Core Report January 2015

Jim Allen discusses labor woes in West Coast ports....................................... Page 3Frank Gasperini on how Presi-dent’s Executive Action on immi-gration impacts agriculture...................................... Page 5

Cider page, revamped website key association’s marketing...................................... Page 7USDA study looks at economic impact bird damage on agricul-ture................................. Pages 8-9Cornell Cooperative Extension of-fers pruning, mechanization tour in Lake Ontario region..................................... Page 10

Association reminds consumers how apples are part of a healthy New Year..................................... Page 11Normalization of relations with Cuba would open up new market to U.S. farmers..................................... Page 16

Your AMO assessments fund all of the activities of the New York Apple Association, helping to encourage profitable growing and marketing of

New York apples. Stories and photos with this logo

specifically highlight how your AMO dollars

are being put to work for you.

In this Issue

7645 Main StreetPO Box 350Fishers New York 14453-0350

Official Newspaper of the New York Apple Association Volume 3, Issue 8 January 2015

Inside: USApplerespondsto new FDA proposal

Page 10

Expo, Becker Forumreturn to SyracuseThe Empire State Producers Expo

runs Jan. 19-22, 2015 at the On Center in Syracuse.

The Expo includes the one-day Becker Issues Forum at the Holiday Inn Liverpool, the three-day Trade Show and three days of concurrent educational sessions. Contributing organizations include: the NYSVGA, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Empire State Potato Growers Inc., NYS Berry Growers Association, NYS Flower Industries, Inc., NYS Horticultural Society, Farmers’ Direct Marketing Committee, and Cornell University.

Jan. 19: The 2015 Becker Forum theme is From NY Farms to NY Plates: Institutional purchasing across New York.

The Becker Forum will be hosted at the Holiday Inn, Liverpool, NY. Just off the thruway. (Pre-registration is required.)

January 20- 22, 2015: The 2015 Expo is three full days of fruit, vegetable, flower, marketing and labor sessions. Breakouts include labor, tree fruit, berries, flowers, vine crops, potatoes, and barley. Margaret Smith will be this year’s Keynote Speaker. She will be discussing GMOs: Distinguishing Fact from Fiction.

And don’t miss the featured session: Brewing Success – NYS Malt Barley: From the furrow to what ales you. The Expo offers both DEC and Certified Crop Adviser credits.

Jan. 20-22: The Expo Trade Show just keeps getting bigger and better. Check out the newest products, services, and specialized equipment for the fruit, vegetable, and direct marketing industries.

The Expo Trade Show includes more than 150 companies representing a variety of products and services from equipment and inputs to software, packaging, bakery supplies and much, much more.

The trade show will be open all three days in the exhibit hall.

Stop by the trade show Tuesday afternoon for a little “Taste of Syracuse.” Area restaurants will offer tasting.

On Wednesday, be sure not to miss the afternoon complimentary Ice Cream Social. The trade show will be open 9-5 Jan. 20, 8-5 Jan. 21 and 8-1 on Jan, 22.

Tree fruit workshopsat Producers ExpoTuesday, Jan. 20

Tree Fruit — Getting the Most of Honeycrisp Orchards in New York, Ballroom East

9 a.m. Welcome – Mario Miranda Sazo, CCE Lake Ontario Fruit Program

9:05 What works and what doesn’t for successful production of Honeycrisp? – Terence Robinson, H o r t i c u l t u r e , Cornell University

9:50 What’s new from industry?

10 DA meter: Science and practical use – Stefano Musacchi, Horticulture, Washington State University, Wenatchee, Wash.

10:20 Toward optimizing harvest timing, prestorage conditioning, and post-harvest handling of Honeycrisp

– Chris Watkins, Horticulture, Cornell University

11 Lunch

Tree Fruit - Apple Rootstocks & Varieties: Just Made for Each Other, Ballroom East

1 p.m. Welcome – Dan Donahue, CCE Eastern NY Commercial H o r t i c u l t u r e Program

1:05 Apple varieties and new uses: Cider, slices and more – Susan Brown, H o r t i c u l t u r e , Cornell University

1:30 The strengths and weaknesses of Geneva rootstocks – Terence Robinson, Horticulture, Cornell

Courtesy Empire State Producers ExpoThe Empire State Producers Expo in Syracuse provides opportunities for growers to learn and socialize each January.

See Expo, Page 15

Market Basket opens new storeProvidence (R.I.) Journal

ATTLEBORO, Mass. — People living in the border communities off Route 1A got a taste of loyalty Jan. 7 when the Market Basket grocery chain opened a store in the South Attleboro section of the city.

The chain, based in the Merrimack Valley community of Tewksbury, in northern Massachusetts, has long had a devoted following.

That loyalty was tested in 2014 when a bitter, years-long dispute within the Demoulas family nearly destroyed the business the family worked so hard to build. Workers and customers banded together this summer in an epic final

battle to help Arthur T. Demoulas win control of the business from a rival cousin. The battle stretched over the summer, making national headlines, emptying stores and stalling company construction projects.

“It’s an unprecedented feeling because of the support” of customers during the dispute, said David McLean, operations officer for Market Basket. “They were the wind at our back.”

The South Attleboro location — in the Bristol Place shopping center, adjacent to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority station off Newport Avenue — was among the store openings delayed by the family feud.

Intended to replace a Shaw’s Supermarkets store that closed in 2009, the new Market Basket sat unfinished for months, leaving area

residents eager for its opening, causing concern for city politicians and angering the Bristol Place owner, who sued the company in an attempt to get the project restarted.

It was the fourth opening since the family dispute ended with a $1.6-billion agreement giving Arthur T. Demoulas control of the company. A fifth opening is planned for Athol, Mass., in mid-January.

Construction workers returned to the South Attleboro site in late fall to complete the project in advance of an opening rescheduled for next week.

“The reality is most people in that area have not stepped in to a [Market Basket],” McLean said. “We’ll put our best foot forward.

Effort launchedto kill Calif. banon plastic bagsReuters

SACRAMENTO, California — An effort to kill California’s first-in-the-nation state ban on single-use

plastic grocery bags advanced this week after bag makers spent several million dollars on a campaign to gather signatures for a proposed ballot initiative to overturn it.

The ban, which was passed by the state Legislature and signed by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown in the autumn, is widely supported by environmentalists, who say the bags contribute to litter and pollution. But the measure has triggered a harsh reaction from plastic bag manufacturers, who say their product can be easily recycled.

“You just take it back to the grocery store and stuff it into a container and it gets recycled,” said Jon Berrier, a spokesman for the American Progressive Bag Alliance, which is funding the effort to repeal the ban.

The industry group contributed most of the $3 million spent to gather signatures for a ballot initiative to overturn the state’s ban, currently set to take effect in July. The organization said on Monday it had submitted more than 800,000 signatures to county governments, more than the 505,000 needed to place the measure on the ballot.

Page 2 Core Report® January 2015

Retail ReviewNews from the retail marketing industry

By Molly [email protected]

As I look out at the blustery cold weather we are experiencing I see apple

trees taking the brunt of the wind and snow that is whipping around them.

I think about how the apple growing season is over, the trees gearing up for another not so far off in

the future. While it is cold here in the Northeast and the growing is finished, there are still rooms full of fruit left to hit the retail shelves and we are busy continuing our promotions of New York apples.

This fall saw many new, successful promos and we are proud to say the retailers were thrilled with the results. The New Year is starting out with New York apples continuing to be featured in ads and our coupon and demo schedule is filling up again.

