WASHINGTON — Fresh from securing key advocacy wins, including the preservation of fruit and vegetables in updated dietary guidelines, creating a fruit and veggie hub in the WIC shopper app and more, Cathy Burns, CEO of the International Fresh Produce Association, brought a clear message to the recent Washington Conference: The produce industry’s voice is actively shaping federal policy, but the fight for fresh is far from over.
The annual three-day conference, which culminates in meetings with policymakers on Capitol Hill, marks an important opportunity for the produce industry to share their stories, educate and advocate for fresh, says Burns.
“Policymakers and their staffs really want to understand the industry better,” she says. “They really do, and the only way they’re going to be able to understand our industry better is if you tell your stories.”
It was a sentiment shared by Sen. John Boozman, who addressed the Washington Conference earlier that day.
“As you meet the members of Congress, as you visit with their staff, I encourage you to continue sharing your experiences and perspectives and tell the story of American agriculture … It truly does make a difference,” he says. “Your voice matters, and your partnership is essential as we move things forward.”
‘Fight for Fresh’ Wins
As evidence of the power of advocacy, Burns points to a number of key wins in the industry’s ongoing fight for fresh.
1. Dietary Guidelines and Consumer Nutrition Wins
- The updated dietary guidelines preserve fruits and vegetables as foundational to health and nutrition.
- The Foundation for Fresh Produce partnered with the developers of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, known as WIC, shopper app. The collaboration created a fruit and veggie hub designed to help millions of consumers plan, shop, prep, cook and eat fresh produce.
2. Farm Bill and Legislative Progress
- Alongside the Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance, IFPA successfully advocated for the House passage of the Farm, Food and National Security Act of 2026 “that delivers for specialty crops.” Burns highlights House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson’s leadership in guiding the bill through the House, noting the next step is pushing it through the Senate.
- Burns says specific specialty crop victories within the bill include:
- Establishing an effective emergency assistance framework tailored specifically for specialty crop growers.
- Strengthening programs like TEFAP (The Emergency Food Assistance Program) — a federally funded USDA initiative providing free, high-quality, American-grown food to low-income Americans — to better support fresh produce purchases.
- Investing in critical research and mechanization.
- Improving risk management tools tailored to the highly diverse operations within the industry.
3. Labor
- “Our persistent advocacy for H-2A reform led to an AEWR [Adverse Effect Wage Rate] change last fall, and it’s set to save employers over $1.5 billion a year,” says Burns. “This win will be made permanent by legislation introduced by Chairman GT Thompson later this month.”
- Later that day, Thompson introduced a draft of Securing Agriculture’s Workforce Act, a bipartisan bill aimed at reforming ag labor and the H-2A visa program by controlling costs, expanding access and reducing red tape.
4. Sustainability
- Successfully regaining USDA funding for the industry’s regenerative agriculture pilot programs.
5. Formalized Extended Producer Responsibility Position
- IFPA has formalized its policy position on Extended Producer Responsibility, or EPR, urging that these laws must be evaluated not just through an environmental lens, but as food and supply chain policy.
“These are just a few of our advocacy milestones that we’ve already achieved in the first half of 2026,” says Burns. “They are proof that when this industry speaks with clarity and conviction and a constant cadence, Washington does listen.”
6 Issues Facing Fresh
The Washington Conference’s agenda focused on six critical issues in fresh produce: nutrition and consumption; labor; trade; the farm bill; EPR; and food safety.
Through a full slate of sessions featuring government officials and industry experts, attendees were primed and ready to bring a clear message to Capitol Hill on each topic.
Nutrition and Consumption
The state of America’s health, and the power of fruits and vegetables to improve it, was a core theme throughout the conference, which featured sessions with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., nutritionists, and senior advisor for Health and Human Services Calley Means.
“We are gathered here in D.C. at a very, very difficult moment — one that demands not only attention, but leadership,” Burns said at the conference. “America’s health depends on better nutrition, and better nutrition depends on fruits and vegetables. You cannot be healthy without eating our products.
“If we’re serious — and I really hope we are as a country — if we’re serious about preventing diet-related chronic diseases, then fruits and vegetables must be central to national strategy and policy — not an afterthought, not an add-on, not a tagline — it needs to be a starting point, and we are not simply part of a solution; we’re the heart of the solution,” she continued.
