WASHINGTON -- Mandated food-security rules, food recalls and new import- certification requirements for "high-risk foods" are some of the policy changes the Bush administration will recommend in the coming months.

Top administration officials delivered the Import Working Group report to President Bush with 50 recommendations to change policies in the wake of several recalls of contaminated imported toys and foods. Some changes may be sent to Congress as early as February in the government's next spending plan.

Twenty-one-year-old Pat Brownfield has a lot to keep him grounded -- figuratively and literally.

Two months ago, he became part of the family team at Sweet Clover Produce in Walla Walla, WA. Along with his father, Bill, and his mother, Jan, Mr. Brownfield is helping the company get quality onions into the pipeline. That's the figurative part.

GLOUCESTER CITY, NJ -- The green-hulled refrigerated ship Green Freezer docked Nov. 1 at the Gloucester Terminals LLC on the Delaware River waterfront, here. Under sunny and cool skies the next morning, stevedores unloaded the ship's cargo: the season's first Spanish clementines for the United States.

Calavo Growers Inc. has entered into an agreement with the Maui Land & Pineapple Co. to market and sell the firm's proprietary Maui Gold pineapple throughout the continental United States and Canada.

The agreement is effective on Dec. 1, but the firm will not officially close its Maui Pineapple Co. office in Northern California until Dec. 31, according to Gerry Watts, vice president and general manager. At that point, the Northern California sales and marketing team, including Sales Manager Howard Nager, will be let go.

In a sharply worded missive to its members, Western Growers Association condemned the actions of Publix Super Markets and a consortium of produce buyers that are seeking to impose their own set of food-safety standards on suppliers.

Other organizations, including the Produce Marketing Association, expressed concern that the food-safety issue was being handled in such a manner.

PHILADELPHIA -- The new rules on the handling of methyl bromide for fruit fumigation and their potential impact on the distribution of imported fruit was one of the topics discussed at the annual preseason Chilean fruit meeting held here Oct. 26.