Take a look at our demo map from this fall-we are blanketing the country with New York apples!

January 2015 Core Report® Page 3

Core Report® is published monthly by the New York

Apple Associationas a member service.

New York Apple Assn.Contact

7645 Main St., Fishers, NY 14453-0350Phone: (585) 924-2171, Fax: (585) 924-1629www.nyapplecountry.com

StaffJames Allen, President, [email protected] Golden, Director of Marketing, [email protected] Willis, Executive & Communications AssistantCathy Jadus, Administrative & Retail AssistantEllen A. Mykins, Accounting Dept.John McAleavey, Northeast Account ManagerLinda Quinn, Nutrition SpokeswomanJulia Stewart, Public Relations Director and NYAA spokesperson, [email protected]

Board of DirectorsWill Gunnison, Chairman, District 1, Crown Point,(518) 597-3363, [email protected] Toohill, District 1, Chazy, 518-846-7171,[email protected] A. Migliorelli, District 2, Tivoli, (845) 757-3276,[email protected]

David Jones, District 2, Germantown, 518-537-6500,[email protected]

Kurt Borchert, District 3, Marlboro, 845-236-7239,[email protected] Sarah Dressel, District 3, New Paltz,(845) 255-0693, [email protected]

Joseph Porpiglia III, Vice Chairman, District 3, Marlboro,(845) 236-4400, [email protected] Torrice, District 4, Oswego(315) 342-3793, [email protected]

Richard Endres, District 5, Sodus(315) 483-6815, [email protected] Furber, District 5, Sodus(315) 483-8529, [email protected]

Chris Hance, Treasurer, District 5, Pultneyville,(315) 589-4212, [email protected]

Abram Peters, District 5, Pultneyville,(585) 455-3600, [email protected]

Kevin Bittner, District 6, Barker, 716-795-3030,[email protected] Stannard, District 6, Medina, 518-477-7200,[email protected]

Jason Woodworth, District 6, Waterport, 585-682-4749, [email protected]

President’s Message

By Jim [email protected]

No one can forget the near disaster that was averted on Sept. 13, 2010, when Motts workers returned to work

after going on strike back in May.

The disaster of course was the fear that the near 7 million bushels of New York apples, grown for Motts, would be at risk due to the work stoppage, as

well as the future of the Motts plant and Motts workers. By the time the two sides settled, harvest was well under way and it was evident that business

was not as usual in Williamson.Thankfully, a settlement was

reached, apples were delivered, apple sauce was produced and the season returned to normal.

This is still not the case on the West Coast, where presently a work slowdown at the ports continues to wreak havoc with many different industries.

The International Longshoremen and Warehouse Union has reduced shipments by as much as 70 percent because it does not have a new contract. Recently it was reported that the West Coast hay producers have lost 50 percent of their business since November.

While here in the East, we may not think about hay as an export commodity but for Washington and Oregon growers it is big business.

Jim Allen

Branching Out

Blanketing the market

Molly Golden

Unions again upsetthe apple cart(and hay wagon)

Molly

New York Apple Association staff: Front row, from left — Ellen Mykins, Molly Golden. Back row — Jim Allen, Cathy Jadus, Joan Willis.

See Allen, Page 16

By Paul [email protected]

I think perhaps to best answer this question we should begin by asking ourselves where we were at the close of 2014.

Let me give you a hint. It has now been 28 years since any meaningful federal legislation has been passed and signed into law. The Immigration Reform and Control Act was signed by President Reagan which attempted to legalize foreign workers who had been in this country since 1962. We have not seen any legislation since this coming from the Beltway now in 28 years. I only raise this to illustrate the total lack of direction coming from Washington in almost three decades. So the question I am asking is, “will 2015 be anything different?

It is my opinion that despite the fact that we now have both the House and the Senate under one majority we are still in a state of flux. The Republican base, while the clear majority, is internally divided leaving action difficult. The President is clearly so frustrated he has taken to “declaring” action without Congressional direction. His declaration of executive action only 13 days following a sweeping defeat of his party only will act to muddy any

hopes of constructive legislation on immigration reform.

The Presidential Executive Action on immigration has not even been written as of this date. The broad guidelines were addressed in his speech but the real details are months from public

s c r u t i n y . Most feel we will not know the details until late this spring or early summer. So even if his plan is implemented it has less than 18 months before the close of his administration when it will be scraped under

a new President. One has to wonder if his plan offers “exposure” more than a meaningful solution for both subject employees and employers. Great caution needs to be taken by all sides before moving on this.

I believe we need to accept where we are in 2015 and begin a quest for a path to “compliance” under this government. Today we are facing more questions than answers as to how to handle our

human resources. The Affordable Care Act (Obama Care) was slated to begin January 1, 2015 for everyone. As we all know by now the administration has failed to clear up so many issues on this Act that a one year waiver exists for businesses that employ less than 100 full time employees. While this is a 365 day relief it does nothing to clarify how we are to manage our health care responsibilities in our business. We are once again left in a state of nervous uncertainty as to what lies ahead.

Here in New York we have seen a record number of Job Orders placed at the NYS DOL. At the drafting of this report I counted 199 job orders being placed for agriculture production. Only 30 of these were seeking “domestic workers.” The remaining 169 were seeking permission to hire under the H2A program. These orders were from a wide range of types of agriculture. Most were from fruit, vegetable or some form of landscape. One dairy worker request was submitted this past year. Many feel that these orders are for only large operations but 56 of these were for requests for less than 10 employees. The range was from 1 to 125 workers needed. Equally diverse was the length of job experience requested. The range here was from 0 to six months. The point here is that employers

were reaching out to this very much criticized program in 2014 because it was the only legal and safe way to meet their human resource needs.

In 2014 we began to see new pressures placed upon employers who hired foreign workers. In years past it was accepted practice to issue a 1099 to each worker. This past year we began to hear reports that these workers were now being required to pay both State and Federal income taxes. Employers were now left questioning should they be deducting these taxes from their H2A employees? No clear directive was stated. Rumors began to circulate that if a returning H2A employee in future years wishes to return to employment here in the USA he must first meet his past income tax responsibility. As an employer we are not responsible to pay the employee’s income taxes. In most all of our domestic dealings we deduct these taxes as a service to our employees and at the end of the year issue them a W2 which shows what they have contributed to their responsibility in the previous year. Realistically it will be very difficult for a returning foreign worker to have these funds before returning to his job.

Baker


Labor mattersNews from Agricultural Affiliates

2015? What kind of year will it be?

See Baker, Page 16


Obama’s ‘Immigrant Accountability Executive Action’ and apple growers By Frank GasperiniNational Council of Ag Employers

The President announced Executive Action on immigration on Nov. 20, 2014. Since then both sides of the political spectrum, and many in between, have ranted on about why this is too much, too little, too soon, too late, or just right. Meantime growers and other employers want to know what it means to their own businesses and to their relationships with their own workers.

Except for those who may be in removal procedures already, or who get caught-up in the near future, it will be some time before any real activity will begin. The program is slotted to officially start Jan. 1, 2015 with the Department of Homeland Security ordered to have a formal processes in place no more than 180 days after that. Although we know that DHS started work on defining the processes and procedures immediately it will take all or most of the 180 days to complete the task, before the first person could formally apply for protected status. This means it could be the end of June before there is a clear process in place.

Links to the transcript of what the President said and the official White House fact sheet are listed along with this article. An additional link to an article in the National Law Review posted on Dec. 4, 2014 offers an excellent summary of the President’s action.

