Archive For The “News” Category
Watsonville, CA – Last month the United States Department of Agriculture released its annual Pesticide Data Program Report. Among the USDA findings– “U.S. food does not pose a safety concern based upon pesticide residues.” In light of activist groups’ annual release of their re-interpretation of the USDA PDP report findings, the Alliance for Food and Farming (AFF) urges the media and consumers to read the government report to see firsthand what it actually says.
“Under the Obama Administration, the USDA and the Environmental Protection Agency clearly and concisely explain in the PDP report how the government and corresponding regulatory processes and systems are protective of all consumers, including infants and children,” says Marilyn Dolan, Executive Director of the AFF. “However, some groups take these USDA PDP report findings, manipulate the data and turn a positive report about food safety into a negative one. All we’re asking is that people actually read the USDA PDP report instead of the re-interpretation from activist groups, like the ‘Shoppers Guide to Pesticides in Produce’ and its ‘Dirty Dozen’ list.”
Further, independent scientists who examined the “Shoppers Guide and Dirty Dozen” list found that the methodology used to re-package the government data did not follow any established scientific procedures, that risk was not examined and therefore this list/guide should not be used when making purchasing decisions. The most recent peer reviewed analysis of the “Shoppers Guide” methodologies appeared in the Journal of Toxicology.
“Manipulation of government data which unfairly undermines consumer confidence about the safety of produce is a detriment to public health, especially when American’s need to include more fruits and vegetables in their daily diets,” Dolan says. “Families deserve factual, science based and balanced information about the safety of organic and conventionally grown fruits and vegetables, which the Obama Administration provided in the actual PDP report. Why read a questionable re-interpretation when you could just read the real report?” Dolan says.
The Alliance recommends that consumers who want to improve their health simply follow the advice of health experts everywhere and eat more of both organic and conventionally grown produce.
“For all of us involved in promoting better consumer health, increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables is among our main objectives. The benefits of consuming plenty of fruits and vegetables are absolutely indisputable. Consumers should eat both organic and conventionally grown produce without worrying about minute levels of pesticide residues,” says Dr. Carl Keen, Professor of Nutrition and Internal Medicine at University of California, Davis.
Consumers who want more information on the safety of organic and conventionally grown fruits and vegetables can visit the safefruitsandveggies.com website. This website was developed by experts in food safety, toxicology, nutrition, risk analysis and farming. “We hope consumers visit this site and read, learn and then choose what foods are best for their families,” Dolan explains.
For consumers who may still be concerned about pesticide residues, they should simply wash their fruits and vegetables. According to the Federal Food and Drug Administration, you can reduce and often eliminate residues if they are present at all on fresh fruits and vegetables simply by washing. “Washing is a healthful habit and should be used before eating either organic or conventional produce,” Dolan says.
The Alliance for Food and Farming is a non-profit organization formed in 1989 which represents organic and conventional farmers and farms of all sizes. Alliance contributors are limited to farmers of fruits and vegetables, companies that sell, market or ship fruits and vegetables or organizations that represent produce farmers. Our mission is to deliver credible information to consumers about the safety of all fruits and vegetables. The Alliance does not engage in any lobbying nor do we accept any money or support from the pesticide industry.
Source: The Alliance for Food and Farming
DeltaTRAK will showcase the ThermoTrace Time Temperature Indicator (TTI) solution at the United Fresh show in San Diego, CA May 15th and 16th, (booth#1508). The TTI solution has been chosen as a United Fresh Best New Food Safety Product Finalist.
DeltaTRAK’s ThermoTrace TTI solution provides customers with a cost effective way to use 2D bar codes combined with chemical label technology to monitor accumulated temperature abuse of products as they travel through the cold chain. Recently selected as a United Fresh Best New Food Safety Product Finalist, the solution is unique in the marketplace and enhances our customer’s ability to add temperature information to the PTI guidelines for documentation.
