WASHINGTON -- All eyes have been on Congress during the heated health- care reform debate in recent months, but the produce industry will likely have a full plate in 2010 as a variety of issues in Washington may shape future regulations for businesses.

"I think it will be a full agenda for 2010," Robert Guenther, senior vice president of public policy at the United Fresh Produce Association, told The Produce News. Even though it's an election year, "I don't see them slowing down."

NOGALES, AZ -- The Fresh Produce Association of the America's board of directors has organized a search committee to oversee the task of finding a candidate to fill the president's position for the association.

The initial committee members are Chris Ciruli of Ciruli Brothers and current FPAA chairman, Jaime Chamberlainof JC Distributing and current FPAA chairman-elect, Alejandro Canelos of Apache Produce Imports LLC, Martin Ley of Del Campo Supreme, Matt Mandel of SunFed, Miky Suarez of MAS Melons & Grapes and Kip Martin of Coogan & Martin P.C.

PLANT CITY, FL -- How important has the multi-purpose fumigant methyl bromide, currently being phased out due to safety concerns, been to strawberry production? Ask Ted Campbell, executive director of the Florida Strawberry Growers Association.

"Methyl bromide is the crack of our industry. Withdrawal has been very hard," Mr. Campbell said. "It's a miracle chemical. It made us commercially viable. Losing that is going to be expensive and painful."

With "a lot of apples left" to sell, the Michigan Apple Committee will be aggressively continuing its marketing efforts in 2010, according to Denise Donohue, executive director of the DeWitt, MI-based organization.

PLANT CITY, FL -- The worst freeze in a century gripped Florida for most of the first week of 2010 as an arctic front that blew in Jan. 2 persisted and was expected to be reinforced over the weekend of Jan. 9-11 by another icy blast that threatened winter crops.

PLANT CITY, FL -- For millennia, indigenous peoples of eastern North America savored a small, sweet fruit called Fragaria virginiana. In South America, a larger but less flavorful fruit, Fragaria chiloensis, grew.

Two hundred years ago, French explorer Am?d?e-Fran?ois Fr?zier brought home five samples of the South American plant. In 1740, the first version of what is recognized today as a typical strawberry was bred in Brittany, France, combining those plants with stock from the wild North American strawberry.