Drs. Linda Harris, Marita Cantwell, and Devon Zagory were among the invited speakers at the “Food Safety for Organic Production and Handling of Fresh Produce Conference” that was held January 22-23 at the Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove. The conference was organized by the California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) ­and focused on the challenges to organic farmers and food handlers since the E. coli outbreak in 2006. "We want to educate organic farmers about how they can impact food safety," said Peggy Miars, executive director of the Santa Cruz-based CCOF. 

The 2006 E. coli outbreak brought the Central Coast’s spinach growers to a halt after the Food and Drug Administration issued a two-week-long advisory against consuming the leafy greens. Some experts suggest the industry still has not fully recovered.  “That got everyone’s attention,” said Miars, who proposed creating a course that incorporated issues of food safety in organic farming. “Food safety is becoming a hot topic, not only in agriculture, but in all of the food industry.”  For more information about this conference go to: www.ccof.org/foodsafetyconference.php

Congratulations to Dr. Trevor Suslow who was recently appointed to the American Phytopathological Society (APS) Public Policy Board in December 2007. The PPB provides scientific input on public policy issues to the society’s officers, federal policy makers and agency personnel, and works with other scientific organizations and coalitions to increase the awareness of the science of plant pathology. 

Dr. Suslow also recently addressed a plenary session of the 2007 APS Annual Meeting regarding “Plant Pathology:  A key discipline for microbial food safety cross-talk”.  This was an important event which brought APS members together with members of the food safety research community to discuss cross-domain bacteria (pathogens that infect plants and animals, including humans). 

Future PPB plans include working with the newly formed APS Food Safety Interest Group to create opportunities, via a national workshop, for synergism between plant pathology and food safety research communities.  Dr. Suslow is working with PPB members to secure funding for a National Workshop on Food Safety to help define the roles that plant pathologists can play in research, detection/diagnostics and prevention of human food borne pathogens in the food.  Workshop goals include setting research priorities, fostering cooperation among plant pathologists and food safety experts and identifying targeted research funding sources.  For more information see: www.apsnet.org/members/ppb/.

New markets, new tools and new crops were showcased at the 2007 Specialty Crops Conference, organized by the University of California Small Farm Program.  Dr. Jim Gorny executive director of the Postharvest Technology Research & Information Center at UC Davis, was an invited speaker at the conference on the critical topics of produce food safety and postharvest handling.  Conference presentations also included discussions of enterprise screening tools, alternative marketing channels, planting based on market outlooks, and consumer preferences for colors and flavors­ led by farm advisors and staff of the UC Small Farm Program.  For more information about the U.C. Small Farm Program go to: http://sfc.ucdavis.edu

Dr. Jim Gorny executive director of the UCD Postharvest Technology Research & Information Center (PTRIC) was an invited guest speaker at a “Postharvest and Minimal Processing of Fruits and Vegetables; Quality and Safety” short course offered December 3-5, 2007 in Lisbon, Portugal.   At the three day short hosted by the Instituto Superior de Agronomia at the Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Dr. Gorny discussed good agricultural practices employed in the USA that enhance the safety of fresh-cut produce and modified atmosphere packaging design for fresh-cut produce.   He was also joined by ICPT (http://postharvest.ucdavis.edu/icpt/index.shtml) collaborator Dr. Luis Cisneros from Texas A&M University.

The course attracted more that 65 participants from all sectors of the Portuguese produce and retail produce industry as well as undergraduate and graduate students from the Instituto Superior de Agronomia at the Universidade Técnica de Lisboa. The Postharvest Center wishes to express special thanks to Dr. Maria Luisa Beirão da Costa and Dr. Sara Beirão da Costa at the Instituto Superior de Agronomia whom served as conference organizers and hosts, for extending an invitation and financially supporting PTRIC's participation in this important event.   "This was an excellent opportunity for PTRIC to collaborate with another leading institution to provide industry and future industry leaders with working knowledge regarding how to effectively handle and market, safe high quality value added produce" said Jim Gorny.