"Our Roots Keep us Growing" is the theme at Vancouver, BC-based The Oppenheimer Group this year, as the full-service marketer celebrates its 150th birthday. Among the roots that keep the company thriving, said John Anderson, Oppenheimer's chairman, president and chief executive officer, are its enduring relationships with a global family of growers.

In less than two years, biofuels have gone from promising fossil-fuel alternative to scourge of the planet.

Criticisms surrounding feedstock for biofuels tend to center on two main points of contention: that growing feedstock for biofuel takes good agricultural land out of production, thus leading to escalating food prices and exacerbating global hunger; and that the world's thirst for biofuels has led to deforestation and its attendant problems.

Some U.S. apple professionals engaged in interesting travel abroad in April and May. The New York state Department of Agriculture & Markets in Albany organized a Cuban trade mission that took place April 21-24.

And on May 19-24, a delegation of apple-industry professionals from several states participated in a trade mission to Russia that was organized by the U.S. Apple Export Council.

WASHINGTON -- News that $10 million in specialty crop block grants are in jeopardy caused produce industry trade associations to sound the alarm.

Four leading berry producers -- Michigan-based blueberry grower MBG Marketing; Santiago, Chile-based berry-growing corporation Hortifrut S.A.; Delano, CA-based Munger Bros. Farms; and Salem, OR-based Pan-American Berry Growers LLC -- have banded together to form Naturipe Foods LLC, a value-added berry-marketing company.

Pan-American Berry Growers was not previously part of sister fresh-pack company Naturipe Farms and is new to the mix.

Brooks Tropicals' Homestead, FL, packinghouse, shipping docks and storage cooler were recently audited, and the inspector was quite pleased and impressed by what he found.

According to a Brooks press release, the facilities were so on target that the food-safety inspector had trouble believing his eyes, and he said that he planned to come back to see it again.