Side Tracks

By Gary A. White

The Four Amigos

One of the great pleasures in life is spending time with enjoyable and interesting people from different countries. I had the good fortune to experience such pleasure when I arranged for three food processing professionals from Venezuela to visit the U.S. the first two weeks of June, all courtesy of the USDA. Thank you USDA! My guests were Juan Carlos Burg (Internacional de Desarrollo), Antonio Francisco Brito Ortega (Indelma) and Antonio Jose Guerrero Quintero (Alimentos Heinz). The project began in the land of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox - Minnesota. We toured the University of Minnesota Food Science Department, S & P Marketing (very cool new product development company), SuperValu (need I say more?), Food Service Specialties located in Red Wing, the town famous for its shoes and the SunOpta Food Group, famous for its natural and organic food products. Although we never did see Paul Bunyan or his Blue Ox we did attend a Minnesota Twins’ game and saw a lot of blue people. The Twins lost to the Cleveland Indians 10 – 1.

“Go West Young Man” and we did, to Anaheim, California for the 2009 IFT (Institute of Food Technologist) Annual Meeting & Food Expo. If you are a food scientist (which I am not) or passionate about food (which I am) this is your show. Even in this down economy, attendance was up 10%. Over 14, 500 people attended, 800 plus companies exhibited and 200 educational sessions were presented. Would you believe I attended all 200? Probably not! There was a significant pavilion devoted to organic ingredients. After the show, feet tired but spirits soaring, we toured the Tampico Spice Company (shown in the photo) and the Port of Long Beach. The project ended with a five hour drive from Anaheim to Fresno where we saw some amazing farm country, crops as far as the eyes could see. While in Fresno we visited Los Gatos Tomato Products (one of the largest growers and processors of tomato products in the world) and the Simonian Fruit Company (a stone fruit packer to such companies as Costco).

There you have it, a brief description of an incredible two weeks. Okay, after several hours of Chinese Water Torture I must admit I did leave out a number of significant “cultural activities” (ie: Disneyland, California Adventure, Downtown Disney, Knotts Berry Farm and the famous Los Angeles/Hollywood Bus Tour). All right, I feel better. Confession is good for the soul. And spending two weeks with three great guys from Venezuela is good for the heart!

Jennie’s Gems

By Jennie Dickinson, Manager, Port of Columbia

Wow! The response from the first two lectures in our 5-part film and lecture series called Cultivating Sustainability has been fantastic!

We’ve had around 60 people attend each of the lectures, and the quality of speakers has been top notch. Ken Meter, from Crossroads Resource Center in Minneapolis, shared economic information on the agriculture industry dating back to the 1960’s. What was the most striking thing to me about his presentation? The many millions of dollars our communities spend on food produced outside their local economies!

The second keynote speaker, David Granatstein from WSU Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources, struck a common cord with attendees on his definition of sustainability: It is “not a threshold that we cross, but a goal that we move towards.” David was the first link in a chain that has formed between The Food Alliance, regional growers using soil-saving farming practices, and Shepherd’s Grain, a marketing company that mills and sells sustainably-grown wheat to stores and bakeries. The business case studies featured also received high marks by attendees.

I have learned so much about sustainability in the last few months! I hope you have as well.

For those who missed the first lecture and would like a chance to view it, click on the YouTube icon on the right side of this page (or the home page of the Blue Mountain Station website). Because of size, the lecture video has 8 parts. But the video and sound quality is excellent – and it’s worth seeing!

The next lecture, which will explore the topic of livestock and grazing, will be held July 23rd beginning at 7 pm. It is free to the public and will again have organic concessions for sale. The keynote speaker is Maurice Robinette, a third-generation rancher from Spokane County and Eastern Washington Organizer for the Washington Sustainable Food and Farming Network for the past four years. Mr. Robinette is a practitioner of holistic management and also the co-manager of “Beefing Up the Palouse,” an ag pilot project sponsored by the governor to determine the economic feasibility of grazing CRP in eastern Washington. Local business case studies will explore organic chicken farming and biodynamic agriculture, and the positive impacts of a program that uses intensive recordkeeping of pasture managements and cattle weights to increase productivity.

A complete schedule can be found at bluemountainstation.com or sustainablelivingcenter.com

Advisory Team Member Highlight

Barry Swanson

Barry Swanson is Regents Professor and Interim Director of the School of Food Science in the College of Agricultural, Human and Natural Resource Sciences at Washington State University. Barry’s research interests are very broad, currently focused on fundamental research on microbial inactivation, quality of foods treated with high intensity pulsed electric fields and high hydrostatic pressures, the implementation of ultra high pressures to cheese yield, attenuate adjunct cultures to accelerate aging, improve the flavor of Cheddar cheeses, and improve the hydrophobic functional properties of whey proteins.

Barry is proudest of his opportunities to serve as advisor to 47 M.S. and 24 PhD. Food Science and Human Nutrition students successfully pursuing academic and food industry careers across the U.S. and around the world. Barry was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Food Technologists 2002, and a Fellow of the International Academy of Food Science and Technology in 2006. Barry is the retiring co-Editor of the Journal of Food Processing and Preservation published by Wiley-Blackwell Publishing.

Barry was elected Executive Secretary to the WSU Faculty Senate for a second three year term in Fall, 2007 and recently appointed Interim Director of the merged Washington State University and University of Idaho School of Food Science. Barry was promoted to the rank of Regents Professor at Washington State University in 2009, the most prestigious professorial rank at WSU.