WASHINGTON -- When President Obama spends a Saturday radio address talking about food safety, can federal legislation be far behind? Legislation to modernize the U.S. Food & Drug Administration's food-safety authority got a huge boost March 14 when President Obama took the opportunity during his Saturday radio address to name the new FDA commissioner, criticize the current food-safety system and announce a new interagency working group to look at ways to improve the federal system. The Obama administration tapped Margaret Hamburg, a former New York City health commissioner, as FDA commissioner

BRONX, NY -- New York City and the merchants of the New York City Hunts Point Terminal Market have agreed on a plan to improve the market. Based on interviews with market leaders, what follows is a basic description of the market as it stands today and how the market would be improved. The existing market has four rows, labeled A, B, C and D. Each of these docks is about one-fourth of a mile long. Row A is the first dock encountered upon entering the market. Behind each row is rail siding serving the back doors of the market's warehouses. This rail siding is high upon the list of market

David Charles Lenihan, the former controller of two Washington fruit warehouses, has been ordered to serve 21 months in prison and make restitution in the amount of $412,000 to Underwood Fruit & Warehouse Co. in White Salmon, WA. The order was issued March 12 by U.S. District Judge Fred Van Sickle in Spokane, WA. Mr. Lenihan was previously convicted in Yakima County Superior Court on felony theft charges. He was ordered to pay $66,000 in restitution and sentenced to five years in state prison. His federal and state prison sentences will run concurrently. According to official records at the

WASHINGTON -- With produce suppliers being the constant target of costly and sometimes duplicative audits each year, the United Fresh Produce Association is hoping a two-day meeting next month will start the dialogue toward harmonizing audits with buyers. At a recent meeting, the United Fresh Produce Association's Retail- Foodservice Board endorsed efforts to harmonize produce food-safety audits and urged produce industry members throughout the supply chain to participate in the April 24-25 Global Conference on Produce Food Safety Standards. The standalone meeting comes at the tail end of the

VIDALIA, GA -- Wendy Brannen, executive director of the Vidalia Onion Committee, here, has several new promotional programs planned to improve the consumer awareness of and dedication to the famous sweet Vidalia onion. The committee has traditionally focused on national promotions, but "we are actually taking a different direction with our promotional programs" this year, Ms. Brannen said. "Instead of doing these blanketed programs, we are going to do targeted programs with specific retailers in several regions to do in-store promotions." The commission procured sales data that indicate where

A transportation concept that has been used off and on for many years is once again helping a segment of the produce industry get its product to market in a timely and economical fashion. The concept is trailers-on-flat-cars, also known as TOFC, intermodal or "pigs." On a weekly basis, 25-30 loads of potatoes from Idaho are being hauled south to the Ogden, UT, loading ramp of Union Pacific Railroad. There, trailer is removed from the tractor and loaded on a flat car for the cross- country journey. In Chicago, the UP-originated load is transferred to the lines of CSX for its final journey to an