The Idaho Potato Commission announced the appointment of Kent Beesley as retail promotions director for the West. Mr. Beesley will be responsible for educating retailers on how Idaho potatoes can help boost profits in the potato category in grocery stores and other venues where potatoes are sold. His territory covers Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington. Mr. Beesley has more than 34 years experience in the produce industry. Most recently, he was an account manager at Melissa's/World Variety Produce, where he was responsible for selling

Watsonville, CA-based California Giant Berry Farms has expanded its entire family of berries both in acreage and with regard to seasonality. This latest expansion is a direct result of customer demand for a complete berry line on a year-round basis. The expanded Cal Giant berry season is currently underway with blueberries from Argentina and Chile. In April, the company will kick off the domestic season out of Florida and will follow with fruit from California, New Jersey and the Pacific Northwest. The year-round blueberry crop will be complemented by year-round blackberries and raspberries

A federal judge will rule by Oct. 10 on whether the Social Security Administration should send no match notices as part of the Bush administration's crackdown on undocumented workers. A federal court in San Francisco agreed Oct. 1 to extend its previous temporary restraining order 10 more days as it considers whether the Department of Homeland Security violated workers' rights and imposed burdensome obligations on employers with its no-match rule. All eyes are now on the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California, which is scheduled to act on the labor unions' lawsuit in a

Throughout its 70-year history, the Idaho Potato Commission has always been on "the cutting edge of media technology" in its advertising and promotional efforts, said Frank Muir, the commission's president. "We were the first commodity organization to be in print advertising and then radio advertising and then TV advertising. We have been on the air in TV since [about] 1950." Earlier this year, the IPC became the first commodity organization to launch a promotional effort on YouTube on the Internet with its Idaho Potato iTuber Video Contest, he said. "Our target" in that effort was "younger

The 2007-08 school year represents a major milestone in Monterey Mushrooms' ongoing scholarship program: over $1 million in educational scholarships have been awarded to the children of Monterey Mushrooms employees. Initiated 15 years ago, this program was the vision of Shah Kazemi, president of Monterey Mushrooms, and Carl Victor Fields, the former vice president of marketing, who died in April 2004. "Carl was dedicated to the program from the beginning," said Mr. Kazemi. "He took great satisfaction each year in seeing these awards go to the children of Monterey's employees -- allowing them

Frontera Produce Ltd. announced that Will Steele was promoted to president and chief executive officer of the company during comprehensive strategic planning sessions held the last week of September at the firm's headquarters in Edinburg, TX. Mr. Steele, a 15-year produce industry veteran, has served as vice president of Frontera Produce since the company was founded in 1992, and has been a catalyst for the continued expansions and growth of the organization, according to a company statement. He is a graduate of Texas State University-San Marcos (formerly Southwest Texas State University)