Arizona Leafy Greens Season Begins; Teressa Lopez Details
PHOENIX, AZ - Arizona is known for quite a few things—beautiful landscapes, gorgeous sunsets, and its bountiful supply of fresh leafy greens. Arizona growers and shippers are celebrating the 12th annual Arizona Leafy Greens Month, commemorating the start of this season’s harvest. Since the first Arizona Leafy Greens Month celebration, Arizona growers have produced over 100 billion servings of lettuce, based on the average production of 9 billion servings per year.
“Right now, Arizona farms are actively growing and harvesting some types of leafy greens, including spinach, kale, arugula, spring mix, Swiss chard, and Romaine lettuce,” said Teressa Lopez, Administrator of the Arizona Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement program. “Arizona LGMA food safety audits will begin the week of November 18 and continue regularly throughout our growing season.”
As the Arizona LGMA shared in a press release, Arizona is known as the winter lettuce capital of the United States, providing Americans with an abundance of lettuce and leafy greens from November to March.
Statistics from the United States Department of Agriculture show that Arizona farmers grow approximately 25 percent of the total U.S. lettuce supply each year, generating a $2 billion impact on an annual basis.
To celebrate Arizona Leafy Greens Month, Arizona LGMA is partnering with the Yuma Safe Produce Council to celebrate with a variety of outreach activities throughout November. This includes a booth at the Yuma Farmer’s Market on Saturday, November 23, as well as contests and giveaways on social media. In addition, Welcome to Arizona will utilize social media to help drive awareness of Arizona’s contributions to the food supply, and farmer influencer Jon Dinsmore will share the farming aspect of Arizona leafy greens, while Ramiro Ruiz Jr. (Ram628) will help to share his perspective as a harvest machinery mechanic.
Arizona Leafy Greens Month is the perfect opportunity to get consumers even more excited about leafy greens.
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