SEASIDE, CA -- The California Department of Food & Agriculture, which oversees the Salinas, CA-based California Lettuce Research Board, is taking steps to form a new research board that would focus on both lettuce and spinach research.

Mary Zischke, chief executive officer of the California Lettuce Research Board, shared the news with the audience assembled at the International Spinach Conference, held Monday, Sept. 24, at Embassy Suites Hotel Monterey Bay- Seaside.

If all goes as planned, CDFA would have the new board in place in March, said Ms. Zischke.

Rick Antle, chief executive officer of Tanimura & Antle Inc. in Salinas, CA, gave his marketing department a tall order this spring: He wanted Tanimura & Antle to own Father's Day.

So the company launched one of its more successful retail promotions ever, the "Hit A Home Run This Father's Day" retail promotion, which took the dad- friendly sport of baseball and combined it with Iceberg lettuce and the iconic Iceberg wedge salad.

Fusion Marketing, a Los Angeles-based full-service marketing company, and the NPD Group, a New York-based international consumer research firm, announced the formation of a perishables industry-focused alliance.

When a few employees of Selah, WA-based Rainier Fruit Co. and some of their family and friends looked for ways to improve their fitness level in a team- building environment, they looked for something fun and challenging.

Wenatchee, WA-based Columbia Marketing International has hired Bob Carter as food-safety coordinator. Mr. Carter reports to Mike Hambelton, former CMI vice president of marketing, who is now in charge of special company projects.

"The commitment to do food safety -- it's all or nothing," Mr. Carter told The Produce News in a recent interview.

The Idaho Potato Commission is marking its 70th anniversary this year. Formed in May 1937 and originally (and only briefly) known as the Idaho Fruit & Vegetable Advertising Commission, the IPC has been actively promoting Idaho potatoes since its inception.

It was "the first organization formed in Idaho to promote any type of produce" and "one of the earliest commodity organizations" formed in the United States, said Frank Muir, the commission's president.