Tommy Krulder, who has spent his entire professional career with the Waldbaum supermarket chain and later its parent company, announced that he will retire in the middle of this month.

"I am going to retire from the retail end of the business," Mr. Krulder told The Produce News Wednesday, Nov. 30. "My last official day is December 16."

In the 1970s, when (as today) parenthood meant a trip to Walt Disney World, the theme park's Future World exhibit in Epcot Center featured plants growing without soil, their roots dangling in water. Plants of the future, tourists were told, would grow only in water. This new growing method was called hydroponics, from the Greek words for water and labor.

WASHINGTON -- Food inspectors knocking at a company's door in the event of a food-safety emergency will have to send a written notice first notifying the company of the records that need to be searched under the new bioterrorism law.

The Food & Drug Administration has just released new guidelines that spell out the hoops government officials will need to jump through before FDA inspectors demand access to company records.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona entered a preliminary injunction order Nov. 8 against Ciruli Bros. LLC and Agricola San Isidro de Culiacan prohibiting them from "using any reproduction, counterfeit or imitation of the trademark Malena."

SALINAS, CA -- The produce industry hopes the seven- to 10- day lull following Thanksgiving is the calm before the storm. Whether that storm brings a hail of business or erodes profits remains to be seen.

"We've had a big week," Joe Feldman, vice president of sales and marketing for Castroville, CA-based Ocean Mist Farms, told The Produce News Nov. 30. "The [post- Thanksgiving] lull is over."

European Union representatives agreed Nov. 25 in Brussels to establish the new banana tariff of 176 euros per metric ton. This pertains to "dollar" bananas sourced from Latin America, to give preferential treatment to growers in countries that are historically connected to Europe or colonized producing areas such as Martinique, the Canary Islands and Guadalupe.