At PMA 2009 in Anaheim, one of Barack Obama’s senior campaign managers had been invited to deliver a keynote address.  The focus of that address was the use of interactive social media in getting people across the United States to turn out to vote.
The point he was trying to make in November 2009 was that during Obama’s campaign in 2007 and 2008, leading up to the Presidential election in November 2008, the use of social media was limited.  Yet there he was in October 2009, 11 months after the Presidential election, stating that if he were in campaign mode at that point in time his main tool would be Twitter – a platform not available to them in 2007 and 2008.
The point of this little anecdote, fellow members of the global produce industry, is that we are living in a world of rapid change – in a world where not only our technology is changing rapidly, but also the way in which we are behaving and interacting with each other in every facet of our personal and professional lives.
IFPS determined in 2008 that it had a purpose beyond the allocation of PLU numbers and the IFPS Board has, since that time, quietly worked at extending its influence on behalf of the global produce industry with a variety of organisations and bodies all involved in considering, developing and implementing standards that impact on our industry.
This new IFPS website serves the purpose of pulling together the various IFPS activities in the areas of Food Safety, Product Identification and Supply Chain Information Management in one easily accessed format.
Please come and visit us regularly.  We look forward to continuing to be of service to the global produce industry at large on matters of global standards

Dr Hans Maurer,
CHAIR IFPS

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