Crop report

Sometimes, it takes a crisis to get noticed. Such is the case with California's monster agriculture industry, which everyone living in cities and suburbs tends to ignore until there's an E. coli outbreak or a monster freeze. This year, there's been both. Not much can be done about the cold weather, but state officials want to step up oversight of California's food supply by having handlers - the folks who take produce from the farm and prepare it for shipping - sign a voluntary marketing agreement in which they promise to accept product only from farmers who follow specific food safety procedures. The agreement would cover all leafy greens, like spinach and lettuce. The rules, which were proposed by the Western Growers Association in Irvine, are in response to two E. Coli outbreaks - and with them, criticism that the industry wasn't being regulated very well. Reaction to the plan seems to be lukewarm. Western Growers says it would take forever to put a federal program in place, but consumer groups don't like the idea of industry basically governing the process. Press Enterprise LAT

Cold costs: Better sock away a few bucks for Valentine's Day flowers. They're likely to be in short supply - and expensive.
Mike Mellano, who grows flowers on a 400-acre farm in Oceanside, told Cox News Service reporter Bob Keefe that he gets about two-thirds of his annual sales between now and Mother's Day, with about 25 percent of that around Valentine's Day.

This year, Mellano is worried that even some flowers that survived the recent freeze, which sent temperatures below 20 degrees in some parts of California, will have their growth peak delayed until after his biggest season has passed. ''If they come through 10 days too late, we're out of our market window,'' Mellano said. ''It will either be very difficult for us to market those (flowers) or, more likely than not, they'll end up on the compost heap.''