IFPA Annual Impact Report
Driving member prosperity for produce & floral
Creating a healthier world in 2023
Together with our member companies, IFPA creates beneficial changes through action. Members engage with IFPA to create strong business opportunities and a favorable business environment. This drives two key objectives – creating a healthier world and driving member prosperity. In 2023, we made an impact in dozens of areas. Take a look at just 10 of the most impactful.
Just what the doctor ordered
As part of our U.S. advocacy efforts to boost produce consumption and enhance consumer health, IFPA advocates for produce prescriptions, a key component of our White House commitments. “If we don’t change the trajectory of how this next generation eats, they will be the first generation that doesn’t live as long as its parents,” said IFPA CEO Cathy Burns.
IFPA CEO Cathy Burns takes the stage at AgriPulse 2023 Food & Ag Policy Summit to discuss food as medicine and produce prescriptions
See what else she saidGrounding safety decisions in science
Addressing Cyclospora as a public health threat must use systems thinking and risk-based (not hazard-based) approaches. So said a 2023 report from a National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods committee chaired by Dr. Max Teplitski. The report focused on better understanding the science that exists to identify this parasite in our food system and offered four key takeaways for our industry.
Bridging the gap: DEI in action
As part of IFPA’s DEI efforts to support equitable and inclusive business practices, we are collaborating with the Delta USDA Regional Food Business Center to create a more sustainable food system in the southeastern United States. We will provide underserved, disadvantaged farmers and business owners with coordination, technical assistance, and capacity-building resources.
Chief Education and Program Officer at IPFA, Doug Bohr at
Delta USDA Regional Food Business Center announcement with Secretary Vilsack
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FDA makes strides forward
The U.S. FDA’s foods program has a significant impact on IFPA members. The agency deserves a structure and leadership model customized to fit its mission and serve the produce industry. IFPA, in coalition with others, commended a report that identified problems with the structure, leadership, culture, transparency, and accountability within FDA’s foods program and reiterated its call for significant structural reform. We celebrate that there is finally a Deputy Commissioner for foods.
Hit the gas on climate solutions
The second cohort in IFPA’s Fresh Field Catalyst Accelerator, announced earlier this year, stands to advance entrepreneurial technology with ready-to-market, climate-smart solutions to the industry’s biggest challenges. The winning companies hail from seven countries and have the potential to change the way we grow and do business.
Cohort two of IFPA's Fresh Field Catalyst Accelerator tour Driscoll's during immersion week
Meet the companiesClimate smarts? Let’s prove it works
To create a market for produce grown with one of six climate-smart production practices, IFPA will offer incentives to specialty crop growers. This year, we were awarded a USDA Climate-Smart Commodities Grant to encourage the use of climate-smart practices and to create effective tools to measure inputs, outputs (ecosystem services), and yields.
$800 million – that's real money
The U.S. Farm Bill is the largest federal investment in our industry, at $800 million for nutrition, research, food safety, rural development, and market access programs. Less than 8% goes to fresh produce. With the Farm Bill up for renewal, IFPA is working with the Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance to secure new programs, policies, and resources that foster innovation; increase consumption of fresh produce; and provide tools and technologies that modernize the industry.
VP, US Government Relations, IFPA and Co-Chair SCFBA Legislative Committee, Rebeckah Adcock leading a Farm Bill Briefing
Take ActionTaking it to the top: IFPA meets Canadian Prime Minister
When Canadian actions on plastic packaging threatened our industry’s efforts to make produce more affordable, safe, and accessible, IFPA went straight to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. During a roundtable on food affordability, CEO Cathy Burns commended U.S.-Canada consumer health partnerships while stressing the need to allow plastic packaging for fresh and fresh-cut products.
IFPA CEO Cathy Burns joins a roundtable with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
See advocacy in actionSimplifying DEI for members
As IFPA members advance their DEI efforts, we have taken a big step to move this work forward. A free online DEI Toolkit, released this fall, is a framework and practical resource to support individual and team learning and organizational development. IFPA is committed to DEI action.
Repping our own on global sustainability
IFPA experts travelled to Dubai, UAE, for COP28, the United Nations’ esteemed climate change conference, which brings together world leaders to find concrete sustainability solutions. It’s especially essential for global fresh produce and floral industry to be at the table and engaged so we can continue to provide nutritious, fresh products to our growing world.
IFPA's Tamara Muruetagoiena and Max Teplitski meet with Zespri team at COP28
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