Washington State Apple Orchard Workers Want To Hit Reset Button On FSMA Rules
By Sam Lewis
Food producers across state want clarification, and perhaps even a rewrite, of upcoming food safety laws
Apple growers at Jones Farms in Washington State are enabling quality control supervisors to make sure the workers in the orchards are using hand washing stations being installed among the foliage of the fruit trees in Yakima Valley, WA. Needless to say, the workers are feeling some anxiety about being watched, as food producers begin to adopt practices of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).
Despite the unrest, Jones Farms is still on board with the Global Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) agreement it signed three years ago. About 90 percent of apple growers are enlisted in this practice, according to Dennis Jones, owner of Jones Farms. To comply with the practice, manager of Jones Farms, Hector Dominguez, constructed hand washing stations which are towed behind a truck and trailer through the farm’s fields. In every field, inspection supervisors inspect workers’ hands for jewelry and scratches that could contaminate produce. “It’s pretty intense,” says Jones.
The orchard workers may be adapting to the GAP practices, but that doesn’t mean they like it. However, they better get used to it, as upcoming Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) guidelines will likely require much more than hand washing. Still, many produce workers — growers, packers, and officials — of Washington State’s $2.5 billion fruit tree industry object to the new suggest regulations, calling them unnecessary, costly, and burdensome. “We’ve believed they’ve taken a wrong turn at the outset, Chris Schlect, president of Washington State’s Northwest Horticulture Council tells the Yakima Herald Republic regarding the upcoming federal mandates of the food industry. Schlect’s council represents growers and shippers in trade and regulatory issues.
These objections have growers banding together in efforts to have the FDA rewrite the rules of the FSMA. In addition to the rewrite, the rules would also be subject to public comment prior to revising and finalizing the law. As they are currently drafted, the public commenting period for FSMA guidelines ends Nov 15. The laws for growing, harvesting, packing, and storing produce (including apples) according to FSMA are nearly 550 pages in length. The FSMA was signed into law by President Obama in Jan 2011, but the FDA has been delayed in enforcing the rules.
The food growers of Washington State are asking for all growers who sell to local stores to be exempt from FSMA. Additionally, they are asking for regulatory costs to be reduced and quality standards for water used in food production to be reconsidered. More specifically, apple growers claim they need more clarification to answer lingering questions like, “Can we use our own canvas bags when harvesting?” and “When does hand washing really need to happen?” Finally, apple growers are insisting that growers of tree fruits have exhibited a superior safety record, asking how much more consumers will be spending for practices that may not prove to be more beneficial.