What's on the minds of California's farmers and ranchers?

Chinese Canned Peaches

Our (Canned) Pride & Joy, Peaches

My friend forwarded me an email yesterday from Jillian of Biggest Loser fame advising her readers to eat healthy but to basically to avoid conventionally grown produce because she believes it to be poisoned produce. What?! That is so wrong! And, so misleading and terribly irresponsible of Jillian.

Farmers, conventional and organic, use integrated pest management and precise crop protection tools to ensure our crops-CA and USA grown crops-are the safest and most nutritious in the world. What Jillian should really be telling her readers and promoting is what this mommy and farmer already knows – BUY CA-BUY USA if you want to be ensured your food is safe and nutritious for your body.

My husband and I grow yummy, beautiful canning peaches for Seneca and Del Monte. We take a lot of pride in growing a quality piece of fruit. Fruit that I would gladly serve to my kids or you every day of the week! Being that we’ve grown it in CA and it’s being canned in our state, I know the fruit and the canning facilities are held to world’s highest and unparalleled food quality and safety standards.

But, did you know (and which I just recently learned) that Chinese, canned peaches are slowly beginning to take over the US market and they are readily found on the shelves of your local market. I went to several markets when I learned about the Chinese imports…sure enough, I found Chinese canned peaches…next to location-grown-unknown peaches and CA peaches.

I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty confident that if they are being grown in China, they are not being grown with the same care we grow them; nor are they processed and canned in a facility with our food safety standards and environmental regulations, or even OSHA standards. I’ve travelled to Asian countries and I’ve seen firsthand food handling practices that I consider to be unsafe and unsanitary.

As a farming family concerned with growing market share of Chinese canned peaches on U.S. soil, my husband recently decided to become involved in the California Canning Peach Association to work with other farmers to help promote the buying of California canned peaches. Being informed of the issues at hand related to our industry, including the importation of foreign canned peaches help us and other farmers make better business and marketing decisions. And, hopefully, as we are able to learn and share with our family and friends, we all will become better informed consumers.

I am very concerned with the influx of Chinese canned peaches making their way into my children’s school lunches and onto my, rather your, dinner plate. I urge you to checkout where your canned peaches or any canned fruits and veggies are coming from the next time you visit your favorite market…and buy California, and if not California, then U.S.A. product. Tell your market manager that you want local product. If we all begin to ask and demand CA and US product, maybe our collective voices will be heard by market buyers.

Want to learn more about California canned peaches? Check out the California Canned Peach Association’s Peach Facts or Peach Fuzz newsletter. And if you’re interested in a killer summer peach dessert recipe, let me know and I’ll post later.

Located in the Central San Joaquin Valley and passionate about a domestic food supply, Karri Hammerstrom is an agricultural advocate, educator and a small farmer with her husband of stone fruit, alfalfa and children.

Share this

Tags: agriculture, Biggest Loser, buy CA, CA Canning Peach Association, CA grown, California agriculture, canning peaches, China, Chinese Peaches, family farmer, food, healthy eating, imports, Jillian, mommy blog, peach, peaches, school lunches