While these links may be useful in understanding the President’s action, please remember that you are not in a position to offer advice or council to employees or others. Not only are the implementation processes do not yet in place, immigration law is extremely complex and must be left not only to lawyers, but to that small group of attorneys who are truly experts in the field.

Although numerous changes to DHS policy are required in the action, the most significant portions for employers are the provisions to defer deportation for “certain immigrants” who have entered and remained in the United States without authorization. This means deferred deportation procedures for some, but not all, of those currently in the country illegally. How this all plays out may be important to agricultural employers because our experience with DHS I-9 audits has taught us that too many of those for whom we have properly documented I-9 forms turn out to be falsely documented when examined by DHS.

Every employer should always work under the premise that because we always do our I-9 forms as required, we have no cause to expect that any of our current employees are not legally work eligible, or that the Executive Action will have any impact on us. In addition, until DHS has announced the process for employees to sign-up for deferred action nothing changes for you as an employer. Until a process is announced, if you become aware, or obtain information that leads you to believe that a current employee is not work eligible, then you must follow current employer practices.

NCAE and other groups are meeting

with USDA and DHS currently to stress the i m p o r t a n c e of including clear employer processes and “safe-harbor” for employers who follow the rules in dealing with e m p l o y e e s whom we

may learn have been working under false documentation. Following the general outline of an excellent paper written for the Agricultural Coalition for Immigration Reform (ACIR), until clear guidance is forthcoming:

Don’t ask, don’t tell. Don’t reach-out to current employees to inquire about their eligibility or attempt to offer advice. You completed your I-9 forms in good-faith; there should be no cause to second-guess.

If an employee asks for copies of their employment records, don’t jump to conclusions. Employment records may be requested for many reasons including loans, school residency requirements, leases, etc.

In the future, if an employee comes to you with new identity and/or work authorization that does not match what they provided at the time or original hire--- do not destroy the original I-9, but complete a new one with the information provided and attach it to the old one. Assure that the information and identifications provided meet the I-9 requirements and document that the reason(s) for completion of a new I-9 is because the employee informed you that they have obtained new work authorization under the new Executive Action. There may, or may not, be a specific form and/or process provided by DHS by that time.

We are asking DHS to provide specific guidance on how to proceed if or when you learn that an employee was not work eligible, but is nor or will be eligible under deferred action and temporary work authorization. We anticipate there will be a clear process that allows time to properly pursue all the steps. Additionally we expect there to be clear guidance on when and employer may or may not terminate an employee on learning of a change of status.

The only potential relevance to H-2A employers is the slight potential that the pool of domestic referrals could grow as those who gain deferred status will almost certainly be considered work-eligible domestic workers.

We understand how difficult it is to sit and wait for further government guidance, but there is little or no useful effort you can take at this time except to educate yourself on the developing process; and much harm could be done to your business and to employees if the wrong actions are taken.

In the end, the only real long-term help for our agricultural labor situation will come through positive legislation followed by rule-making that truly sets-out to protect the rights and fill the needs of both employers and

employees. NCAE, New York Apple Association and other groups

continue to work for agricultural immigration reform legislation along with our coalition the Agricultural Workforce Coalition (AWC.) We encourage all readers to continue to participate with our associations, to attend and participate in NCAE and your own association’s meetings and legislative days, and to help us keep the pressure on our US House and Senate members to keep domestic agriculture viable. This is and will remain a long-term effort and we all need to participate together.

uuu

The author is Executive Vice

President of the National Council of Agricultural Employers. NCAE is the national trade association representing Agricultural Employers in Washington, DC. NCAE advocates and addresses employer issues for all employers of both domestic and H-2 agriculture workers. NCAE is proud to count many individual growers and grower associations among our Membership. The invitation to become an individual Member of NCAE and receive our communication and information direct is extended to all agricultural employers. Visit NCAE’s website at www.NCAEonline.org for more information and continuing updates.

Gasperini

Learn more hereUseful links for further online research and study:President’s speech transcript: http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/20/politics/obama-immigration-speech-transcript/index.html White House fact sheet on President’s action: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/11/20/fact-sheet-immigration-accountability-execu-tive-actionNational Law Review summary of President’s action. http://www.natlaw-review.com/article/president-obama-s-executive-action-and-agricultural-sector


New USApple social media numbersare as sweet as honeyBy Wendy BrannenUSApple

There’s a really annoying (or, depending on your opinion I suppose, entertaining) song out on the radio right now called “All About That Bass.” You know the one? “No treble!” Well, here at the U.S. Apple Association, we’re all about the bees (and no trouble). Did you know (and you’re fruit growers so you probably did):

u It takes one colony of honeybees to pollinate an acre of fruit trees.

u A colony can have more than 50-thousand bees during summertime.

u Those 50 thousand bees each squeeze into one hive.

u A hive of bees may have to fly 50 thousand miles to produce a pound of honey.

Yes, pretty basic bee facts—but the big news is really not the facts but the common factor of 50 thousand. In November, the USApple Facebook page surpassed 50 thousand followers, a goal we’ve been steadily working towards since I started last year.

Our consumer education team has been a swarm of busy worker bees this past year expanding USApple’s engagement with consumers on social channels (well, we busy worker bees plus a busy worker Eric, since worker bees can’t actually be male). In fact, we’ve grown the Association’s Facebook following by 30 percent just this past year alone. And, nearly 45,000 Facebook users (both followers and non-official followers alike) have shared a USApple Facebook post with their own followers. In other words, that group of 50 thousand fans has helped us in turn reach 4 million people!

How many people is 4 million people? Well, bees have to tap 2 million flowers to produce a pound of honey—so twice that many! Yeah, I’m not sure what that connection actually means either, but trust me—4 million people in the world of PR is pretty sweet.

The importance of online strategy is twofold. It serves as a means to provide education on apples’ health benefits. And, it allows us to help people explore new apple varieties, meal ideas, and kitchen tips.

Our recent campaigns have included:u “28 Days of Apples,” an award-winning campaign

in which USApple members and supporting brands got involved to encourage individuals to learn and

share heart-healthy apple facts on social channels during February, American Heart Month.

u “Apple Summer Selfies,” an online contest rewarding individuals for sharing selfies with an apple or apple product in hand during summer travels and vacation.

u “AppletizeMe,” an online apple variety and pairing education program – timed to National Apple Month in October, featuring a humorous personality quiz matching individuals with their ideal apple varieties and perfect food pairings.

We have worked hard this past year to establish meaningful relationships with consumers online. Be it our brand new YouTube video series featuring top apple varieties, Pinterest recipe boards with beautiful food photos, Twitter parties offering health tips and cooking ideas, digital contests, or other outreach, our objective has been to hone the perfect mix of the moment to reach consumers with the resources we have. And, Facebook has proven an effective channel to pull all of those pieces together and showcase our timely apple campaigns.

I learned another bee fact recently. Bees communicate by dancing. Probably not to that goofy song I mentioned, but apparently they do a little dance to alert other bees where nectar and pollen are located. And, somehow the dance explains direction and distance. Funny—it almost sounds like the bees have their own brand of social media.

You can follow USApple on social media at https://www.facebook.com/USApples. To learn more about apples and apple varieties, visit USApple.org and USAppleBlog.org. For a regular slice of new apple recipes and fresh information, sign up for USApple’s e-newsletter on the blog.

Good Point: That unwashed grapeBy Chris SchlectGood Fruit Grower

Tennessee Williams, in his play A Streetcar Named Desire, has the character Blanche DuBois remark, “…And when I die, I’m going to die on the sea. You know what I shall die of? I shall die of eating an unwashed grape…. ‘Poor lady,’ they’ll say, ‘The quinine did her no good. That unwashed grape has transported her soul to heaven.’”

