Peter L. Melick, a Hunterdon County fruit and vegetable farmer, was honored Feb. 13 as New Jersey's 2007 Outstanding Young Farmer at the New Jersey agricultural convention held in Atlantic City, NJ. "Peter is an innovative, hard-working farmer who, along with his family, has helped his farm succeed in the most densely populated state in the nation," New Jersey Agriculture Secretary Charles M. Kuperus said in a release. "His family markets directly to consumers through farm markets and their roadside markets, selling fresh produce, connecting directly farmers to consumers in our state, a key

Two new individuals were named to the Idaho Potato Commission this past August. They are Ray (R.J.) Andrus and Shawn Walters, who replaced departing commissioners Bob Wilkins and Wayne Allen. The commission is a state agency and is directed by a total of nine commissioners, five of whom are potato growers, two are packer-shippers and two represent processors. Mr. Andrus has worked in the potato industry his entire life. As a child, he was heavily involved in his parents' farm, where he learned every aspect of their three-crop operation. Potatoes were the focus of the business, and his family

In a cookoff that resembled the popular television show "Iron Chef," six well- known chefs and cookbook authors from New York and Philadelphia whipped up healthy Super Bowl snacks using OsoSweet onions in a benefit for The Doe Fund Feb. 2 in New York City. The Doe Fund, founded in 1990, and its Ready, Willing & Able program have helped over 2,600 formerly homeless people become self-sufficient. Participants work in paid jobs, cleaning the streets as part of the organization's Community Improvement Project or cooking and preparing food as part of the Culinary Arts Initiative. The culinary arts

Jesse Port (Jay) Telles III, who once headed one of the larger cantaloupe growing, packing and shipping operations in the United States and later owned and operated a large citrus packing company with his wife, Leslie, died Feb. 11 at his home in Fresno, CA. He was 61. A third-generation San Joaquin Valley farmer, Mr. Telles was born March 10, 1945, in Santa Clara, CA. His father, Jess Port Telles Jr., and his uncle, Frank Telles, began farming in the central San Joaquin Valley in the early 1950s, a partnership that eventually grew to comprise more than 40,000 acres of cotton, melons, tomatoes

California Department of Food & Agriculture inspectors were right on one count and wrong on 10 counts when they rejected 11 loads of Mexican Hass avocados crossing into the state on Friday, Feb. 16. Effective Feb. 1, the U.S. Department of Agriculture allows Mexican-grown Hass avocados to enter California under a strict protocol designed to assure that no exotic pests potentially harmful to California's avocado industry would be imported with the fruit. "Through Friday, we had rejected 11 out of 44 loads" of Mexican avocados coming into the state, Steve Lyle, CDFA's director of public affairs

On March 5, the contentious retail clerks contract signed three years ago between the United Food & Commercial Workers union and the three major Southern California grocery chains expires. As of Feb. 21, there was no word on the status of the current negotiations. In 2004, the three major chains -- Vons, Ralphs and Albertsons -- took a hard negotiating line, which resulted in a 21-week strike and a labor contract very much weighted toward management. The retailers were able to forge an agreement that created a two-tier pay and benefit system greatly reducing benefits and wages for new hires