The U.S. Department of Agriculture has imposed sanctions on H Brooks & Co. LLC in New Brighton, MN, for violating the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act. These sanctions include barring the business and the principal operators of the business from engaging in PACA-licensed business or other activities without approval from USDA.

The National Watermelon Promotion Board sponsored the 47th Marine Corps Marathon on Oct. 30 in Washington, DC, drawing more than 11,000 marathoners, nearly 5,000 10k runners and 982 Ultramarathoner finishers. It was the eighth year the NWPB sponsored the event, and its Team Watermelon was on hand and gave out an estimated 28,000 samples of watermelon to runners, friends, family and supporters from all 50 states and more than 50 countries.

Grow-NY will host its two-day Food & Ag Summit Nov. 15-16. The event will take place in Syracuse, NY, and virtually. The summit will include a live pitch competition in which seven winners will be selected from the competition’s 20 finalists to receive a combined total of $3 million in prize money. It will also feature a symposium with thought-provoking panel discussions and fireside chats led by leading startups, industry players and thinkers in food and agriculture. 

SpartanNash formed a new partnership with Uber to offer on-demand and scheduled grocery delivery to shoppers across the Midwest.

"SpartanNash's focus on customer-centric innovation is core to our next stage of growth," said Masiar Tayebi, SpartanNash executive vice president and chief strategy and information officer. "Partnering with Uber is an important marker of this, meeting our shoppers wherever they are — in stores or online. We are proud to expand our reach across the Uber and Uber Eats platform to new customers who are hungry for convenience delivered to their doorstep."

Duncan Family Farms is offering retailers merchandising and sales support with its line of 18 fresh, organic herb varieties heading into the holiday cooking season.

According to Google trends, there is a clear spike in search volume for terms involving “fresh herbs” leading up to Thanksgiving and following through to Christmas. This presents a great deal of opportunity to drive sales at the retail level by carrying sought-after herbs in-store for consumers to easily purchase when shopping for the recipes they’ve discovered online.

The International Fresh Produce Association named Farmer’s Fridge, IEH Laboratories and Proexport Papaya the recipients of awards recognizing industry efforts to advance root cause analysis. Together they will share their approaches to evaluating root causes and how their efforts led them to implement preventive actions during an IFPA webinar later this winter.