In order to promote the understanding and consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables, Dole Fruit Bowls, Key Food and Captain Planet Foundation are teaming up to host a learning garden grant contest.

WASHINGTON — The Agricultural Marketing Service is looking for vendors for a new pilot program to be launched in January that will test buying fresh and fresh-cut fruits and vegetables with entitlement dollars for schools in eight states, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said last week.

Augustus (Augie) Consalo of Vineland, NJ, died Aug. 21 at Kennedy Stratford Hospital. He was 81.

Mr. Consalo was former vice president of William Consalo & Sons Farms Inc. and past president of W.C.S. Trucking Inc. He was a member and former two-term president of the United Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Association for the state of New Jersey and a member of the Produce Marketing Association.

The Texas citrus industry is currently combating the destructive disease known as citrus greening, as the disease has taken a stronghold in both commercial and residential citrus plants in the Rio Grande Valley. Hidalgo, Cameron and Harris counties are under quarantine for citrus greening, which is primarily a disease of the tree but it can also have a devastating effect on the crop itself. The fruit from infected trees poses no risk to human health.

California's devastating drought plus higher than normal summer temperatures is shrinking the window for profitable produce sales in August and September, according to Kurt Cappelluti, partner in Stellar Distributing in Madera, CA, one of the Central Valley's major distributors of fresh kiwis, figs, pomegranates, persimmons and apricots. But steps can be taken to ensure volume and profitability.

Like many new companies in this era of technology, the needs of the owners led to the launching of Instacart, an online grocery shopping and delivery service.

“It was a problem that we personally had that we wanted to solve,” said Max Mullen, a co-owner of Instacart. “We wanted to get high-quality groceries and have them delivered quickly, and nobody was doing that.”