IFPA is calling on lawmakers to use the policy tools available to them to expand fruit and vegetable consumption and improve public health, from programs like the fruit and vegetable benefit in WIC to broader federal strategies that help make healthy choices an easier choice for families.
But Burns says these health goals cannot be met without a strong, stable food system that grows, ships, harvests, packs and delivers fresh produce at scale every day.
“Fresh produce is the essential infrastructure for the health of this nation,” she says. “And when the infrastructure is strained, as it is now, the consequences reach far beyond our industry.
“They show up in farm viability. They show up in food access,” she continues. “The strain shows up in family budgets and in the long-term health of our communities — the physical health for our communities — and … the prosperity of our rural communities.”
On the consumer health front, IFPA soft-launched its new campaign developed with the Foundation for Fresh Produce: “Eat the Realest Food All Day Every Day. You can’t make America healthy without fruits and vegetables.”
“How many fruits and vegetables do I really need to eat? I’ll tell you how many you need to eat,” says Burns. “You need to eat fresh fruits and vegetables all day, every day. Full stop.”
The campaign’s straightforward dietary message encourages people to include fresh produce in every meal and snack daily.
To support this initiative, the campaign will offer recipes and link directly to the Fruitandveggies.org platform. Burns says this movement reinforces a long-standing industry message: Increasing the consumption of real food does more than just improve individual diets and community health. Ultimately, advocating for policies that promote eating fresh fruits and vegetables secures a stronger food system and a more vibrant future for everyone.
Workforce Stability
The financial pressures on specialty crop farms are increasingly intense, driven largely by the labor-intensive and time-sensitive nature of cultivating fruits and vegetables. Because these operations face some of the highest labor costs in U.S. agriculture, securing a reliable and steady supply of agricultural workers is no longer just a logistical preference for produce — it is an economic necessity.
“Workforce stability is production stability,” says Burns. “Without enough workers at the right time, food is left in the field, supply tightens and opportunities are lost.”
But this outcome is not inevitable, she says. It is a policy challenge that can be solved, and Congress has the responsibility to deliver that solution.
“It’s really a matter of national interest,” she says. “Rising market volatility and ongoing uncertainty make it harder for farms to plan, invest, innovate and endure. And when that happens, long-term domestic production is compromised.”
Burns says IFPA’s message on labor is “crystal clear.”
“We are calling for guest worker visa reform that reflects the realities of specialty crops and helps ensure a reliable workforce for the future,” she says.
Tariffs and Trade
“As we’ve experienced over the past year, trade and tariffs are not abstract policy debates, they shape year-round access to fruits, vegetables and flowers,” says Burns, who calls for “stable, predictable, rules-based trade relationships that keep supply moving and markets balanced.”
When trade relationships are disrupted, consumers feel it in their wallets and in the availability in the produce aisle, she says.
“On trade, we are calling for a rules-based approach that avoids broad economywide measures and protects the steady flow of fresh perishable products,” says Burns.
Farm Bill Must Move Forward
On the farm bill, IFPA’s message is very simple: The delays must end.
“Congress must act and deliver the investments needed to grow demand, strengthen markets and protect the competitiveness of specialty crops,” says Burns.
Extended Producer Responsibility
While produce packaging helps prevent food loss, supports traceability and labeling requirements, and protects highly perishable products, EPR laws pose a serious threat to the profitability and availability of fresh produce.
With typical produce industry profit margins hovering under 2%, the sweeping expansion of EPR legislation could prove financially devastating for suppliers of fresh fruits and vegetables.
Burns issued a wakeup call, stressing how “critical” and “expensive” the legislation will be for the produce industry, urging the industry to bring this message to Capitol Hill.
Food Safety
On food safety, IFPA is calling for “robust resources for FDA and state food safety programs, along with harmonized science and risk-based standards that strengthen trust across the system,” says Burns.
An Integrated Supply Chain
In conclusion, Burns says it’s critically important that policy- and decision-makers understand that the story of fresh produce is an integrated one.
“These are not separate issues. They’re all parts of one system that either rise or fall together,” she says. “Health depends on consumption, consumption depends on a reliable supply, a reliable supply depends on viable growers, and viable growers depend on a stable workforce and … a workable, quite frankly, policy environment.
“If we want to improve health, we must strengthen the system behind America’s health right now,” she adds. “We can’t wait. The system that is broken and is fully integrated, has to be fixed right now.”
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