WASHINGTON -- Prospects for a legal, stable workforce appear to be dimming for U.S. agriculture with news that the compromise immigration reform bill was taken off the Senate floor Thursday night, June 7, after Senate leaders tried unsuccessfully to limit debate on the measure. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) pulled the bill after senators twice voted against a motion to cut off debate. Armed with a list of amendments, some aimed at killing the bill, Sen. Reid had planned to push for a final vote on the measure this week (June 4-8). But Senate Republican leaders said the bill should

?Usted no habla ingl?s? Produce professionals should remember that many U.S. consumers do not speak English, especially those in the large and growing Latino communities. This group also faces many nutritionally related health issues that, as a culture, did not afflict its members when they lived in their homelands. In an effort to help Latinos improve their eating habits and consequently their health, Oldways Preservation Trust and the Latino Nutrition Coalition, which is a division of Oldways, have collaborated in the development of the first comprehensive supermarket-shopping guide

Although June is typically the heaviest production period for Mexican mangos, U.S. distributors said that the peak of the season will most likely come in July as the Nayarit and Sinaloa production areas are a couple of weeks later than usual. An accurate forecast on mangos is always a moving target as there are so many districts and so many varieties, each importer has his own view of the crop which can be vastly different from his competitor, but no less accurate. Helping to sort this out is the new National Mango Board web site (www.mango.org), which does offer crop forecasting. However

SANTA CLARA, CA -- Think-21 believes it has technology that will be of interest to food processors and supermarkets, among others, in the United States. Utilizing the technology of a partner in Europe, Long Island City, NY-based Think-21 believes that its advanced anaerobic digestion waste recycling systems will provide a low-cost alternative to waste disposal and at the same time produce renewable bio-gas from waste in the United States. In Europe, Think-21's partner has two facilities in use, anticipates having two more on-line before year's end and has plans for three more facilities, said

CEDAR KNOLLS, NJ -- The Super Foodtown here in the northern part of the state was handling quite an assortment of Jersey-grown vegetables in mid- May and would soon be featuring more items more prominently as the season continued to expand. Among the Jersey-grown items already available when The Produce News visited here May 21 were Romaine, red leaf, green lead, Boston, scallions, leeks, asparagus, escarole, mint, arugula, dill, cilantro, kale, turnip tops and swiss chard, according to Tom Bleaken, the store's produce manager. This supermarket and a sister store about five miles away in Lake

FRESNO, CA -- Trinity Fruit Sales Co., here, which markets an assortment of California-grown produce throughout the year, has added fresh figs to its summer and fall line-up. According to Maurice (Mo) Cameron, a salesman with the company, "We are shipping four different varieties" of fresh figs: Black Mission, Calimyrna, Kadota and Brown Turkey. The first, or breva, crop on the Black Missions was expected to start June 14. The second, or main, crop will start around July 10 and continue for several months, he said. Among the various varieties, the fresh fig harvest will continue well into the