It's true you should check your sources before believing everything you see on social media, ensuring it's a verifiable company or trusted organization — but once you do that, you can learn a lot.
The best produce professionals maintain a certain level of humility and openness to learning and growing in the industry. One way to learn in small doses is on social media.
Find out about an edible-peel avocado variety, some great social responsibility awards one group earned, the apple's favorite river, a Walmart produce display and an onion outbreak explainer.
We want to try this to see if we agree with the claim that this Puebla avocado has an edible peel. They say it's thin, but does that mean it's as tolerable as an apple or plum peel? What about a peach peel, with that furry texture that some people avoid? It looks smoother than the haas variety's pebbly peel. This post shares new information about a fruit that's intriguing, and it includes a question that begs to be answered — smart move to increase engagement. In five days, this post earned 562 likes and 13 comments. Not bad. Based in San Diego, Specialty Produce is a family-owned and operated foodservice and retail fresh produce supplier. Their posts all feature close-ups of interesting produce, not the mainstream. It's a consistent, curated look overall.
Find them on Instagram at @SpecialtyProduce.
Social media is a great place to share good news about your company and its employees, especially awards. The Grower-Shipper Association of Central California received two awards, they tell us, and the shortened link on the post provides more detail. And these are awards about saving lives. On Sept. 21, United Fresh Produce Association presented GSA with its Produce Advocate of the Year award. On Oct. 2, the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, Calif., awarded GSA and Clinica del Salud with its Ag Leader Award for their collaborative efforts to vaccinate farm workers. Talk about taking social responsibility. Early in the pandemic, and even today, farmworkers are especially vulnerable to this potentially deadly and highly contagious disease, with their close living quarters, bus or van transportation, and close working quarters if they're indoors in a plant or packing facility. The association's mass vaccinations clinics have provided more than half of all vaccines to the region's 85%+ fully vaccinated agricultural workforce. These efforts protected not only farmworkers, but the general population in the communities. Kudos, GSA.
Find them on Twitter at @growershipper.
The Grower Shipper Association of Central California (GSA) recently received two awards for its work to protect farm workers from the spread of COVID-19 through education outreach, quarantined housing programs and mass vaccinations clinics. https://t.co/rQVPxmK9Tc pic.twitter.com/spo7WprXus
— Grower-Shipper Assoc (@growershipper) October 13, 2021
When we hear the term “lazy river,” we think of the relatively calm water feature of our childhood visits to water parks like Wet ‘n Wild. It was a favorite of adults and children seeking the lowest-risk water adventure, where we'd float in an inner tube while the water gently propelled us forward in the loop. In the case of this post, it's an apple instead of a swim-suited human. Jim Bair, president and CEO of the U.S. Apple Association, posted a video clip (always a good idea) of Honeycrisp apples floating along the Yakima, Wash.-based Borton Fruit Co. packing house cleaning, grading and sorting system. Bair brings the message home, explaining the gentle method of washing and sorting massive quantities of apples before they're packed and sent to a supermarket. He leaves us with a fact nugget in question form and includes a few tags for good measure, all great social media marketing practices.
Find him on LinkedIn by searching “Jim Bair.”
Screenshot by Amy Sowder
TikTok
Excuse us for two apple posts in one column (it is prime apple-harvesting season, after all), but who knew this Walmart had a TikTok account? Good thing you have our social media digging experts to break this story wide open. In this post, the message is simple and childlike in the Happy Farm Song: “Some apples are red. Some apples are green. The freshest, crunchiest apples that you've ever seen.” The song plays in a loop with a few photos of a fall apple display at a Walmart location. It's hard song to get out of your head after the first 11 times. The message may be implanted now. Good job, Walmart.
Find them on TikTok at @Walmart1371.
@walmart1371 look at this beautiful display of apples that our produce department manager did today! looks great and yummy Bree! ##walmart1371 ##fallvibes
♬ Apples - Happy Farm Songs
Shay Myers, who runs Owyhee Produce, Parma, Idaho, always gives it to you straight. With the recent onion outbreak, he recorded a short video explaining that the salmonella outbreak is only from onions from Mexico, particularly in the Chihuahua region, packed through Aug. 27. So, all U.S.-grown onions are safe to eat and should not be wasted, he emphasized. Myers offers a practical solution: How do you find out if your onions are safe to eat? He shows where to look on the sticker or the bagged onion tag. If it says USA on there, it's safe at this time. If it says Mexico, nope. His short videos are very useful and educational for the industry and the mainstream public.
Find them on Facebook at @OwyheeProduce.