'We need to be careful together,' says this California produce IT director

It won’t be long before retailers are going to expect grower-shippers to meet cybersecurity standards because a ransomware attack at any link in the supply chain can hurt grocers, as well as other produce companies.

So says Johnny McGuire, director of information technology at The Nunes Co., a Salinas, Calif.-based vegetable grower with the Foxy label. He’s also chairman of the ProduceSupply.org Cyber Security Council. There are about 25 members, mostly large produce firms, but the guidelines are applicable to small companies too.

“We're trying to get as many grower-shippers, suppliers in the produce industry engaged as we can because of the disastrous ramifications of these attacks and the fact that our membership is so greatly impacted,” said McGuire in this “Tip of the Iceberg” podcast episode. “We felt we needed kind of a call to action and to do what we could to stop the bleeding here, so to speak.”

We need to collaborate to better secure our companies from cyberattacks, he said. After all, it’s a referential business, and companies sell the same thing under different labels.

“Because we’re so connected through working in this commodity business, the attack surface is wide. And we need to be careful together,” McGuire said.

This Silicon Valley tech guy who became a Salinas Valley farm guy is also working to make the traceability and record-keeping requirements of Rule 204 of the Food Safety Modernization Act easier to understand and implement.

Related: What fresh produce needs to know about FSMA 204, 2D bar codes

It’s all about collaboration, he said.

ZAG Technical Services Marketing Director Rob Collings, who guest-co-hosted this episode with Full Tilt Marketing Principal Melinda Goodman, said his takeaway was about ProduceSupply.org’s commitment to lifting everybody up.

“They've got standards that are applicable to a smaller grower through to an enterprise-scale organization,” Collings said. He noted “the importance of cybersecurity within the supply chain and how one impacted party is like ripples in a pond that starts to spread out into the entire community and ecosystems.”

Listen: More "Tip of the Iceberg" podcast episodes

Customers are going to start looking at grower-shippers, making this expectation and demand that they are equally secure, Goodman said.

“We're not going to ask for your food safety certificate alone or your social responsibility or your sustainability credentials,” she said. “We're also going to start giving you a score on your ability to have disaster recovery plans, good clean technology and hygiene that's going to protect the food supply chain.”

To find out more about the companies mentioned:

• ZAG Technical Services: zagtech.com.
• Full Tilt Marketing: fulltiltmarketing.net.
• The Nunes Co.: foxy.com.
• ProduceSupply.org.

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