Valentine's Flowers from Colombia

By Tad Thompson

In early February 2009, I had my first tour of Colombia's flower industry. By February 10 or so the business wraps up Valentine's Day exports because there is no more time to get to market.


Colombia's flower industry is very, very sophisticated, with production in thousands of acres of greenhouses.

The industry association, Asocolflores, has standards for ecological concerns, worker safety, dignity and rights. The welfare and education of workers' children is also a focal point. The industry leaders collect, purify and recycle irrigation water. Those who handle pesticides are professionally trained and equipped.

The harvesting and handling systems are designed to maintain quality and get fresh products to market as quickly as possible.

The flower varieties that make it to market are chosen from a breeding process that eliminates thousands of possibilities.

Flower breeders work in anticipation of what colors and textures will be popular five years down the road.

The Colombian flower industry was created from scratch in the 1960s after two men independently surveyed the world to find the best place to commercially produce flowers. They selected Colombia because of its low latitude and the high elevation of the huge plateau surrounding Bogota. The two factors yield consistent temperatures throughout the year. Bogota's greatest temperature variation is not based on the month, but the time of day. Colombia was also identified as an ideal place to produce flowers because of the close proximity to the US, with a good airport in Bogota, which has good connections to Miami.

Anti-narcotic precautions are very substantial throughout the logistics process.

Some tropical flowers are grown in Colombia's lower elevations but they represent a small part of total flower exports.

In recent years, Colombian growers expanded their flower export markets to decrease dependency -- and potential oversupply -- of the US market. Diverse international markets need flowers for many national holidays. This allows the growers to produce consistent volumes through the year, which helps employ people and lower overall production costs.

Feb. 12, 2010.

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Salang Pass Avalanche

by Tad Thompson

You may have read in the Feb. 9, 2010, news that an avalanche, two miles wide, killed 28 people as it roared across Afghanistan's Salang Pass.

I had the opportunity to ride from Kabul to Mazar-I-Sharif over that Himalayan pass in November 2008.

At the road's highest point, about 12,000 feet above sea level, is an unventilated two-mile long tunnel. Traffic in that tunnel is pictured above. I spent some time hoping our vehicle doesn't break down in the black tunnel with the trapped fumes.

When you emerge on the west end of the tunnel, there is an absolutely spectacular Himalayan Mountain view, right.

We drove for what seemed miles before we reached an elevation low enough to support tree growth, and even at that the trees were few and far between.

Truck traffic was very heavy on the pass and truckers were pulled over "at the side of the road" -- meaning, they pulled toward the right side of the right lane -- to chain their tires, or work on broken-down trucks while warming a meal over little portable stoves. The icy driving was very, very hazardous.

The trek became more interesting as the brakes of our armored SUV overheated. The professional driver controlled our speed with the standard transmission and we dodged traffic with incredible grace.

About a mile outside the little village of Malkan, the driver suggested we walk our way to safety. In Malkan was a seriously-real Afghan "roadside diner". I doubt that many Americans have dropped in there for a bite.

The "tables" are large poured concrete blocks, softened with a covering of equally-large Afghan rugs. You take off your shoes and try not to get your feet on the rug, as courses of goat, rice and a whole variety of spices were presented. Family-style, of course. The taste was magnificent.

The brakes of our SUV cooled as we dined. We hit the road.

Mazar-I-Sharif became a whole other adventure.

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Living the food safety trail.

By Tad Thompson

In 1998 several dozen people in the United States got sick from Cyclospora exposure. Cyclospora cayetanesis is a one-celled parasite that is transferred by water or food.

The US Food & Drug Administration interviewed those who got sick. A common thread was largely that they had consumed Guatemalan raspberries.

I had long been a friend of many Guatemalan berry growers. The Guatemalan Berry Committee asked me to work with the North American press and the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta to help clear up the problems. I sat with my friends in a US Senate hearing and had Senator Snow shaking her finger at me. Maybe you've not 'made it' until you've been yelled at in the hallowed halls of the US Senate...?

The FDA had researchers all over Guatemalan berry vineyards. They could not find one piece of evidence to associate Cyclospora with a single Guatemalan vineyard.

Still, the empirical evidence was what it was and the Guatemalan berry industry -- and the national department of agriculture -- worked with a food safety expert from the Food Marketing Institute in Washington, D.C. to design a food safety program for all Guatemalan agriculture. The rest of the international produce industry has caught up with Guatemala by now, but Guatemala first had standards that were unsurpassed by any country in the world.

I shot these March 2009 pictures at Planessa, which is about 45 minutes from Antigua, Guatemala. Planessa is owned by my friend Roberto Castaneda, who was one of the few growers whose business survived the Guatemalan berry scare. Roberto has aggressively developed and patented new berry varieties. He has a great family and is a very nice guy.

A lot of the raspberry business moved to Mexico after problems in Guatemala. But Planessa and others have continued to expand and prosper. Planessa also has plantations in Mexico.

I never had special concerns about the safety their product and now Guatemalan produce should be especially safe for consumers.

Around the Fruit World. Day One.

by Tad Thompson

The driest places on Earth can produce the world's best fruits and vegetables.

Generally speaking, when produce quality is the highest, prices to growers are the lowest.

Such axioms in the world of the fresh fruit and vegetable industy are unknown to most consumers, I would guess.

Is such information useless to the masses? Maybe.

Does anyone know what they don't know? Absolutely not.

When watching the History Channel, I never cease to be amazed by the things I don't know. Such as the hurricane blowing into Washington, D.C. right after the British set The White House on fire in The War of 1812. When you hear a story like that, you become pretty committed to leaving "In God We Trust" on the currency.

My life is a little bit richer for knowing that.

Omar, a Chilean grape grower friend of mine, owns acreage in a deep river valley in the Atacama Desert. This valley, pictured above, is in Chile's northern reaches. The Atacama receives one rain storm every couple of years. There is so little rain that the gray, dusty soil will only support cactus plants if they are located about 20 feet apart. Even at that, the poor plants look not much better than they do in my house, where, if it needs water, we don't want 'em.

The beauty of all of this is that when Chile's spring rolls around each September, Andean snow begins to fill dry stream beds and Omar (and his grower-neighbors) suddenly have a pure, easily-accessed and abundant water supply.

The unlikely-looking soil, when fed by this wonderfully-fresh water, produces a terrific grape crop. The weather is so neutral here, there is no wind to bounce and scar the fruit. Nor is there humidity to allow fungus problems. Insects that might become issues generally prefer living where they don't have to wait six months to get a drink.

Thus, Omar makes a pretty good gamble each season that his vineyards will produce a tremendous fruit crop. Being in the north, the Atacama desert experiences Chile's earliest spring and therefore Chile's first grape harvest. The Peruvians and Brazilians are now getting high quality fresh grapes into North American markets in November before Omar, but that's a story for another day. Still, Omar is among the first Chileans to export fresh grapes to North America after the California storage crop is finished. Empty markets make higher prices. It's all about supply and demand. It's wonderfully simple. And is the essence of why Peruvians and Brazilians jumped on a market niche just ahead of Omar.

The story of how Omar's fruit fits into the world scheme is a complex trail. Perhaps I've embarked on a path to tell you about something you didn't know that you didn't know?

As to growers receiving high prices when the quality is lowest...that's true too. The point was designed to catch your attention for now. And will be explained later.

This is my first-go at writing a blog. Your comments, questions and suggestions will be appreciated.

'Til later.

Tad