FRESNO, CA — A tiny moth, just 0.03 inches long, called the European Grapevine Moth, has been detected in a California table grape growing area southeast of Fresno which has the potential to cause extensive crop damage and also to disrupt trade.

The California Grape & Tree Fruit League has been working with government agencies and with the wine grape, raisin grape and grape concentrate industries to control the spread of the moth and to minimize the adverse effects of quarantines on trade.

"While fresh grapes are known to contain at least 500 different phytonutrient antioxidants, Pandol Bros. Inc. wants consumers to learn more about the powerful antioxidant resveratrol that is found naturally in the skin of each and every grape," according to a June 14 Pandol press release.

In an effort to better serve its customers, Eatontown, NJ-based Village Farms has opened a new facility in Delaware.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. asparagus industry may feel some relief for losses from trade policies under a federal market loss payment program being proposed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, but it will not heal all the pain, according to John Baker, executive director of the Michigan Asparagus Advisory Board.

On July 16, USDA proposed a $15 million Asparagus Revenue Market Loss Assistance Payment Program to partially compensate asparagus producers for revenue losses that were caused by imports during the 2004 though 2007 crop years.

In my opinion, potato farmers should be recognized as American heroes. Through the years, they have worked rigorously to put the best-quality product on our dinner tables under the most difficult circumstances.

The potato has been cultivated for over 6,000 years. It first arrived in North America in 1719 and has been a gastronomic favorite ever since. But the potato has also had its share of burdens.

Dole Food Co. Inc. recently relocated its nutrition research operations from Westlake Village, CA, to Kannapolis, NC, opening a 10,000-square-foot laboratory at the North Carolina Research Campus in late May.

Dole joins other giants like General Mills Inc., Monsanto and LabCorp — along with eight North Carolina colleges and universities — with a presence at the burgeoning think tank, which opened in October 2008 on the site of a former textile mill.