WASHINGTON  Ten buyers sent a message last month that they are expecting their produce suppliers to meet the first three milestones in the Produce Traceability Initiative and be able to electronically track produce throughout the supply chain by 2012.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor's statistics inflation calculator, what cost $1 in 1980 would cost $2.61 in 2009.

The People History (www.thepeoplehistory.com), a web site project with the goal of making modern history interesting, reveals some retail food prices from past decades. Apples sold in a Wyoming store for 39 cents per pound in 1986, the equivalent of $1.02 today; tomatoes were 39 cents per pound in New York in 1980, the equivalent of $1.02 today; bananas sold for 19 cents a pound in Maryland in 1960, the equivalent of $1.39 today.

John Warmerdam, chief operating officer of Warmerdam Packing LLC in Hanford, CA, and Maurice (Mo) Cameron, sales manager of Trinity Fruit Sales Co. in Fresno, CA, jointly announced Tuesday, Sept. 29 in exclusive interviews with The Produce News that Mr. Cameron would be leaving Trinity Fruit "probably effective October 1" and forming a partnership with Warmerdam to market the company's cherries, stone fruit and other fruit beginning with the 2010 season.

Your flight arrives at an airport in the vicinity of Anaheim, CA, where the annual Produce Marketing Association Fresh Summit convention is taking place. You claim your travel bag, hop in a cab or shuttle bus, and head to the hotel where you will stay for the next few days. After checking in at the hotel, you unpack your bags, freshen up a bit, and make some phone calls. Then it is off to meet friends and associates to begin another popular PMA Fresh Summit.

Tropical and specialty produce veteran Peter Leifermann has joined J&C Tropicals in Miami as its sales and category management representative.

Mr. Leifermann resigned from Fresh King Inc. in July. Prior to that, he was managing partner at C-Brands Tropicals Inc. Both firms are located in Homestead, FL.

The board of directors of A. Duda & Sons Inc., a family-owned, diversified land company based in Oviedo, FL, announced the appointment of David J. Duda as president of the corporation in a Sept. 30 press release. David J. Duda, who has worked for the company for 22 years, will report to Joseph A. Duda, chief executive officer of the corporation.