SALINAS, CA -- With claims of a smoking gun still ringing in the ears of spinach growers and shippers in and around the Salinas Valley, a closed meeting Wednesday, Sept. 21 with some 200 Salinas-area growers and agriculture leaders failed to lift the dark cloud that hangs over the industry.

The government's investigation leaped ahead Sept. 20 as the Food and Drug Administration announced a matching E. coli O157 sample in a victims Dole spinach bag and as the paper trail narrowed the probe into fields in three California counties.

The New Mexico Department of Health said that it found the matching E. coli sample to the outbreak strain in an opened package of conventionally grown "Dole" brand baby spinach, which was packed by Natural Selection Foods. Many other bag sample results have yet to be reported, said FDA.

NAPLES, FL -- Thanks in large part to a national television ad campaign, Florida field-grown tomatoes have enjoyed an increase in market share over rival hothouse-grown beefsteak and on-the-vine varieties, Samantha Winters, director of education and marketing for the Florida Tomato Committee, said at the group's organizational meeting during the 31st annual Joint Florida Tomato Conference held here Sept. 5-10 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.

OAKLAND, CA -- The Fresh Produce & Floral Council held its semi-annual Northern California luncheon meeting Tuesday, Sept. 12, here, which attracted a crowd from throughout the state.

Jim Margiotta, president of J. Margiotta Co. in New York, is a produce man and, in his spare time, a surfer. He didn't plan to be a fund-raiser, but he has found himself in that role as he seeks help from the produce industry in his quest to help autistic children.

When Visalia, CA-based Golden State Citrus Packers -- a Sunkist affiliate with the Visalia Citrus Packing Group -- begins the new fall season, it will throw the switch on the latest in packing technology in its expanded and improved quarters that will better serve its growers and customers, especially in the area of specialty citrus.