DeltaTRAK’s FlashRF Data Central is a cloud-based solution that provides a system wide view and control of locally installed FlashLink RF 2.4 GHz wireless temperature/humidity monitoring networks. FlashRF Data Central is accessed through all modern web browsers and provides an easy-to-use interface that combines topical facility maps, logger temperature graphs and hierarchical facility network structures. Produce growers, shippers, processors and retailers can quickly access temperature data at any given time giving you better visibility of produce quality.
DeltaTRAK manufactures and sells a variety of data loggers and in-transit recorders to meet your cold chain management needs. Data loggers and in-transit recorders are an important part of any cold chain management solution. The ability to record temperature during transport helps to determine if a shipment of produce should be accepted or rejected. Data recorded during storage can help determine if a temperature-sensitive commodity is being stored at its optimum temperature for freshness.
For more information please contact your DeltaTRAK representative at salesinfo@deltatrak.com or by calling 800-962-6776/925-249-2250.
DeltaTRAK, Inc. is a leading innovator of Cold Chain Management and Food Safety, and Environment Monitoring Solutions.
Source: DeltaTRAK
Here’s a round up of some loading and coming loading opportunities in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, where produce shipments have been slower gaining momentum due to temperatures below normal.
Florida
Tomato shipments have pretty much finished in the Immokalee area and have shifted to the Palmetto-Ruskin district. Loadings were very light at the beginning of May, but now volume is picking up. Due to weather conditions some disease problems have appeared, so be watchful what you are putting on the truck.
Florida watermelons like it hot and cool weather has put shipments behind schedule. Watermelon loadings should be hitting good volume by the end of May.
Mixed vegetables also continue to be shipped.
Georgia
Blueberry shipments continue to increase from Georgia as new acreage comes into production each year. In fact, the state is now one of the leading shippers of “blues.” Georgia should have about 70 million pounds of blueberries, which equals about 1,750 truckload equivalents.
Georgia has about 22,000 acres of blueberries. Shipments, which have been underway a couple of weeks, are now moving into volume.
Like other produce items, a cool spring has delayed Georgia peach shipments. There should be around 1.8 to 2 million, 25 pound cartons of peaches for hauling this season. Good quality and normal volume is predicted. Shipments should continue into mid-August.
Vidalia onion shipments are lower due to weather and disease, but moderate volume continues from Southeastern Georgia. Mixed veggies from Central and Southern Georgia also continue.
South Carolina
Despite cold and wet weather prections for South Carolina strawberries, shipments are good. Strawberry loadings usually end in May, but this year are expected to continue through June.
South Carolina peach loadings also look promising. Light shipments get underway in a few weeks. Florida mixed vegetable loads – grossing about $3200 to Chicago.
HUNTS POINT WHOLESALE TERMINAL MARKET FACTS:
* Located on 113 acres in the South Bronx . Hunts Point is owned by New York City.
* Four primary rows with each being one-third of a mile long.
* 1 million square feet of interior space.
* Opened in 1967.
*Has operated as a co-op for about 20 years.
*Has elected board of directors representing about 50 produce companies on the market.
*Hunts Point employees over 3,500 workers.
*Hunts Point serves about 23 million people, mostly in the Northeast with produce from across the nation and from around the world .
*Hunts Point is the largest food distribution center in the world and also includes the Fulton Fish Market. Revenues exceed $2 billion a year.
*Negotiations between the market and NYC over the past 10 years to build a new facility have failed. Produce wholesalers cite needs for more and better cold storage. Rebuilding, renovation, and moving the market to New Jesery are often topics of discussion.
*Unloading delays are commong at Hunts Point in part due to lack of cold storage. Refrigerated trailers are often used as storage facilities. Truckers receive no detention for delayed unloading.
*Hunts Point receives $172.5 million in cash and tax breaks from New York City.
*Hunts Point leaders are in a “fight” with the NYC’s Business Integrity Commission, an agency created to root out organized crime in the carting industry. The commission has overstepped its authority and is interfering with business by setting operating hours and hitting delivery and storage trucks with parking tickets, produce house operators say. They feel the commission has over stepped its authority and its mission should only deal with organized crime.
