U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns will address the United Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Association's conference and expo May 6-9 in Chicago. United President Tom Stenzel told The Produce News late Wednesday, March 22 that the secretary's appearance "has just been confirmed" as the keynote speaker of the breakfast session Monday, May 8, where he will discuss a number of issues, including the farm bill.

Wawona Packing Co. LLC in Cultler, CA, has torn down its old 60,000-square-foot stone fruit packing facility and is in the process of building a new 180,000-square-foot facility in its place, according to Brent Smittcamp, the company's president. Over the past three to five years, the company has "planted quite a bit of acreage," he said. The new orchards are now coming into production, so "we need a larger facility." As part of the expansion, "we are adding three cold storage rooms," he said. "The remainder will be new offices and a new packingshed." The targeted completion date for the

Did you ever miss your produce gross profit margin? You are requested to appear in the boss's office. After entering, he or she winds up like a Major League Baseball pitcher and slams the door behind you so hard that several pictures pop off the wall. Then the shouting starts and you are raked over the coals for some business matter your boss disliked. You are shaken and frightened. Most of all, you are embarrassed since most of the yelling can be heard throughout the building. This is just not your day, is it? What kind of a boss is this anyway? Not somebody I personally would want living

Los Angeles County health officials implicated lettuce in a hepatitis A outbreak on a movie set late last year, and now the law firm Marler Clark has filed lawsuits against a caterer and a lettuce distributor on behalf of sickened film crew members. Workers on the set of "The Good German," a film starring George Clooney and Cate Blanchett, filed a lawsuit against Silver Grill Location Catering and Soleil Produce Inc., said the Seattle-based law firm. According to the suit, Soleil Produce supplied the pre-packaged baby greens on the California film set. "Contaminated lettuce has been the source

Produce industry veteran Loren Queen, who was most recently the product manager for Tart Is Smart cherry juice company, has been named manager of marketing and communications for Yakima, WA-based fruit grower-shipper Domex. He replaces Eric Patrick, who recently joined the Grant J. Hunt Co. as marketing director. Mr. Queen's first day on the job was March 13, and he told The Produce News March 20 that it had been a "busy week." Mr. Queen has worked several sides of the produce industry, starting with ad sales for Fresh-Cut magazine from 1995 to 2002. He left the magazine to handle

Monterey, CA-based Colorful Harvest LLC has announced an exclusive relationship with W.E. Schlechter & Sons of Belle Glade, FL, that will market Colorful Harvest's "Scarlet Sweet Red Corn" grown in Florida. W.E. Schlechter, a third-generation corn and vegetable grower and a member of the Pioneer Growers Cooperative, will be the exclusive grower of the corn in Florida. The partnership marks the first time Colorful Harvest has grown the product outside California. Colorful Harvest Chief Operating Officer Doug Ranno said that customer requests led the company to seek an East Coast grower-partner