Canned and frozen carrots are included on the latest bid invitation from the Agricultural Marketing Service. Solicitation 2000010049, 12-3J14-24-B-0369 also includes other frozen and canned seasonal vegetables for use in the National School Lunch Program and other Federal food and nutrition assistance programs.
Acceptances will be announced by midnight, May 16 and deliveries are to be made between October- December 2024.
While there are substantial amounts of peer-reviewed studies which show the safety of organic and conventional produce, consumers who may still be concerned about residues can follow the advice of the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about washing fruits and vegetables. According to the FDA, you can reduce and often eliminate any residues that may be present by washing organic and conventional fresh produce.
But what do experts advise in terms of how to properly wash and prep produce? There is a lot of misinformation about washing, including recommendations that are an unnecessary expense, may diminish produce quality or possibly be a safety issue.
Here are steps on how to safely and effectively wash and handle fruits and veggies based upon FDA recommendations:
Just Running Tap Water, No Soap or Detergents: DO NOT use hand soap, detergents or household cleaning wipes to sanitize fresh produce. Those soaps and detergents are designed for washing hands, washing dishes or cleaning surfaces. They have not been approved for use on foods.
SOURCE: ALLIANCE FOR FOOD AND FARMING
Redox Bio-Nutrients has acquired 10 percent of the Axxion Corporation LLC, marking an important step in the companies expanding international presence. Axxion was founded 42 years ago by Mory Ogata, and provides a steadily growing amount of fertilizers and moisture management surfactants to golf courses throughout Japan. The company has also seen steady growth in plant nutrition for traditional agricultural crops in the country, including rice.
At the same time, Qvou, Inc., a fast growing marketing company, is the majority shareholder of this new partnership, with 80 percent of the total.
“I had additional opportunities, but partnering with Qvou and Redox were superior for a variety of reasons,” Ogata said. “Product development has pole-vaulted Redox to become one of the most impressive companies of its kind in the United States. Additionally, Qvou CEO Ryotaro Kubo has led his company to be one of the fastest growing mid-sized companies in Japan. I am honored to partner with both businesses.”
By James Mintert and Michael Langemeier, Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture
U.S. farmers’ perspective on the future improved in March helping to push the Purdue University-CME Group Ag Economy Barometer up 3 points from February to a reading of 114. The Index of Current Conditions at 101 was 2 points below a month earlier while the Index of Future Expectations reached 120, 5 points higher than in February.
The split between the current and future indices was driven primarily by farmers’ perception that their financial condition has deteriorated over the last year while they expect their financial situation to improve modestly in the next 12 months. The March Ag Economy Barometer survey was conducted from March 11-15, 2024.
Producers’ expectations for interest rates have shifted which could help explain why producers look for financial conditions to improve. This month nearly one-half (48%) of respondents said they look for the U.S. prime interest rate to decline over the next year.
In this video update, the Ag Globetrotter, Dr. Dave Kohl, shares his thoughts about investing in technology and innovation.
Key points include:
If you’d like to hear more from Dr. Kohl, join a live webinar on Megatrends in Ag on June 27. Learn more and register at AgWestFC.com/events.
By Sara Zaske, WSU News & Media Relations
The famous work ethic of honey bees might spell disaster for these busy crop pollinators as the climate warms, new research indicates.
Flying shortens the lives of bees, and worker honey bees will fly to find flowers whenever the weather is right, regardless of how much honey is already in the hive. Using climate and bee population models, researchers found that increasingly long autumns with good flying weather for bees raises the likelihood of colony collapse in the spring.
The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, focused on the Pacific Northwest but holds implications for hives across the U.S. The researchers also modeled a promising mitigation: putting colonies into indoor cold storage, so honey bees will cluster in their hive before too many workers wear out.
For this study, researchers ran simulations through a honey bee population dynamics model using climate projections for 2050 and the end of the century at 2100. They found that honey bee colonies that spend the winter outside in many areas of the Pacific Northwest would likely experience spring colony collapses in both the near- and long-term scenarios. This also occurred under a simulation where climate change continued as it is progressing now and one where greenhouse gas emissions were reduced in the near future.
Worker honey bees will forage for food whenever temperatures rise above about 50 degrees Fahrenheit. When it gets colder, they cluster in the hive, huddling with other bees, eating honey reserves and shivering, which helps keep the bees warm. In the spring, the adult worker bees start flying again. That means they also start dying. If too many older worker bees die before their replacements emerge ready to forage, the whole colony can collapse. Scientists have estimated this happens when there are fewer than 5,000 to 9,000 adult bees in the hive.
This study found that colonies wintering outside in colder areas like Omak in the far north of Washington state might still do all right under climate change. But for honey bee colonies in many other places, like Richland, Washington near the border of Oregon, staying outside in the winter would mean the spring hive population would plummet to fewer than 9,000 adults by 2050 and less than 5,000 by the end of the century.
The authors note that the simulations just looked at seasonal factors like temperature, wind and the amount of daylight, making them fairly conservative models.
The researchers also simulated a potential mitigation, placing honey bee hive boxes in cold storage so the bees start to cluster earlier and save workers. For instance, in the Richland scenarios, by the end of the century, having bees in cold storage from October to April would boost the spring hive population to over 15,000 compared to around 5,000 to 8,000 if they were kept outside.
