NEWARK, DE -- Food safety veteran Johnna Hepner will join Produce Marketing Association Feb. 15 as director of food safety and technology, adding more than 20 years of experience to PMA's food safety team, headed by Chief Science & Technology Officer Bob Whitaker.

ORLANDO, FL -- Classrooms around the country accepted the invitation to participate in the Produce for Kids' Play with Your Produce Classroom Challenge.

The challenge, open to grades kindergarten to 6, asked teachers to help students discover healthy eating habits through a creative, fun classroom activity that focused on fresh produce.

Here is how the challenge worked: From Sept. 7 to Nov. 13, classes created and submitted details about their creative activities that focused on healthy eating that involved fresh fruits and vegetables.

IMMOKALEE, FL -- Larry Lipman, chief executive officer of the Lipman Family of Companies, made his retirement official with a Jan. 5 announcement to his staff. In early December Mr. Lipman acknowledged his pending retirement plans but did not share exact details regarding the expected timeline for his departure or plans for a CEO search.

Mature ferns in central Florida that were scheduled for harvest for Valentine's Day suffered losses due to a prolonged bout of freezing weather in early January, but at least some growers got away with losses of only 20-30 percent, according to David Register, vice president and director of operations for FernTrust.

Florida farmers have weathered the worst of nine consecutive sub-freezing nights, but losses are starting to pile up with one more record-shattering forecast for Jan. 11-12 to get through before temperatures are projected to finally climb above freezing for the rest of the week.

As the Red River Valley red potato industry rolled toward 2010, prices were down dramatically from the pervious year's strong market.

In light of a crop volume that was down 15 percent from 2008-09, there was a sense of frustration on the part of the Red River Valley industry. The feeling was that no matter how well the crop was managed, there was downward market pressure from a huge overabundance of russet potatoes coming from other areas.