When the new president and new Congress take their oaths of office this month, they will be confronted by an economic crisis unrivaled since the Great Depression as well as high-priority issues including war, health-care reform and global warming.

Given the gravity of these enormous issues that cut through all sectors, what can we expect on produce industry issues such as food safety, nutrition and immigration?

Monterey, CA-based Salyer American Fresh Foods, a fully integrated grower and shipper of top-grade vegetables, has hired Marci Bracco as its new director of marketing.

The California Department of Food & Agriculture has turned audit information regarding California Avocado Commission staff expenditures over to the state's Department of Justice, calling more than $1.5 million in expenditures over a three-year period "excessive," noting that some "may be deemed personal."

Richard Grenard, whose produce career included more than 30 years at the retail chain Waldbaum Inc., died Tuesday, Jan. 13. He was 62 years old and a resident of Deer Park, NY.

Mr. Grenard spent more than 30 years, from around 1968-69 to the early 1990s, at Waldbaum, according to Tommy Krulder, who worked with Mr. Grenard at that supermarket chain. "He was a good friend, a loyal worker and a great family man," Mr. Krulder, now director of store services at Kurt Weiss Greenhouses on Long Island, NY, told The Produce News Friday, Jan. 16.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has released its January orange crop forecast for the 2008-09 season, reducing its earlier estimate by 3 million boxes, to 162 million boxes.

"This is a manageable crop, and hopefully the reduced production will spur higher prices to growers because right now they are facing very high input costs associated with disease pressure and fertilizer prices," Michael W. Sparks, executive vice president and chief executive officer of Florida Citrus Mutual, said in a press release. "We are in the middle of a very challenging season."