As a seasoned tennis player, Richard Cowden is familiar with the pressures and strategies of the popular sport. Now the 27-year-old California native is learning a different game -- produce sales -- at Baloian Farms in Fresno, CA. Mr. Cowden was born in Simi Valley, CA, and grew up in Newbury Park, near Thousand Oaks, CA. He graduated in December 2003 from Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo with a degree in business administration and marketing management. He attended San Jose State University prior to transferring to Cal Poly. Mr. Cowden got his start in the produce industry in 1997 at the Lucky Food

Results of a study undertaken by the Food Policy Institute at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ, and released Feb. 5 show that most Americans heard the Food & Drug Administration's main message to consumers warning that bagged fresh spinach had been contaminated and should not be eaten. The data indicate that the majority of consumers did stop eating spinach during the recall. However, the study also shows that fewer Americans were aware of significant details related to the recall. Many were confused about the types of spinach affected, the organism that caused the contamination, the

In the wake of the prolonged mid-January freeze that devastated much of California's citrus crop, a rumor spread that Booth Ranches LLC in Orange Cove, CA, had thrown in the towel for the remainder of the season on its orange harvesting and laid off its entire sales and marketing team. Not so, according to Loren Booth, the company's general manager. Although Booth Ranches did suffer severe losses to its on-tree citrus crop and did lay off a portion of its marketing staff, the company continues to harvest and pack fruit and continues to do its own marketing. "We are not completely out," Ms

PakSense Inc. announced that industry veteran Doug Thurston has joined the Boise, ID-based company as director of North American sales. Mr. Thurston comes to PakSense from Bolthouse Farms in Bakersfield, CA, where he was director of sales since 2002. He was also employed for more than 20 years by Albertson's, where he served at various regional locations in a number of roles including procurement manager, buyer, produce manager and in quality control. In his new role at PakSense, he will be responsible for expanding the use of PakSense temperature-monitoring labels between suppliers and retail

Bruce Peterson, who has become synonymous with Wal-Mart in the fresh produce arena, announced that he has resigned his position as senior vice president and general merchandise manager of perishables and will leave the company at the end of this month. He said that the decision to leave was his own but that it did come rather quickly. Mr. Peterson, who has been with Wal-Mart for 15 years, told The Produce News Friday, Feb. 2, that he had been considering his future in recent years but that the decision to leave Wal-Mart at this time was rather sudden. "But it was my choice," he stated, adding

Declining demand because of cold weather and higher retail prices has caused most f.o.b. prices for vegetables to drop during the first week of February except for celery, which has seen the price skyrocket. On Feb. 7, the USDA's Federal-State Market News Service reported shipping- point prices of a two-dozen count carton celery at around $32, which is $10 to $12 more than a week earlier. This happened as f.o.b. prices on cauliflower, broccoli, leaf items and many other vegetables dropped 25-40 percent. Since the California freeze in January, f.o.b. prices have climbed, which in turn caused