The United States Congress decided that souls should not be transported to heaven due to the eating of unwashed grapes, or apples, or leafy greens and, in 2010, passed the Food Safety Modernization Act, now known as FSMA.

While the main trigger for action was a string of deadly incidents over the prior decade, mostly tied to fresh vegetable crops that shook the public’s confidence in the government’s regulatory oversight of food production, there were other related influences at work.

Many large food companies favored it due to increasing legal liability fears stemming from the part of their supply chain that they had the least control over—independently owned farms. Produce industry associations wanted Congress to do something—almost anything—to restore the public’s confidence in the products they represented. Consumer advocacy groups were eager to fortify the government with more power to ensure safe food at every table. Food safety

experts called for a comprehensive “farm to fork” approach, one based on advanced safety methods used for decades within food packaging facilities. In addition, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) desired broader authority and additional resources to deal with our country’s increasingly complex food production and delivery system, one ever more reliant on foreign imports.

So now we have FSMA.Since FSMA became law in January

of 2011, the FDA has worked to develop regulations to implement this landmark bill. As a result, there are seven proposed FSMA rules now floating about. They await being made final, and thus enforceable. These proposals cover such food safety related things as imported food, packing houses, orchards and other farms, transportation of food, and animal feed.

These all have varying degrees of on tree fruit growers and shippers. For example, animal feed rules would come into play when cull apples are sent to a cattle feedlot. And, the transportation rule may impact the use of straddle carriers to move fruit from warehouse to another company’s packing facility.

However, the greatest impact for the tree fruit industry will be seen in the proposed rule entitled “Standards for the Growing, Harvesting, Packing, and Holding of Produce for Human Consumption,” which is better known as the “Produce Rule.”

FDA has clearly rejected our call to focus regulatory enforcement on

produce crops having a known history of food safety problems. The FDA has embraced an umbrella approach that throws its regulatory shade over all produce crops. Compliance with production rules, such as related to irrigation water; required food safety education of field and packing house workers; paperwork mandates; and so forth are all part of the master plan.

My fears concerning FSMA implementation are many. For example, I fear that:

u The FSMA regulatory effort will place unnecessary pressure on our orchardists, in terms of the cost and headache of compliance, without true enhanced food safety benefits to consumers;

u FDA does not have the resources to properly implement any final rules and is unlikely to get such money from Congress;

u Without enforcement money from Congress, FDA will seek fees from the affected regulated community (read: new taxes on orchardists and packinghouses);

u Fresh produce imported from overseas, although fully subject to the FSMA rules, will skate into our country by way of forged paperwork;

u Our tree-fruit industry will likely face retaliatory actions in export markets, whenever FDA officials should enforce our country’s food safety standards in foreign fields;

u In the future, federal enforcement officers on the ground will prove to be much less flexible or reasonable than

the capable and comforting food safety officials who are now developing FSMA rules at FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition; and

u Orchardists will find it difficult to put future advances in food safety technology or science into commercial practice given a fairly rigid set of FSMA rules.

I think FSMA is another example of how a good idea (here, improved food safety for consumers) is forged into a federal law with little understanding by legislators of the complexities of the actual situation. Impossible goals are sought, such as no one should ever die from eating an unwashed grape. A regulatory agency (here, FDA) then is ordered to flesh out the law passed by Congress. The agency, while it truly believes in its public mission, has its own internal institutional impulses for more staff, money, and oversight. What might be done simply is rarely kept simple.

While many of the proposed FSMA regulations are still under review, FDA has opened a new comment period, which closes December 15, for a few of these, including the important Produce Rule. Here FDA is making a sincere attempt, albeit in complicated and opaque language, to give more flexibility to, among other things, its requirement for pathogen testing of irrigation water that comes into direct contact with RACs (bureaucratic speak for “Raw Agricultural Commodities,” or, for our purposes, an apple hanging on a tree irrigated by way of overhead sprinklers.)

Opinion


NYAppleCountry.com, a corecomponent of marketing efforts

By Karl HebergerMason Digital

Back in July we launched the brand new website, providing an online destination for consumers to interact

with all things New York apples.There are interactive maps where

users can find nearby farm markets and pick-your-own orchards. The recipes section shows dozens of recipes in eight categories where users can search for

new ideas and even upload pictures of their own creations. Site visitors can find extensive information about the different varieties offered in the state as well as nutritional facts. There’s even a live feed from Facebook and links to social media channels which provide plenty of ways for users to interact and engage.

Since “going live” back in the summer the site has been extremely successful at engaging with users and has proven to be an essential piece of our marketing efforts. In 2014 there have been more than 110,000 visits to the site with users viewing over 256,000 pages. The most popular section of the site is the interactive map that helps users locate pick-your-own orchards. The section highlighting the various apple varieties has been the next most popular section followed by recipes.

There are many techniques being utilized to drive visitors to the site. Various online advertising tactics providing direct links include banner ads, pre-roll video ads, mobile banners (appearing on smartphones and tablets), Facebook ads, and display ads on Pandora. These efforts combined for over 38,000 clicks to the website.

While online advertising was a large driver of site traffic, the most popular way visitors found the site was via search

Sneek Peek!New York Apple Association

FISHERS — Take a look at our work in progress-the NEWLY revamped NYCider.com website!

While we are still diligently working behind the scenes to get this new site up and running and looking spectacular; we thought we would give you a glimpse of what is to come.

All of your input over the last few months regarding your businesses has been extremely helpful in making this new site as resourceful as possible. We cannot wait to unveil the finished product!

See Web, Page 14


USDA study: Birds cause $16M in damage each year


USDA study: Birds cause $16M in damage each year


CCE offers pruning, mechanizationtour in Lake Ontario region

The CCE LOF team will continue its extensive on-farm and educational outreach targeting apple growers in the Lake Ontario fruit region (both large and small) who have not experienced the use of partial mechanization at their orchards.

On Thursday, Feb. 12, the CCE LOF program will conduct the

second “Winter Pruning and Orchard Mechanization Tour” in Niagara and Orleans Counties. Participants will learn about the benefits of partial orchard mechanization and proper pruning for high density plantings.

The importance of work safety with the correct use of fall protection harnesses and the advantages and disadvantages

of using electric, pneumatic shears will be demonstrated and discussed. There will be a grower panel discussion about their experiences with mechanization, new tools, and new methods for higher labor efficiency.

The 2015 CCE LOF Winter Pruning and Orchard Mechanization Tour will be at four or five farms located

in Niagara and Orleans Counties on Feb. 12 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The full program will be posted on the CCE LOF website, http://lof.cce.cornell.edu/ the first week of February and will be presented at the 2015 CCE LOF Winter Fruit Schools on Feb. 2 at CCE Niagara County, Lockport, NY and on February 3 at Quality Inn Hotel, Newark.

U.S. Department of LaborPlease see the announcement below

regarding the release of the new 2015 H-2A Adverse Effect Wage Rates. Feel free to contact the Ombudsman Office with any questions. [email protected]

The Department’s H–2A regulations at 20 CFR 655.120(l) provide that employers must pay their H–2A workers and workers in corresponding employment at least the highest of: (i) The AEWR; (ii) the prevailing hourly wage rate; (iii) the prevailing piece rate; (iv) the agreed-upon collective bargaining wage rate, if applicable; or (v) the Federal or State minimum wage rate, in effect at the time the work is performed.

