How well protected are our growers and shippers if a full-fledged, media-driven, food-safety crisis were to hit our domestic marketplace of over 300 million people? Like most rural volunteer fire districts, we have the capability to handle targeted preventions and extinguish small fires. But a hot blaze, driven by a rising wind, in dry timber would soon be beyond our ability to control. This is the crisis management reality for apples, pears, and cherries as well as for the entire sweep of the United States produce industry. We have only a handful of people now working for the produce industry […]