SCOTTSDALE, AZ — The March 17-19 annual conference of the Produce for Better Health Foundation highlighted its wide reach to increase national consumption of fruits and vegetables. Good news was offered that between 2008 and 2011, childhood obesity dropped in 18 states.

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Cooler weather will mean a later start to the Vidalia deal, following a pattern already established by other onion production areas this season, with volume not ramping up to full until a week or more after the mandatory April 21 pack and ship date recently established by Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture Gary Black.

Baloian Farms recently expanded its sales staff with the hiring of Marcel Corella to accommodate recent growth and expansion of the Nogales sales and procurement office.

Effective Dec. 16, Corella assumed the role of the newly created position of sales assistant. Corella’s primary responsibility will be to assist with the day-to-day activities within the sales department. His other key duties include managing packing materials for Mexico and assisting with quality assurance as needed.

RIO RICO, AZ — Cost cutting can be a key component in increasing mango consumption, observes Edgar Duarte, a partner in Higueral Produce, Inc., located here.

“The growers always want higher prices. And the consumer has to have a lower cost,” he noted. Leave it to the man in the middle to be creative in his thinking.

Packaging is part of the cost equation. Duarte suggests that some segments of the industry may want to reconsider mango packaging.

Last year Don Ed Holmes of The Onion House in Weslcaco, TX, was coming off the warmest winter he could remember in state history. This year he is coming off one of the coolest winters he can recall, aside from the freeze years of 1983 and 1989.

“Cold” of course is a relative term. While the rest of the nation shivered through weeks of frigid and sometimes devastating weather, temperatures in Texas were mild by comparison, but still an average 10-12 degrees below normal.

With 4Earth Farms' rebranding effort now well under way, the company (formerly MCL Fresh Inc.) continues to generate excitement with new acreage and increased yields in both conventional and organic Brussels sprouts.