Tod Parkinson spent years as a salesman for Valliwide Organic. In 2010, he left the sales desk to return to the fields and farm land that he leased.

The shift from sales to farming also marked a shift from profits for the Reedley, CA-based sales company to building the first high school in the Huruma slum in Nairobi, Kenya.

What prompted the move was Parkinson’s involvement in a nonprofit and a small group study of Rick Warren’s best-selling book, The Purpose Driven Life. The nonprofit, When I Grow Up, partners with local leaders.

The Produce Marketing Association announced Dec. 2 in an email to its membership that its former president, Bob Carey, died Friday, Nov. 29, at the age of 82.

The 2013 South African citrus season has concluded after a strong season.

"It has been a very good season for our citrus," Suhanra Conradie, chief executive officer of the Western Cape Citrus Producers Forum, said in a press release. "In our 14th year, the volumes consistently have been [about] 40,000 tons each year. This season brought 39,462.98 tons to the U.S."

General Produce Inc. of Atlanta began more than 50 years ago as a purveyor of bananas and has since grown to become one of the Southeast’s larger distributors of produce — from apples to zucchini — with its own fleet of more than 100 trucks providing overnight delivery to 11 Southeastern states.

The Union of Growers of Brazilian Papaya, an organization that handles the export of Brazilian papayas from the region of Linhares in the state of Espirito Santo, has developed a new twin-pack clamshell for its Golden papayas.

C&C Produce, a Kansas City, MO-based repacking and merchandising company, is hosting its first annual Harvest to Market Open House Wednesday, Dec. 4 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The open house, which gives restaurant owners, chefs, foodservice personnel and retailers a chance to talk directly to growers, will take place at C&C Produce’s facility at 1100 Atlantic Avenue, Kansas City.