Expectations are high for this year’s New York Produce Show & Conference, Dec. 4-6.

“The cocktail reception at the Sheraton Hotel on Seventh Avenue, between 52nd and 53rd streets in Manhattan will kick-start what will prove to be another outstanding show,” John McAleavey, executive director of the Eastern Produce Council, told The Produce News. “The reception starts at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, December 4, and we look forward to greeting all show attendees there.”

Consumers just don’t seem to be able to buy enough of the bagged mini peppers that have skyrocketed in popularity over the last year or two.

“We can’t seem to find the ceiling (on production),” quipped Mike Aiton, marketing manager for Coachella, CA-based Prime Time International. “We continue to expand production. In fact, we are going to at least double what we did last year and demand is still very good.”

Corporate commitment to sustainable agriculture and the highest food-safety standards are hallmarks at H. Brooks and Co., based in New Brighton, MN. The family-owned business has been in operation for more than a century.

President Phillip Brooks said the company sells more than 800 fresh, fresh-cut fruits and vegetables and specialty products.

Product is sourced domestically and internationally, and Mr. Brooks said its customers are located in Minnesota, neighboring states and the Lake Michigan region.

Special to The Produce News by Dixondale Farms

Bruce Frasier may know more about growing onion plants than any man in America. As the fourth-generation president of Dixondale Farms in Carrizo Springs, Mr. Frasier oversees the largest and oldest onion plant farm in the country. Dixondale Farms started growing onion plants in 1913 and the family-owned company has done so every year for the past century.

WASHINGTON — Advocates for a 2012 farm bill are questioning whether Congress has enough time or the political will to pass massive farm policy legislation, suggesting that lawmakers may agree to a short extension instead, which could be bad news for the specialty crop industry.

The 2012 presidential election did not go the way most Florida farmers would have preferred. The future of the Farm Bill is cloudy and workable immigration reform seems years away. Foreign competition is increasing and the Sunshine State faces challenges ranging from diseases like the citrus-destroying HLB to the ongoing tangle of water-quality restrictions imposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. But Adam Putnam, commissioner of agriculture and consumer services, is optimistic about the future of Florida produce.