A number of interesting developments are occurring in Kansas City’s food trade, according to David Haun, president of Haun Potato Co., located in suburban Shawnee Mission, KS.

In the restaurant business, “We continue to see increased chain restaurants in that sector. There are less and less Ma and Pa type restaurants.”

On the retail side, “We are seeing a definite increase in groceries going into the organic business.”

These may be strictly organic stores or mainstream stores that “are aware of the competition and carry more organics themselves.”

MANHATTAN, KS — The produce industry has a lot of good stories on how people got started in the business, but it’s hard to beat Terry (Edmonds) Olson’s tale from the mid-1960s.

Olson’s father was passionate for produce when he wasn’t teaching plant pathology at Kansas State University, located here. Dr. Leon Edmonds also had to feed a wife, Pat, and nine children. So converting the children to be profit centers was not only a practical matter but also good business training for the kids.

KANSAS CITY — In Kansas City’s wholesale produce business, “Liberty, C&C are dominant and doing a good job,” noted Jimmy Connell, a family owner of Keith Connell, Inc. “The three of them have all the business” within the metropolitan area’s produce trade, referring to Liberty Fruit Co., Inc., in Kansas City, KS, and C&C Produce, Inc. in North Kansas City.

Six days after the Feb. 5 passage of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Emergency Water Delivery Act by the U.S. House of Representatives, California Sens. Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein introduced in the Senate a bill called the California Emergency Drought Relief Act of 2014, with a very different vision for addressing California's severe water shortage.

Founded in 1939 by H.W. (Cy) Mann as a carrot-packing operation, the company soon started growing broccoli for frozen food companies. Mann saw potential for the then relatively unknown vegetable and began shipping broccoli to America's heartland.

Irwindale, CA-based Ready Pac announced Ali Leon has been named senior director of marketing within the foodservice division. The company also recently added Gloria De Anda to its team as the buyer for retail specialties division.

In her new position, Leon will be responsible for the development and execution of short- and long-term plans that leverage consumer, culinary and customer insights and future trends, according to a company press release.