The Coalition of Immokalee Workers and McDonald's USA joined together April 9 at the Carter Center in Atlanta to announce an agreement wherein beginning with the 2007 Florida tomato season production, McDonald's will pay CIW one penny per pound for Florida tomatoes that it purchases for its 13,000 U.S. restaurants. The money will be designated to farmworker needs. In the announcement, McDonald's also agreed to work with CIW to develop a new code of conduct for Florida tomato growers and to increase farmworker participation in monitoring supplier compliance. That participation will include

The Produce Marketing Association's new on-line produce library, I Know Produce, is now available to subscribers. I Know Produce is a web-based application designed to simplify training and produce ordering for retailers and foodservice buyers, and to help menu developers better understand the nutritional values of produce. "We are constantly striving to provide industry members with the most useful, up-to-date resources. The new I Know Produce library gives users the flexibility to access extensive, updated product information from one convenient location whenever they need it," Lorna

Honeybees are usually considered welcome in fruit orchards. But their presence in Mandarin groves is a serious problem, according to Joel Nelsen, president of California Citrus Mutual in Exeter, CA, a trade association representing the growers of more than 120,000 acres of citrus. Clementines, Murcotts and other Mandarin varieties, which have been planted in increasing numbers in California in recent years, are popular not only because they are tasty and easy to peel, but also because they are seedless -- that is to say the marketplace expects them to be seedless. But if honeybees visit other

The Hood River Valley is awash with blooming fruit trees, and to celebrate the role that agriculture plays in the region, Genevieve Scholl-Erdmann, marketing director for the Hood River County Chamber of Commerce, said visitors can expect the 53rd annual Hood River Valley Blossom Festival to be spectacular. The event takes place April 21-22. "[The festival] celebrates the agricultural way of life," she told The Produce News, adding that approximately 18,000 people attended last year's event. The growing region is composed of more than 15,000 acres of fruit trees under production. According to

State legislatures in California and Florida are considering sweeping new laws for produce in the wake of recent outbreaks, but tomato and leafy green growers are asking for different fixes. While the produce industry responded to the E. coli outbreaks linked to leafy greens produced in the Salinas Valley with a marketing agreement, California Sen. Dean Florez (D) is pushing for state-enforced food-safety measures through legislation. An outspoken critic of the government and industry's response to the spinach outbreak, Sen. Florez called an April 9 hearing to grill state officials about the

In a move designed to infuse capital into the company, Ready Pac Foods Inc. in Irwindale, CA, has partnered with Bayside Capital, a private equity firm. Ready Pac Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Craig Delaney would not reveal the size of the deal but said that the investment Bayside has made in the privately held produce company will "position us to continue to grow our business" and take it to the next level. He said that the deal with Bayside ends the previously announced discussions with Univeg, a Belgian produce company with holdings all over the world. "We had