MONTEREY, CA -- They came, they saw, they congregated.

The Produce Marketing Association rode into town and drew 1,500 members to its 26th annual Foodservice Conference & Exposition held here July 13-15. Once again, PMA delivered the goods to a record or near-record crowd, which included a small increase in the number of distributors.

The show squeezed in nine more booths than last year, bringing the total number of exhibitor booths to 150. The additional nine booths were in the hallway adjacent to the main showrooms.

A hard freeze that struck avocado-growing areas in Chile early in the week of July 10 is being compared by some to the California freeze of mid-January that reduced that state's avocado crop by as much as 25-30 percent.

It will be two to three weeks before growers can assess the extent of the damage, but some California shippers who handle imported Chilean avocados estimated the expected crop reduction somewhere in the range of 15-30 percent. The shortfall is expected to be felt most severely during late August and early September.

WASHINGTON -- What a difference a week can make for specialty crop producers.

Facing a tight budget, the House of Representatives Agriculture Committee was ready to pass a 2007 farm bill on July 19 with few mandatory dollars tied to specialty crops and an eerie resemblance to the 2002 farm bill.

But now the committee is poised to pass a bill with $1.6 billion for block grants, food-safety initiatives, research, conservation and nutrition programs. The bill was still being debated in the House Agriculture Committee at press time.

After six months of negotiations, the three largest grocery chains in Southern California reached a tentative agreement July 17 with the United Food & Commercial Workers union, thus averting an impending strike that had been authorized by a vote of the union membership on June 24.

Union members at 785 Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons stores were expected to ratify the agreement in votes scheduled for Sunday, July 22, according to an article in The Los Angeles Times.

You want to purchase a stepladder at your local home improvement store. You have a choice between an inexpensive, cheesy, bargain-basement stepladder and a premium, quality priced, extra heavy-duty unit. Which ladder would you climb with a full gallon of red paint?

Mary G. Redner, a co-founder of Redner's Warehouse Markets, died July 14 in the Reading Hospital & Medical Center in West Reading, PA, where she had been a patient for five days. She was 89.

The Wyomissing, PA, resident was the wife of Earl W. Redner, to whom she was married for 58 years.

Born Mary Germond on Oct. 5, 1917, in Oneonta, NY, she was the daughter of the late Seward and Ethel Germond.

Ms. Redner was a kindergarten teacher in Port Jervis, NY, where she met her husband. She later taught in Silver Spring, MD.