USDA officials visit Salinas ag fields

Thursday the USDA was in Salinas to hear about growers’ needs for more export and trade around the world.

The USDA’s deputy undersecretary for farm and foreign services said California is the nation’s largest agricultural exporter. The deputy undersecretary, Alexis Taylor, was part of a group touring one of Tanimura and Antle’s fields in Salinas. Taylor met with some growers to hear about the issues they’ve had exporting.

“They see some really big demand abroad, particularly in some of the Asian and Southeast Asian countries. Currently the U.S. government is in negotiations with 11 Southeast Asian countries and it has huge potential, particularly for this part of California,” said Taylor.

After the 2007 E. coli outbreak linked to Central Coast spinach, Taylor said Congress passed new food safety standards, and said they’re now among some of the highest standards in the world-another reason the demand for California produce is so high.