Over the years is seems there have been fewer problems with unfair claims and rejected loads at Ontario compared to Montreal.
The Ontario Food Terminal averages buying and selling about a 1 million tons of produce and horticultural products a year, which equates to an average of 5.4 million pounds of fruits, produce and horticultural products distributed daily.
Based in Toronto, it is the fourth largest wholesale produce distribution center in North America behind New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.
The heaviest truck traffic at the terminal takes place on Sunday is the busiest receiving day for the terminal. However, it is a small operation compared to Hunts Point Terminal Market in New York, with Ontario having roughly 600-850 pallets and an average of 25 tractor-trailer loads in a 12-hour period.
The terminal has 21 warehouse tenants, 5,000 registered buyers and the farmers market area includes 550 stalls. The registered buyers are able to buy fruits and vegetables and floral products on a wholesale basis. These buyers then sell their goods to independent and chain supermarkets, convenience stores, restaurants, foodservice institutions among others.
Terminal wholesalers distribute product by truck throughout Ontario and as far east as the Maritime Provinces. Ontario products also are shipped to the USA from the “U” shaped terminal tha has 21 market wholesale houses.
Since 1954, the Ontario Food Terminal has been located in the Toronto district of Etobicoke. There is approximately 100,000 square feet of storage available in the coolers. Some of the new portions of the building have racking systems available in the cold-storage rooms.
The 40 acre Toronto site is located at 165 the Queensway between Park Lawn Road and Stephen Drive in South Etobicoke. If you are driving from the east, take the South Kingsway exit from the Westbound Gardiner Expressway to the Westbound Queensway.
If you are driving from the West, take the Eastbound Q.E.W. to the Park Lawn Road Exit and proceed North to the Queensway.
Hours of operation:
Mondays to Fridays:
4:00 am to 2:00 pm
Sundays:
6:00 am to 11:00 am
The terminal’s website does not address the issues of unloading hours for truckers, or if there are gate fees, or unloading charges.
The Birth of Jesus
Matthew 1:18-25
This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came 
together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel“—which means, “God with us.”
When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus. (KJV)
Luke 2:1-14
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a censusshould be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.
So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” (KJV)
The Visit of the Shepherds
Luke 2:15-20
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.
But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. (KJV)
USA imports of fresh fruit and vegetables have increased significantly since the 1990s, and this has increased loading opportunities during a time of the year when it is an off season for a majority of American grown produce items.
These off season suppliers for fresh produce are primarily the Southern Hemisphere countries countries near the equator for bananas.
While it is trendy and cool to be associated with locally grown produce these days, locally grown is minor compared to the strong growth in volume and variety of fresh produce that is imported. These imported fruits and vegetables has allowed U.S. consumers to eat more produce, and for truckers to haul more produce, on a year-round basis. This is product that normally would not be available.
The USDA states that between 1990-92 and 2004-06, annual USA imports of fresh fruit and vegetables surged to $7.9 billion from $2.7 billion, with the share of total USA imports for agriculture rising to 13.3 percent from 11.5 percent. USA exports of fresh produce also increase, but less. As a result, the United States has increasingly become a net importer of fresh produce.
As of 2007, USA fresh produce trade was dominated by a few regions. Fresh vegetable imports from Mexico and Canada were over $3.2 billion, which comprises the single-largest trade channel among regions of U.S. fresh produce trade.
USA fruit trade is more diverse than vegetable trade in terms of foreign trade partners. Whereas fresh vegetable trade is largely concentrated within North American Free Trade Agreement countries and Asia (95 percent of exports and 84 percent of imports), fresh fruit trade with those regions is less significant (85 percent of exports and 28 percent of imports).
Because fresh produce is highly perishable and seasonal, geography has traditionally played a major role in the global trade patterns of fresh produce.
