Armed with recent research associating the consumption of pears with heart health, a marketing team representing the California Pear Advisory Board hit the road to pay a series of "house calls" on some 50 media outlets in New York, San Francisco and Sacramento, CA. Beginning Sept. 5, Team SRC Marketing, a marketing firm based in Burlingame, CA, hit the road outfitted in doctors' coats inscribed with the pear board's logo to deliver "medical" bags to health and food reporters in the nation's larger media markets. The message they are delivering is designed to inform post-menopausal women about

MONTEREY, CA -- Longtime industry-leading dried fruit processor Mariani Packing Co. has gotten a taste of the fresh fruit market -- and it likes it. The effort took root when U.S. Fruit & Veg Inc., based here, presented a proposal to Vacaville, CA-based Mariani Packing to grow and market fresh strawberries bearing the "Mariani" label. Mariani Packing agreed, and Albion- variety strawberries carrying the "Mariani" label began shipping across the United States and in Canada and Mexico in early June. Now, Mariani Packing has decided to expand its commitment to the fresh fruit market with U.S

Produce for Kids, a Reidsville, GA-based organization that promotes the benefits of healthy eating while raising funds for Children's Miracle Network hospitals nationwide, announced that its 2007 spring campaign has set a new fundraising record of over $415,000, generating more than $1 million in total donations since the program began in 2002. "Through the increased participation and valued support of the produce industry, which includes our supermarket retailers and sponsors, Produce for Kids is making a real difference, not only in the daily diets of children, but also in the lives of those

The Arizona Department of Agriculture approved the Arizona Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement Sept. 27 and closed nominations to serve on the Marketing Committee one week later on Thursday, Oct. 4. Robert Shuler, an attorney for the Phoenix law firm Ryley Carlock & Applewhite, which represents Western Growers Association, said that the Arizona Department of Agriculture indicated that more than 30 leafy greens shippers in the state had signed on to the agreement by the initial Sept. 27 deadline. This represents the vast majority of Arizona's leafy greens production and was sufficient for the

Pink Ribbon Produce, a retail program committed to breast cancer prevention and awareness, will return this October for its second year at hundreds of Meijer and Harris Teeter stores. The educational fundraising program, created by Consumer Effects, teams the two grocery store retailers with 21 produce suppliers in an effort to raise support for chapters of Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Both Meijer and Harris Teeter will direct shoppers to the participating produce suppliers with a new pink ribbon program icon on posters and point-of-sale wobblers. "We're telling our shoppers to 'think pink'

An innovative traceback program that provides real-time onion inspection data from Fort Boise Produce Co. has met with enthusiastic support from both the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which has approved the program, and U.S. Foodservice, a major buyer of product from the Parma, ID-based grower-shipper. As yet unnamed, the patent-pending program was written with direction and input from Joe Farmer of Fort Boise. The company is the sole grower-shipper to use the software at this time, Mr. Farmer said, although it will be available commercially in 2008 and will extend to other commodities. Mr