Traceback to the Future: Helping growers comply with FSMA

摘要

William Kanitz has always been one to jump at the opportunities brought on by new technology. The Michigan produce and field crop grower was quite possibly the first person in the state of Michigan to own an eight-row John Deere 7700 combine, purchased right out of the Farm Progress Show in which it debuted. He also had an M-l Abrams tank computer—a Voice Tablet from Intelliworxx—running in a tractor long before GPS units were known. Now Kanitz, who works with growers while running a traceback company called ScoringSystem, Inc., is years ahead of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), passed this year by Congress, signed into law by the president and implemented by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. His agricultural division, ScoringAg.com,links tracking and traceback recordkeeping info of all food and feed, ingredient containers and beverages—whether perishable or not—and makes managing product tracking information easier and more secure, in a cost-effective manner. With this technology, Kanitz is able to help growers comply with the new Good Agricultural Practices rules, the Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) law and FSMA, with recordkeeping regulations for required traceback labels that are in effect right now.