In The GRASÂ²P

Two issues have emerged in recent years that are of increasing concern to fruit growers: food safety and sustainability. Because of that, the Washington State Horticultural Association is launching a program designed to help growers with both: Growers Response to Agricultural Safe and Sustainable Practices (GRAS²P). But it’s not just for growers, notes the program’s coordinator, Susan Pheasant; it’s by growers. “The growers are very much co-authors on this,” she says.

Pheasant notes that the program is the brainchild of a grower, Laura Mrachek, who is the association’s president. Mrachek and her husband, Mike, like many growers, could see that when it came to food safety, it was just a matter of time before audits moved from the packing shed level to the farm level.

“Growers realize that it’s coming and if you do it individually, it’s $3,000 to $10,000 per farm, but by doing it industry-wide you can cut the cost to $500 per farm,” says Pheasant. “Growers can’t afford to do audits — they will go broke. Besides, growers like to grow fruit. They don’t like paperwork.”

Mock Audits

For this initial year of the program, there will be 200 growers participating in the pilot project to iron out any difficulties. They will pay $500 for a workbook that they can use as a template to produce their own food safety and sustainability program. The cost also covers the initial training they will need to understand the program, as well as a “pre-audit,” which Pheasant says is an absolutely critical component to the program.

Father Knows Best

Susan Pheasant, the coordinator of the Washington State Horticultural Association’s GRAS²P program, has perhaps more incentive to make sure the program is more grower-friendly than the typical administrator. Smaller growers, in particular, often lament that industry programs are top-down, not bottom-up, but Pheasant says she’ll certainly do everything in her power to ensure that’s not the case when it comes to GRAS²P. “Because if it wasn’t (grower-friendly),” she says with a chuckle, “I’d hear from my Dad.”

Pheasant’s father, Jack Pheasant, farms 50 acres of high-density apple orchards in an area well-known for producing premium apples in the Wenatchee area, the Royal Slope. Besides running Pheasant Ridge Orchards, Jack Pheasant and his wife Lynda provide horticultural and sales services for Willow Drive Nursery.

Jack Pheasant is also well-known in the industry for serving on the International Fruit Tree Association’s (IFTA) executive board, including a stint as president when the organization was known as the International Dwarf Fruit Tree Association. He and his daughter have that in common, as Susan Pheasant has served as executive director of IFTA, though she recently announced she is leaving the IFTA. She will, however, continue to coordinate industry trips to the world’s prominent fruit growing regions as she has in the past with IFTA — including a trip to Chile later this year.

The pre-audit is sort of a mock audit, in which a specialist would evaluate an individual grower’s program. This specialist would be someone well-versed in what the inspectors, who in Washington come from the Washington State Department of Agriculture, will be looking for. And, while the specialist is a neutral third party, he or she would also be well-versed in the fruit industry, which would allow them to better provide insight to growers and make sure the government audit goes smoothly. “The specialist will say, ‘This is what to expect,’” says Pheasant, “and ‘Here are your deficiencies.’”

That familiarity with the fruit industry is absolutely critical, says Pheasant. The first objective listed in the program’s 12-page booklet: “Develop intelligent, grower-friendly, practical, science-based food safety and sustainability tools,” makes that grounding in the reality of tree fruit growing clear. “We want it to be crop-specific in language appropriate to tree fruit,” she says. “It’s in language legislators can understand and growers can get behind.”

Painless As Possible

Getting government officials to endorse GRAS²P would be terrific, says Pheasant. She hopes that GRAS²P doesn’t just ensure that growers pass government audits — while still avoiding the cost of hiring a food safety specialist — but that it might help change the way the process works, reducing more stringent regulatory oversight. “Maybe government (officials) will really like it and say, ‘OK, private enterprise has already raised their own bar,’” she says.

For those interested, Pheasant noted that there will be several sessions focusing on various aspects of GRAS²P at this year’s annual meeting of the WSHA, which as always will be held in early December. There will also be additional educational sessions after the annual meeting. Also, there will be special “fruit schools” that will have sessions focusing on the program throughout the year, says Pheasant.

The 200 growers in the pilot program were to begin enrolling last month, following educational meetings in Yakima and Wenatchee. The pilot program should be in place for this year’s audits, at least for apples and pears, as the audits are conducted at harvest. It does make sense to conduct food safety audits during harvest, says Pheasant, but it just makes it that much tougher for growers. “Harvest is already a pretty crazy time,” she says. “My goal is to make it as easy and painless as possible.”

The GRASÂ²P program aims to help Washington tree fruit growers get a handle on food safety and sustainability.