Indoor vertical farming company AeroFarms expanded from the Northeast region to Whole Foods Market locations nationwide to meet increased customer demand.

Winning with the consumer on flavor, AeroFarms is the No. 1 retail brand for both unit and dollar sales in the United States for microgreens, according to Nielsen syndicated data.

Apeel announced its plan to introduce innovative new solutions that will allow stakeholders across all stages in the fresh produce supply chain to instantly and non-destructively determine the ripeness of avocados.

WP Rawl will debut a new sustainable packaging solution for its line of Nature's Greens triple-washed leafy greens.

"For generations our company has grown vegetables that are good for our bodies," said Ashley Rawl, vice president of sales, marketing and product development. “As leaders in the leafy greens industry, we're excited to contribute with greens that are good for our environment too."

Consumers continue to drive demand for sustainable packaging solutions. Today's consumer is more likely to prefer packaging that is recyclable.

Windset Farms and Verdant Technologies will partner on a retail pilot for tomatoes-on-the-vine supplied from Mexico into select retailers in the U.S., with the intent to expand into additional locations. Windset will use Verdant’s HarvestHold Fresh, a postharvest shelf-life extension solution. The retail pilot is expected to launch this month.

California just became the first state to sign a bill that bans the distribution of plastic “pre-check out” bags, a victory for environmental groups and Lotus Sustainables, a Carlsbad, CA-based provider of reusable mesh produce bags.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent signing of Senate Bill 1046 will affect all grocery stores in California and eliminate those rolls of plastic bags that are ubiquitous in every produce section. State Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman (D-Stockton) authored the bill, which passed the legislature on a party-line vote.

Taylor Farms, North America’s largest producer of healthy fresh foods, partnered with Bloom Energy, Ameresco Inc. and Concept Clean Energy to install a microgrid capable of taking one of its California food processing facilities completely off the traditional energy grid.