 173:19

174:2

source 276:10 280:18

sources 296:1

south 65:10,14 69:9

98:19 111:7 136:21

137:15 140:4 181:6

southeastern 77:6

Soviet 97:21,22 99:6

soy 173:22

soybean 173:22

Spam 173:14,18

span 282:6

Spanish 121:3

Spartan 342:19

speak 9:1,1,6 23:18,19

42:19 66:18 83:19

132:4 139:19 176:20

186:4 209:17 218:1

253:7 285:9 324:6

speaker 39:20 60:19

121:10

speakers 2:16 347:20

speaking 8:20 9:5

28:12 33:1,5,14 157:7

160:3,10 217:20

310:10 330:3
(202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com

Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc.

395

speaks 289:14

spearmint 9:17

special 21:22 27:20

29:5,8,20 30:17 32:14

33:3 71:5 91:11 102:3

183:13 329:14

Specialist 3:16 158:3

specialists 53:18

106:20 123:6,21

125:20

specialization 224:18

226:14

specialize 224:19

specialized 91:6 113:5

116:20 226:21

specially 226:22

specials 88:21 89:2

92:1

Specialties 1:20 55:4

99:20 137:14 161:22

184:20 243:2

specialty 2:3 4:6 9:12

38:11 61:9,22 74:10

81:5 84:1 103:21

104:4 105:5 110:20

122:15 123:12 148:22

186:19 309:14 312:4

314:15,18,21 321:1

322:15 328:18 331:6

340:1 343:16 359:11

361:6

specific 24:8 39:5,8

91:7 118:4 126:16

186:17 230:15 239:18

242:10 252:18 255:16

255:19 256:2 284:18

308:20 314:1 339:21

340:5,20

specifically 20:1 36:2

82:2,18 175:1 201:5

216:17 229:16 243:16

247:18 267:17 272:7

276:9 290:21 292:7

317:10 329:1,3

337:17 359:14 362:11

specifications 107:1

specified 23:6

spectrum 9:21 14:9

16:4 153:20

speech 125:21

speed 112:3 153:5

164:19 240:21 289:1

292:12

spent 124:21 133:6

320:6 354:22

spilled 129:1,19

spinach 134:22

split 220:22

splitting 130:4

spoke 51:8,8 92:13

177:13

spoken 40:1

spot 102:13

spouse 30:11

spread 228:3 298:6

Spring 202:10 298:15

357:13

sprinkling 6:5

sprout 188:19 221:10

221:12 229:14,16,17

230:1

sprouts 220:17 221:22

229:22

square 195:11

squash 137:11

Stabenow 182:1

stable 67:4 151:22

288:9

stack 354:8

staff 2:1,20 65:8 125:11

195:2 204:10 223:3

225:4,4 226:3 227:12

227:13,13,15,18,21

228:1 248:17 263:2

274:10,16 276:16

staffed 51:1

staffing 233:17

stage 196:4 218:18,19

219:9 239:17

stages 223:18

stake 279:4

stakeholder 199:16

200:18 219:16

stakeholders 51:4

124:5 199:20 226:2,7

228:8 234:10 309:18

stamp 119:15

stamped 119:16

stand 13:8 53:18

105:15 135:2 157:15

standard 65:19 67:22

76:19 114:13,17

115:6 116:17 164:15

165:1,18 168:9,17

169:3,4,14,17 170:3

172:12 183:10 196:2

199:12 211:12,18

212:1,9 213:22 214:7

218:15 219:22 245:7

279:2 293:5 332:20

333:14

standardization 104:19

106:1,18

standardized 235:6

240:18

standardizes 112:17

standards 22:14 63:8

63:12,13 64:21 67:19

76:10,22 77:12

106:20 113:21 114:13

117:7,20 179:9 181:3

200:2,10 208:19

213:21 218:17 246:3

246:8,15 247:5

255:12,17 266:13,14

333:1,5,8,18,22

343:19

standpoint 69:17 70:22

71:1 106:12 130:8

246:11 318:18 358:20

stands 117:1 135:3

166:10

Stanziani 2:11 6:3,10

8:14,17,22 9:9 13:20

14:5,20 18:13 34:21

35:1 43:12 44:1 45:14

46:8 81:6 86:8 120:16

128:2 159:17 160:13

162:1,6,8 163:6,9,16

163:18 260:5 270:11

292:13 294:11,18

295:10,13 297:6

298:21 299:19 301:3

301:13 306:18 307:7

314:1,10 315:3

320:18 322:14 323:6

323:10 346:15 347:4

347:6,9 354:21 357:4

359:7,13 363:4

star 333:14

starfruit 115:5,6

Starmer 2:11 4:11 6:15

13:11 138:20 139:20

156:2,6 201:4 204:2

start 6:13 13:15 43:9

46:19 54:14 102:10

102:19 130:4 132:13

153:3 190:14,17

198:13 218:4 249:17

256:13 257:12 289:4

298:1 346:21 347:16

347:18

started 11:7 37:17

105:7 114:19 159:18

164:16 257:10 270:10

322:8 335:22

starting 145:15 150:13

192:4 198:20 305:1

starts 198:19 205:22

state 57:19 109:7 112:1

132:10 160:3 167:20

168:11,15 195:2

197:3 207:12 223:4,9

225:4 228:6 231:9,10

231:18 232:19 233:12

234:4 235:3 236:6

238:17 242:3,6 251:8

251:11 257:21 258:5

283:17 296:11 308:13

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319:10,12,18 320:16

324:3

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228:21 229:1,2,4

232:11,15 233:4,7,13

234:1,12,13,18 236:1

236:7,10,12 237:21

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259:8 264:3 276:3

277:3 282:8 296:21

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285:10 287:7

Stats 279:5,7

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83:11 191:12 288:15

304:13 312:18

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statutes 25:4,5 63:10

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159:19 208:4 299:1

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218:10 227:17

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136:19

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Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc.

