SALINAS, CA  Bruce Church, Russ Merrill, Gene Harden and Bud Antle will be the first inductees into the National Steinbeck Center's new Valley of the World Hall of Fame, complementing the Valley of the World Agricultural Wing and the innovative educational programs of the National Steinbeck Center, here.

Sun World International LLC, headquartered in Bakersfield, CA, has named three distributors as licensed marketers of its new stone fruit lines.

South Africa's Capespan Exports (Pty) Ltd. and Green Marketing International (Pty) Ltd, and Chiles Gesex S.A. are now eligible to export the new plum, apricot, peach and nectarine varieties grown by licensed Sun World producers, Sun World Senior Vice President David Marguleas announced May 24.

No matter where you turn today, someone is talking about organic produce. It could be in a meeting or on a street corner.

The industry practices of handling organically grown fresh fruits and vegetables are many: It should be packaged. It should be loose. It should be segregated. It should be integrated. It should be branded. It should not be branded. It should have special colored stickers. It should not have any stickers. It should be priced higher. It should be priced the same. And the beat goes on.

SALINAS, CA -- A yearlong profitability study of Salinas Valley's Iceberg lettuce quantifies what most Salinas Valley shippers have come to recognize: Forward contracts provide the best chance for profitability with their Iceberg lettuce programs.

Roland Fumasi, a graduate assistant at California Polytechnic State University, unveiled the results of his yearlong study May 24 to a contingent of about 25 Salinas Valley-based shippers, salespeople and growers.

The U.S. House of Representatives Appropriation Committee approved the fiscal year 2006 funding bill May 25 for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food & Drug Administration. During the bill's consideration, the committee approved an amendment containing $7 million in funding for the Specialty Crop Block Grants authorized last year in the Specialty Crops Competitiveness Act.

May 23 was a good day for commodity promotion programs when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Beef Council program qualifies as "government speech" and thus is exempt from First Amendment challenges.

The ruling was the latest from the Supreme Court on the issue of mandatory funding of commodity promotion programs, and was a clear victory for the proponents of these programs that are typically under the purview of the U.S. Department of Agriculture or state agricultural agencies.