By all accounts, 2009 is going to be a good year for the nation's garlic. "Let the fun begin," said William Christopher, partner at Christopher Ranch LLC in Gilroy, CA. Today, garlic consumption in the United States stands at a rate of three pounds per person. Looking at historic trends, the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations said, "U.S. garlic use has soared, hitting a record-high 3.3 pounds per person in 1999, three times the level in 1989. Despite impressive growth for vegetables such as broccoli, bell peppers and carrots, no other vegetable has experience stronger growth

California Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez, who chairs the Senate Committee on Food & Agriculture, sent a letter June 15 to A.G. Kawamura, secretary of the California Department of Food & Agriculture, sharply criticizing him for his "refusal to participate" in a Senate committee hearing scheduled for the following day. The subject of the hearing was "Evaluating the consolidation and elimination of the California Department of Food & Agriculture." Mr. Florez said in his letter that he found Mr. Kawamura's intent not to attend the meeting "shocking" and "not acceptable," and added that it

WASHINGTON - The Center for Produce Safety just increased its budget to $3.5 million to spend on research proposals due July 1 that might solve the most vexing food-safety dilemmas for commodities recently linked to outbreaks. In May, the center said it had $2 million to spend on research projects. But on June 11, the center announced it was upping the ante to $3.5 million after California officials kicked in more funding. The California Department of Food & Agriculture and the center signed an agreement in April to enhance the department's food-safety grants process, and the CDFA announced

McDaniel Fruit Co. in Fallbrook, CA, has announced the official retirement of Katherine M. McDaniel, the company's chief executive officer and co-founder. Rankin H. McDaniel, president of McDaniel Fruit, told The Produce News June 16 that his father and mother founded McDaniel Fruit Co. in 1957 and that his mother "has been working here with the company since that time." The roots of McDaniel Fruit go back a decade earlier, however. The company's founders first got into the avocado business as growers in 1946 when they bought their first grove in Vista, CA. From then through 1956, "they were

Throughout this summer, Safeway stores coast to coast and in Canada will sport a new look in the produce department with a locally grown section. Almost all the retail giant's more than 1,700 stores will feature in-store signage and merchandising touting locally grown product. For this program, the company divided its stores into regions, and each will carry and advertise products that are from the same geographic region. In an e-mail interview with The Produce News, Geoff White, group vice president of produce, explained that geography plays an important role in this program. "In California

With a lighter-than-anticipated combined volume of table grapes being shipped out of Mexico and California's Coachella Valley during May and the first half of June -- and with that situation expected to continue up to the start of the San Joaquin Valley grape harvest the final days of June and beginning of July -- market prices were expected to be strong for the early grapes out of the San Joaquin Valley. But by mid-July, good supplies of fresh California grapes were expected in the San Joaquin Valley, coming out of all districts from Arvin north to Fresno, with a return to more stable pricing