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118:12 119:8

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203:19,21

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166:10 173:6,12

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309:11 310:2

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231:4

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326:20

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315:17

Summit 132:17

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202:14

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66:22 67:5 90:19 91:5

107:22 188:4

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148:17 155:16 201:14

247:10 274:12 283:9

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290:14,20 319:12

337:8 342:15 358:2

358:19,22 359:2

360:3 361:12 362:1

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186:12 197:10

Supreme 129:8

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262:9,10 263:9,10,11

263:16,19,21 264:2,8

264:13 268:15,16,22

269:13,16 271:7,10

271:13,21 272:7,9

273:5,12 274:11

275:4,9,13 276:7,10

276:14,22 277:8,19

277:21 278:2,22

280:3 282:11,20

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284:14,20 285:13,21

286:9 287:15 288:7

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274:14 280:17

Susan 27:3,13

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60:16

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291:13

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289:9

Sutton 1:19 84:20 85:3

85:5,7 100:19 136:10

136:11 156:12 269:19

269:19 270:8 285:19

306:20 352:12

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69:21 70:2 71:4 80:21

82:18 83:2,22 84:4,9

90:5 94:2,9,12,15,21

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112:5,12,17,18 113:6

113:10,17 119:14,15

142:6 208:21 232:18

240:1 339:16

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225:15 289:11,17

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248:11

tag-ons 334:4

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talk 13:20 21:20 27:22

34:9 36:20 46:15

62:20 108:4 149:17

150:5 164:11 166:18

178:10 187:12 188:5

188:17 193:21 199:8

199:10 201:5,22

218:3,11 224:17

226:11 307:21 312:14

312:16 318:1 321:6

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119:10 178:10 186:22

192:21 213:5 245:3

332:6 335:18

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86:12,13 110:11

135:20 143:10 146:18

152:18 154:10 183:1

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299:16 315:11 318:6

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175:2 176:3 182:2

243:6 254:3

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240:22 241:1,2,12,22

252:21 255:22

target 78:15 84:8 126:7

202:12,12,18 264:4

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taxi 44:22

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115:9,16 116:9

117:21 118:4,8,11,15

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199:3,6,10 200:1,9,15

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292:4

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330:3,18,19

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84:7 99:7 101:15,18

105:16 123:4 242:2

243:12 244:8 255:14

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24:16 26:4 29:5 30:9

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70:13 85:14,16,19

86:2 114:10 128:13

140:15 141:10 143:17

148:3 149:18 156:17

166:20 167:21 174:18

176:13,14 180:22

181:3 185:12 221:18

251:10 252:15 256:3

271:6,9 273:3 331:22

337:17 338:2

Terrie 320:10

terrific 76:15 315:12

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98:5 99:19

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255:13

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174:18 178:19

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46:6,9 47:8 59:14

61:4,14 82:7,12 84:16

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100:14 103:18 117:3

128:1,5,20 131:1

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141:3 142:16 155:12

155:17,19 156:10,13

156:13 158:15 159:13

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185:13,14 214:6

215:3 217:21 241:15

242:20 249:1,16

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263:16 273:17,19,21

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131:16 143:1 184:15

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14:22 16:17 17:9 19:6

22:17 25:6 30:21 31:3

31:6,12,14 35:13

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51:14 54:15 57:12,13

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110:3,13 111:1,2,17

112:11 115:22 121:18

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186:14 189:12 196:12

196:15 203:16 205:11

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233:14 238:10,18

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256:12 257:9 261:14

288:2,21 290:6 292:8

294:3 307:3 309:20

312:1 313:10 314:8

322:4 323:14 325:2

326:12 327:3 329:5

334:19,22 338:4

341:16,18 342:2

352:21 356:5 359:17

360:19 361:4 362:9

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266:4 309:19 360:21

third-generation

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179:12 180:1,4

213:18

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217:18,21 242:9,21

243:12 246:18 247:12

247:22 248:16,22

249:17 252:11 253:9

253:21 254:16 255:14

256:22 257:3,11,13

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158:17 198:7 246:12

