WASHINGTON -- News that $10 million in specialty crop block grants are in jeopardy caused produce industry trade associations to sound the alarm. But in a July 1 meeting, officials with the U.S. Department of Agriculture pledged to dole out the $10 million in specialty crop block grants before the Sept. 30 deadline. According to Jimmie Turner, USDA_spokesperson, "The funds are available for obligation only through the end of fiscal year 2008. The passing of the farm bill so late into the fiscal year has created challenges for the department. However, USDA is doing everything it can to ensure

Four leading berry producers -- Michigan-based blueberry grower MBG Marketing; Santiago, Chile-based berry-growing corporation Hortifrut S.A.; Delano, CA-based Munger Bros. Farms; and Salem, OR-based Pan-American Berry Growers LLC -- have banded together to form Naturipe Foods LLC, a value-added berry-marketing company. Pan-American Berry Growers was not previously part of sister fresh-pack company Naturipe Farms and is new to the mix. The partnership brings an expanded grower vision to the operation, said Maurice Moragne, vice president of sales and marketing for Naturipe Foods. He said that

Brooks Tropicals' Homestead, FL, packinghouse, shipping docks and storage cooler were recently audited, and the inspector was quite pleased and impressed by what he found. According to a Brooks press release, the facilities were so on target that the food-safety inspector had trouble believing his eyes, and he said that he planned to come back to see it again. During the inspection, the auditor snapped dozens of photos to show other companies what a packinghouse and distribution center should look like, according to the release, which noted that Brooks' facilities were one of the cleaner he

Louis Pizzo Sr., the former mayor of Deerfield Township, NJ, and one of better-known citizens of Rosenhayn, NJ, died the evening of Friday, June 27, 2008, in the hospice inpatient unit at the Bridgeton Health Center in Bridgeton, NJ. Mr. Pizzo was a lifelong resident of Deerfield Township and had been in declining health. He was 91. He attended the local grammar school in Carmel, NJ, and graduated from Bridgeton High School in 1937. He worked on the family farm until 1938, when he married Josephine Traina. In 1939, he began his own farming operation on 20 acres of his own land. What started as

NEW YORK -- If you've been to New York and missed eating at Peter Luger Steak House, get your carnivore appetite back here. The Brooklyn location (a second restaurant on Long Island in Great Neck opened in 1960) has been dishing out the finest USDA Prime steaks since 1887. It was originally established as Carl Luger's Caf?, Billiards & Bowling Alley in the predominantly German neighborhood tucked under the Williamsburg Bridge. In 1950, the original owners put the restaurant up for auction. Sol Forman bought it for what was publicized in restaurant tabloids at the time for "a whimsically low

On July 27, The Produce Exchange will show the new variety of Roma tomato developed by vegetable-seed company Nunhems at the upcoming 2008 Produce Marketing Association's Foodservice Conference, to be held July 25- 27 in Monterey, CA. The tomato was introduced at the United Fresh Produce Association/Food Marketing Institute convention held in May in Las Vegas and drew a lot of positive responses, said Dennis Werner, general manager for the branded group at The Produce Exchange, which is based in Livermore, CA. The new Roma has been developed by Nunhems to be the ultimate slicing, dicing and