In an effort to raise consumer awareness of and support for Connecticut farmers and "Connecticut Grown" products, the Connecticut Department of Agriculture has partnered with Cashman & Katz Integrated Communications, a marketing firm in Glastonbury, CT, to develop a new comprehensive, statewide advertising and public relations campaign for 2007. The campaign kicked off with a celebration and media event at 11 a.m. Thursday, May 17, at the Regional Farmers Market in Hartford. The theme for the "Connecticut Grown" marketing campaign and the newly adopted tagline is "the local flavor." The

WASHINGTON -- A bipartisan group of senators announced May 17 that they had reached an agreement on comprehensive immigration reform that includes most of the provisions of the industry-supported AgJOBs bill: a guest worker program, employment verification system, and a system to address the current 12 million undocumented workers living in the United States. "We commend these senators for working together in a bipartisan fashion to achieve a compromise on this very important, yet divisive issue," Autumn Veazey, United Fresh Produce Association's director of legislative affairs and associate

One of the better known health advisers, Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent, will star in a documentary airing May 19 and May 20 that investigates the deadly spinach outbreak. In CNN: Special Investigations Unit - Danger: Poisoned Food, Dr. Gupta "asks tough questions about the voluntary guidance on the produce industrys processing and reveals that the FDA knew about problems that existed on farms in California," CNN said in a statement on the upcoming special. Gupta takes Robert Brackett, food safety chief for the Food & Drug Administration, to task about his role in protecting

SALINAS, CA -- Boggiatto Produce, based here, has rolled out is Iceberg Babies at retail after a successful introduction in foodservice. The product was introduced at retail in April and is currently being distributed in the western United States with plans to go national this summer, said Boggiatto Controller Joann Glennon. For retail customers, Iceberg Babies come two in a bag with 20 bags per carton. The variety of Iceberg lettuce is about the size of a softball. Iceberg Babies have the same crispness but not the denseness of full-sized Iceberg lettuce and are sweeter, according to the

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency will implement new import requirements on U.S. leafy greens, effective June 1. Under the new requirements, which were announced May 4, shippers must declare on confirmation of sale documents whether any of the leafy greens that they are exporting to Canada were grown in California or in a state other than California. If any product was grown in California, the CFIA will now require that it be from a signatory handler of the California Leafy Green Products Handler Marketing Agreement. These requirements will apply to all shipments of leafy greens, including

"As a result of farm closures, fewer imports and rising production costs, the supply of mushrooms dropped late last year and has not yet recovered to previous levels. This, coupled with weather-related production challenges, resulted in across-the-board increases in the prices paid to growers," said Laura Phelps, president of the American Mushroom Institute, based in Washington, DC. Ms. Phelps told The Produce News in early May that the "tipping point" for national mushroom supplies was the exit of Franklin Farms in North Franklin, CT, which closed its doors June 1, 2006. At that time