My New Friend Mike Taylor

Mike Taylor is the FDA Deputy Secretary for Food. A couple weeks ago Buddy’s was honored and humbled to be chosen as one of five Minnesota food companies that Mike visited to engage discussion on the Food Safety Modernization Act.

Also humbling was the list of our peers on the tour. There were five of us: Cargill, General Mills, Land O’Lakes, Malt O Meal, and….. Buddy’s Kitchen.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time with Mike Taylor. He’s an engaging, smart guy with a big challenge ahead of him. If my two hours with Mike are an indication, he’s a great choice for leader of the FDA- Food.

The Buddy’s team has commited to be a world class food safety company. Not good enough, not better than most. We want to be the best. We believe you should not be in the business of making food for others if this is not your goal.

Mike, thanks for making Buddy’s one of your stops, and I sure hope we can continue a positive, open dialogue with your organization– the goal of which should be improving the safety of the food here and across the industry.

SQF Level 3!

Really hard to contain the pride I have for my team having been awarded the Safe Quality Food (SQF)Level 3 designation!

To serve in Wal-Mart’s food chain, SQF Level 2 is a requirement. I’m sure Level 3 will be added someday, so we decided right away not to stop at Level 2. We admire Wal-Mart’s leadership in this regard. The entire industry seems to be following suit.

Beyond that, we found the process of implementing the SQF systems has made us a stronger company in many aspects. Producing safe, quality food has to be at the core of who we are in this industry; our team really buys into that and lives it.

Good job everyone!

Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA)

Buddy’s Kitchen certainly embraces the new food safety law signed by President Obama January 4th. The law raises the food safety bar for all food producers plus gives the FDA much more power to enforce it. A few observations:
• A couple years ago, these changes might have caused some apprehension in our company. However, like many food companies, we already have taken the initiative to raise the food safety bar for ourselves, and have meaningfully transformed the way we operate. We made a conscious decision to be among the very safest food producers, and we backed that up with our priorities and our checkbook.
• The proactive companies like Buddy’s will see the new law as catching up with industry best practices. For the “follower” companies, it is time to either ante up or exit the business of making food for other people.
• This looks like very expensive legislation. As those in charge look for ways to pay for it, we predict some industry pundits will call for ways to better coordinate, or even merge, the FDA and USDA. To us, both are very well-intentioned organizations trying to achieve the same thing: good, clean food for consumers. We’ll let the politicians decide if there are opportunities to take out cost and improve operations by combining the two.

History Lesson and our Hmong-American Co-Workers

Buddy’s is blessed with an awesome production team,about a third of whom is Hmong-American. This morning we had many sad eyes and hearts around the plant. Last night General Vang Pao died. General Vang was the leader of the Hmong people– not only here in the United States, but going back to when they lived in the hills of Laos.

The emotional reaction of some of our Hmong co-workers today reminded me of what I witnessed when JFK and Martin Luther King were assassinated. Even though his death was not a complete surprise, some of our co-workers had a really hard time functioning after they got the news. We made a relatively easy mid-day schedule change and offered the Hmong on our team the chance to go home early and mourn.

Those grieving the most tended to be people that knew the General in Laos in the 1960’s and 70’s. A few of our workers served under the General in the Hmong Army, and continued to follow his lead as he (very successfully) encouraged his people to become contributing American citizens.

For those not familiar, the Hmong people really had our back during the Vietnam War. Our CIA backed the Hmong to fight the “secret war” against the communists in the jungles of Laos. As well, if an American pilot crashed on the wrong side of the border, the Hmong helped rescue them to safety. After the fall of Saigon, the communists sought revenge and began exterminating the Hmong people. Many Hmong escaped– first to refugee camps in Thailand, and then to the United States. We Americans owe the Hmong people and General Vang Pao a big Thank You!

Remembering Dave “D”

We have been lucky at Buddy’s to share the past two years with Dave Devore, our Supply Chain Manager. Dave died last Friday after fighting cancer for two years.

