U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Feb. 4 that a total of $15 million is available to domestic asparagus producers to compensate them for marketing losses resulting from imports during the 2004 through 2007 crop years. Affected producers may apply for compensation beginning on Feb. 7.

Craig Wheeling, a 23-year veteran at Brooks Tropicals who was instrumental in transforming the company into an agribusiness that now spreads across the Americas, announced his retirement as president of the Homestead, FL- based firm.

"I'm going to miss the company and the people who work for it," Mr. Wheeling stated in a Feb. 4 press release. “Brooks’ employees are great people and dedicated to their work. It shows.”

Growers in the Mexican states of Sinaloa and Sonora were assessing damage to assorted crops on the morning of Friday, Feb. 4, following two nights of freezing temperatures, as their distributors in Nogales, AZ, awaited news of the extent of the damage.

"Everything is changing. I don't know what to tell you. I still won't know what to tell you 'til Monday, but we got hit severely hard," Jerry Havel, director of sales and marketing at Fresh Farms in Nogales, said early morning Friday, Feb. 4.

Consumers are cashing in their chips for nuts in response to the second annual "Wonderful" pistachios Get Crackin' campaign.

A double-digit jump in sales during the fourth quarter of 2010 cemented the brand’s fourth-place position within the $12 billion salty snack category that is traditionally dominated by chips.

Parents and school foodservice specialists are on the front lines in the charge to improve child nutrition, and Pear Bureau Northwest is doing its part to support their good work. A new partnership with Schoolmenu.com provides the Pear Bureau with a unique opportunity to educate families and school foodservice operators about healthy, fresh pears and their unique appeal to school-age kids. Launched in August, Schoolmenu.com collaborates with school districts across the country to feature news and information on elementary, middle and high school nutrition programs.

Texans are dealing with rolling power blackouts, burst water pipes and snow on the ground as far south as Houston amidst an unprecedented cold snap that has paralyzed the state this week. And more wintry weather is on the way, including the possibility of freezing precipitation in the entire eastern half of the state Feb. 3-4.

The good news is that the same cloud cover that might bring sleet, snow or freezing rain has also kept temperatures at or just below freezing since Feb. 2