Helping CPS

The Washington State Tree Fruit Association has committed to helping one group to raise $750-thousand dollars. Jon Devaney, President of WSTFA explains.

DEVANEY: The Center for Produce Safety is an organization that our industry has been partnering with for a number of years now because they coordinate nationally, food safety research to make sure that the various produce industries, commodities and groups are not duplicating efforts and doing research on the same questions twice. Ideally you want to make sure your resources are used efficiently so having a clearing house that would identify the best researchers and then prioritize the most urgent food safety questions and then get those projects completed is really helpful.

WSTFA is helping them raise $20-million over the next five years to fund produce safety research.

DEVANEY: Our northwest tree fruit industry in Washington State decided that we were going to contribute $750-thousand over 5 years towards that $20-million dollar capital campaign. The best part about this for growers is that you're going to get the research done and because of the way the Center for Produce Safety is funded which is that all of their overhead is underwritten by the Produce Marketing Association, so every dollar that we're putting in is going to be used for actual research.

That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.