By Kenneth Cavallaro ALC Boston
Some of my earliest memories involve fresh produce – watching cardboard crates of plump tomatoes and glistening peppers being unloaded at the docks of my family’s wholesale produce warehouse, sampling sweet berries, and vigilantly checking for damaged products beside my grandfather, father, and uncle. As the third generation of a produce family, fresh produce was a major part of my childhood.
At the time, I simply enjoyed the deliciousness of fresh fruits and vegetables and thought little of where they were grown or how they reached my kitchen table. As an adult, I now find myself fascinated by the process. How long does it take to pick a crop and get it from the farm to a customer’s table? What practices utilized during transport best preserve product quality? A great majority of our country’s produce comes from California and Mexico, with their ideal growing climates and lengthy growing seasons. In 2022 alone, 590,906 truckloads of imported produce were shipped from Mexico to the U.S. in 40,000-pound loads. How can so much perishable freight remain fresh when traveling across the country?
Danny Mandel, founder and former CEO of SunFed in Nogales, Arizona, has over 30 years of experience in the produce industry and was able to answer these questions. Mandel reports that it takes one day to pick, pack, and load a fresh crop and another two to five days to reach its final destination. What keeps fragile produce so fresh after this transport time? It requires growers to harvest produce at the optimal time and package it in sturdy containers that allow air to circulate while preventing bruising. Refrigerated van drivers and transport companies further extend product longevity with stringent adherence to temperature requirements – which vary by fruit and vegetable variety. Following temperature requirements on bill of lading instructions and carefully monitoring temperature gauges extend freshness and prevent the formation of mold. Furthermore, practices such as loading and unloading quickly help keep any adverse outside weather conditions or drastically different temperatures from damaging the product.
According to the USDA, Postmaster General Albert Burleson launched the Farm to Table program in 1914. The program consisted of picking up produce and other farm fresh items and delivering the goods as quickly as possible to retailers, ultimately reaching America’s kitchen tables with healthy products still as fresh as possible. Previously, unconsumed produce was destined for the compost heap. Now, growers could sell farm goods for financial gain to more consumers. The advent of temperature-controlled freight further made it possible to deliver products in a timely manner.
With the high demand for fresh produce, consumers can expect the industry to continue to advance in delivering produce as quickly as possible. Greenhouses could allow produce to be grown in colder states to lessen the stress of relying on warmer areas to support our heavy produce consumption and further decrease the transport time from farm to table. There will always be a need to transport the product, but more growing areas across the country would mean increased product freshness by reducing transport time.
Getting produce from the farm to your table as quickly as possible makes for a healthy and enjoyable meal. After 110 years, Postmaster Burleson’s Farm to Table idea continues to make great strides and improve consumer culinary options. The next time you stop by your local grocery store for salad fixings, keep in mind the growers who cultivated a beautiful crop, the dedicated drivers who quickly and safely transported thousands of pounds of product, and even the transportation broker who monitored the delivery of your load.
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Kenneth Cavallaro, Jr. is a carrier manager in the Boston office. He began his career at the Allen Lund Company in February of 2019. Kenneth has been in the transportation industry since May of 1999. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Salem State University.
kenneth.cavallaro@allenlund.com