Except as otherwise provided in 20 CFR part 655, subpart B, the regionwide AEWR for all agricultural employment (except those occupations deemed inappropriate under the special procedure provisions of 20 CFR 655.102) for which temporary H–2A certification is being sought is equal to the annual weighted average hourly wage rate for field and livestock workers (combined) in the state or region as published annually by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). 20 CFR 655.120(c) requires that the Administrator of the Office of Foreign Labor Certification publish the USDA field and livestock worker (combined) wage data as AEWRs in a Federal Register notice. Accordingly, the 2015 AEWRs to be paid for agricultural work performed by H–2A and U.S. workers on or after the effective date of this notice are set forth in the table below:

TABLE—2015 ADVERSE EFFECT WAGE RATES

State 2015 AEWRsAlabama ................................... $10.00

Arizona ........................................10.54Arkansas ..................................... 10.18California .....................................11.33Colorado .......................................11.37Connecticut ..................................11.26Delaware ......................................11.29Florida ......................................... 10.19Georgia ...................................... 10.00Hawaii .........................................12.98Idaho ............................................11.14Illinois ..........................................11.61Indiana .........................................11.61Iowa ............................................12.62Kansas ........................................ 13.59Kentucky .....................................10.28Louisiana .................................... 10.18Maine ...........................................11.26Maryland ......................................11.29Massachusetts ..............................11.26Michigan ......................................11.56Minnesota ....................................11.56Mississippi .................................. 10.18Missouri ......................................12.62Montana ......................................11.14Nebraska ..................................... 13.59Nevada .........................................11.37New Hampshire ...........................11.26New Jersey ...................................11.29New Mexico ................................10.54New York ...........................11.26North Carolina ...........................10.32North Dakota .............................. 13.59Ohio .............................................11.61Oklahoma ....................................10.35Oregon ........................................12.42Pennsylvania ...............................11.29Rhode Island ................................11.26South Carolina ........................... 10.00South Dakota ............................. 13.59Tennessee ...................................10.28Texas ...........................................10.35Utah .............................................11.37Vermont .......................................11.26Virginia ......................................10.32Washington .................................12.42West Virginia ..............................10.28Wisconsin ....................................11.56Wyoming ......................................11.14

Pursuant to the H–2A regulations at 20 CFR 655.173, the Department will publish a separate Federal Register notice in early 2015 to announce (1) the allowable charges for 2015 that employers seeking H–2A workers may charge their workers for providing them three meals a day; and (2) the maximum travel subsistence reimbursement which a worker with receipts may claim in 2015.

DOL announcesAdverse EffectH-2A wages

US AppleAssociationis online at

www.usapple.org

In order to provide the emerging and expanding hard cider, apple wine and distillery industry in New York, we are building a new directory for the Cider Website that will list suppliers in New York that can offer for sale, bulk quantities of fresh pressed raw juice. Many new Hard Cider makers are

seeking to establish long term supply sources for New York apple juice.

If your operation can currently supply or could be retrofitted to meet this increasing demand, please submit your contact information to be posted. Send to: [email protected]

Attention bulkapple juice suppliers:

By Mark SeetinUSApple

The U.S. Apple Association has filed a comment letter with the FDA on the Agency’s proposed revisions to the Produce Food Safety Rule.

In late September, the FDA issued a revised set of proposed produce food safety regulations in an attempt to address concerns over the original proposals issued in January 2013. The revised proposals deal chiefly with concerns expressed by USApple and industry allies over the rules covering use of agricultural water.

In the revised proposals, the agency has significantly changed the original standards and testing requirements for agricultural water. The new proposal eliminates the original requirement of weekly or monthly testing of water throughout growing season and replaces it with a tiered approach based on the EPA “recreational water” standard, and includes an option to utilize microbial “die off” rates to determine the interval in days between the last use of water and commencement of harvest.

The revision calls for growers to establish a “baseline” for microbial presence in agricultural water using water samples gathered over a two-year period.

USApple’s comments focused on a few key areas:

u Standards should be expressed as guidance – The revisions to the

standards for water testing are an improvement, but are not science or food-safety based. Guidance can be more easily adjusted as science provides answers, whereas altering standards embedded in a final rule can be a difficult and cumbersome process.

u Cost benefit analysis– Based on more than a century of commercial apple production experience, the proposed rule adds significant costs which growers will be forced to incur while providing no known benefits to the public in the form of safer food.

u Commodity risk profiles – With no documented cases of foodborne illness from fresh apple consumption, apples should not be considered a “high risk” commodity. The Agency should heed the directive of the Congress in the FSMA to establish commodity risk profiles that allow for a focus on those areas presenting

USApple filescomment letterson FDA safety rule,pollinator health

See USApple, Page 15


Visitors to the December 2014 New York Produce Show and Conference enjoyed two attractive, informative displays, one being from H.H. Dobbins and Son. The text of the poster above reads: In 1930, Howard Dobbins started a wholesale fresh fruit business in Lyndonville. It was a time when the packaging of fruit was transcending from barrels to bushels and a packing-house and cold storage were needed. Howard’s son H “Bud” Dobbins, Jr. joined the firm in 1953. Under his leadership, the company evolved into a multi-dimensional company providing packing, marketing, storage facilities and processing contracts for many local fruit growers. Today H.H. Dobbins, Inc. is operated and owned by Bud’s son, Howard Dobbins III. From the first generation to the third, the Dob-bins family has an influential role in the apple and produce industry.

Industry history

The text of the poster above reads: The New York apple industry produces around 25 million bushels of apples each year, and the state has been involved in 28 apple production for centuries. Believed to be from the 1950s, this black and white photograph depicts two men harvesting apples from an orchard in Kinderhook. Jim Allen, president of the New York Apple Association, believes the apples are Baldwins, a heritage variety grown in the Hudson Valley. Of note is the old-time truck — most likely a model made long before the ‘50s— and retrofitted to maximize efficiency of hauling fresh-picked apples in their square, slatted, wooden crates. “Today, less than one percent of apples are picked using wooden crates,” notes Allen. “Now, everything goes right into bins. But back then, these crates went directly from the field into cold storage, where they were stacked all the way up to the ceiling.” Another distinct difference between apple farming in days of yore and today is the number of trees planted per acre. As depicted, there is a notable amount of space between each apple tree, allowing only 75-100 trees to be planted per acre. “Today, that’s a different story entirely, with upwards of 1,200-2,300 trees per acre,” details Allen. “They are smaller obviously, but produce much more fruit.”

Core Report®

is online at:www.nyapplecountry.com/core-report

Linda Concklin Hill dies at 67The (White Plains) Journal News

Linda Concklin Hill, the daughter of one of Rockland’s first farming families who championed a 300-year-old tradition, died Dec. 3 at 67. The cause was cancer, her son said.

The Concklin family has operated The Orchards of Concklin for 11 generations on land settled by Nicholas Concklin in 1712 under a grant from England’s King George II. It is now operated by Hill’s son, Scott, her brother, Rich Concklin, his wife, Ellen, and their children Rachel and Seth.

In 2002, Hill helped negotiate a deal with the county whereby Rockland purchased the development rights on the farm for $2.3 million to preserve it as open space, while allowing the family to continue farming apples, peaches and vegetables.

Former County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef recalled Hill as a fighter for keeping Rockland the way it once had been.

“She was very much leading the charge in how she felt the arrangement could be made and she deserves great credit for having established that arrangement,” he said.

At the time of the 2002 agreement, Hill said: “We’re ... looking forward to being able to farm it in peace, with some constructive attitude to moving ahead.”