320:2 326:13 337:4

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63:10 65:12 74:20

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170:4 181:6 195:4

197:21 203:22 206:6

216:3 218:15 254:2

259:22 260:1 264:21

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181:3,8

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343:11

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39:11 41:21 56:21

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281:5

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Title 27:21 216:21

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today 8:10 40:4 97:2,15

105:3,13 110:12

119:14 122:9 147:13

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315:11 354:22 357:19

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141:1 209:11,15

299:12 300:13 318:1

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131:13

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298:19 303:19 308:19

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344:10

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335:15

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92:9

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47:20 48:10 49:22

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73:7,13,16 74:8 82:18

192:3 248:7 269:22

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190:15,21 191:16

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72:13 101:8 105:8

106:1,13 111:3,6,16

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114:15 115:15 116:1

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102:9,11,12

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44:5,16 45:3,12,14,16

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104:2,3 108:6 109:15

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234:11,16 283:13,22

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37:15,20 40:7 41:15

42:1 46:1 64:4 71:11

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181:1 217:1 241:6

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162:10 199:7 215:13

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329:22 337:17,18,20

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361:6

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263:11,19 264:2

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useful 67:9 146:8

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104:14 124:13 187:4

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223:1 288:1 355:6

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V

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Valley 1:10 77:7 329:19

value 64:9 319:13

value-added 136:20

valued 53:16

variations 310:9

varieties 66:13,13,14

93:1,2,11,13 120:6,7

310:8

variety 12:10 48:21

66:1 134:11 135:8

251:12 359:19

various 72:11 93:11

122:17 123:15 141:12

148:16 187:9 223:17

226:8

vary 216:13

varying 48:3

Vasquez 161:21 184:19

271:22 303:17

vast 28:20 95:15 311:11

311:11,12

Vazquez 1:20 55:3,4

59:16 82:11 84:16

99:19,20 100:5,14

137:12,13 161:21

184:18 243:1,1 254:1

271:22 272:11 303:16

339:8 344:12 346:12

vegetable 1:3,19 3:12

6:8 7:16 9:14 10:19

13:1 14:9 16:4 48:10

61:9,22 81:20 105:6

106:9 122:17 134:12

134:21 136:12 140:13

143:19 148:17 153:19

154:1 181:18 186:22

249:3 264:1,3,6

270:14 357:18 362:22

vegetables 9:16,20

11:17 48:14 50:14

103:22 123:11 136:16

139:16 140:5,8 264:4

290:1 309:15 314:19

338:20 342:22 359:8

vehicle 271:8

vendors 172:2 321:22

verbal 99:9

verification 175:5 180:4

187:14,15

verifications 180:1

verified 179:8,18

verify 10:5 68:2 85:9,13

100:19 118:15 187:16

Vermont 168:2,19

169:1,3,7,15 181:5

version 109:11 199:15

199:20,22 221:15

versus 117:18 288:4

vet 30:18 31:7 175:21

vetted 73:8

viable 289:10 319:6

vice 1:11 6:17,20 36:12

38:18 160:15,19

161:3 162:10,17,18

162:22 163:13,19

201:2 299:22 345:5

352:22 353:1,11

video 120:19,20

view 31:22 32:3 165:20

179:16

viewing 35:22

views 23:13

Vilsack 139:4 141:1

289:18 290:19 358:3

358:12 360:1,4

violated 53:6

violation 60:2,3,6,9,10

violations 52:19

violators 50:10 53:11

Virginia 1:8,13 15:20

111:7 135:6 156:8

241:19 350:19

virtually 77:1

virus 361:17

visit 75:20

visited 103:12 341:16

visits 93:18

vital 309:10

voice 276:1 283:12

volume 66:15 89:9,16

91:3 96:5 129:9

130:17

volumes 55:19 56:4

voluntary 186:20 187:4

volunteer 115:14

237:15 257:5 332:6

volunteered 331:21

volunteering 256:20

volunteers 237:17

257:17

vote 13:17 17:10,13

36:7 38:17 164:2

voted 6:21 17:11 37:22

voucher 45:4 46:1

VP 136:3

W

W.P 137:20

wage 276:11 278:8,14

280:5,8 286:11 329:4

wages 281:12,18

286:19

wait 155:8

waiting 148:4 346:7

walk 19:13 181:13

238:9

walking 63:2 194:8

354:10

wall 98:14

Walmart 114:3

walnut 69:15

wanted 17:13 26:9 34:9

42:13 49:2 91:17

92:14 98:2,11 103:4

103:15 111:2 115:4

188:10 194:15 195:16

217:9 252:20 288:18

292:10 314:8 315:5

340:8 355:14 362:8

362:15

wanting 70:20

wants 64:13 293:6,14

305:8 325:22,22

353:20

warehouses 192:22

210:7 330:5

Warenski 2:14 261:5

warmly 357:5,11

warning 171:6

warranted 12:11

warrants 326:18

Washington 61:7

200:17 283:17

wasn't 120:1,1 200:2

270:20 308:3 318:6

324:9 338:15 340:13

waste 37:12 76:9,13,17

77:2 299:9 300:10

305:5 325:20 349:14

watchdog 20:3
(202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com

Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc.

