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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] NYTimes.com: Food That Travels Well

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  • From: "Bill Shoemaker" <wshoemak AT inil.com>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] NYTimes.com: Food That Travels Well
  • Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2007 07:16:04 -0500

Robert

I'm sure you've watched produce decline during your long career as a grower. Most of these long-distance shippers are masters at post-harvest handling practices that preserve their product. They cool their product immediately, clean it up, sort it, package it, ship it in reefers. It's ready for a beauty contest, and I think the shippers are more seduced than anyone. They think it's perfect. But it was picked before peak ripeness to survive the trip. It's culinary and nutritional quality were compromised for the sake of shipping it. Then it has to survive thousands of miles of travel, several handlers, and presentation in the market. You and I both know that the big-box stores don't train and retain their produce personnel like they used too. The product really has no one taking care of it in the market. Though the grower does their job very well, the market doesn't know how to preserve the product. Because it's picked early, it does hold up better,...at first. But once it starts to go down, and no one in the system understands it, it just deteriorates.

You may have a somewhat biased perspective in New Jersey because you have so many good growers out there who ship into big markets nearby. The product can be picked more mature, the grower still does a great job, the shipping is minimal, and I think many of the markets are better at handling the product there. I'm near Chicago and I'm disgusted at produce quality in most stores, even ones with a reputation for high quality. Even if it looks good (the primary criteria, by the way), it lacks real culinary quality.

Bottom line, I think the shipping industry is so enamored of it's post-harvest handling practices it loses sight of the end game. They push it too far and the product implodes in the market. I wonder how many consumers would be buying more than 5-servings-a-day if they could get farm-fresh quality routinely and conveniently?

Bill Shoemaker, Sr Research Specialist, Food Crops
University of Illinois - St Charles Horticulture Research Center
www.nres.uiuc.edu/faculty/directory/shoemaker_wh.html

Supermarkets are a perfect example of do as we say not as we do. Anyone who has ever shipped produce to a supermarket chain will tell you they have the highest quality standards in the world. Most all the produce you buy at your local farmers market would not be good enough for the supermarket buyers. So what happens when quality produce gets into the supermarket warehouse??? I haven't a clue. It comes out into the display floor totally trashed.
Sunny Meadow Farm
Bridgeton, NJ.

"What happened to the good produce? Why is it that >our stores have only second- or third-rate stuff any >more, even at the height of the season?"
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