Western Growers Awarded $486,000 from USDA to Create Sustainable Fresh Produce Packaging Alignment Across North America
Western Growers (WG) was awarded $486,000 from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as part of the 2025 Technical Assistance for Specialty Crops (TASC) program, which will allow WG to spearhead a partnership between fresh produce industry stakeholders to develop and implement sustainable fresh produce packaging alignment across North America. The TASC program funds U.S. entities to conduct projects to resolve barriers that prohibit or threaten the export of U.S. specialty crops. “The current landscape for sustainable produce packaging is an incongruent mish-mash of contradictory regulations that differ between retailers in different countries, as well as between federal and state governments,” said Dr. Jeana Cadby, Director of Environment and Climate at WG. “It is critical that we maintain the functionality of fresh produce packaging while innovating for sustainability to bring safe, fresh produce from farms to the
tables of consumers. Thanks to this funding from the USDA, we can continue the important work of collaborating with retailers, packaging suppliers, technology companies and growers to reach sustainability goals that can realistically apply across the supply chain.” The funding will continue the work started in June 2024, when WG joined forces with the Canadian Produce Marketing Association (CPMA) to form a working group, the Sustainable Produce Packaging Alignment for North America (SPPA), to address the evolving landscape of packaging requirements imposed by both governments and retailers throughout North America. -Ann Donahue
Western Growers Announces Groundbreaking Food Safety Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Western Growers (WG) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to improve proactive, science-based food safety standards focused on prevention of outbreaks and the protection of public health. The MOU creates a data-sharing pilot project focused on fresh produce food safety data. This project will use Western Growers’ proprietary GreenLink® food safety data-sharing platform. The MOU also establishes a broader framework for ongoing data sharing between WG and the FDA. “We are building partnerships to increase data sharing between FDA and the industry. In fact, one of the first actions I took as Deputy Commissioner was signing an MOU with the Western Growers Association, which creates a novel data sharing program including pathogen testing results,” said Kyle Diamantis, Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods at FDA. “With these data, the FDA can identify the factors that might contribute to contamination, such as land use surrounding the farm, the age and condition of equipment, and how produce is transported. “This information is critical to focusing our collaborative efforts with growers on practices that are the most effective in reducing risk. We see these collaborations as more than just simply delivering a certain goal like data sharing or conducting a root
cause analysis. These are the beginning of what we hope is a long- term relationship with industry that is built on trust and can help prevent outbreaks.” Drawing on successful data-sharing programs in other areas, such as the FDA’s seafood safety initiative, this effort aims to create a sustainable model that protects public health by advancing food safety knowledge, fostering preventive food safety behaviors, supporting resource management for public health agencies and minimizing supply chain disruptions. “This partnership marks a significant step forward in advancing food safety knowledge, promoting preventive measures and strengthening public-private collaboration,” said Sonia Salas, AVP of Food Safety & Regulatory Affairs at Western Growers. The goal of this collaboration is to create opportunities for the FDA and WG to foster a better understanding of safe practices in the growing, harvesting, packing and holding of fresh produce. It is aligned with the FDA’s goals in the new Reagan-Udall Foundation’s Roadmap to Produce Safety, which advocates for a shared responsibility approach to food safety and structured, stakeholder-led collaborations. -Ann Donahue
Western Growers Wants Your Old Family Photos from the Farm!
It’s Western Growers’ 100th Anniversary next year – and we want to celebrate the milestone by honoring the legacies of our members. We have a number of projects in the works – a coffee table book, a short documentary film and some surprises – and we’d love to include your old photos. Please send your digital photos to Ann Donahue, Director of Marketing and Communications (and Pet and Family Photos) to adonahue@wga.com. Please identify the location and the people in the photo for a caption.
But wait, there’s more! Do you have a box of old family and farm photos that you don’t know what to do with? Please drop Ann a line or give her a call at 949-302-7600 and we might be able to figure out a way to take them off your hands. (Fair warning …if we come to get them we’re also going to try to interview you for the film we’re working on.) Celebrating 100 years of WG and cleaning out that weird corner of the office? Priceless. -Ann Donahue
38 Western Grower & Shipper | www.wga.com September | October 2025
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