The Vidalia Onion Committee in Vidalia, GA, held its annual industry banquet Feb. 2, at which it named its 2007 award recipients for Grower of the Year and its Hall of Fame.

This year's awards ceremony was poignant, as the awards went to a father- son duo that has had significant impact on the Vidalia industry. Rodney (R.T.) Stanley Jr. was awarded 2007 Grower of the Year, and his father, Rodney Taylor Stanley Sr., was posthumously inducted into the industry's hall of fame. Mr. Stanley Sr.'s wife, Louise Stanley, accepted the award.

Produce Alliance, a produce management group based in Nashville, TN, has added Upper Lakes Foods Inc. to its membership. Cloquet, MN-based Upper Lakes Foods specializes in helping member businesses grow with a set of tools, services and plans for growth in the produce industry.

Steve Sorensen, president of Upper Lakes Foods, said in a press release, "Consistent quality, purchasing programs and the ability of Produce Alliance to acquire and service national and regional multi-unit chain accounts were the compelling reasons that drove Upper Lakes Foods to join the alliance."

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration's proposal to overhaul the 50- year-old H-2A guest worker program may be welcome news for agricultural employers, but not all the news is good.

The Department of Labor reviewed the H-2A regulations and looked for ways to streamline the program so more than 75,000 workers -- a small fraction of the 600,000 to 800,000 illegal foreign workers currently working in the agriculture industry -- can participate in the program.

DILLSBURG, PA -- The National Apple Month program has announced the winners of its fall 2007 retail and military display contests, bringing the apple industry's fall generic apple promotion to a close. The annual contest, which jump-starts the domestic apple industry's marketing season, provided retailers and the apple industry with increased sales and gave consumers easy access to great-tasting, healthy apples and the partner products "Kraft" caramels, U.S. peanuts and "Smucker's" peanut butter.

Produce veteran Howard Nager was recently named vice president of marketing at Domex Superfresh Growers in Yakima, WA.

The announcement from Domex said that Mr. Nager is responsible for "all marketing and category-management functions related to building brand awareness and loyalty with both the trade and consumer, as well as developing those programs targeted to increase consumption of the company's apple, pear, cherry and summer fruit crops."

Attendees at the National Watermelon Association's 94th annual convention can look forward to an action-packed schedule that will be chock full of high- profile speakers and will focus heavily on food safety and other important issues that affect the industry, as well as the many other initiatives that the organization has worked on for its members over the past year.

The convention will take place in Orange Beach, AL, at the Perdido Beach Resort on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, Feb. 20-24.