400

watched 306:7

water 25:18 121:20,20

139:7 173:9 242:5

255:12,12,13,16

267:15,17,17,22

268:2,6,7,9,10 303:20

watermelon 11:18

122:22

wave 330:8

way 25:1 35:2 43:4

54:17 59:12 60:14

80:21 102:18 109:14

110:1 111:13,17

135:18 140:10 141:16

147:7 149:7 150:7

158:10 174:19 183:3

196:12,13 208:4

217:7,12 241:17,18

243:18 245:4 273:16

284:6 287:16 295:3

301:9 302:9,21 308:5

309:22 311:3 333:11

341:8 344:5,15

ways 61:10 141:21

154:21 315:13 342:15

wealth 279:9

web 240:11 278:1

web-based 239:12

webpage 57:15 170:16

website 57:4,8 103:12

127:18,19 174:10

176:8,14 191:18,21

192:1 211:21 222:8

240:3 241:14 242:7

242:18 293:10,11

339:10

weeding 281:11

week 16:18 51:7 69:2

71:11 90:15 93:5

189:3 210:8 270:19

270:19 278:7 330:5

357:5,6,6

weekly 88:20 89:2

90:12 91:15 92:1,2

weeks 28:18 63:2 93:4

93:4,4 200:6 204:16

206:5 277:13,14

282:5 293:14

weighs 281:6

weight 67:15 181:6

weighted 281:7

weird 29:21

welcome 4:2 6:5,16 7:8

18:10 44:12 61:7

132:3,5 133:10,21

137:1 141:3,6 155:11

159:21 217:18 242:21

311:9 343:12

Welcoming 4:11

went 38:7 46:16 98:18

117:19 118:21 131:22

138:18 158:12 159:15

164:22 172:6 176:22

194:21 195:20 211:9

238:17 260:3 263:12

321:19 339:13 341:16

352:17 353:6 363:12

weren't 20:10,12 195:9

303:5 328:2

western 51:8 321:17

whatnot 77:20

wheel 360:17

whichever 108:18

white 139:12 140:4,11

361:16

Whittemore 1:21 57:22

58:21 59:11,14 114:9

115:13,17 116:22

117:4,7 118:3,6,10,13

118:20 126:5,15

127:11,14 128:1

137:19,20 156:12

182:15 183:16,19

184:1,8,12,15 331:19

wholesale 1:16 138:8

209:21 252:5 318:19

wholesaler 59:7 209:18

wholesalers 8:1 332:3

wholly 320:22 321:2

WIC 37:8 330:20 338:1

wide 66:6

widely 90:22

width 265:7

wife 32:1,6

willful 60:4

Williams 1:21 2:15

134:14,15 209:15,15

261:5 299:15 307:14

308:4,7 318:3,12,17

337:2 342:17 349:18

349:22 350:7,9,12,15

351:3 354:19 363:5

willing 34:5 162:20

256:1 340:21 341:1

win-win 49:12 99:18

window 212:16

wine 137:6

wing 20:3

Winter 65:14 177:8

Wisconsin 134:10,18

wish 34:7 151:8 155:6,9

155:13 243:12 287:2

wished 101:4

withstand 310:8

Wizard 283:2

women 313:15

