WASHINGTON -- U.S. Department of Agriculture staff who work on programs such as specialty crop block grants, country-of-origin labeling and marketing agreements would be furloughed if Congress and the White House fail to reach an agreement on a government spending plan by tonight.

Congress has until midnight Friday, April 8, to pass a budget, or the federal government will shut down, except for essential employees.

So who would be open for business on Monday?

Dicey weather has been a wild card for California’s late-variety blueberry producers this season. Alexander Ott, executive director of the California Blueberry Commission, summed things up this way. “Right now, we’re concerned about weather,” he told The Produce News April 4. “We’re really curious how this will translate to pollination.”

After two years of above-normal precipitation in California, and with snowpack in the Sierra Mountains from the 2010-11winter season at 165 percent of normal, making it the third wettest winter in more than 40 years, California Gov. Jerry Brown on March 30 declared the state's drought officially over.

Anyone who has seen the new Florida citrus television commercials knows that the campaign is a critical hit. Whether they will drive orange juice sales or not remains to be seen, but the sharp, witty series of TV ads — pitched at modern moms, dads and suburban households — are a crowd pleaser.

But the new campaign was hardly assured of any such status when it was unveiled last summer at the annual

Mayda Sotomayor-Kirk, chief executive officer of Vero Beach, FL-based Seald Sweet International, will be the guest speaker at the United Fresh Produce Association’s annual Reception Honoring Women in Produce, Tuesday, May 2, at United Fresh 2011 in New Orleans.

WASHINGTON -- Consumers and the food industry will be able to better search for product recalls under a new web tool released April 4 by the Food & Drug Administration.

“Recalls, mandatory or otherwise, are serious and we must do everything possible to make it easier for people to know about these recalls so they can take all appropriate steps to protect themselves and their families,” Mike Taylor, deputy commissioner for foods at the FDA, said while publicizing the new database.