WASHINGTON - The United Fresh Produce Association announced the opening of registration for United Fresh 2011, its annual convention and expo.

Members from all points in the fresh produce supply chain will converge on New Orleans this spring for the event, which will which will feature a keynote address from Hall of Fame quarterback Archie Manning, as well as an intimate, one-on-one discussion between CNN political analyst James Carville and United Fresh President and CEO Tom Stenzel.

The number of growers transitioning from California's Salinas Valley for a three- to five-week Iceberg lettuce deal in Huron, CA, appears to be dwindling.

NEW YORK — The first New York Produce Show & Conference drew many people and many exhibitors from all parts of the country, and by all accounts the event was a big success.

Riding the same wave that flopped the U.S. House of Representatives from blue to red and narrowed the Democratic margin in the senate, Republican candidates for agriculture commissioner swept into office Nov. 2 in all seven states where the post was contested.

PITTSGROVE, NJ - Brazilian grape grower-exporter Luiz Carlos Romano of VDS Export Ltda., Petrolina, Brazil, and Omar Abu Ghazaleh, import manager of Pacific Trellis Fruit, based in Reedley, CA, sat in the offices of Bifulco's Four Seasons Cold Storage Inc., in Pittsgrove, NJ, on Nov. 8 to discuss Brazil's grape industry with The Produce News.

VDS ships grapes in sea containers to Philadelphia's Packer Avenue Terminal. Bifulco then provides cold treatment and refrigerated warehousing for the fruit.

WASHINGTON -- With the industry bracing for proposed federal growing standards for fresh produce next year, the Food & Drug Administration announced Nov. 4 a new public-private partnership that will supply growers and packers with on-the-farm training materials.

The new Produce Safety Alliance is a three-year, $1.15 million partnership funded by the FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture and housed at Cornell University, which already runs a Good Agricultural Practices program, FDA said.