Following a nearly devastating 2009 sweet potato harvest caused by heavy rains, producers in Mississippi are putting the past behind them and gearing up for the future. The state says it will be down by as much as 75 percent, depending on how packouts unfold.

After years of looking for an animated character with which to partner to promote sweet Vidalia onions, the Vidalia Onion Committee in Vidalia, GA, finally found the right match with the hugely popular Shrek character, and excited retailers are poised to reap the benefits.

"This is probably the biggest marketing campaign the Vidalia Onion Committee has ever done," said Wendy Brannen, executive director of the committee. "We do have industrywide participation. Every major grower- packer is on board in some way, shape or form with the program, which is fantastic for all of us."

WILMINGTON, DE -- Taylor Farms has announced that it is increasing its contribution commitment to the Produce for Better Health Foundation with a $250,000 pledge over the next five years.

Taylor Farms joins other longtime $50,000-plus annual PBH donors, including Paramount Farms, Stemilt Growers and Syngenta, which have been at or above the $50,000 level for several years.

California's strawberry grower-shippers may not be as resolute as the U.S. Postal Service with its unofficial motto not to be diverted from the task of delivering the mail through rain, snow, sleet or hail.

But it's not for lack of trying.

Heavy rainfall delayed and limited strawberry supplies coming out of Southern California this past fall and winter. But many California growers plant in various strawberry growing regions in the state that overlap when the northern region -- the Watsonville-Salinas area -- typically comes on strong in April.

WASHINGTON -- First lady Michelle Obama has urged the packaged food industry to move faster in reformulating healthy foods and to dig deeper and spend more money on advertising healthy foods to children.

Just a little more than a month after kicking off her "Let's Move" campaign, when she pledged to solve the obesity crisis in a generation and provide more access to fresh, nutritious foods to children, Ms. Obama told a Grocery Manufacturers Association meeting March 16 to "step up" marketing healthy foods.

WASHINGTON -- Fifteen years after the last Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act increase went into effect, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is proposing to nearly double the annual license fees, starting Oct. 1.