Greetings All,
    Pooh Sprague was supposed to give a talk on green manures at the 
meeting, but was sucked away by tropical winds and is somewhere very 
warm and very nice for week or so. He sends his apologies
    Before leaving, however, he asked me to take his place and give the 
talk. No problem so far.
    However, in the mean  time, Liz and I went on our not so warm and 
very wet, but very enjoyable vacation to California where, among other 
things we attended the three day Eco-Farm Conference in Monterey; the 
premier organic conference in the country.
    There were lots of talks on all kinds of subjects and lots of neat 
folks to meet and learn from, but the subject that came up over and over 
was the food safety issue. Now, some of you know that I've been on a  
bit of a tear about this thing and you're probably getting a little 
tired of my rantings about how dangerous this issue is for us, but 
believe me, I had no idea what a monster this thing has become until I 
listened to the stories especially of medium and smaller leafy greens 
growers.(Medium being five hundred to a thousand acres!)
    Anyhow, as important as green manures may be, I was so shocked by 
what I heard at the eco-conference  that I've to decided to use my few 
minutes at the end of our conference to talk a little about what I 
learned there. I hope that's OK.
    I know this is late notice (we just got in last night) but if any of 
you are so inclined, you can get a taste of what I'll be talking about 
by going to 
(http://www.caleafygreens.ca.gov/members/documents/LGMAAcceptedGAPs07.10.09.pdf 
)  This is just one of many related documents coming out of this food 
safety hysteria, but will give you an idea of what draconian measures 
are being put in place.
    See you tomorrow,   Jake Guest