A relatively new practice, cold storage is gaining popularity among commercial beekeepers to help manage bee health and for the logistics involved in moving hives to California to pollinate almond trees in February, an event that draws more than two million hives from across the country.
“A lot of beekeepers are already practicing this management technique of storing bees indoors because it has a lot of immediate potential to help in a number of ways,” said co-author Brandon Hopkins, a WSU entomologist. “These findings demonstrate that there are additional benefits to this practice for the survival of colonies in a changing climate.”
This research received support from the Washington Department of Agriculture’s Specialty Crop Block Grant.
SOURCE: WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY
By: Alexis M. Taylor, Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs
American agriculture remains strong. Total U.S. agricultural exports reached $174.9 billion in 2023. American farmers, ranchers, and agribusiness owners continue to have success abroad as USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service works for U.S. agriculture.
Exports are critical to the health of America’s farm sector and the nation’s economy. USDA and the Biden-Harris Administration are committed to ensuring that U.S. agriculture has full and fair access to markets and opportunities across the globe.
In the trade policy arena, USDA successfully opened a new grapefruit market in Vietnam, increased ethanol exports to Japan, and secured the removal of retaliatory tariffs on chickpeas, lentils, almonds, walnuts, and apples in India. These and other trade wins in 2023 helped U.S. agricultural producers and exporters gain access to potential markets worth nearly $6.4 billion.
USDA advocated for the interests of U.S. producers in international fora. The U.S. Codex Office’s efforts at the Codex Alimentarius Commission resulted in hundreds of new maximum residue limits for pesticides, ensuring that U.S. growers continue to have access to safe and effective pest control tools. Throughout 2023, our actions set the table for the market development and export promotion activities that directly benefit American farmers and their communities.
FAS hosted five trade missions in 2023 connected U.S. producers and exporters with buyers in Central and South America, Europe, and East and Southeast Asia. The missions facilitated more than 1,600 business-to-business meetings that resulted in nearly $70 million in 12-month projected sales. FAS organized U.S. food pavilions and exhibits at 25 international trade shows in 15 countries, enabling 820 U.S. companies and organizations to showcase their products to global buyers, resulting in $1.5 billion in projected 12-months sales.
In October 2023, USDA launched the Regional Agricultural Promotion Program (RAPP), a new market development effort which emphasizes underinvested markets. The $1.2 billion initiative enables exporters to diversify into new markets and increase market share in growth markets. RAPP targets opportunities in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia where there is a growing middle class and demand for greater variety of high-quality food products.
FAS continued to address global food insecurity in 2023. Through its Food for Progress and McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition feeding programs, FAS invested a combined $442 million to combat food insecurity in 47 countries.
While 2023 was another fantastic year for U.S. food and agricultural trade, we are not resting on our laurels. We’re setting our goals even higher as we look to diversify our markets and bring more U.S. products to all parts of the world in 2024.
32 food and agriculture groups released the eighth annual Feeding the Economy report, a historic farm-to-fork economic impact study that helps to estimate the direct and indirect economic contributions of the food and agriculture industries on jobs, wages, economic output, and business taxes.
The 2024 report’s findings show that the total economic impact for the food and agriculture-related industries grew 11.8% over the last year, reaching $9.63 trillion. This represents 20.01% of total U.S. output.
The study also drills down to highlight the impact of this sector to include:
Total Jobs: 48,665,870 (up 19.53% since the 2020 report)
Total Wages: $2.77 trillion (up 33.82% since the 2020 report)
Total Taxes: $1.25 trillion (up 36.91% since the 2020 report)
Exports: $181.36 billion (down 2.70% since the 2020 report)
The Feeding the Economy website is worth a look, as it allows users to view food and agriculture’s economic impact by state and even district.
Fox Packaging has announced that their products are now completely PFAS-free.
PFAS is the acronym for polyfluoroalkyl substances, commonly known as “forever chemicals.” These substances are used to make packaging resistant to heat, water, oil, and corrosion, and they can be found in various types of food packaging, including paper bags, wrappers, molded fiber salad bowls, and single-use paper plates. While PFAS-treated packaging may seem like a promising alternative to plastic, it poses risks to both health and the environment.
PFAS is under fire for the risks it poses and it is already prohibited from use in several states, with laws focusing on regulating the intentional use of PFAS in flexible food packaging.
For Fox Packaging, achieving PFA-free status on all flexible packaging specific to the fresh produce industry is a significant milestone. This accomplishment aligns with evolving regulations and demonstrates a commitment to providing safer products for consumers and contributing to a healthier environment.
The University of Idaho Extension (U of I) will continue Ag Talk Tuesday this spring and summer. Ag Talk Tuesdays are virtual sessions about agriculture, held via Zoom, with U of I professionals and peers to discuss current crop issues and timely topics as the field season progresses.
Every session begins with crop updates, where U of I personnel and attendees are invited to provide the group with updates of current season crop issues. Featured topics and guest speakers follow the round-table crop updates.
2024 Schedule | 11 a.m. to noon Mountain Time
Topics and speakers to be confirmed later.
