When the Southeast Produce Council convenes for its fall conference in Asheville, NC, Sept. 20, current President John Shuman of Shuman Produce in Reidsville, GA will be handing the reins to current Vice President Andrew Scott of General Produce in Atlanta. The changing of the guard will mark the first time in the history of the council that the president has previously held every spot in the organization’s hierarchy.

Effective May 1, Special Improvement District No. 1 is required to replace injurious water depletions in Colorado’s San Luis Valley. During May, the Colorado State Engineer’s office approved a plan which will reintroduce seven cubic feet of water per second into the uncontained aquifer in the Rio Grande Water Conservation District. “That is about 3,100 gallons per minute,” Division Engineer Craig Cotten told The Produce News. “That is what the state’s model has shown the injury to be.”

Galaxy Nutritional Foods, a leader and innovator in the alternative cheese products industry, announced that it is rebranding its traditional grocery store products as GO Veggie! while also introducing a new dairy-free line.

The new GO Veggie! brand features GO Veggie! Lactose Free, a better-tasting reformulation of the company’s former Galaxy Nutritional Foods Veggie line; and GO Veggie! Dairy Free, the first dairy-free line created specifically for the traditional grocery store channel.

Food Cowboy recently announced the launch of its online service that helps companies route rejected shipments of fresh fruits and vegetables to charities instead of to landfills.

On July 12, the Organic Trade Association, a membership-based business association for organic agriculture and products in North America, announced that Marni Karlin joined OTA staff in Washington as its associate director for legislative and legal affairs.

Ms. Karlin served as counsel for the U.S. Senate judiciary committee’s subcommittee on antitrust, competition policy and consumer rights since 2009.

VINELAND, NJ — New Jersey has been producing strong volumes of high-quality fruits and vegetables all summer long, which should provide a “good lead” into the fall deal, the third and last phase of the state’s long fresh produce season, according to Vince Consalo, president of Wm. Consalo & Sons Farms Inc., here.

A mild winter and early spring helped jump-start most of the state’s produce crops, with many harvested two weeks earlier than normal. Early harvests of many crops continued into the summer.