women's 122:1

won 47:22

wonder 330:12 332:8,9

360:11,12,13

wondered 327:13

wonderful 82:12 139:14

189:13 249:1

wondering 76:9 128:12

131:3 156:16 242:2

246:12 332:20 357:20

357:22

word 244:9

wording 282:13

words 58:12 92:8

139:22

wordsmithing 43:5

work 8:9 18:12 19:10

22:6,7,8 24:12 28:16

28:18 31:14 32:8,18

33:15 34:7,10 36:5,10

38:9 42:21 43:7 48:9

50:12 61:8 64:6 73:6

73:15 74:17 79:2

111:5,9 113:9 123:21

126:14 135:7 137:9

138:12 139:1 140:1

140:20 141:5,13,15

142:4,7,12,17 143:1

144:12,20 146:20

149:3 150:19 151:4,5

153:5 154:14 160:21

161:19 164:16 171:22

187:7 198:16 209:4

212:10,17 219:4,7

222:11 224:10,17

225:2,13,22 228:14

229:7 239:5 251:2,8

253:4 260:21 271:20

278:7 285:2,10 288:1

301:11 303:11 307:1

311:4 312:1 314:8

328:2 340:10,14

341:9,10 354:3

worked 59:22 98:18,20

138:15 139:5 143:12

147:18 245:10 278:12

325:12

worker 359:18

workers 276:11 278:4,9

278:11,13,14 280:9

287:22

workforce 226:13

Workgroup 2:22

works 7:19 41:20 47:4

49:7 159:11 165:2

352:2

world 73:10,13 89:11

107:18 280:18 358:7

358:8

worlds 16:6

worldwide 88:2

worried 26:5 30:6 31:6

31:15

worry 357:12,12

worth 11:3 12:4 213:10

329:19,21

worthy 308:10

wouldn't 19:21 23:3

59:6 78:4 119:8,22

252:1 260:6 335:8

WP 1:21

wrap 353:2,9,19

wrestling 315:20

wrinkle 200:6

write 101:16 151:7

155:14 295:7 344:21

writes 150:16

writing 33:1,5,15

258:14 268:18 344:17

written 52:7,10 60:1

84:22 99:9 149:22

150:20 358:12

wrong 255:15 259:9

358:5

WTO 73:14

X

x' 264:19

Y

Y-axis 265:18

Yanda 1:22 134:8,8

163:11,11 245:14,14

247:8 351:5

year 11:3,21 12:5,9

18:1 22:9 41:15 47:10

50:6 56:17 64:9 74:20

77:15,15 78:5,5 93:22

95:5,20 99:15 102:5

104:7,22 105:1 106:8

118:1,7 133:4,20

146:17 147:1 156:18

156:19 161:17 163:4

171:17 174:7 175:14

177:4 178:2 197:12

203:7,22 205:5,15,19

206:18,22 207:1,2

214:8 215:20 218:1

237:15 240:16 257:14

257:15,17 265:12

268:2,6 276:12

277:11,16 279:2

282:4 289:7 300:15

315:19 317:5 339:22

342:17 350:4,6,7

yearly 264:22
(202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com

Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc.

