Merchants Foodservice has become the newest member of Produce Alliance.

Produce Alliance, headquartered in Nashville, TN, is a management services group specializing in the procurement and distribution of fresh produce to the foodservice industry. With the addition of Merchants Foodservice, Produce Alliance now has 34 members with 37 distribution centers.

PHILADELPHIA -- An agreement reached last year that would relocate the Philadelphia Regional Produce Market a few miles south of its current location to the old Philadelphia Naval Yard is now under fire with the discovery of a bald eagle nest on the site and protests about whether construction of the market would limit the future of the city as a seaport.

The long path toward a new Philadelphia produce market took twists on March 22 that no one could have imagined.

SALINAS, CA -- A first-of-its kind National Ag Science Center is planned to be built on the Modesto Junior College campus in Modesto, CA. The projected opening is 2009, according to Michele Laverty, director of the science center.

The final report on spinach by the joint efforts of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration and the California Department of Health Services offered much detail of investigative efforts but few revelations that have not already become public in recent weeks and months.

The report points to Paicines Ranch in San Benito County as the likely source for the E. coli outbreak. It's the first time that authorities acknowledged that they had isolated the deadly E. coli strain on Paicines Ranch, near a field the ranch leased to Mission Organics.

Citing progress made to the metrics of the California Leafy Green Products Handler Marketing Agreement as well as trade association involvement, Salinas, CA-based Fresh Express decided March 31 to sign on to the agreement.

Implementation of the agreement began Sunday, April 1. Fresh Express' previous reluctance to sign on had set the company apart as the lone holdout among companies with significant volume and impact on the California leafy greens industry.

WASHINGTON -- Labor shortages continue to hamper harvest operations across the country, but advocates warn that Congress may be unlikely to touch immigration reform for years to come if it doesn't act this summer.

"We have until the end of August to get a bill," said New York Apple Association President Jim Allen. After that, Congress will start the presidential election season, and the prospects for relief from the increasing labor problems and tightening border security dim, he said.