It has been just over a year since the first light brown apple moth, an invasive pest species native to New Zealand and Australia, was found in California. Since that first find in the San Francisco Bay area in February 2007, the moth has spread to 14 California counties. While most of those counties are in Northern California, recent finds were made far to the south in Santa Barbara County. In all, some 17,000 moths have been trapped in the past year, and millions of dollars have been spent on ongoing efforts to suppress and eradicate the pest. According to the California Department of Food &

WASHINGTON -- University of Georgia researcher Mike Doyle said that his research is pointing to a new possible culprit in the contamination of fresh- cut produce: the coring knives used to cut and core lettuce in the fields during harvesting. At the Food Safety & Security Summit held here March 19, Dr. Doyle said that preliminary research is showing that the process of dipping knives into contaminated soil when cutting and coring lettuce heads in the fields may push bacteria into the lettuce. In experiments, researchers inoculated soil with heavy doses of E. coli and cut lettuce sequentially

As co-president of the Hunts Point Terminal Produce Cooperative Association Inc. Matt D'Arrigo has worked for a revitalized Hunts Point Terminal Market since 2000. In the process, he has seen more ups and downs than a West Virginia country road. At this time, "all of our options are open to prepare for the future and compete as effectively as we can. One obvious possibility is creating a satellite market in New Jersey. There is quiet contact with New Jersey, which is an interested party in job development and industrial development." But, in a Feb. 26 interview, Mr. D'Arrigo, who is also vice

The United Farm Workers union filed a complaint March 13 with the U.S. Department of Labor on behalf of 16 employees laid off by Tanimura & Antle. The complaint alleges that Spreckels, CA-based T&A did not follow the rules when hiring temporary guest workers under the federal H-2A program. According to Armando Elenes, UFW's external organizing director, the laid- off workers -- all from the Tres Picos area near Huron, CA -- claim that at the same time T&A laid them off, the company was hiring workers under the H-2A program. Mr. Elenes said that the union is asking the Labor Department to

Santa Maria, CA-based Bonipak Produce Co. has hired Joe Leonard as chief executive officer. Mr. Leonard officially began in his new position March 1, though he has been a consultant to Bonipak since near the end of 2007, according to Mitch Ardantz, Bonipak's vice president of sales and marketing. Mr. Ardantz is a longtime personal acquaintance of Mr. Leonard, though Mr. Leonard previously was not in fresh produce. In the past, Mr. Leonard had worked for years for Richmond, VA-based C.F. Sauer Co., a producer of a variety of condiments and seasonings, as that company's president of branded

On the one hand, proponents of reusable plastic containers for the produce industry have to be happy with the close to 50 percent growth over the past several years. On the other hand, RPCs still only account for 7-8 percent of the market, which is difficult to fathom if you believe the advantages touted by those same proponents. Fred Heptinstall, president of the Reusable Pallet & Container Coalition and president of IFCO's RPC management services division, rattled off the advantages of RPCs in staccato fashion and declared that switching from corrugated should be a "no-brainer." "If you look