CASTROVILLE, CA -- Ocean Mist Farms is leveraging the location of its ranches along the Highway 1 corridor in Northern California to generate consumer awareness for the company by installing four, 12-foot-high color signs to face both northbound and southbound traffic. The four signs, installed the beginning of June, feature a color picture of Hugo Tottino, one of the company's grower-owners. "The timing is ideal as the 2010 U.S. Open Championship will visit the Monterey Peninsula the week of June 14-20," Kori Tuggle, marketing manager of the company, said in a June 11 press release."Thousands

Bob Moore, chairman and chief executive officer of Intelligent Global Pooling Systems, based in Orlando, FL, was named by Ernst & Young as Florida's Entrepreneur of the Year in the Emerging industries category. A veteran of the pallet industry, Mr. Moore founded iGPS in 2006 in Orlando with a goal to create the world's first pallet rental service providing shippers and receivers with all-plastic pallets with embedded RFID tags. In just four years, iGPS has made an impact on the supply chain and now counts among its customers many of the world’s more respected and environmentally responsible

The New Jersey blueberry deal is off to an early start thanks to favorable weather, according to officials at Sunny Valley International Inc. "Crews started picking a few organic blueberries today at Big Buck Farms in Hammonton, New Jersey," Phil Neary director of operations and grower relations for Sunny Valley International Inc., headquartered in Glassboro, NJ, told The Produce News June 2. "Big Buck started with the Duke variety. The plants have gotten a little more mature, which, combined with the great weather we've had, have helped to bring the crop on earlier than normal. Harvesting

The chairman of a committee developing voluntary national standards for sustainable agriculture, including flowers and potted plants, told The Produce News June 10 that he would resign in frustration when the 58-member committee meets Monday, June 14, because a for-profit firm continues to hold copyright on standards developed by the committee. Marty Matlock, a professor at the University of Arkansas who was elected to head the committee almost two years ago, said in an exclusive interview that a for-profit firm which initiated the standards process, Scientific Certification Systems in

TRENTON, NJ — A severe winter, record snowfall, a normal, wet spring and slightly higher temperatures have blueberry growers throughout New Jersey seeing the blues — as in blueberries. Some growers were expecting to begin picking the Duke variety as early as the weekend of June 5-6. Others said that the season is four to five days earlier than last year, and are advising retailers that there will be plenty of volume in time for the Fourth of July holiday. Despite a May 10 frost that caused minimal damage on some Burlington County farms, the general consensus among the industry is that New

The first Ohio Food Summit will be held June 23. Heading the summit is Lori Panda, the Ohio Proud liaison in the division of markets of the Ohio Department of Agriculture. On June 2, Ms. Panda told The Produce News that the summit involves a meeting in Columbus that will bring retail, restaurant and distributor buyers to meet with Ohio suppliers. The suppliers will have tabletop product displays and prescheduled one-on-one meetings with buyers. "Once the summit is over in June and connections are made and sells are done, we will follow through with in-store demos in August, which is Ohio Proud