Organic home grocer moves onto San Francisco produce market
Vancouver, BC-based spud! has moved onto the San Francisco Wholesale Produce Market. The company -- which claims to be North America's largest on-line organic home grocer -- acquired Organic Express and moved into the space Organic Express occupied on the San Francisco Wholesale Produce Market.
Organic Express had been making deliveries of fresh organic produce to homes and offices since 1995. As a home deliverer of 100 percent certified- organic produce and groceries, the company easily was the largest in its niche in the San Francisco Bay area.
Produce sets the tone at former meat market
For many years it was called Baesler's Meat Market, and this single store in Terre Haute, IN, was proud of that designation.
But Baesler's, now a full-service retailer, has dropped the "Meat" part of its name, and fourth-generation owner Bob Baesler said that produce is now the top draw -- and has been for quite some time.
"Produce is number one with our customers and it has been for probably the last eight years," said Mr. Baesler.
Questions linger about source, FDA handling of Salmonella outbreak
WASHINGTON -- The epidemiological evidence may point to tomatoes as the likely cause of the Salmonella outbreak, but health officials say they are "keeping an open mind" as new illnesses continue to be reported.
"We continue to see a strong epidemiological association with consumption of tomatoes," said Patricia Griffin, chief of the Enteric Diseases Epidemiology Branch at the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. But produce investigations are very difficult because vegetables are often eaten together, Dr. Griffin said at a June 27 press briefing.
Four Seasons Produce recognized for energy efficiency
Four Seasons Produce Inc.'s distribution center in Ephrata, PA, has earned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's prestigious Energy Star, the national symbol for superior energy efficiency and environmental protection that is awarded to some commercial buildings and industrial plants that rate in the top 25 percent of facilities in the nation for energy efficiency.
Four Season's facility is one of only two refrigerated warehouses in the country to earn the designation.
Research center to be dedicated to longtime researcher at Fresh Express
SALINAS, CA -- The Grower-Shipper Association of Central California presented its E.E. (Gene) Harden Award for lifetime achievement in Central Coast agriculture to Jim Lugg of Fresh Express.
The award was formally presented to Mr. Lugg June 21 as part of the organization's annual dinner-dance at the Corral de Tierra Country Club in Salinas, CA. The association's chairman, Dennis Donohue, presided over the presentation along with Fresh Express President Tanios Viviani and association President Jim Bogart.
'Green Giant Fresh' mushrooms look to capitalize on Weight Watchers designation
The Sholl Group II, the Minneapolis-based marketer of selected "Green Giant Fresh" produce products, announced that all "Green Giant Fresh" eight-ounce packages of whole and sliced mushrooms are part of Weight Watchers Pick of the Season program, and that beginning July 1 and continuing through September, "Green Giant Fresh" mushrooms will feature the Weight Watchers logo along with the "0 POINTS value" per serving logo.
Mike Mizokami, pioneer in year-round growing and founder of 'SunFed' label, has died
Mike Mizokami, founder of the "SunFed" label and a pioneer in year-round production for the U.S. market who operated farms in both the United States and Mexico, died June 12 in Chandler, AZ. He was 89.
Dan Kelly hurt in bicycling accident
Dan Kelly, the 51-year-old assistant manager of the Washington Growers Clearing House in Wenatchee, WA, is expected to be released from Central Washington Hospital by this weekend (June 28-29). Mr. Kelly was admitted to the facility in critical condition the afternoon of June 25 following a bicycle accident.
WGCH Manager Kirk Mayer told The Produce News, "The report we have from the hospital [on June 26] is that he is in satisfactory condition."
More questions than answers in tomato probe
WASHINGTON -- With Food & Drug Administration investigators searching for clues in Florida and Mexico as part of the traceback investigation involving tomatoes contaminated with Salmonella, some people are questioning what has gone wrong with the probe into the outbreak that has sickened more than 600 people, and which has taken more than three weeks.
Damage to New York crops less than originally thought
New York fruit growers initially believed that the June 18 hailstorm may have caused as much as 60 percent crop loss, but a week later, reports indicate that while losses were major, they are not as bad as first thought.
"Assessments at this time are that statewide, approximately 6.5 [million] to 7 million bushels of apples have been damaged or destroyed in one degree or another," Jim Allen, president of the New York Apple Association in Fishers, NY, told The Produce News June 24.