Ready Pac Foods Inc. sponsored a symposium on the sustainability of organic spinach, hosted by The United Vegetable Growers Cooperative. The event was held June 24 in Seaside, CA, and spotlighted the growing threat of Downey Mildew to organic spinach yields to help raise awareness within the industry and among fresh-cut produce consumers.

Chiquita Brands announced the release of an expanded consumer loyalty app, Chiquita FanFun. The content-rich app features numerous interactive games, customizable photos, fun quizzes, a sweepstakes and hundreds of recipes to engage users and reward them with loyalty points that can be redeemed for a variety of "Chiquita" brand merchandise.

Arizona-based Sprouts Farmers Market is entering the Southeast in a big way. With one of its first stores in the metro-Atlanta area, the healthy grocery store chain is bringing one of the first CO2-based, HFC-free supermarket refrigeration systems to a warm-weather market in North America. The transition to CO2 as a sustainable alternative for supermarket refrigeration is booming in cold climate markets, with roughly 2,000 transcritical CO2 systems operating worldwide in cold weather cities.

George Tanimura of Tanimura & Antle celebrated his milestone centennial birthday this weekend. Family, business partners and friends joined together to honor Tanimura at a gala dinner, which was held at the Tanimura & Antle home ranch. Eight skydivers jumped from 8,000 feet, streaming smoke trails and colorful banners on their way down to greet the event's 600 guests.

The Colorado Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association is showing itself to be a driving force, unifying agricultural producers and industry partners under a common banner. The association incorporated this past January with a common goal of being a "portal for communication among fruit and vegetable growers around the state, big and small," according to the association's president, Robert T. Sakata.

George Tanimura of Tanimura & Antle celebrated his milestone centennial birthday this weekend. Family, business partners and friends joined together to honor the highly regarded Salinas family farmer and patriarch of the Tanimura family. The event commemorated his extraordinary life journey, including his dedication to the California and Arizona farming industry.