The main sources of USA fresh fruit imports are banana-exporting countries, and the Southern Hemisphere and NAFTA regions. The banana exporters — Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama — are the largest providers of fresh fruit to the United States.
Together, these countries supply 36 percent of total U.S. fresh fruit imports, with bananas making up more than three-quarters of the fresh fruit value shipped by these equatorial countries to the United States. Southern Hemisphere countries — Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, New Zealand, South Africa and Peru — supply 32 percent of U.S. fresh fruit imports. The NAFTA region supplies 27 percent of U.S. fresh fruit imports.
The structure of the U.S. fresh fruit import mix, however, has changed substantially, particularly since the 1990s, as grape and tropical fruit imports have grown faster than bananas.
Blueberries are a good example of an item that has grown quickly and hugely over the past decade. Other fruits and vegetables, such as asparagus from Peru, are also inching toward the list of items that are outpacing banana imports.
Although the eight-day strike at ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach has ended, picking up and delivering loads to the terminals is still a mess and it could be for weeks.
It is not like the flexibility in trucking where a load can be diverted elsewhere due to a labor strike, weather factors or any number of other reasons.
Container terminals reopened Dec. 5 at both California ports as clerical workers in International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 63 reached a tentative contract with operators and shipping lines, as the union sought limits on outsourcing. In L.A. about 700 striking harbor clerks were backed by thousands of longshoremen who honored their picket line.
About $8 billion was lost in the strike to the local economy.
While the strike has ended, the congestion has not.
The cold chain was maintained, but there were concerns about arrival conditions and the possibility of an increase in orders that could challenge capacity.
It has been report the impacts of the strike will be far greater than just eight days. In 2002 there was a 10-day strike. It took months the boats could get back in the right rotation. This could adversely affect, for example, imported fruit from Chile arriving at Long Beach.
Recently Commerical Carrier Journal provided some pointers for truckers to use to save fuel while on the road. Some are common sense, some might not occur to you.
Check out some tips that are obvious. will other may not be so obvious.
Turn off the engine. Drivers should avoid excessive warm-up times when starting the truck, even for a short time. Look for other times when drivers have a habit of idling.
Use shore power when it’s available. Many inverters and auxiliary power units come with a plug-in option that converts incoming current to DC to charge the batteries, using AC to power climate-control units and/or in-cab accessories. The truckstop electrification movement to help eliminate idling has gained steam in the last year, with plug-in options available at many more parking spaces.
Avoid revving the engine between shifts. Ease into each new gear, and don’t be in a hurry to climb through them.
Run in your engine’s sweet spot. Once you reach cruising speed, operating in the peak torque zone gives you optimum horsepower so that the engine runs most efficiently. It takes only about 200 horsepower to maintain 65 mph.
Minimize air-conditioning use. Running the A/C delivers a 2/10- to 4/10-mpg hit.
Anticipate traffic lights. If you can approach slowly and avoid a complete stop, it saves fuel and reduces equipment wear.
Maintain an extended following distance. It helps to prevent unnecessary acceleration due to frequent braking.
Lower your average highway speed. Every mph over 55 equals a 0.1-mpg drop in fuel economy.
Don’t punch the throttle. Gradually put your foot into it, pretending there’s an egg between the pedal and the floorboard. Use smooth, steady accelerator inputs to avoid fuel burn spikes.
Read more at http://cdllife.com/2012/driving-jobs/checklist-how-truck-drivers-can-save-fuel/#8YfdU4yqK7HK6gkr.99
An estimated 5,000 truckers haved been shut down at ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach from a clerical workers strikethat started last week.
The Los Angeles/Long Beach Harbor Employers Associations are continuing negotiations with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 63 Office Clerical Unit. Other ILWU have refused to cross OCU picket lines, which had idled cargo from moving.
The dispute is over job security and outsourcing, according to the union. The LA/LB HEA is a not-for-profit organization representing the region’s shipping agencies and terminal operators which assists in administration of labor contracts.