When Linda Concklin was born in 1947, Rocklanders had been eating Concklin apples for more than 230 years. The county was dotted with hundreds of small farms. The advent of the Tappan Zee Bridge in 1955 brought residential development that swallowed up the farmland.

“While the county has changed tremendously, its historical roots are in the Concklin soil,” Vanderhoef said. “I still get people telling me how much they enjoy driving up through there to see the old Rockland County, the way it used to be. And Linda Concklin and her family certainly played a role in that.”

Jim Cropsey, another longtime Rockland farmer, at the Cropsey Farm in New City, recalled Hill as someone who was “very proud of her lineage and that they preserved that farm.”

Hill told Cropsey about being at a farmer’s market in Lower Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001, when the terrorist attacks struck. “She barely got out of there with her skin,” he said. “At the last moment, police told her to just run, and that’s what she did. I remember her saying she didn’t think she could run that far, but she did.”

Jim Van Houten, yet another longtime Rockland farmer, said he saw Hill a few times a year, typically in conjunction with her work as president of the county’s Farm Bureau.

“She and her brother, Richie, are extremely hard-working people who loved the land,” Van Houten said. “She had a purpose to carry on the family tradition and husband the land.”

In Memoriam

By Julia Stewart [email protected]

Your New York Apple Association public relations staff spends most

of our time p r o m o t i n g the apples and apple foods that you produce. In the meantime we also keep an eye on topics – positive and negative – that might impact that promotional work. Here are some of the

topics that we think are worth watching in 2015, in alphabetical order.

u Biotechnology: USDA is expected to announce that genetically modified plants producing two Arctic® Apple varieties (Goldens and Grannies) can be sold commercially. It will be several years before Arctic fruit appears at commercial markets. USApple is ready to lead communications on the U.S. apple industry’s behalf.

u Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2015: The federal guidelines are updated every five years. Pundits watching the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee’s work are forecasting that the group’s recommendations will be controversial. For the first time ever, the DGAC is studying the effects of food production on the environment. The DGAC is also expected to take on sugar and beef.

u Food Safety Modernization Act implementation: FDA will finalize most of the major FSMA rules by the end of 2015, including a produce-specific rule. For updates, visit www.unitedfresh.org and www.pma.com.

u Pollinator health: Federal, state and local actions to protect honeybees and other pollinators may impact specialty crop industry access to some crop protection tools, including neonicotinoids. For updates, visit www.prclarity.com/mcfa.

u “Real” foods: Seems like everyone in the food industry is jumping on the “real foods” bandwagon – for example, Kraft Foods is now selling

salad dressings with “uncomplicated ingredients”. Consumers tell us that buying local trumps buying organic. Good news: We’ve always been on trend here! This is a tremendous opportunity to connect with consumers, who have largely lost touch with agriculture.

u Social media: Connecting with today’s consumers means you’ve got to have a website and be active on social media. But what social media channels, and exactly how do you connect? We are staying on top of trends, and will bring you advice and ideas.

Bottom line: We think there are more opportunities in 2015 than there will be issues. Let’s make the most of them.


Marketing topics to watch in 2015

Stewart

CalendarFEBRuARY 2, 2015LOF Winter Fruit SchoolNiagara CCE., Lockporthttp://lof.cce.cornell.edu

FEBRuARY 3, 2015LOF Winter Fruit SchoolWayne County, location TBAhttp://lof.cce.cornell.edu

FEBRuARY 3-6, 2015Fruit Logistica, Berlin, Germany

FEBRuARY 9, 2015Tree Fruit Growers’ SchoolFort William Henry Conference Center,Lake George

FEBRuARY 10 & 11, 2015Tree Fruit School, Kingston

MARCH 9-11, 2015NYAA Board of Directors Mtg.The Desmond, Albany

MARCH 18, 2015USAEC Board MeetingWashington, D.C.

MARCH 19, 2015Capitol Hill DayWashington, D.C.

MARCH 20, 2015USApple Committee MeetingsWashington, D.C.

MARCH 21, 2015USApple, Board of Directors MeetingWashington, D.C.

By Julia Stewart [email protected]

New York Apple Association finished 2014 strong with several public relations activities to encourage consumers to include our apples and apple products in their year-end celebrations.

Throughout the month of December, we talked up do-it-yourself apple gift baskets through social media posts and our own DIY-style video. We also used photos and other gift basket content created by U.S. Apple Association for members’ use.

For Hanukkah, we reprised last year’s video making applesauce to accompany those traditional latkes, starring our own Consulting Dietitian Linda Quinn, MS, RD, CDN.

We concluded the year by encouraging New Yorkers to leave apples for Santa and his reindeer. “We’re not saying no to cookies, we love a good apple cookie – we’re saying that every house may be a little excessive,” nutrition spokesperson Quinn told media outlets across the state. “Meanwhile, our state grows so many different varieties of apples that there’s no way Santa will get bored.”

Resolve to eat 2 apples a dayTo help keep New York state apples top of mind with

consumers in the first few months of the New Year, NYAA will focus on our foods’ healthy profile starting with New Year’s resolutions and continuing through March’s

National Nutrition Month. Focusing on health this time of

year is a natural fit for us. Many consumers resolve to eat and live healthier each New Year, and our industry is ideally positioned to help them succeed. Apples are the very icon of health, they are consumer favorites, there is a flavor for everyone, and apples and apple products are easy to incorporate into snacks and meals from morning to night.

What’s new this year: We are urging consumers to eat TWO apples a day, not just one, for their better health. (Imagine the possibilities if even a small percentage of consumers took our advice!) And we are focusing more on connecting with consumers directly via social media, in addition to our traditional press outreach. Our Facebook following has been

growing steadily, demonstrating the importance of social media outreach; we should top 20,000 followers early this year!

Our consulting dietitian and health spokesperson Linda Quinn will feature prominently in these activities. We are also using USApple-developed “Two a Day” artwork and other content to bolster our work.

To learn how you can put the “Two a Day” campaign to work to promote your New York state apples, contact NYAA Public Relations Director Julia Stewart by email at [email protected].

Best wishes to you and yours for a happy, healthy and prosperous 2015.]

New Year’s resolution: 2 apples a day


Happy New Year!Well it’s that time of year again.

Time to get back into your routine after the typically festive holiday season filled with sweets, calories and lack of healthy eating.

Welcome, the apples.Everywhere you look now; television

ads, newspapers, social media - everyone it touting getting back into shape and dieting to get you back on track and in the swing to kick off 2015. Supermarkets are on board and so are we.

We are out continuing to spread the word that consumers are looking for smart snacks to complement their New Year’s r e s o l u t i o n s . Apples are one of the healthiest

foods a person can eat. They are high

in fiber and vitamin C, and they are also low in calories, have only a trace of sodium, and no fat or cholesterol.

Kristin Kirkpatrick, manager of wellness nutrition services at the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute, recommends aiming for five different colors of produce every day and refers to it as the “Rainbow Connection.” Our Macs, Empires, Honeycrisp, Galas and Crispin Apples can be part of the rainbow. And, when you fill up on good-for-you

produce, it leaves less room for junk food. We are out in the trade this month

getting ads to help pull through the 2014 crop. In addition to these ads, we are planning in-store demos, displays and the annual Coaches versus Cancer Program which has been very successful in the Northeast around the NCAA Men’s Basketball season.

We look forward to 2015 and being a part of consumer’s healthy eating!

Good selling…

McAleavey

Healthy twist: An apple for SantaBy Tracy OrmsbeeAlbany Times-Union

A plate of Christmas cookies and a glass of milk seem like an appropriate offering for the guy who delivers gifts to children around the entire globe.

