LONGWOOD, FL — Anyone in the produce business who was still not convinced of the need for the Produce Traceability Initiative, a voluntary industry effort to ensure supply chain-wide traceability of every product from farm to fork by 2012, needed only look as far as Illinois in May and early June for a compelling argument for compliance.

David J. Elliot & Son Co., located south of Sacramento near Courtland, CA, grows pears in the Sacramento Delta area but not the mountain districts of Mendocino and Lake counties.

David Thiessen, sales manager for David J. Elliot & Son Co., told The Produce News June 24 that the company's first pear of the season is a Stark Crimson, which it would start harvesting around July 8. Bartlett pears will follow soon after with a harvest start date around July 15-16.

Generations of New Jersey family farmers have been growing peaches dating back to the 1600s, and with more recent support from the Jersey Fresh promotional program for the past quarter-century, the New Jersey peach is proud to be the original locally grown peach.

SALINAS, CA -- The Relay for Life team at Tanimura & Antle pulled out all the stops this year and reached a longtime goal of hitting the $1 million contribution mark to the American Cancer Society.

The produce leader is celebrating its 12th year of participation in this community fundraising event, raising over $55,000 this year for a grand total of $1,037,300 that has been raised to date for the American Cancer Society.

WASHINGTON -- The produce industry on July 15 plans to fight back against an often quoted environmental group's "Dirty Dozen" list of the top pesticide- laced produce by releasing its own analysis of the group's handy shopping list.

The Alliance for Food & Farming, a non-profit group of farmers headquartered in Watsonville, CA, commissioned Exponent, a consulting firm, to analyze the Environmental Working Group's "Dirty Dozen" list.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door." What? Change the mousetrap? Change is good, but will a better trap catch more mice? Maybe it will and maybe it won't.