Citing progress made to the metrics of the California Leafy Green Products Handler Marketing Agreement as well as trade association involvement, Salinas, CA-based Fresh Express decided March 31 to sign on to the agreement.

Implementation of the agreement began Sunday, April 1. Fresh Express' previous reluctance to sign on had set the company apart as the lone holdout among companies with significant volume and impact on the California leafy greens industry.

WASHINGTON -- Labor shortages continue to hamper harvest operations across the country, but advocates warn that Congress may be unlikely to touch immigration reform for years to come if it doesn't act this summer.

"We have until the end of August to get a bill," said New York Apple Association President Jim Allen. After that, Congress will start the presidential election season, and the prospects for relief from the increasing labor problems and tightening border security dim, he said.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Imagination Farms and the Produce for Better Health Foundation have forged a strategic alliance based on shared a vision of increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Watermelon just got hotter. Sundia Corp., the only mass- producer of watermelon juice, announced that its line of 100 percent juices has been reformulated to better capture the essence of summer's more popular and more nutritious fruit.

Beginning the second week in April, the new and improved juices will begin making their way onto refrigerated shelves in the produce sections of grocery stores nationwide.

Salinas, CA-based grower-shipper Church Bros. LLC and its processing entity True Leaf Farms have acquired Pride of San Juan's processing facility in San Juan Bautista, CA.

THORNTON, CO -- A 17-year-old high school junior was awarded top honors and $1,000 cash at a March 19 student chefs' cookoff sponsored by the Colorado Potato Administrative Committee.

Six student chefs were chosen from an original field of 50 to compete in the cookoff. Heather Crosby, a student at Academy of Charter Schools in the Denver metro area city of Westminster, CO, was chosen by judges for her mashed potato doughnuts, which included Colorado russets as a primary ingredient.