The Southeast Produce Council will hold its annual fall conference Sept. 25-27 at Brasstown Valley Resort & Spa in Young Harris, GA, a beautiful venue located in the north Georgia mountains.

Quality again will be at the forefront of Ocean Spray’s 2014 fresh cranberry season, and the agricultural cooperative is taking a regional approach to quality this year to improve the performance of its products and ensure that retail partners can maximize sales and customer satisfaction.

Local produce demand is the strength of the fresh cranberry marketing program of Mike Pirrone Produce. The firm, which is based in Capac, MI, sells cranberries to Great Lakes states, noted Joe Pirrone, a salesman for the firm. Pirrone’s cranberry brands are “Michigan Cranberry” and “Great Lakes Cranberry.”

At the Southeast Produce Council fall conference, the council will recognize the members of the 2014 graduating class of its STEP-UPP program, which is co-chaired by SEPC board member Faye Westfall (front row, third from

During the 18th century, all farm work was accomplished by hand — cultivating by using a hoe and grain cutting by swinging a sickle. Around 1830, it took approximately 300 working hours to produce 100 bushels of wheat. This was achieved by walking and using only hands.

Productivity in earlier years was not exactly meeting labor budgets like we must attain today. In the 1850s, there was never-ending labor in handling barrels and bushels of bulk produce in a grocery store.

It is hard to believe that after a decade in the leadership structure of the Southeast Produce Council, I will soon be on the other side of my day-to-day service, starting the next phase as a member of the council’s advisory board, not an active officer. I have been fortunate enough to be the first SEPC member in council history to hold every office on the board of directors.