WASHINGTON — School children that qualify for the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Snack Program in coming years may be choosing between fresh, frozen, canned and dried produce, one of the provisions that may be hard to swallow for fresh produce suppliers in the draft farm bill 2012 released by the House Agriculture Committee July 5.

The 557-page draft bill sets the stage for the markup in the U.S. House Agriculture Committee, a multi-day event to start July 11.

With imported “Pink Lady” brand apples now arriving from a number of Southern Hemisphere countries, Pink Lady America is asking shoppers to look closely at that fruit in order to be sure they are selecting apples packed under trademark quality standards.

STATEN ISLAND, NY — With most fresh produce items throughout the Eastern Seaboard coming on early this year — thanks to an unusually warm winter and early spring — La Bella Marketplace was offering a good variety of New York state items to shoppers in mid-June.

“Our greenhouses in Canada and in the U.S. are currently producing and will continue through October due to the warm weather and maximum sunlight we are now enjoying,” Nancy Pickersgill, event planning and communication manager for Mastronardi/Sunset Produce in Leamington, ON, told The Produce News. “We are heading into the sweet-spot of the season with our gourmet greenhouse vegetables. Our award-winning Zima has been a hit again this year, as is our new Sweet Twister peppers, which are currently sold out.

Ready Pac is encouraging on-the-go usage of its Bistro Bowl Salad line by rewarding fans via the Ready Pac Bistro Bowl Salads On-the-Go Challenge social media contest. The program kicked off July 2 and runs through July 27.

WASHINGTON — Congress may be out of town for the Fourth of July recess, but staffers on the House Agriculture Committee are busy drafting a version of the 2012 farm bill that may look dramatically different from the bill (S. 3240) the Senate passed last month.

On July 11, The House Agriculture Committee is scheduled to begin marking up the five-year bill, a draft of which may be circulated as early as this week.