January/February 2021 - 17

RESEARCH
A group for growers
Although CPS has significant
involvement from retailers as well as
growers, Smith stressed the growers are
heavily involved - and growers have
and continue to work with retailers on
food safety issues.
Before Smith taking the chairman's
seat on the CPS Board of Directors, the
group was led by Dave Corsi of Wegmans
Food Markets, a retail powerhouse in
the Northeast. Smith is not the first
grower to head up the organization,
with Steve Patricio of Westside Produce
serving in the office for a few years
starting in 2011. Retailers and growers
alike are committed to ensuring the
highest level of food safety, Smith said.
In a news release announcing the
change, Corsi was complimentary about
his successor.
" Vic is the type of guy that doesn't
take no for an answer, " Corsi said.
" Instead, he asks, 'Why can't we?' That
attitude has earned him widespread
respect in the industry. "
FOOD SAFETY
" So far, we're not aware of any transference of
the virus to humans by food. "
- VICTOR SMITH, THE CENTER FOR PRODUCE SAFETY
Add to that attitude a position
as a large-scale grower-shipper of
vegetables for packaged salad producers
and large-scale vegetable shippers.
JV Smith Companies grows crops yearround
in four different areas, including
22,000 acres split between Yuma, Arizona
and Baja, Mexico. It also has about
11,000 acres in the Salinas area and
3,000 acres in south central Colorado.
The crops include commodity-like
vegetables such as celery, broccoli,
cauliflower and green onions; in
addition to greens such as iceberg
lettuce, Romaine and baby arugula.
" We try to bring all those different
operations in different states together
and try to create a synergy of the
knowledge and experience, and the
customer base, to be relevant to all
of our major customers, " Smith said.
Regardless of size, all growers should
be aware and up-to-date on food safety
concerns.
" Anybody that's producing food and
entering the food supply chain should
be very concerned, " Smith said. " The old
days of 'Well, we've always had cattle
around the hills and we've always grown
vegetables in the valley, and we've never
had a problem' - those days are gone.
" If you want to sell it to a retailer,
you better have a food safety program
in place, " he said. " If they're limiting
themselves to farmer-market-type
scenarios, then OK, you still don't
want to poison anybody, don't want
to hurt anybody. You could still have
an impact on a group of people, albeit
not a multi-state outbreak. "
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Brian Hill
(847) 922-8671
bhill@palconsystems.com
www.palconsystems.com
PRODUCE PROCESS ING
17
http://www.palconsystems.com
January/February 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January/February 2021