Until you multiply that gesture by gazillions and consider the effect on Santa’s waistline and — horrors! — his ability to fit down the chimney with your gifts.

Don’t cry. Or pout.The New York Apple Association has

an idea: They’re calling on children

across the Empire State to instead leave an apple for Santa this Christmas Eve.

It’s just 80 calories, contains no fat, a fraction of the sugar found in holiday cookies — and, a biggie, is

full of fiber, says Registered Dietitian Linda Quinn, who consults for the state’s apple growers.

“If you’re eating sweets and treats

over the holidays, you need more fiber in your diet to get things moving, if you know what I mean,” she says.

Quinn says Santa eats an estimated 5,000 tons of cookies each Christmas Eve, well beyond the recommended serving size. Meanwhile, most everyone needs to eat more fruit, Quinn reports.

“We’re not saying no to cookies, we love a good apple cookie, we’re saying that every house may be a little excessive,” Quinn clarifies. “Meanwhile, our state grows so many different varieties of apples that there’s

no way Santa will get bored.”And in answer to the worry on every

child’s mind: Will Santa want to skip the homes without the cookies?

“We don’t think so at all,” Quinn says.

“We think Santa’s going to find it a pleasant surprise. A little change is probably a good thing.”

And maybe she’s right. Santa might want some variety.

“Think about it, a person can only eat so many cookies in one night – let’s give Santa a break and leave him an apple instead,” she says.

Quinn

engines like Google and Bing. In order to make sure that people would find the new site, a search engine marketing campaign was developed and employed. The strategy used a combination of paid search engine advertising and search engine optimization.

Paid search advertising gives us the ability to put a listing on the search engine results page and only pay when someone clicks over to the site. We only appeared when searchers put in specific keywords that we specified. For example, when searchers typed in “apple picking ny” our ads appeared over 30,000 times and resulted in almost 1,500 clicks. Other terms that drove a lot of traffic to the site included “apple orchards”, “apple farms”, and “pick your own apple orchards”.

Search engine optimization is a technique that makes the site more “visible” to the major search engines and allows for NYAppleCountry.com to appear in the natural listings for many related search queries. More than 30 percent of all visits to the website came from natural search engine listings in 2014. These visitors viewed more than three pages per visit and spent two and a half minutes on the site on average.

Unlike paid search terms that focused mostly on general apple search queries, visitors from natural search listings often were searching for specific varieties of apples. The search query that sent the most visitors to the site was “snapdragon apple”. Other terms that drove many visitors to the site included “paula red apples”, “ruby frost apple”, “ida red apple”, and “autumn crisp apple”.

The new site has been very popular among New York apple consumers and with a bevy of great content available, they’re finding information they can really sink their teeth into.

WebContinued from Page 7


University2 Understanding the physiological

and biochemical mechanisms of graft incompatibility – Stefano Musacchi, Horticulture, Washington State University, Wenatchee, WA

2:30 Break

Tree Fruit — New Pests, Ballroom East

3:30 Announcements and DEC credit sign-up – Deborah Breth, CCE Lake Ontario Fruit Program

3:35 Experience with black stem borer in ornamental nurseries, – Christopher Ranger, Entomology, USDA-ARS, Wooster, Ohio

4:15 Black stem borer: A new pest for NY apple growers – Deborah Breth, CCE Lake Ontario Fruit Program

4:25 What’s new from industry?4:30 Managing fire blight and late

season tree decline – Kerik Cox, Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology, Cornell University

4:50 Progress in precision fruit spraying – Tomas Palleja Cabre, Entomology, Cornell University

5:15 Adjourn

Wednesday, Jan 21Tree Fruit - How New York

Apple Growers Are Addressing Labor Challenges, Ballroom East

9 a.m. Welcome – Craig Kahlke, CCE Lake Ontario Fruit Program

9:05 How New York apple growers are addressing labor challenges – Thomas Maloney, Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University; Paul Baker, Executive Director, New York State Horticultural Society and Executive Director, NYSBGA

9:45 Break

Tree Fruit - Optimizing High Density Orchard Systems,

Ballroom East1 p.m. Welcome – Anna Wallis, CCE

Eastern NY Commercial Horticulture Program

1:05 How to optimize apple training systems to improve orchard mechanization – Stefano Musacchi, Horticulture, Washington State University, Wenatchee, Wash.

1:45 How pruning severity impacts thinning success to optimize grower income – Terence Robinson, Horticulture, Cornell University

2:30 Break

Tree Fruit - Weed Management in Perennial Fruits, Ballroom East

3:30 Announcements and DEC credit sign-up – Deborah Breth, CCE Lake Ontario Fruit Program

3:35 Managing invasive and resistant weeds – Darcy Telenko, CCE Cornell Vegetable Program

4:05 What’s new from industry?4:10 Replacing herbicides with

under-vine cover crops in vineyards –

Justine Vanden Heuvel, Horticulture, Cornell University18

4:40 Research update for apple weed management – Deborah Breth, CCE Lake Ontario Fruit Program

5:10 Adjourn

Thursday, Jan. 22Hard Cider, Room 39 a.m. Welcome – Craig Kahlke, CCE

Lake Ontario Fruit Program; Derek Simmonds, CCE Seneca County

9:05 Apple varieties for craft cidermakers in New York – Ian Merwin, Black Diamond Farm, LLC, Trumansburg

9:45 Fifteen years of cider survival – Bill Barton, Bellwether Hard Cider, Trumansburg

10:15 Establishing a New York State farm cidery – Scott Donovan, BlackBird Cider Works, Barker

10:45 Resources for hard cider production – Derek Simmonds, CCE Seneca County

11 Adjourn

ExpoContinued from Page 1

the highest food safety risk instead of a “one size fits all” that imposes significant costs on growers without a corresponding benefit to public health.

u Agricultural water provisions are an improvement, but are too complex – Terminology and calculations required to determine the “statistical threshold value” or “STV” and “geometric mean” for water samples is complex and potentially confusing. The Agency should simplify the process by; 1) providing a software tool to assist growers in making microbial die off calculations, or; 2) develop a “lookup table” that would provide the day intervals required based on water test results, or: 3) add an option for growers to use “water that meets the microbial standard for drinking water” for a set number of days before harvest instead of having to develop a costly “baseline” and testing regime.

The letter was filed on Dec. 12. The FDA is under a federal district court settlement that calls for the final produce rules to be issued by Oct. 31, 2015. Growers would have 2 years from the effective date of the final rule (or up to four years for the smallest operations) in which to implement the agricultural water rules. USApple’s food safety comment letter is available at USApple.org.

Pollinator HealthIn response to widespread concern

over reports of declining numbers of pollinators, the Obama Administration created the Pollinator Health Task Force, composed of multiple federal agencies including the USDA and the EPA to address the issue.

The widely reported issue of managed bee colony “decline” often referred to as Colony Collapse Disorder has generated significant discussion and attention by beekeepers, agricultural interests, researchers and public interest groups.

A 2013 report issued by the USDA and EPA entitled “Report on the National Stakeholders Conference on Honey Bee Health” states that multiple factors play a role in honey bee colony declines, including parasites and disease, genetics, poor nutrition and pesticide exposure and concludes that there is not a single factor causing CCD.

However, despite the identification of multiple causes for CCD, a number of special interest groups have focused on just one of the five factors listed in the report – pesticides – and push for regulatory action, such as banning the use of neonicotinoid pesticides that is not supported by the underlying science.