401

years 35:20 53:4,15

60:1 78:22 103:5,7,10

103:11 105:7 106:7

110:16 114:14 116:14

133:5,6,7,8,10,20

138:2 146:5 165:2

169:21 183:5 189:17

198:15 207:3 264:22

291:8 301:17 305:13

321:14 322:5 329:6

335:22 341:14 361:5

361:11

yellow 171:1

yes' 265:20

yesterday 68:22

York 117:11,13 134:21

135:4,13 207:15,16

young 315:17

younger 112:6

Z

Z 108:18

Zero 267:22

0

1

1- 53:21

1-800 50:21 54:22 56:22

1,000 176:5,10

1,453 93:8

1:07 159:16

10 45:8,10 61:2 69:13

75:15,17 95:22

101:16 102:7,17

133:8 138:1 146:21

204:7 207:1,2 236:10

236:10 259:21 265:3

266:9 267:13 268:4,6

277:17 308:2 335:22

346:21 348:5,16,17

352:10,10

10-million 265:11

10:19 131:22

10:30 6:7 43:10,15

10:35 131:18

10:40 132:1

100 49:6 135:16 197:22

214:3 265:4 267:1

308:3 329:19 330:6

100th 104:21

11 136:6

11,000 77:22

11:13 158:12

11:19 158:13

11:20 159:15

11:30 356:17

11:45 158:21 159:8,9,13

12 51:1 101:15,16 102:7

102:17 104:6 204:6

12:00 356:17

12th 277:14

13 107:7 122:16 123:7

236:10

13,000 277:7

130 289:7

131 53:5

132 4:8

138 4:9

139 4:11

13th 263:22

14 63:3 68:6,7 70:9

83:10 105:7 107:7

14.5 290:14

140 53:16

14th 201:1

15 69:6 131:17 207:2

238:17 259:22 268:6

268:7 346:21 348:5,5

352:9

150 278:5,6

157 4:12

159 4:13

164 4:15

16th 289:7

17 11:16

17.7 291:18 296:22

17.8 291:11 296:15

17th 291:10

18 4:3 27:21 100:1

199:5 222:4 358:9

359:20

186 4:17

186,000 190:22

18th 45:3 290:8

19 289:20

1915 87:18

1930 47:4 48:8 49:2

1937 62:16,17

1940's 81:11

1940- 333:9

1962 21:11

1990s 97:21

1998 135:20

1999 135:20 261:17

19th 172:6 292:2

1st 102:5 190:12

2

2 104:18

2,000 56:8 240:15

269:11

2,700 269:10

2:49 260:3

20 59:22 109:19 133:7

205:18 359:17

2004 20:6

2010 198:17 208:11

2010/2011 203:10,20

2011 138:22

2013 60:1

2014 223:22

2015 206:22 263:11

338:14

2016 1:6 164:16 177:5

206:22 317:5

2017 105:1 177:7,9

205:17 220:18 257:15

2018 74:22 100:4 170:2

177:10 212:14 222:1

20th 152:14 211:20

212:5

21 18:17

217 4:17

21st 290:18

22 122:16

22nd 172:7

23 64:8 290:20

230,000 56:17

24 205:18

25 1:6 7:11,17 47:10

133:20

25,000 169:4 265:2,13

250 204:9

260 4:19,21

274 5:12

2799 1:8

28 11:6

280,000 53:7

288 5:14

29 11:6 61:1 62:18

64:19 74:5,11

29,000 91:19

297 5:17

29th 164:15,16 289:15

2nd 289:20 290:13

3

3,500 54:1 69:10

3:00 279:2

3:15 260:4

30 133:6 134:21 138:10

177:17

300 106:21 147:1,2

306 204:8,10

31 84:13 267:8

31st 133:2

32 12:13

33 96:11,18 98:7 100:12

133:4 208:14

35 90:16 106:7

358 5:19

36.5 289:21

360 91:18

363 5:21

37 291:12

3rd 291:16

4

4 290:10

4,000 93:9 206:18

4.7 292:3

4:30 328:6

4:57 352:17

40 228:1 263:20

400 106:20,21

41 109:6

411 93:10

42 4:4 232:15

45 65:8 344:2

46 62:4

47 4:6

48.1 289:16

4th 199:14

5

5 189:17

5,000 11:1

5:15 352:18,20

5:17 353:6

5:30 344:1 353:9 355:12

355:12

5:33 353:7

5:43 363:12

50 104:20 134:17 228:1

266:8 268:8 287:22

357:9

500 205:20 265:4,4

500,000 265:5

50s 98:18

54 70:17

54,000,000 93:16,21

57 357:7

58 54:2 104:13 291:7

6

6 4:2

6,000 263:18 269:12

60 104:13 109:3

600 51:22

62.5 148:21

63 90:1

64 180:22

7

7 199:15,22

7,000 54:10

7:00 355:13

700 104:11 109:2

70s 98:20

75 266:2

7th 164:17
(202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com

Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc.

402

8

8 102:8,11,11,16,19,22

8,000 53:15

8:00 1:7 354:1,2 355:22

356:22

8:07 6:2

800 53:22

80s 98:22 114:19 357:6

83 338:14

8E 83:16

9

9 101:16 181:4,5

9:00 356:1,7 357:9

90 54:4 92:19 267:4,5

267:12 269:14

90,000 64:7

90s 94:9,11 95:16

95 9:20

995 51:21
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 

403

Fruit & Vegetable Advisory Committee

USDA

10-25-16

Arlington, VA