Message from the Guide to Chodosh

[Y. Herman]

Chodosh Update, 19 Jul, ’00

THE CHODOSH HARVEST HAS BEGUN!

The most recent report that I have received from the US Dept of Agriculture is
dated Jul. 16. By that date, 9% of the Chodosh oats has been harvested. As of
last week, the spring wheat and barley harvest has not yet begun. However, I
expect that those two harvests will also start by the end of this week. This
means that the harvest is about 1-2 weeks earlier than usual. If this trend
continues, then Chodosh oats may start to appear in some foods as early as the
end of July. Chodosh spring wheat may start at SOME flour mills during the
first week August and Chodosh barley may start by mid August. I will try to
keep you posted as soon as I have more information.

ALL CROPS MAJORITY CHODOSH AGAIN THIS YEAR

Full estimates for the new crop plantings and old crop leftovers have finally
been published by the US Dep’t of Agriculture. The information is as follows:

There are two opinions about how much before pesach should a crop be planted to
be considered Yoshon. The more lenient of the two opinions for this planting
date is 2 days before pesach. Even by this more lenient opinion, the majority
of all the crops this year is again Chodosh. More specifically, by Apr. 16, 00,
the amount of crops planted was as follows: spring wheat 19%, oats 40%, barley
21%, durum wheat no data. 

Based upon the above data and other supporting data from the USDA, we have
computed the following estimates of % Yoshon for each of the crops of interest:
spring wheat=33%, durum wheat=14%, barley=27%, oats=46%.

Those interested about how to these numbers were computed, should see the
appendix to our Guidelines for Mashgichim. A copy of this report is available
by sending an E mail message to 
chodosh-request at jif.org.il.  In the body of the message type the request: get
Guidelines (capital G required.)


PLEASE SPEAK TO YOUR YOSHON SUPPLIERS TO GET HASHGOCHOS

We hope to continue this year the pressure for producers of Yoshon to get
responsible mashgichim to certify the Yoshon status of their products.
  As
in the past, the Guide will have a special section reserved for those products
that are under such hashgocho. To have such a product included in the Yoshon
section of the Guide, I need to receive a letter from the mashgiach testifying
to his certification. You can help by trying now, before the season starts, to
induce your local bakeries and other producers to get hashgochos for Yoshon. As
always, the Guide does not offer any hashgochos or endorsements and does not
accept any fees, except for the sale of the copies of the Guide.

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You can request several reports by send an E-mail message to:
chodosh-request at jif.org.il. Then in the body of the message type the command:
"get" (without the quotes) followed by the name of the file that you want. Type
each request on a new line. Make sure that you copy the file name exactly as
spelled including capital letters. These reports are now available:

get Guidelines.txt
This gets a long report on Guidelines to Mashgichim on Chodosh

get Crops.txt
This gets the estimates of percentage Yoshon this year.
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