Owner of Wickham's Speaks Out on News Report Questioning Farm's Produce Safety

CUTCHOGUE, NY — Days after a post from a local media outlet reported that Peapod would no longer be using produce from Wickham's Fruit Farm in Cutchogue, owner Tom Wickham has come forward to set the record straight.

The story first appeared on Newsday's site with the headline, "Peapod Drops LI Farms From Delivery Program."

According to that report, Peapod, a company that is owned by Royal Ahold NV in the Netherlands, dropped the farms because they did not adhere to Good Agricultural Practices, or GAP, measures. Local farms were allegedly given six to eight weeks to comply but many did not realize there was any issue — until they were dropped, the story said; the cost can skyrocket up to $3,000 yearly to become GAP certified.

GAP certification is voluntary.

However, a subsequent post on the News 12 website, which has since been taken down after Wickham said he spoke with staff there, featured a photo of Wickham's farm.

That account, Wickham said, was categorically inaccurate.

He gave some background this weekend, explaining that a new online company called Fresh Nation, which, he said, had contracted with Peapod, had come to local growers as well as growers in the Hudson Valley and New Jersey, to buy produce which would then be delivered to customers at their homes.

Fresh Nation would have secured the produce, then had it delivered to homes by working with Peapod, Wickham said.

But recently, he said, the directive came from Peapod that all produce needed to be GAP certified. When Peapod asked if Fresh Nation's produce was certified, the answer, Wickham said, was no.

And so, he said, the business deal between Fresh Nation and Peapod fell through, and the deal was off, Wickham said.

He emphasized that he has never, in fact, sold a single box of produce to Fresh Nation or Peapod. "I have never supplied anything. They never came to me," he said.

Despite the fact that not a single piece of fruit nor a vegetable has ever left his farm for Peapod customers, the News 12 report, "Peapod Stops Using Over a Half Dozen Farms for Produce," which featured a prominent photo of Wickham's Fruit Farm, was misleading, Wickham said.

"The headline implied that Wickham's Fruit Farm failed to provide a safe product," he said. "The implication is that we provide produce that doesn't meet safety standards. It's a smear."

He added that Peapod's decision to mandate GAP certification was "perfectly reasonable. It's their prerogative to set standards for their business."

The News 12 post, however, led people to think Wickham's had actually provided produce to Peapod or Fresh Nation, he said. "Anyone who read that article would have concluded that the produce from our farm is not safe."

Wickham said the story was removed from the News 12 site after he voiced his objections.

The GAP program, he said, is focused on handling food properly to minimize any chance of contamination. The steps outlines for good agricultural practices are procedures the farm is already following, but GAP certification involves careful documentation, extensive paperwork, and a third-party audit.

"All of those steps are there to protect against liability. It doesn't do a whole lot more for food safety. It's a legal protection," Wickham said.

However, he said, in his opinion, GAP certification is important. "I've been planning to adopt a full version next year. I don't have the capacity to do so this year. For my business, when I have the capacity to do so, I need to move in the direction of a full form of GAP. But I resent having my business maligned when I haven't even sold any produce to the vendor that was the subject of the article. I never sold Fresh Nation a thing."

While he said he might have, the program never kicked off, so he had no chance to sell any produce to Fresh Nation.

On the East End, the only grower who remains on the Peapod list after the cuts is the East End Mushroom Company.

Also cut locally from the list was Mar-Gene Farms in Farms, Natural Earth Farm in Calverton, and Quail Hill Farm in Southampton.

Still, Wickham said, while he has never sold anything to Peapod, his business flourishes as usual. "Aside from our farmstand we currently wholesale our products to about a dozen different outlets on Long Island and New York."

None of them requires the voluntary GAP certification at this time.

"News 12 has learned that we incorrectly reported a story involving Wickham’s Fruit Farm and its relationship with Peapod. We regret the mistake. We have issued an on-air correction and posted an updated story on-line," a News 12 spokesperson told Patch Monday.

Fresh Nation and Peapod did not respond immediately to a request for comment.