The Packer’s National Editor Tom Karst on Aug. 12 chatted with Maureen Torrey Marshall, vice president of Torrey Farms Inc., Elba, N.Y. You can read the entire chat at www.thepacker.com/freshtalk.
12:10 p.m. Tom Karst: I am wondering what you consider your most rewarding leadership experience in the realm of agriculture/and or fresh produce?
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Torrey Marshall |
12:20 p.m. Maureen Torrey Marshall: My time spent on the United Fresh board of directors and as chairwoman was a great, rewarding experience, working with outstanding, dedicated volunteers and staff working together on the issues that face the produce industry everyday and in the future. It was especially rewarding to see the WIC fruit and vegetable voucher and the school snack program enacted.
12:21 p.m. Tom: I know you worked hard at United — and previously — on the issue of ag labor. As an 11th generation grower (I think I’m right), how challenging is it to keep planning for the future when so much is in doubt when it come to ag labor?
12:48 p.m. Maureen: The issue of ag labor has been so frustrating. I have worked on it almost 14 years and instead of getting better it is getting worse. It is challenging to plan for the future. Do you move your farming operation to another country? Do you stop growing labor-intensive fruits and vegetables? Do you liquidate your assets and encourage the next generation to do something different? I have on my office wall a quote from former vice president Al Gore that he made in the fall of 1999. He was presenting an award to a Colorado FFA member and upon hearing that the FFA member wanted to continue on in production agriculture, Gore reportedly replied that the young person should develop other plans because “production agriculture is being shifted out of the U.S. to the third world.”
12:52 p.m. Tom: Maureen, great insights from a farm manager’s perspective. I know you are passionate about that issue and others. Changing gears a little, I see you are on a panel about the promotion board concept at PMA. From your perspective, how would a generic promotion board line up with the industry’s interests?
1:21 p.m. Maureen: I strongly feel that a generic promotion board could greatly help grow the produce category in general. Right now, we only have a few shippers large enough to promote to the consumer the benefits of their fruits and vegetables. How much better could it be if all growers — no matter what their size and whatever they are, a U.S. grower, a CSA farmer, farm market or importer into the U.S. — supported together financially a generic promotion board. I still feel there is a place and need for the individual commodity boards to promote their specific commodity in addition to the generic (promotions). Fifteen years ago when we acquired a dairy and had to support the dairy promotion and the beef checkoff. I wasn’t happy about it, but I see what it has done for the dairy industry. It has been a great investment.