About a month after Dave joined Buddy’s, he mentioned he was taking a Friday afternoon off to see a doc about some back pain. Thoughtful, he said he wanted to get it fixed while he was still on his wife’s health policy. The docs had him back in right away Monday morning, and he was off on his cancer-fighting journey.

Dave was a great guy. We found each other because I was networking looking to fill his position. Someone in my peer group said “You gotta meet Dave.” Wherever he’s been, he was liked and admired. Even our customers and vendors followed his progress closely because he was so likeable and positive. But he wasn’t seeking the attention.

Dave was immensely inspirational. Fighting cancer for two years was no cake walk for Dave. Dave never, ever, complained about the chemo or radiation. He always was back at his desk smiling, even after a full morning of aggressive therapy. He talked only in terms of winning. My guess is that his positive attitude kept him alive much longer than his docs were predicting.

One of my favorite “Dave D” memories will be from just a few weeks ago. We had a customer in from out of town– one of the people Dave worked with frequently. We nabbed tickets for the T-Wolves season opener on Stub Hub to entertain the client. On a Friday night, I texted Dave to invite Bonnie and him to join us for dinner and the game. I knew he wasn’t feeling great, but he also was such a sports fan that he wouldn’t pass on this opportunity without some serious consideration. All weekend I could almost feel the energy from Dave trying to muster up the strength to join us. Finally, late Sunday night I got a text back from Dave. He declined; he just didn’t have enough left to navigate Target Center. But he didn’t give in easily.

Dave D left behind a wonderful gift to Buddy’s Kitchen. It will be a long, long time before anyone around here openly sweats the small stuff. Thanks, Dave!

Chickens & Eggs

At Buddy’s Kitchen, we’ve been making premium hand-made omelets for commercial food service since 1974.  They are still premium, and they are still hand-made in 2010.  We often notice a smile appearing on the face of someone tasting our omelets for the first time.  It’s a real signature item for us. 

Today we announced that 5% of our pasteurized liquid egg purchases will be from “cage-free” producers.  That five percent may not sound like much, but it mirrors the current percentage of U.S. eggs today that are produced in cage-free environments.  We don’t have any customers asking us to do this, so we’ll have to eat the cost. 

While most of us bristle at the thought of the living conditions of the hens, few among us are willing to actually pay more for eggs laid by chickens that get to move around more.  The cage-free eggs are pricey. (http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2010/09/08/study-cage-free-eggs-cost-40-percent-more/)

The pros and cons of living conditions on egg farms are well documented.  A big animal rights group is lined up on one side, and a big fast food group on another.  I’ll stay out of that debate.  I do know that if everyone decided to go 100% cage-free all at once, today there would not be enough cage-free eggs to go around.

Our decision to buy 5% cage-free eggs won’t move the needle of U.S. egg demand. We hope a little more demand nudges producers toward more cage-free eggs, and that over time we’ll see better conditions for more chickens.

I grew up on a farm in southeast Wisconsin.  Corn was the primary output of our farm, but we had one chicken for a short time.  His name was George, and he lived in our garage for a few weeks, in a small wire cage.  Some city friends drove him out to our farm one day; he was the product of an egg-hatching experiment in a biology class.

George was fun to have around.  I never thought I could get attached to a chicken.  But when I let George out of the cage, he would follow me around the yard.  We bonded. 

Then one day, my Dad let our golden retrievers out of their kennel while George and I were walking about.  There was nothing I could do.  My dogs did what they were bred to do.  When they tried to flush George, he didn’t fly.  George came to an end.  I was sad, but I didn’t move to replace George.  Fate brought us together, but it was not a natural partnership. 

I don’t know if my brief friendship with George is part of what’s behind our move in the direction of cage-free egg purchases.  It might just be the right thing to do.  Maybe it will turn out to be “good business”.  Eggs are important to us. And so, in turn, are chickens.