PMA at Hort

PMA At Hort. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. The 106th WSHA NW Hort Expo will be held at the Yakima Convention Center, December 6, 7 & 8th, 2010 and this year attendees will get a chance to chat with Bob Whitaker, Chief Science & Technology Officer for the Produce Marketing Association. WHITAKER: They asked me to talk on the topic of food safety. I would imagine in a couple of weeks when I'm out it's a much shorter type of session but I think my assignment is the basically talk about what's going on in food safety in the industry; probably touch a little bit on some of the legislative activity that's been happening in Washington DC. Whitaker will take part in the panel discussion called "Scared Straight—Food Safety, Taking Control." WHITAKER: We'll talk a little about the challenges related to regional and local growers and how they are caught up in the legislative activity as well as in buyer demand and some of the challenges and benefits of supplying to local markets. I'll spend a lot of time and I'll focus on what is currently the law which is our responsibility to make our food as safe as possible. And he says there is one main thing producers need to do. WHITAKER: The biggest thing is taking responsibility for your products and the most important off shoot of that is doing a risk assessment of your production processes. Everything from where you locate your orchards to how you treat the crop all the way through to when it leaves your hands. For more information on the upcoming Hort Convention visit wahort.org. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.