USApple’s comment letter to the Pollinator Health Task Force stress the need to use a science based approach to research and regulatory actions aimed at understanding and addressing the causes of CCD. The concluding paragraph of the comment letter summarizes USApple’s position

on pollinator protection; “USApple has consistently supported

a science based regulatory approach to crop protection chemical registration. Producing a crop totally dependent upon insect pollination, apple growers as a group are a major stakeholder in the work being done by the Pollinator Health Task Force and share the goal of better understanding the problem of pollinator decline as a whole. We strongly urge the Task Force to use a science based approach that encompasses all of the identified causes for pollinator decline and utilizes the knowledge gained to support what appears likely to be a

multi-faceted solution encompassing bee nutrition, stewardship, parasite and pathogen control, habitat, and genetics in promoting a vital and healthy pollinator community.”

The comment letter to the Pollinator Health Task Force is available at USApple.org.

USAppleContinued from Page 10

US Apple Associationis online at

www.usapple.org

By Tom KarstThe Packer

Opening the door for greater agricultural trade, President Barack Obama said Dec. 17 that he is moving to normalize the U.S. relationship with Cuba.

Obama said the U.S. embargo against Cuba will have to be lifted by Congress, but he said that he will ease travel and commerce restrictions. Obama said the U.S. will begin discussions to reestablish diplomatic relations with Cuba, which were severed since 1961. He said the U.S. also plans to reopen an embassy in Havana.

“Fifty years of isolation have not worked,” Obama said. “It’s time for a new approach.”

Some Republicans and Democrats

in Congress expressed opposition with lifting the embargo, with Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., promising to “undo” the deal when the new Congress convenes.

Produce and farm leaders supported stronger ties with Cuba.

Cuba has purchased apples in the past from North Carolina, Georgia and Virginia, said Jim Allen, president of the New York Apple Association, Fishers, N.Y. “I’ve always had the feeling if relations were put back to normal for that country, that it could be quite a market,” Allen said. “We are the closest country to them to supply them a lot of goods.”

Allan Henderson, owner and managing director at CL Henderson Produce LLC, Hendersonville, N.C., said that his firm exported fresh apples to Cuba for three years, from about

2003 to 2006. The sales were made under the terms of humanitarian aid, but he said those export licences were not renewed by the U.S. government for political reasons and sales ended in 2006.

Meeting both Fidel Castro and his brother Raul, Henderson went on trade missions to Cuba in 2002 and 2003, and sold them apples through 2006. Cuba would take five to seven loads of apples per week for about four months each year, he said.

“It was a good market for us,” he said. The apples were packed in North

Carolina shipped to Jacksonville, where Crowley Freightliners put them on a barge to Cuba. “Everything worked very nicely,” he said. “They were happy with our product and were able to put our (apples) in there a lot cheaper than what they were buying apples from Europe or South America,” he said.

Henderson said the apples were imported by the state-run Al Imports in Havana.

“All of a sudden that opportunity left us and if it (came again) I would be more than happy to start back with them,” Henderson said.

Cornell Cooperative ExtensionWe are happy to announce the new

teammate, Matt Wells, will begin his role in the Fruit Production Economics and Business Management position for the Lake Ontario Fruit Program of Cornell Cooperative Extension starting Jan 16. 2015.

Wells, extension support specialist

II, will work as a member of the LOF team, and closely with Cornell faculty and industry leaders to provide commercial growers and industry representatives with the educational resources in economics of production and business management necessary to assess if practices will enhance profitability.


Export Report

Obama establishes relations with Cuba

A second area of concern was the reality that all employers had to pay into the NYS Unemployment Fund for all H2A employees. The hypocrisy here is that no H2A employee will ever be eligible to collect, so this is clearly a “tax” on such employers who are forced to reach outside of the domestic work force to meet their needs. The federal government does not require employers to pay into the federal unemployment programs on H2A employee earnings. They already are saddled with a higher minimum wage than domestic workers. (Adverse Effect Wage Rate in 2015 will be $11.26) The minimum wage in New York State is now $8.75. The federal minimum wage is $7.25.

Then finally we must deal with the unsettled business coming out of Albany on the topic of overtime pay for agriculture. This perhaps if ever enacted would have the greatest impact on current agricultural business within the Empire

State. Clearly it would place agriculture, that must employ large amounts of labor, at a distinct economic disadvantage. With the November elections leaving the New York Senate still with a Republican majority we may still have some time to discuss and educate on the implications for the State if this bill passes.

On the topic of the Upstate economy it would be hard to imagine New York if we lost our orchards, vineyards, fields of fresh vegetables and large dairy farms. Agriculture is key to the rural economy. I think the New York State Legislatures will have to consider the impact it might have if we were to see a decline in labor intensive crops towards those that require more automation than manpower. Recently the Governor announced that he would oppose any movement towards fracking in the state. This has lead to economic booms in adjoining states. With this in place I think it might cause people to consider the importance of agriculture as we currently enjoy it. To pass legislation that might discourage agriculture would be a severe loss to this economy.

November shipments should have exceeded 100,000 tons, but were down 50 percent.

Apples are in the same boat, or should I say are trying to get ON the boat.

As previously reported, apple exports are down dramatically and the holiday business was seriously reduced. Other commodities such as Christmas trees, potatoes, onions, soybeans, and beef all have been hurt. Not much demand for Christmas trees after December!

In all of these cases, the folks paying the price are the innocent customers that rely on the Pacific Maritime Association and the Longshoremen to provide the needed services that they pay dearly for. Apple growers and hay farmers have no control over those issues and no recourse to fall back on. So far no government intervention of any kind to settle the dispute has taken place (not surprising). When industries depend on exports as much as so many do, can any protection be granted to prevent unions from throwing tantrums and causing billions of dollars of loss?

Chris Schlect of the Northwest Horticultural Council recently

suggested that if ports were put under the Railway Labor Act, a law that bars unions from striking until they have gone through arbitration and mediation, this action could be averted. The law was passed because of the importance of rail and air to the nation. This suggestion to convince Congress to write and pass legislation to prevent it from happening again is gaining support from many industries.

Once again, although presently this seems to be a western problem, it quickly becomes our problem as well. Our markets are vulnerable to increased western shipments, and our ports could also be targeted by similar union activities.

The administration has boldly set goals for the U.S. to increase exports each year, and have created export agencies, committees and commissions to accomplish this. Later this month, the President will give his State of the Union Address, and odds are that increasing national exports will be included. But increased national exports will not happen as long as port slowdowns are allowed and nothing is done to prevent them from reoccurring.

Good Luck,

JimBaker

Continued from Page 4

AllenContinued from Page 3

Wells named to CCEbusiness mgt. post

USDAChina is the world’s dominant

producer of apples, pears, and table grapes, comprising roughly 50 percent 75 percent, and 47 percent of total output, respectively.

Post forecasts China’s apple production at 37.8 MMT in market year 2014-15, down 5 percent from the previous year because of cold, wet weather in the major growing

regions. Pear production is expected to recover by 7 percent to 18.5 MMT in MY 2014/15, while grape production is forecast to increase 11 percent to 9 MMT.

U.S. apples exports are expected to grow dramatically over the next few years due to China’s October 2014 decision to lift the ban on Red and Golden Delicious apples from Washington State.

Prospects improve for China exports

Core Report® is online at:www.nyapplecountry.com/core-report

Date post:	21-Dec-2016
Category:	Documents
Upload:	trinhnhi
View:	217 times
Download:	0 times

Core Report January 2015

Documents