[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 173 (Monday, November 14, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2039-E2040]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              CONGRATULATIONS TO STANISLAUS FOOD PRODUCTS

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JEFF DENHAM

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, November 14, 2011

  Mr. DEHNAM. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and congratulate 
Stanislaus Food Products and the Cortopassi Family who were inducted as 
Stanislaus County Ag Hall of Fame ``Legends in Agriculture'' during a 
ceremony in Modesto, California on November 10, 2011.
  Stanislaus Food Products employs about 160 people year-round and 
nearly 1,400 during the peak of packing each summer. It was founded in 
1942 by the Quartaroli family, which sold it to the Piciullo family in 
1969. The Cortopassi family bought it in 1978.
  The son and grandson of Italian immigrants, Dean Cortopassi was born 
in 1937. Even though his family worked hard, he remembers plenty of 
laughter in their home. For the first 10 years of Cortopassi's life, 
the family lived on a farm. In 1947, they moved to a working-class 
Italian neighborhood, and Cortopassi's father commuted to their farm on 
the outskirts of town. ``In my community everyone was focused on 
`getting ahead' to achieve a better life. It was a very insular 
community that was strong on values and family honor. My parents 
concentrated on work and `getting ahead.' They would constantly say `go 
to school, get a good job, and have a good life.' They both saw farming 
as a tough way to make a living and they didn't want that for their 
children, but it was all I ever wanted to do.''
  As a youngster, Cortopassi clearly remembers playing farmer in his 
sandbox with toy wooden tractors his father had made for him. ``My 
father was a hero for me,'' he says, ``and I think that's why I loved 
farming so much.'' Cortopassi began working on the farm when he was 10, 
driving a grain truck from field to bin, and when he was 12, graduated 
to the top tractor job on the farm: pulling the grain harvester.
  Cortopassi attended a one-room schoolhouse during his first three 
years and was skipped ahead one grade when the family moved to town. In 
his last semester of high school, Cortopassi contracted rheumatic 
fever, which left him with a damaged heart valve and a prohibition 
against physical activity. He attended junior college for two 
semesters, trying to catch up with friends away at college, but quit 
school to work full time as a commercial/truck driver. Within six 
months his high-energy work habits resulted in a mild heart attack and 
complete prohibition from any physical labor for two years.
  Having few options, Cortopassi enrolled in a two-year agriculture 
course at the University of California-Davis, graduating in 1958. He 
joined the Pillsbury Company as a grain buyer/trader, and at the same 
time he and his younger brother began farming 65 rented acres with 
rented equipment. By 1961, the brothers were into full-time farming, 
followed by years of both adversities and success. Twenty years later, 
Cortopassi Farms included 10,000 acres.
  By 1968, Cortopassi had achieved his dream of farming on a large 
scale, but felt limited by farming's strategic limitations, so he went 
into partnership with another farmer and bought a small Los Angeles-
based food specialties company that sold its products through

[[Page E2040]]

the supermarket channel. Ten years later, the partners sold the 
specialties company and raised a larger partnership to buy a tomato 
processing company, Stanislaus Food Products (SFP), which became 
Cortopassi's primary endeavor as he began scaling down farming 
activities.
  Following a poor farming year in 1982, his partner elected to sell 
his SFP stock ownership, which Cortopassi bought with borrowed bank 
debt. In 1986, he re-mortgaged his entire SFP ownership to buy out all 
remaining shareholders. Over the past 25 years, SFP has become the 
largest ``fresh-pack'' cannery in the world, and is the market-share 
leader of tomato products for Italian restaurants/pizzerias throughout 
the United States and Canada.
  Cortopassi currently serves as CEO of San Tomo Group, and in that 
position provides ``coaching'' to younger presidents of agribusiness 
entities in which his family are shareholders, including Stanislaus 
Food Products, Cortopassi Partners, Cocoa Farms, Lodi Farming Company, 
and Del Rio Partners.
  When asked how he defines success, Cortopassi says, ``It's constantly 
striving to perform at maximum potential without compromising personal 
values. It's about my word, my family, and my honor. I always remember 
a metaphor from the Greek classics about Plato's ring. Plato told his 
students that to know your own morality, imagine slipping on a magic 
ring that made you invisible and therefore able to do bad deeds without 
anyone ever knowing. If you had such a ring, how would you behave? The 
answer to that question is the definition of your morality.''
  Cortopassi advises young people to choose a line of work they can be 
passionate about, and then to seek work from the best company in that 
industry. ``When you go to work for the best doing something you like, 
you're earning double pay because in addition to salary you're learning 
keys to success.''
  Outside of his family and business, Cortopassi is passionate about 
America. He says, ``I'm glad for my Italian roots, but I'm proud to be 
an American. My parents were particularly passionate about their 
American citizenship and are a living example of moving from meager 
circumstances in Italy and through determination and hard work 
achieving a better life in America. I believe in free enterprise and I 
want our country to continue providing `getting ahead' opportunities 
for entrepreneurs.''
  The company stresses quality in the products, whether it's sauce for 
a pizza or tomato strips with the trademarked name Filets. ``We only 
pack in the 70 days when the tomatoes are vine-ripe,'' Executive Vice 
President Bill Butler said. ``We do not remanufacture from paste.''
  The products are sold under several labels, such as Alta Cucina, 
Saporito, Full Red and 7/11. These are not household names, and the 
company is fine with that. The growth in demand has slowed since the 
boom in Italian cuisine from the 1970s to 1990s, but the market remains 
strong. The products are widely distributed in the United States and 
Canada. The company works with growers to assure tomatoes with the 
right traits. It cooks the sealed cans for as short a time as possible, 
in the belief that overcooking impairs the flavor.
  Stanislaus is part of a processing tomato industry that remains 
fairly strong in California, thanks to ideal growing conditions and the 
demand for pasta sauce, ketchup, salsa and other products. And food 
processing in general has kept people at work amid the economic slump.
  Mr. Speaker, please join me in praising Stanislaus Food Products and 
the Cortopassi Family for their significant contributions to 
agriculture and to the people of the local community.

                          ____________________