Organic produce origins date back to the 1940s when it was grown on a minimal number of farms. By the 1970s organic items started showing up in natural retail specialty stores. The early 1990s really got the ball rolling when a chemical called Alar entered the farming scene and became an unexpected quandary. Alar was applied to apples by growers in order to help the fruit ripen; then the Environmental Protection Agency discovered that Alar could cause cancer.

Domenick Bianco, an entrepreneur extraordinaire in the California fruit business, recently received a joint Lifetime Achievement Award from the California Table Grape Commission and the California Fresh Fruit Association. The award was both richly deserved and aptly named as Cookie, his nickname from a very young age, has spent his entire life building one business after another and is still going strong at 89.

Buurma Farms, with operations in Gregory, MI, and Willard, OH, commenced planting for the upcoming season in April, eagerly anticipating a prosperous harvest.

“We were able to dodge some rain, so we were able to begin on April 16,” said Chadd Buurma, president of the company.

Registration is now open for IFPA’s 2024 The Washington Conference, June 10-12 in Washington, DC. Produce and floral’s most influential public policy event moved to June to better align with the Congressional calendar and influence policymakers ahead of the election.

Mann Packing Co. is launching Real Mann’s Broccolini, an informational campaign to educate consumers, chefs and restauranteurs about the trademark status of the term Broccolini and to protect the company’s trademark for its baby broccoli — the first of its kind worldwide, with a distinctive taste and texture.

To support the company’s growing business, H-E-B finalized a land purchase for nearly 500 acres in Hempstead, TX, where the company has plans to build a distribution campus that will be developed in multiple phases.