The California Tomato Commission may downsize in 2007, but it will remain committed to food safety with a mandated program establishing a food safety committee that will address a broad spectrum of issues related to tomato production under Good Agricultural Practices.

In the aftermath of a tumultuous past several months for the fresh produce industry that shook consumer confidence due to E. coli contamination in spinach and a false alarm of harmful E. coli in leafy greens, growers generally seem to have taken a conservative approach to their acreage planted in the western U.S. desert regions.

Add to the mix a rough season in the desert last year with sluggish markets and labor shortages, and growers are not laying bets that salad days have returned.

The new Spanish clementine season is underway, and early season quality is said to surpass that of last season.

SALINAS, CA -- Indianapolis-based Imagination Farms has partnered with Church Bros. LLC and True Leaf Farms LLC, both located here, to further consumption of fresh produce by children.

Church Bros. will supply Imagination's "Disney Garden" line with commodity vegetables from its operations, while True Leaf will supply "Disney Garden" bagged vegetables, bagged salads and unique vegetable products designed for children. Full-line vegetable grower-shipper Church Bros. is the exclusive sales agent for True Leaf Farms.

Watsonville, CA-based Driscoll Strawberry Associates Inc. announced the formation of a new European berry company that will be the largest fresh berry company in Europe and the second-largest fresh berry company in the world next to Driscoll.

The new company joins Driscoll with two long-standing partners: KG Growers and Alconeras.

The tide has turned in the produce industry's Bronx turf battle.

On Nov. 9, a five-judge panel in the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division, First Judicial Department, reversed a May 15 decision in favor of the Hunts Point Terminal Produce Cooperative Association. Inc.